Entries
Warner Bros. Uses Military Families to Hype Green Lantern
Warner Bros. decided to send Ryan Reynolds to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to use active-duty service members and their families as a promotional test audience for Green Lantern. Haven't they suffered enough? Billed as "an early Father's Day …
Roundup: Look Out, Peter Sarsgaard in Green Lantern
I dunno, Pete. Something about mustaches, high foreheads, and scraggly hair... Warnings given by Pete Hornberger from 30 Rock, Tobias Funke from Arrested Development, Homeless Cabaret Singer from The Fisher King, and Francis Dollarhyde from Manhunter (substitute harelip for mustache …
American Artifact Documentary Celebrates Concert Poster Art
American Artifact chronicles the rise of American rock poster art since its birth in the '60s. Director Merle Becker crossed the country interviewing rock poster artists from the different eras, He says he discover that "America is currently in the …
Jeff Lipsky, Writer-Director of Twelve Thirty
Photo at left: Jeff Lipsky Jeff Lipsky was there at the dawn of the independent film distribution movement. John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence, the first film then 21-year-old Lipsky ever distributed, was also the first independent film to …
A Tender Moment
Okay, when I said that this was a parting shot? I lied. This is a parting shot. All stills taken from the trailer.
Parting Shot
LEST YOU THINK that the preceding review of Green Lantern was merely the rantings of a fusty critic who gets his cardigan in a bunch over plot points and comic-book metaphysics when he's supposed to be enjoying the spectacle of …
Review: Green Lantern
[UPDATE: Upgraded from black spot to one star on the basis of the bad guy and the big finish.] Four! Four screenwriters! There are four credited screenwriters on the new Green Lantern movie. Four writers tasked with making up an …
Resistance Is Futile
Sigh. Just in case you still had hopes that the relationship between the Kiddie-Borg - er, Disney - and Pixar would somehow allow the latter to avoid being "seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil," I will report seeing this …
Reviews!
This week, Reader critic David Elliott takes a ride with Buck, Korkoro, The Art of Getting By, and Bride Flight. And in the listings, we have The Trip, Twelve Thirty, and Super 8!
Roundup: Girls with Swords, a Cautionary Tale
Our Big Cheese Editor went to the movies and was treated to the trailer for the upcoming Three Musketeers 3D: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a82C8CLR2NE&feature=related Flame-throwers and flying ships - oh, my. Oh, and this: Well, that tore it. Ladies, will you please inform …
2011: A Year So Nice, Scorsese Will Gift Us Twice!
With all of his ex-wives to support, it stands to reason that director Martin Scorsese should be cranking 'em out at a rate to rival Preston Sturges' output in the early 40s, or Moe Green's proclivity with cocktail waitresses. If …
Reckless
Photo on left: Bob Greenblat Yeah, it's small-screen news, but it does touch on the larger theme of the relation of an artist to his art that has been mentioned here before... NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt's comment on 30 Rock …
Your Summer of Superheroes, Part III-a
Earlier, we fretted over the fate of the Avengers in the poster for their upcoming movie. In an effort to assuage those fears, we decided to retool Avengers: Lost in Space and send our heroes on a few more grounded …
Because you're never really enshrined in the Pantheon of Artistic Immortals until you've been parodied in a children's cartoon...
...we give you Animaniacs doing Ingmar Bergman (and by extension, the late Mr. Fischer). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBn3utR_lgY&NR=1 Of course, if this were made today, it would require an animated Woody Allen to walk onscreen mid-scene and give a shot-for-shot comparison study. Something …
Looks like we've found our Grouchy Smurf...
...and his name is Mr. Marks! Seriously, all you need to do is take a gander at the image below to get a glimpse of the high drama roiling under the Smurfs' light blue surface. How could you not make …
Your Summer of Superheroes, Part III
Uh-oh. We knew that handing the reins for the upcoming superduper-crossover-megafranchise Avengers movie to ubernerd Joss Whedon was risky, but this poster has us more than a little nervous. Four of the six superpeople pictured cannot fly, and yet, there …
On Munchkins and Smurfs at the San Diego County Fair
Raja Gosnell's credits read like a critic's death wish. The director of Home Alone 3, Scooby Doo, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua is now poised to wreak even further damage on the youth of America with the release of The Smurfs …
Dig A Hole: Bergman's Cinematographer Gunnar Fischer
Ingmar Bergman set the tone, Gunnar Fischer lit the mood. The Swedish cinematographer responsible for some of the most recognizable images in film history classes throughout the world died June 11 at a retirement home in Stockholm. He was 100. …
Madonna as Auteur
I'll have more to say about comedians who fancy themselves rock singers in my upcoming review of Conan O'Brien Can't Stop. For now, let us turn our attention to singers whose visions are so vast they defy the biggest recording …