HUGO NAMED BEST FILM BY NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW

Martin Scorsese’s Hugo has been named best film of the year by the National Board of Review. and Scorsese, best director. The organization, composed of some 100 knowledgeable film enthusiasts, filmmakers, academics, and students, selected George Clooney as best actor for his performance in The Descendants and Tilda Swinton as best actress for We Need […]

NY FILM CRITICS CIRCLE NAMES THE ARTIST BEST PICTURE

The New York Film Critics Circle, the first major film group to announce its selections for best picture and performances each year, has given its top honor to The Artist, a black-and-white silent film. Its director, Michel Hazanavicius, was named best director. Meryl Streep received the best actress award for The Iron Lady, in which […]

REAL STEEL STEALS BOX OFFICE (Updated)

Disney/DreamWorks’s Real Steel clambered into the box-office ring and clobbered its opponents over the weekend, raking in an estimated $27.3 million domestically and an additional $22.1 million overseas (19 countries). Sony’s The Ides of March was a distant second with $10.4-million debut. Last week’s champ, Warner Bros.’ Dolphin Tale, held over nicely, sliding 37 percent […]

DOLPHIN TALE A SPLASH HIT IN SECOND WEEK

Movies that rise to the top of the box office in their second week of release usually have some formidable word-of-mouth going for them, and, it would seem, such was the case with Dolphin Tale, which leaped ahead of The Lion King and Moneyball to lead the pack with $13.9 million, according to final figures […]

DOLPHIN TALE MAKES A BIG SPLASH AT BOX OFFICE

Once again, box office pundits turned out to be all wet with their predictions of weekend ticket sales as Dolphin Tale, in its third week, came from behind and finished ahead of the pack with an estimated $14.2 million. The Brad Pitt baseball drama Moneyball produced the second-best score with about $12.5 million. And Lion […]

LION KING RETURNING FOR THIRD WEEKEND

Given its unpredicted success over the past two weeks, Disney is keeping The Lion King 3D in theaters this weekend, where it could very well retain its throne as the box-office leader for the third weekend in a row. Originally, the studio had planned to give the 1994 movie a two-week revival, primarily to help […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: 50/50

50/50 are the odds of surviving a rare form of cancer that the main character in the movie with those odds in the title is diagnosed with. It’s loosely based on screenwriter Will Reiser’s personal experiences. Given its premise the odds of its being praised by critics were probably a lot lower than those in […]