MOVIE REVIEWS: WORLD WAR Z

Despite arriving in theaters seemingly hobbled by horror stories about its onerous production problems, critics generally agree that World War Z amounts to, as Liam Lacey describes it in the Toronto Globe and Mail, “a perfectly decent thriller.” Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times remarks that “unless you knew about the film’s troubled past, […]

KILLING THEM SOFTLY IS KILLED AT BOX OFFICE (Updated)

In the 30 years that CinemaScore has been asking audiences to grade the movies they have seen on opening weekends, only five films have ever received F grades. CinemaScore has now added a sixth: the Brad Pitt starrer, Killing Them Softly. Going into the weekend, the question had been whether Pitts’s name on the marquee […]

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: IT’LL BE THE PITTS

More and more, it seems, ticket sales at this time of year would appear to hinge on activity at shopping malls, where many theaters are located as “anchor” tenants. Black Friday brings out the big crowds, many of whom head to the cineplex at the end of their shopping day; ergo record sales in the […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: KILLING THEM SOFTLY

Brad Pitt and his acting colleagues in Killing Them Softly are receiving much applause from critics even as the movie they’re appearing in is not. “It can be a pleasure to watch them all work, even in what turns out to be a disappointing job,” writes A.O. Scott in the New York Times. The movie, […]

THOSE WEB REPORTS ABOUT BRANGELINA MARRYING? FORGET THEM

The Internet as an alternate source for news took a beating over the weekend when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie did not get married in France, as numerous celebrity and gossip websites had been predicting. Some actually included the names on the supposed guest list. “Even Angelina’s private jeweler is here,” reported Rupert Murdoch’s London […]

BRAD PITT BLENDS POLITICS INTO CRIME DRAMA

Brad Pitt’s Killing Them Softly — he’s both the producer and star — premiered at the Cannes Film Festival today (Tuesday) and promptly courted controversy from both the right and the left. The film is set in 2008 during the presidential election and features clips of president-to-be Obama promising reforms that never came about. As […]

WES ANDERSON TO BE CANNES OPENER ON WEDNESDAY

They’re (literally) rolling out the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. Beginning tomorrow (Wednesday), it will be tread on by the likes of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Robert Pattinson, Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, and Kristen Stewart, among others. The festival kicks off with a screening of Focus Features’ […]

CANNES LINE-UP UNVEILED

Some familiar figures will be returning to the Cannes Film Festival next month. Among the filmmakers whose works have been selected for the competition are Jacques Audiard, Ken Loach, Michael Haneke, Walter Salles, Leos Carax, David Cronenberg, Thomas Vinterberg, Lee Daniels and Wes Anderson. Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom has also been selected as the opening-night film. […]

MONEYBALL IS ON THE MONEY ON DVD

January may not seem like the time of the year when anyone is thinking about baseball, but the Brad Pitt baseball drama Moneyball easily became the No. 1 DVD and Blu-ray seller last week, according to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert. It also debuted in first place on Home Media magazine’s rental chart. The movie, about […]

PALM SPRINGS WARMS TO FOREIGN FILMS

The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival is due to open tonight (Thursday) with a screening of the British romcom Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, starring Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor. Although the festival boasts that it presents “the largest selection of foreign language Oscar submissions of any film festival in the world,” it […]

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