MOVIE REVIEWS (1): THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Reviews have begun to trickle in for this weekend’s much anticipated The Dark Knight Rises, and some of them are as extravagant in their praise as audiences are expected to be in their spending. In the Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy calls the movie a “blockbuster by any standard. … “[The] Batman trilogy makes everything in […]

BALE SAYS HE LIKED WORKING IN CHINA, BUT CHINA MAY VETO HIS RETURN

Christian Bale said at the Berlin Festival on Monday that he had a “fantastic time” working with famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou on The Flowers of War and found working in an all-Chinese-language movie challenging. “I would have been very envious if anybody else had taken the part,” he told a news conference. The film […]

BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL SELECTS TWO OSCAR-CONTENDING FILMS

Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, has been selected to make its international debut in February at the Berlin Film Festival, where it will screen out of competition, the festival announced today (Monday). The film, set in New York during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, is due […]

ANOTHER DISNEY MOVIE GETS NEW LIFE ONSTAGE

Transposing a failed movie musical to the stage may seem like a fool’s errand, but Disney’s theatrical unit may have pulled it off in the case of Newsies, the company’s 1992 effort to revive the traditional live-action musical. Harvey Fierstein has rewritten the original screenplay by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White about an 1899 newsboy […]

THE FIGHTER A KNOCKOUT ON HOME VIDEO

Scoring a rare trifecta win, Paramount Home Entertainment’s The Fighter debuted on top of both the DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales charts and Home Media magazine’s rental chart. The film, which stars Mark Wahlberg and received supporting actor wins for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, accounted for two-thirds of all disc sales last week. Some […]

SAG CROWNS THE KING’S SPEECH

The King’s Speech increased its lengthy lead in the Oscar race Sunday night as the Screen Actors Guild awarded the movie trophies for best ensemble acting (equivalent to Oscar’s best picture award) and bestowed its best male actor award on the film’s star, Colin Firth. Natalie Portman received the best female actor award for her […]

SOCIAL NETWORK, KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT TOP WINNERS AT GLOBES AWARDS

The Social Network won the Golden Globe for best dramatic film Sunday night, while The Kids Are All Right won for best comedy or musical. Social Network’s David Fincher also collected the Golden Globe for best director. In the acting categories, Natalie Portman and Annette Bening won for best actress in a drama and best […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE FIGHTER

The Fighter is a terrific movie about a boxer in the tradition of other terrific movies about boxers, critics suggest. That they all seem to follow a similar plotline is almost beside the point, they say. As A.O. Scott sums it up in the New York Times: “This is yet another tale of an underdog […]

SOFT LAUNCH FOR DAWN TREADER

Twentieth Century Fox’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader foundered upon launch this weekend as it earned just $24.5 million domestically, according to studio estimates — a figure well below analysts’ predictions. Overseas ticket sales saved the day, however, as Narnia raked in $81 million abroad. With Disney’s Tangled holding on to […]

THE SOCIAL NETWORK NAMED BEST FILM BY NAT’L BOARD OF REVIEW

The Social Network, regarded as a strong contender in the Oscar race, received a suitable lift-off Thursday when it was voted best picture of the year by the National Board of Review, the group that historically launches the motion picture awards season. The group also gave top honors to the film’s star, Jesse Eisenberg, its […]