MOVIE REVIEWS: SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (Updated)

David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, which opens in just 16 theaters this weekend — it’s due to expand to about 500 next week — is receiving golden reviews from nearly all the major critics — the rare film that is praised as much for its performances as for its screenplay. Roger Ebert, in fact, […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: NEW YEAR’S EVE

New Year’s Eve boasts a skillful comedy director, Garry Marshal, and an imposing cluster of stars, including Halle Berry, Hilary Swank, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cary Elwes, James Belushi, Penny Marshall, Matthew BroderickBon Jovi, Zac Efron, Ludacris, Abigail Breslin, Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Ryan Seacrest, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashton Kutcher, and more. (Oh, and […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: KILLER ELITE

For the most part, U.S. critics are assassinating Killer Elite (no relation to Sam Peckinpah’s 1975 film The Killer Elite), which stars Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen. With such names on the marquee, notes Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News, “we should be able to expect something special. Or at […]

THE TREE OF LIFE IS A GOLDEN PALM

Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt, was the controversial winner of the 64th Cannes Film Festival’ top prize, the Palme d’Or, on Sunday. Major critics attending the festival either hailed it or scorned it; few gave it merely so-so reviews. Malick, who shuns the spotlight himself and declined to participate in a […]

CONTROVERSIES ALREADY SIMMERING AT CANNES

The menu of films at the Cannes Film Festival is never complete without the added spice of controversy — and this year’s lineup is no exception. There is Scotish director Lynn Ramsay’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, which explores the aftermath of a Columbine-type school shooting through the eyes of the parents of the […]

ELTON JOHN DOCUMENTARY TO OPEN TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

Writer-director Cameron Crowe’s documentary The Union, about the reunion of Elton John with his onetime idol Leon Russell, has been selected to open Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Festival on April 20. In an unconventional launch, the festival plans to screen the film outdoors at the North Cove at the World Financial Plaza. The screening […]

DE NIRO TO PRESIDE AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Robert De Niro has been named to serve as president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in May. De Niro, who founded his own film festival in New York — the Tribeca Film Festival — as part of a recovery program for the area attacked by terrorists in 2001, said that it had […]

HEFTY SALARIES MAY DEPRIVE FOCKERS OF PROFIT

Although Universal’s Little Fockers has taken in more than $110 million after two weeks in release, it has a long way to go to recoup an enormous budget that ballooned because of enormous salaries paid to its actors, the New York Post observed today (Wednesday). According to the newspaper, which cited unnamed sources, nearly $70 […]

FOCKERS TAKE ON TRON: LEGACY

After six years, the Focker family return to the screen with Universal’s Little Fockers, starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. The film, which opens today (Wednesday), is expected to win the holiday box office with about $55-60 million, about 20 percent less than the $70.5 million earned by Meet the […]

SNL BEATS EVERYTHING IN PRIMETIME

It’s hard to judge whether its a testament to its own quality or to the lack of quality of primetime shows that air on Saturday night, but NBC’s Saturday Night Live, which begins at 11:30 p.m. drew bigger ratings on Saturday than any non-sports show airing on the four major TV networks that night. The […]

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