movies – News Stories About movies - Page 76

Absent Original Scripts, Studios Reel in Lit

Apr 18, 2008 3:43 PM CDT

Absent Original Scripts, Studios Reel in Lit

Post-strike surge doesn't materialize, so execs tap books, mags

(Newser) - Movie execs counting on a flood of scripts after the writers strike wrapped up in February are snug and dry and turning to books and magazine articles instead, Variety reports. Plump with new fiscal-year budgets, studios are snatching up literary pieces faster than in years past; prison escapes, sunken-ship salvage,...

Dude...Where's My Sponsor?

Apr 17, 2008 9:19 AM CDT

Dude...Where's My Sponsor?

As 4/20 nears holiday status, pot-smokers' festivities curry favor with advertisers

(Newser) - Major corporations are trying to see dollar signs through the haze of pot smoke hovering over this year's 4/20 stonerpalooza, as the pseudo-holiday gains national attention with its large, (idly) devoted following on college campuses. This year, festivities will include stoner cinema debuts like "Harold and Kumar Escape From...

'007' Takes a Break From Dodging Bullets

Apr 14, 2008 8:14 AM CDT

'007' Takes a Break From Dodging Bullets

Craig tries on role as depressed, aging actor in new low-budget flick

(Newser) - The "blond Bond" is taking a drastic break from guns, chicks, and shaken martinis: Daniel Craig plays a depressed, aging actor in the low-budget British flick Flashbacks of a Fool. Craig calls the role “a personal journey,” the AP reports. “I think you have to work...

Prom Night
Nabs Weekend Crown

Apr 13, 2008 6:55 PM CDT

Prom Night Nabs Weekend Crown

Horror flick tops Street Kings , 21 at box office

(Newser) - Prom Night scored at the box office this weekend, opening in first with $23 million, Variety reports. It easily shot down Keanu Reeves’ cop thriller Street Kings ($12 million) and trumped gambling flick 21, which banked $11 million in third. Dennis Quaid’s Smart People proved a no-brainer for audiences:...

People Not Smart Enough

movie revew

Apr 11, 2008 1:45 PM CDT

People Not Smart Enough

Critics say indie romantic comedy needs an IQ test

(Newser) - Critics like the big-name actors in family serio-comedy Smart People —especially Dennis Quaid, who stars as a cranky professor with much to learn about people—but think they might have been smarter to choose a different script. Screenwriter Mark Jude Poirier "is aiming for Scrabulous dialogue but his...

No Crown for Street Kings

MOVIE REVIEW

Apr 11, 2008 9:59 AM CDT

No Crown for Street Kings

Cop flick puts overwrought machismo on display

(Newser) - Street Kings doesn't get a lot of love from critics, who say it resorts at times to the worst of cop-flick cliches. Keanu Reeves plays a cold-hearted, vodka-swigging LA vice cop who's hunting down his former partner's murderers. And while screenwriter James Ellroy's pulp machismo has worked before, here Reeves...

25 Memorable Movie Musicals

Apr 8, 2008 9:52 AM CDT

25 Memorable Movie Musicals

Hits to keep the rain off your parade

(Newser) - With Sweeney Todd now out on DVD, Entertainment Weekly rounds up the mag's 25 favorite movie musicals. Some you've surely seen (West Side Story, Grease, the Sound of Music) but here are 10 you may have missed.

Funny Girl (1968)
Swing Time (1936)

21 Beats the House Again

Apr 6, 2008 5:00 PM CDT

21 Beats the House Again

Gambling pic holds off rush by Leatherheads

(Newser) - 21 beat the odds for a second straight week and held off George Clooney’s Leatherheads, Variety reports. The gambling pic garnered $15.1 million, while the old-school football laffer, tripped up by poor reviews, tied with family flick Nim’s Island for second spot, each banking about $13.5...

Nim's Island a Little Too Busy

movie review

Apr 4, 2008 2:34 PM CDT

Nim's Island a Little Too Busy

Adventure film with plucky young heroine one for the tweeners

(Newser) - The spectacular scenery in Nim's Island impressed the critics, as did the film's focus on the pluck and intelligence of its young heroine (Abigail Breslin). Multiple storylines, however —about Nim's life in a Pacific paradise, her lost-at-sea father, and her relationship with an agoraphobic writer (Jodie Foster)—end up...

How Very! Heathers Writer Returns to Film

Apr 3, 2008 5:34 PM CDT

How Very! Heathers Writer Returns to Film

Sex and Death 101 , out tomorrow, puts Daniel Waters back in left field

(Newser) - Screenwriter Daniel Waters, who made "What's your damage?" part of American slang, is back. His 1989 cult classic, Heathers, paved the way for edgy teen fare from Clueless to Juno, but subsequent unsuccessful projects led him to obscurity. Sex and Death 101 puts him "squarely back into off-kilter...

Top 10 Historically Flawed Flicks

Apr 1, 2008 1:10 PM CDT

Top 10 Historically Flawed Flicks

10,000 BC , Gladiator, and 300 top Yahoo's list of historical misfires

(Newser) - Most historical films forgo a few facts for dramatic flair, but these flicks leave truth to the cutting room floor. Yahoo lists the most inaccurate movies ever:

10,000 BC: Woolly mammoths weren't around to help build the pyramids.
Gladiator: Emperor Commodus didn't kill his dad... chickenpox did.
300: Spartan

...

21 Wins Big at Box Office

Mar 30, 2008 4:46 PM CDT

21 Wins Big at Box Office

Iraq war flick Stop-Loss stumbles in at no. 8

(Newser) - Gambling flick 21 played to win this weekend and banked $23.7 million, scoring top spot at the box office, Variety reports. But it failed to revive overall ticket sales, which are down 17% from last year's frame and about a third for the year. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a ...

17 Best Peace-Loving War Films

Mar 29, 2008 8:00 AM CDT

17 Best Peace-Loving War Films

Stop-Loss latest in a long line of anti-combat movies

(Newser) - Stop-Loss is hardly the first blockbuster to take a hard line on war. Entertainment Weekly lists 17 of the best anti-war films of all time.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930): One of the earliest anti-war films follows naïve German troops into battle in WWI.
Paths of Glory

...

Lindsay Lohan to Play Teen in Manson Family

Mar 28, 2008 8:40 AM CDT

Lindsay Lohan to Play Teen in Manson Family

Signs on to portray rich Malibu girl mesmerized by Charlie

(Newser) - Actress Lindsay Lohan will play a member of the violent Manson family in the upcoming movie Manson Girls, reports E! Online. LiLo will portray Nancy Pitman, who grew up well-to-do in Malibu and was just 16 when she met Manson through a friend and quickly became one of his followers.

Ready for $35 Movie Tickets?

Mar 26, 2008 12:14 PM CDT

Ready for $35 Movie Tickets?

Gold Class Cinemas brings luxury moviegoing stateside

(Newser) - Think your movie-going experience could be more than sticky floors and greasy popcorn? Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas agrees. The high-end theater chain is making its debut in America, offering a bar selling cocktails and sushi, reclining lazy-boy style seats (with service buttons to call waiters), and valet parking for...

Top 10 Musical Movie Moments

Mar 25, 2008 2:51 PM CDT

Top 10 Musical Movie Moments

The perfect sound clip can make a scene unforgettable

(Newser) - Forget soundtracks. CNN zeros in on fleeting scenes that use image and sound to send a shiver down your spine. The top 10 marriages of audio and video:

“Born to Be Wild” blasting while Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper ride down the highway in Easy Rider (1969)
Mr. Blonde

...

It's Not Too Late
for Old School Technology

opinion

Mar 23, 2008 4:17 PM CDT

It's Not Too Late for Old School Technology

If inventions can evolve, they can survive, says New York Times

(Newser) - Older technologies frequently face predictions of their demise as they are replaced with cutting-edge innovations, but so-called progress is rarely the sea change it’s chalked up to be, writes Steve Lohr in the New York Times. If old tech can adapt, it can often stay alive. Case in point:...

First Film Was Minghella's Finest Work

OPINION

Mar 21, 2008 12:45 PM CDT

First Film Was Minghella's Finest Work

Truly, Madly, Deeply can help fans grieve director's early passing

(Newser) - He might be known for his sweep of the 1996 Academy Awards with The English Patient, but director Anthony Minghella should be remembered for his first film, Dana Stevens writes in Slate. Truly, Madly, Deeply, a 1990 made-for-TV movie that's now something of a cult classic, is a "psychologically...

Faithfull Shines in Irina Palm

movie review

Mar 21, 2008 10:31 AM CDT

Faithfull Shines in Irina Palm

1960s icon plays a grandma-turned-sex-worker

(Newser) - Irina Palm, about a frumpy grandmother who resorts to prostitution so she can pay for her desperately ill grandson's operation, is winning over critics, both because of its unsentimental portrayal of the sex trade and because of the performance given by its star, singer/songwriter/actress and '60s icon Marianne Faithfull.

Director Minghella
Dead at 54

Mar 18, 2008 11:02 AM CDT

Director Minghella Dead at 54

Filmmaker won Oscar in 1997 for The English Patient

(Newser) - Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella died today at 54, the Guardian reports. Minghella won the 1997 best director Oscar for The English Patient and was nominated as a screenwriter for The Talented Mr. Ripley in 2000. "This is a shattering blow from someone who was a major figure in...