film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
Have you heard? Universal has signed Bryan Singer — of Valkyrie, X-Men, and The Usual Suspects fame — to produce and direct a Battlestar Galactica feature film. I wrote a bit about my thoughts on this prospect yesterday over at Film.com. The gist: I don’t see how this can end up as anything other than … more…
green light (definitely check it out): Valkyrie: Tom Cruise versus Nazis! They hated Scientologists, too. [Amazon U.K.] [now available at Amazon U.S.] Milk: Sean Penn versus homophobes! Take that, unfabulous bigots. [Amazon U.K.] [now available at Amazon U.S.] The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Brad Pitt versus Father Time! What do you get for the … more…
A quick look at the U.K. box office — I’m busy actually checking out the cinema scene (among other scenes) in London: 1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: £2.2 million (NEW) 2. He’s Just Not That Into You: £1.9 million (NEW) 3. Slumdog Millionaire: £1.6 million 4. Valkyrie: £.6 million (3rd week; drops 51%) … more…
A quick look at the U.K. box office — I’m busy actually checking out the cinema scene (among other scenes) in London. Slumdog Millionaire continues to kick box office ass here: 1. Slumdog Millionaire: £2.6 million (4th week; drops 16%) 2. Valkyrie: £1.3 million (2nd week; drops 30%) 3. Revolutionary Road: £1 million (NEW) 4. … more…
As BBC News noted this weekend, the recent films The Reader and Valkyrie have raised some questions about how accents should be handled on film, particularly by how these two films handle the same matter very differently. In The Reader, German characters who are supposedly speaking German to one another speak English with German accents. … more…
Slumdog Millionaire keeps blasting the competition out of the water: 1. Slumdog Millionaire: £2.8 million (3rd week; up 7%) 2. Valkyrie: £1.9 million (NEW) 3. My Bloody Valentine 3-D: £1.2 million (2nd week; drops 12%) 4. Seven Pounds: £1.1 million (2nd week; drops 30%) 5. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans: £.99 million (NEW) (actual numbers, … more…
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend isn’t traditionally a big weekend for moviegoing, but wow, this four-dayer was a record breaker: 1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $39.2 million (NEW) 2. Gran Torino: $25.6 million (2nd week in wide release; drops 13%) 3. My Bloody Valentine 3-D: $24.1 million (NEW) 4. Notorious: $23.4 million (NEW) … more…
So you’ve seen the Tom Cruise *Valkyrie* and you’re wondering, Is that how it actually went down? Turns out, pretty much.
We had another five-day weekend this past week, what with New Year’s Eve falling on a Wednesday, but the ranking remains the same whether we look at the five-day or the three-day weekend, so for sanity’s sake, I’m gonna stick with the three-day figures… that is, Friday, January 2, through Sunday, January 4: 1. Marley … more…
Trying to figure out how to talk about the box office at the moment is a bit of a challenge, what with Christmas Day — always a big moviegoing day in North America — falling on a Thursday, and all the new wide releases opening that day. And then there’s this odd week, with no … more…
