loaded question: how long does a film have to be before it’s too long for you to sit through?
Tell us about the really long films you have endured, either at home or in theaters.
Vulture
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets movie review: story of a thousand clichés
There is barely an original thought in this wackadoodle sci-fi panto, just a lot of tiresome passé attitudes skidding among bug-eyed-monster set dressing.
QOTD: What’s the best modern American sitcom?
I’ll choose HBO’s 1990s series The Larry Sanders Show, a brilliant tragi-comedy about fame and celebrity, and a don’t-ask-what’s-in-the-sausage look at how talk TV gets made.
question of the day: What’s the most inexplicable appearance by a big star in a crappy movie?
Inspired by Movie 43, which distinguishes itself in this regard merely by the sheer number of incomprehensible movie-star appearances in a single film…
question of the day: What classic films would you like to see inspire a new Star Wars movie?
My choice: Midnight Kessel Run…
question of the day: Is “the gaze” (male or female) disempowering for the gazee?
Twilight has ruined vampires, and it’s all women’s fault, doncha know, with our gazing at Edward Cullen…
the ‘Robin Hood’ that almost wasn’t…
We should have been so lucky. The U.K. box numbers are out, and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood fared much better on its nominal home ground (for all the Brit involvement, it’s still an American-funded production keyed to a Hollywood mindset). It earned £5.8 million this past weekend, the third best opening weekend for a film … more…
J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg: together again for the first time
When I was a kid and fell in love with movies and decided I wanted to make movies (an ambition that later morphed into writing about movies, so no, I’m not quite the cliché of the critic who’s a thwarted filmmaker), I decided that I wanted to be the next Steven Spielberg. His movies of … more…
question of the day: Is Tucker Max the next Tyler Perry?
Dan Kois at New York magazine’s Vulture blog wonders about Tucker Max’s destiny: Max, when asked after a screening what mainstream studios think of him and his movie, answered, “No one in Hollywood gives a shit about us until we make money.” And in that respect, if his movie succeeds and becomes even a modest … more…
OMG: penis onscreen!
Here we go again. There’s a penis onscreen — in a still image! — during the end credits of The Hangover, and people are freaking out. Sez Bilge Ebiri at New York mag’s blog Vulture (you might want to skip the big blockquote if you don’t want even minor spoilers for the movie): So, we … more…
