With eight “Harry Potter” movies, four “Pirates” films, three “Transformers” and two “Hangover” flicks clogging the Hollywood distribution pipeline over the last few years, and “reboots” of movies like “Spider-Man” that are less than a decade old, it might seem
There are some celebrities who manage to put up a wall of secrecy around their lives, and who make a clear distinction between their public and private personas. And then there are people like Steve Coogan, a major British comedy
Over the course of 53 films in just over a quarter-century, John C. Reilly has established himself as one of Hollywood’s greatest Everyman actors. Whether playing lovable shlubs in films like “Cyrus” and “Magnolia,” portraying wacky characters in “Talladega Nights”
Sometimes a movie comes along that is so tone-deaf and utterly incompetent that viewers can only sit back in wonder at just how things could have gone so wrong. “Bad Teacher,” a new alleged comedy starring Cameron Diaz as an
Morgan Spurlock exploded on the American pop culture scene as the star, writer, and director of the humorous documentary “Super Size Me” in 2003. In that film, he ingeniously shined a spotlight on the epidemic of obesity and the rampant
One of the greatest appeals of superhero movies lies in their ability to take ordinary humans and give them the ability to do extraordinary things, whether they’re a teenager flying through New York City by shooting webs in “Spider Man”
I’ll never cease to be amazed at which films manage to spawn a sequel, much less an entire series of followups. There have been a dozen versions of “Friday the 13th,” 10 versions of “Halloween,” three versions of “Porky’s” and
Phil Rosenthal is the co-creator of one of the most successful family sitcoms of all time – the nine-season ratings juggernaut “Everybody Loves Raymond.” The show won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series twice along the way, and is still
Morgan Spurlock exploded on the American pop culture scene as the star, writer and director of the humorous documentary “Super Size Me” in 2003. In that film, he ingeniously shined a spotlight on the epic of obesity and the rampant
Christopher Titus thought he had a lot to endure while growing up, with a severely alcoholic and emotionally abusive father and a mother who ultimately committed suicide. Yet instead of succumbing to despair himself and letting his hardships defeat him,
Since exploding onto the nation’s movie screens from seemingly nowhere in 2005, Tyler Perry has created a media empire that has been nearly unprecedented in movie history. Certainly no other African-American filmmaker has ever attained his level of clout, as
As the Senior Vice President of programming for the Turner Classic Movies cable TV network and head scheduler of the TCM Classic Film Festival, Charlie Tabesh has a job that most film buffs would die for the chance to have.
Paul Giamatti is one of the most unique actors working in films today, since he mixes a bug-eyed exasperation with an intense energy that can make him either immensely lovable or intensely annoying. Ever since he broke through to critical
Uma Thurman has been gracing the world’s movie screens with her ethereal beauty and unique presence for more than 20 years, ever since her breakthrough role in 1988’s “Dangerous Liaisons” opposite John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer. Since then, she’s helped
Soul Surfer These days, it seems everyone wants to be famous – and the younger the person, the more attention-obsessed they seem to be. But what if you garnered international attention because a shark literally bit off your arm? That
At what point does the stress of modern living become too much to bear, so much so that it can cause a perfectly good person to snap? That question has been the focus of two of the most memorable films
No matter what your background, everyone faces two of the same basic life choices: how to be sure you’ve found your perfect life partner, and how to find a life path that’s meaningful. But what if you think you’ve got
As a lifelong movie buff working my dream job as a film critic, I’m generally pretty easy to please. I go into every movie wanting to be entertained and willing to give the filmmaker a shot – in fact, so
Mike Flaherty is a simple man, an average Joe living in the New Jersey suburbs with a schulbby body who’s prone to panic attacks, has a struggling law practice and with a wife and two young daughters to support. He
Tom Shadyac was a movie director who was on top of the world in comedy, thanks to his frequent blockbuster collaborations with Jim Carrey. Starting with the two “Ace Ventura” comedies and moving on through “Liar Liar” and “Bruce Almighty,”
With the Middle East in turmoil and Japan triple-whammied with problems, the whole world could use a laugh right about now. Thankfully, the new sci-fi comedy “Paul” is arriving in theatres Friday, packing more laughs per minute than almost any
Everyone of any political stripe knows that North Korea is one of the worst – if not the worst – dictatorship on the planet. For even as we have plenty of other hostile nations to choose from, extending from the
George Nolfi has been one of Hollywood’s hottest rising writers of intelligent action films, having had a hand in the smash hits “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Ocean’s Twelve.” Working with Matt Damon on both of those films, he developed a
Being a married guy is a tricky proposition. On the one hand, they have the security and stability of domestic life. And on the other hand, many men often wish they could still roam wild and free, ogling or even
We live in an age where it’s almost impossible to get truly lost. Between GPS systems, the ever-growing presence of surveillance cameras, the ability to track credit-card purchases instantly around the globe, and cell-phones that can connect us via calls
High school outsiders have it rough enough already, feeling like aliens in the social universe around them. But for John Smith, the alias of the lead character in the new sci-fi thriller “I Am Number Four,” things are infinitely worse.
You might think that there’s no way young kids would be interested in Shakespeare plays, but Elton John has found a way to get their attention. By taking out all the sex and suicide, putting in a mix of two
Everyone loves a little bit of adventure, but some people take it to the extreme, whether climbing Everest or exploring the wonders of deep-sea diving. The hardy band of explorers in the new thriller “Sanctum” are crazy enough to engage
Think of Hollywood movies about devils and exorcisms, and “The Exorcist” would likely spring to mind first. Shocking audiences to their core in 1973, that film went on to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination and become a worldwide smash
Throughout the history of the Western world, men traditionally called the shots in relationships and women were the ones who demurely followed their lead. People also seemed to meet up, fell in love or at least tolerated each other, and
Most film critics start off each year with a list of their top 10 movies for the year before, an act of timing that often masks the fact that the first week of a new year is used to dump
Have you ever learned a really bad secret that your best friend should know about, but you just don’t know how to tell them? What if you saw your best friend’s wife cheating on him? And what would you do
There was a time when Hollywood portrayed marriage as a happy institution that was key to a healthy society. Sure, a lot of those films and TV shows were propaganda along the lines of “Father Knows Best,” going over the
We don’t choose the families we’re born into, and yet we are shaped for better or worse by the people we are forced to live with for at least the first 18 years of our lives. Most people luck out
There are some films considered so sacred they should never be remade. “Gone with the Wind” would be one of them, “Citizen Kane” and “Vertigo” still others. But the new Coen Brothers’ take on “True Grit” presents an interesting challenge
In many people’s eyes, being a film critic might be a pretty frivolous enterprise. I’ll admit that watching a movie for two hours with a box of popcorn and taking notes before picking apart their artistic merits doesn’t exactly rank
Imagine you’re an average American guy, minding your own business on a train across Europe when the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen tells you that she wants you to come with her. If you’re a normal dude, you’re at
True love is a hard thing to define, for there are as many ways to describe it as there are longstanding couples on this planet. For some, it’s about the romance, for others about being an emotional rock of support
There are many kinds of prisons in this world, some literal and some figurative but no less destructive to the basic human need for freedom. And from childhood, one fairy tale that teaches us about that imprisonment and quest to
There comes a time in many movie stars’ careers when they decide they want to take chances, and break the mold in which their image has been cast. Think of happy-go-lucky Tom Hanks playing a gay lawyer dying of AIDS