Ed. Note: Please welcome Matthew to the BH family and encourage him to return. — JN I’ve followed Kevin Smith’s career since I was old enough to sneak into Dogma, and I fell out of love with him at about
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are dynamite as a comedic duo, as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are two of the best comedies of the past decade. Paul is their first outing sans the directorial guidance of Edgar
I don’t get why people hated The Green Hornet so much. Granted, I’m no long-time fan of the character, my knowledge of The Green Hornet begins and ends with the fact that the mighty Bruce Lee played Kato in an
– Director Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (December 3rd) is getting good reviews from some reviewers I trust but it’s all so Oscar-baity and bloated with importance, especially the widely publicized and now seemingly obligatory (if you want Academy attention) lesbian
Long-distance relationships have always been a true test of love and fidelity for any couple attempting them, but at least in the modern age of cellphones and Skype and occasionally cheap air travel, it’s easier to keep the flame going
I know I was supposed to write about Hoop Dreams, but it’s been years since I have seen it and I wanted to give it a fair shot. Instead, please find my thoughts below on Clerks, a movie I should
The Oscar-nominated movies in recent years have been enough to make a grown man cry… Or worse. Consider “There Will Be Blood,” “No Country for Old Men” and “The Reader” as a sampling of the morbid films jockeying for Oscar
There are some filmmakers whom movie fans turn to for serious, introspective fare, like Oliver Stone or Lasse Hallstrom. Others are counted on as masters of the fantastic, like Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson. And for comedy these days, you
Quick! Think fast – who’s making the most morally conservative films in Hollywood? The answer may surprise you, but it’s none other than Judd Apatow. Yes, the writer-director of “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up” and the new film
As one of America’s most popular comedians, George Simmons seemingly has the world on a string. But then one thing happens that can ruin everything: he’s diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and told that even with aggressive experimental
Never in a million years did I think Judd Apatow was capable of making something as sharp and penetrating as “Funny People.” Never. Since the director first started dabbling in film, I’ve been a harsh critic of everything he’s touched,
The new film Year One is definitely taking a beating from the critics, especially conservative ones. Two reviews by my colleagues at Big Hollywood exemplify the complaints. Comedienne Victoria Jackson expresses immense disappointment with the film’s high proportion of obscenity
I had a date with Judd Apatow. It was around 1991 and I was between husbands: the out-of-work-Jewish-Gypsy-fire-eater-musician, and the high-school-sweetheart-Baptist-helicopter-police-pilot. I needed a date to a premiere. I knew the rules of engagement for a Hollywood career, and I
You could feel it in the air as Apatow basked in the glow of his 2006 double whammy, the hilarious “Knocked Up” and “Superbad.” By the time 2007’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” rolled around, the backlash was gathering steam. I told
“Wax on, wax off.” “He slimed me.” “Fortune and Glory, kid.” “I’ll be back.” “Don’t get him wet. Keep him out of bright light. And never feed him after midnight.” It’s hard to believe that a quarter century has passed
With “Wolverine” opening this Friday, summer finally, finally arrives. We’ve celebrated the good. We’ve dreaded the bad. Now on to the maybes; those that could fall either way, or just do the minimum by delivering a couple hours of forgettable
Good news for the Motion Picture Academy. Despite the fact that the five Best Picture nominees had combined to gross less than $300M domestic by showtime, Oscar ratings were up considerably from last year’s all-time low. Early numbers show that
I write crime novels for a living. They are full of men–and other disreputable types–who talk like men talk and think in the words men think in. As a result of this, I frequently get letters from my fellow conservatives
