“Dark Shadows” marks the eighth collaboration between Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton. Most agreed it won’t go down as their finest pairing, even if the film honored a beloved soap opera with fangs. The film, out today on Blu-ray
Danny Strong just landed the best gig in town. The screenwriter has been selected to pen the final two installments of the “Hunger Games” franchise, the kind of assignment any Hollywood writer would envy. Surely winning two Emmys for writing
The new film “Won’t Back Down” shows what happens to a single mother and a school teacher who try to initiate a “parent trigger” law that allows concerned citizens to take over failing schools. Both the mother and the teacher
Children are routinely coddled in our society, often for good reason. You wouldn’t want to drag your eight-year-old along to see the latest “Paranormal Activity” sequel or a Madonna concert. Theater director Christy Montour-Larson isn’t shying away from the darker
Seth MacFarlane wasn’t an obvious choice to host next year’s Academy Awards telecast. He’s known primarily for creating Fox’s animated hit show “Family Guy,” and his time in front of the camera is limited to occasional Comedy Central roasts and
Some of the biggest celebrities in Tinsel Town want you … to vote next month. Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Selena Gomez, Sarah Silverman, Ellen DeGeneres, Jonah Hill and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are among the actors appearing in the allegedly nonpartisan clip.
Whit Stillman of “Metropolitan” fame waited more than a decade to uncork the droll dialogue heard in “Damsels in Distress.” He hasn’t made a movie since 1998’s “The Last Days of Disco,” and you can tell he was holding plenty
Wouldn’t it be nice to watch the second season of “Homeland” without knowing the current headlines out of the Middle East – or President Barack Obama’s failed foreign policy blunders currently stoking the flames of outrage? Showtime’s taut terrorism drama
Actor Lance Reddick wasn’t surprised to see union members picketing the New York City premiere of his film “Won’t Back Down” earlier this week. Reddick is a union member himself, and he understands that his peers thought they were protecting
Evil must be challenged. Good men cannot stand by while darkness overtakes the land. And even if a movie about all of the above sat on the shelf for three years it still could be worth your hard-earned cash. “Solomon
Jon Stewart finds lots of things funny in today’s headlines – like the leader of Israel pleading with the civilized world to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That’s comedy gold, right? The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More:
“Saturday Night Live’s” Thursday edition actually took President Obama to task for the shoddy state of the American economy. Of course, the sketch had to squeeze in a slam against Mitt Romney. Not bad. It’s almost as if the show’s
“Looper” is for those who found “Inception” far too easy to decode. Writer/director Rian Johnson, the mind behind the challenging “Brick” and “The Brothers Bloom,” tackles science fiction with “Looper,” his spin on the time travel genre. He succeeds in
Daniel Barnz seems an odd choice to direct and co-write the pro-school choice saga “Won’t Back Down.” Barnz is a self-described liberal Democrat who belongs to two unions. That doesn’t mean he should ignore a public education system that clearly
Parents have learned the hard way that speaking out against teachers unions
Michelle Rhee fought – and fought – against the teachers unions during her tenure as chancellor of the D.C. Public School System. The battle was ugly, but it remained clean. That’s hardly the case in other cities where teachers unions
The brooms are back. “Stomp,” the off-Broadway non-musical musical is on the road again, and those who have never experienced the show are getting a chance to watch a new, and only moderately improved version. The show, playing through Sept.
Death. Taxes. Media hit pieces on right-leaning films. The press did its darndest to ignore “2016: Obama’s America,” a scathing but mannered critique of President Barack Obama’s formative influences. In the case of “Won’t Back Down,” the new pro-school choice
Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” fame usually spends his allotted time defending President Barack Obama from the leader’s own bungled policies. That’s a full-time job, no doubt. This week, Stewart couldn’t ignore the awful optics of Obama seeing a
The late Andrew Breitbart wouldn’t be surprised to learn 2012 was the year conservative films finally broke through. He had a way of predicting media trends, sensing the Web-based technological revolution would let conservatives have a louder voice in the
The found footage horror genre might be the most ingenious gimmick since that first slasher slapped on a William Shatner mask. The storytelling technique is also rife with problems that never resolve themselves in the new DVD release “388 Arletta
Teachers unions and their allies are none too happy about “Won’t Back Down.” The film, opening Friday, concerns a single mother (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and a teacher (Viola Davis) who team up to take control of a crumbling public school failing
If “The Dark Knight” couldn’t earn a Best Picture nomination, “The Avengers” has virtually no chance of getting one this awards season. Yet “The Master,” a seriously flawed film from beloved auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, is an odds-on favorite to
The freshman NBC comedy “The New Normal” is the creation of Ryan Murphy, the man behind “Nip/Tuck” who famously supports President Barack Obama. The show also features a cranky Republican character played by Ellen Barkin, the actress whose Twitter feed
Anthony E. Zuiker is responsible for one of modern television’s most durable franchises – “C.S.I.” That’s the kind of clout that should give Zuiker the creative freedom most artists crave. You won’t find his latest project on ABC, CBS, Fox
Sounds like comic actor John Leguizamo pines for a one political party system. Leguizamo, best known for providing the voice of Sid in four “Ice Age” movies, recently talked to CNN about his political views. “Latin people for Republicans are
The more major awards shows honor liberal politics over quality content, the more people will tune out – both from the shows themselves and Hollywood material in general. The four major Emmy Awards given to the HBO film “Game Change”
A gaggle of world leaders is assembling in New York today as part of the latest U.N. confab. President Barack Obama will be in the Big Apple, too. On his agenda – chatting up Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters and the
Last night’s Emmy Awards telecast featured liberal comic Jimmy Kimmel as host and feted the hatched job known as HBO’s “Game Change.” Is it any wonder the telecast’s ratings drooped from 2011’s edition? Early ratings numbers for the 2012 Emmy Awards are
The cartoonish, reality-deficient HBO film “Game Change” cleaned up at the 2012 Emmy Awards telecast tonight. The film, which chronicled the addition of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the GOP ticket in 2008, earned honors for best directing, writing and
“Saturday Night Live” is clearly disinterested in tweaking President Barack Obama. You know, the most powerful man in the world, the figure past “SNL” casts mocked with alacrity – from Presidents Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton. Now, with the presidential
Hollywood has been almost universally silent regarding the legal harassment and threats aimed at the person behind the anti-Muslim film some blame for the current Middle East-based violence. One prominent celebrity wants murder charges against the filmmaker, ignoring this country’s
Wayne White deserves a place in the modern art world even if his work indirectly mocks the very notion of that oh, so serious society. “Beauty is Embarrassing,” the new documentary capturing White’s eclectic brand of art, makes a sturdy
Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s cult-like following may earn him some extra huzzahs for his latest film project, but clear-eyed movie goers will see right through its striking imagery and unsettling score. Anderson’s back log of good will is well earned,
Audiences figured “Gran Torino” marked a fitting end to Clint Eastwood’s acting career. The film gave the Hollywood icon one last juicy role as well as the chance to show you still don’t mess with Eastwood, no matter how old
Conventional wisdom is a funny thing. Especially when it’s based on a meme fashioned by the dishonest mainstream media. Clint Eastwood’s “empty chair” speech at the Republican National Committee drew nearly universal pans from the press. Now, with Eastwood’s latest
We already know most Hollywood denizens are in the tank for President Barack Obama, no matter the facts on the ground. Foreign policy debacles. A broken economy. Soaring gas prices. Shattered promise atop shattered promise. Class warfare. Now, some of
Barbra Streisand is smart enough not to repeat a line which could cost President Barack Obama a second term, “you didn’t build that.” Read Streisand’s new op-ed at The Huffington Post, and you’ll hear echoes of that gaffe all the
The Obama administration is mighty uncomfortable with people speaking their minds. President Barack Obama declared war on Fox News in the opening days of his administration. More recently, the White House blamed a crudely made film for the current violence
You’d think the person overseeing the largest federal debt in U.S. history might have an inkling as to its size. After all, President Barack Obama has helped said debt balloon to frightening levels during his three-plus years in office. Yet
