Christian Toto - Page 51

It’s a good thing Samuel L. Jackson’s righteous speech from “Pulp Fiction” is too long to fit in a Tweet. Jackson got good and grumpy yesterday after reading The New York Times’ review of “The Avengers.” Critic A.O. Scott gave

Sylvester Stallone refuses to act his age, and he’s got plenty of company. In “Expendables 2,” coming in August, the older action guard comes out in force. Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme are all a

There isn’t a documentary filmmaker alive who wouldn’t kill for all the free publicity handed to the recent film “Bully.” The documentary, a cause celebre for the same anti-bullying movement employing uber-bully Dan Savage, received buckets of news stories about

Veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson must be accustomed to negative movie reviews. “Snakes on a Plane” wasn’t exactly Oscar-worthy. Yet Jackson fired off an angry tweet about New York Times’ movie critic A.O. Scott for the latter’s mildly negative review of

Mel Gibson hasn’t played Movie Star Mel Gibson in a long time. Never mind the off-screen headlines. It’s been ages since Gibson was the on-screen rascal, the guy who could throw a few wild-angle punches and leave the bad guys

The folks behind the new documentary “#ReGeneration,” a film applauding the rise of Occupy Wall Street, probably thought this week was an ideal time to preview their film. After all, yesterday’s May Day celebrations were designed to mark the return

Fred Armisen loves Obama a little bit more every day. Jason Sudeikis admits writing a show based in New York City impacts the sketches that make it to the air. Now we know why “Saturday Night Live” is such an

Summer starts early at your local cineplex. The season doesn’t technically begin until June 20, but movie studios long ago decided May marked the start of the sweltering summer months. And when the first film is the hotly anticipated “Avengers,” who

Memo to Alec Baldwin – it’s time to surf away from MSNBC. The star of the low-rated “30 Rock” sitcom appeared on that liberal news network last night to share his thoughts on the upcoming presidential election. Forgive me for

Director Garry Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve” arrives on home video with so much star wattage it hardly needs the gloss of high definition to pop off the screen. Yet the Blu-ray version of the film, available today, is so spectacularly

Kent Thompson, Artistic Director for the Denver Center Theatre Company, understands a key to attracting audiences is mixing the old with the new. Just look at the plethora of “jukebox” musicals rattling around stages across the country. But Thompson wanted

Maybe Dr. Drew Pinsky should cut back on his work load. The good doctor currently hosts radio’s “Loveline” along with a nightly show on CNN as well as a separate syndicated program, “Lifechangers.” Plus, he’s a working physician who treats

Cast members from the long-running NBC series “The West Wing” came together recently to shoot a PSA on the benefits of walking. What could be nicer than that? But the clip, featuring characters from a series which served up an

Gregg Allman is still rambling’. Allman, the co-founder of the classic southern rock band The Allman Brothers, shares everything from musical inspirations to rampant drug abuse in his new memoir, “My Cross to Bear.” The autobiography, in stores today, recalls

The press had a proverbial field day back in 2008 when a few folks attending McCain/Palin rallies shouted ugly comments from the crowd. The most famous “kill him” incident was eventually disproven by the Secret Service even though the meme

“Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? … it is very cold … in space.” Actor Ricardo Montalban delivered that hammy line with the

The man who gave us a 40-year old virgin and a pair of superbad teens is growing up. Sort of. “This is 40,” hitting theaters in December, marks Judd Apatow’s fourth time as a writer/director. But since unleashing the brilliant

Could “Murphy Brown,” the character who famously battled Dan Quayle over the role of fathers in society, return in time for the November presidential elections? And if so, is there any doubt which candidate she’ll throw her shoulder pads behind?

Americans like our art served with processed cheese and Big Gulp-sized portions of diet soda. It’s the image too often conveyed via mass media, that of a culture that disdains the high-falutin’ arts while preferring reality TV and brainless sequels.

Jon Lovitz is learning the hard way it’s news when a comedian criticizes the president in the Age of Obama. Most comedians would rather talk about anything other than the President these days. And when they do, it’s often to

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel didn’t pull a Stephen Colbert last night, but to employ an overused sports quip he got the job done at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Earlier this week, Kimmel bemoaned how tough it is to mock such

Danish director Lars Von Trier must wake up each morning, stretch his arms wide and say, “now, how can I be provocative today?” Von Trier, famous for both his anti-American films (“Manderlay”) and last year’s Nazi-speak at the Cannes Film

The reliably left-of-center Politico is so wedded to the Obama narrative – post-racial, healing, cool as ice and astoundingly bright – that it can’t smell a story right under its nose. Hollywood’s President has been a dud. The news site’s

Audiences will fall for Jason Segel and Emily Blunt in “The Five-Year Engagement” only to have second thoughts long before the end credits roll. The new romantic comedy from the creative team behind “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” boasts some mid-sized laughs

Anthony Bregman says being a successful film producer means consulting with audiences regarding your works in progress – no matter where they might be at the time. Bregman says he recently produced a film where, every Monday, he screened the

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are flexing their box office muscle a week before their nationwide debut. “The Avengers,” the ridiculously hyped Marvel Comics super group film, has already sold more tickets at this point in its release cycle than “Iron Man,”

Stand-up comic turned auteur Bobcat Goldthwait no longer talks in that shrieking pitch he employed in three “Police Academy” films and “One Crazy Summer.” Now, Goldthwait’s more reasonable tones help him decry conservative media icons like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck

You’d be forgiven for thinking Mark Wahlberg’s career couldn’t survive “The Happening.” That 2008 clunker turned all of the actor’s strengths against him. Then again, even Laurence Olivier would have a hard time pretending to fear a stiff breeze. “Contraband,”

Lawrence Kasdan hates not making movies. “I want to make as many as I can. It’s only a question of getting the money,” the director behind “The Big Chill,” “Body Heat” and “The Accidental Tourist” tells Big Hollywood. Despite that

Perhaps the best news about Pixar’s upcoming film “Brave” is there’s no way Lightning McQueen or Mater will be seen in it. The animation studio with the Midas touch suffered a body blow last summer when “Cars 2” failed to

Add the folks at FunnyOrDie.com to the list of modern humorists unwilling to mock the most powerful man on Earth. The comedy clip site, created by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, offers an extensive array of politically charged humor sketches

“The Innkeepers” does nothing to dispel the notion that writer/director Ti West of “The House of the Devil” fame is the master of the so-called “slow burn” brand of horror movie making. You know, the kind where characters, tone, sound

A typical Ti West horror movie ignores most modern horror movie tropes. West’s films don’t involve gallons of gore, nor do they deliver fake scares meant to keep us on edge. And they take the time to allow us to

Movie producer Harvey Weinstein is a well known supporter of President Barack Obama – both with his mouth and his wallet. Now, Weinstein is hoping one of his new films will do its part to invigorate Obama’s re-election campaign in

CNN talker Piers Morgan can’t get many people to watch his nighttime show, but he’s awfully good at forcing celebrities to talk politics. Morgan gently badgers his guests to spill on the latest headlines until they finally give in. It

The award-winning GI Film Festival (GIFF), the nation’s only military film festival, today released the official trailer compilation for the 2012 event, which will take place May 15-20 in Washington, D.C. The compilation, produced by military filmmaker Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, provides