The minds behind ‘In Time’ couldn’t have known that class warfare proponents, from bedraggled Occupy Wall Street types to a President eager to alienate those sharing his tax bracket, would be all the rage when the film hit theaters. The
Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart wipes off the greasepaint when it’s time to salute – and protect – the First Responders from 9/11. It’s one of his more admirable stances, even if it’s often accompanied by slams against the GOP. But
Is George Lucas having the last laugh? Lucas, the visionary behind the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, insists on tweaking the original trilogy every time it hits a new media platform. And with each change, longtime ‘Star Wars’ fans rise up in
David Koechner didn’t become a superstar from his stint on ‘Saturday Night Live’ like fellow alums Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase and Will Ferrell. After all, Koechner only lasted one season on the sketch show and didn’t forge any indelible characters,
‘King of Queens’ co-creator Michael J. Weithorn didn’t set out to make a period film with his debut feature ‘A Little Help.’ Weithorn began writing the comic drama, starring Jenna Fischer of ‘The Office’ as a housewife dealing with the
You don’t need a critic or video store geek to tell you to watch ‘The Shining’ this time of year. It’s practically required viewing for horror buffs. The same holds true for ‘Halloween,’ The Exorcist’ and ‘Psycho.’ If you haven’t
Adam Carolla isn’t shocked most comedians’ acts tilt toward the left. “It’s an easier team to back if you live in Hollywood,” says Carolla, host of the most downloaded podcast on the Internet, ‘The Adam Carolla Show.’ What’s hypocritical, Carolla
Genre movies offer filmmakers the chance to step a toe or two on the soap box of their choice. Think George A. Romero’s anti-consumerism vibe from ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and the immigrant’s lament at the heart of ‘District 9.’
Not all horror films are created equal. That’s an understatement in a genre teeming with impoverished acting, stale dialogue and atrocious direction. For every classic like ‘The Shining’ or ‘The Omen,’ there’s a dozen ‘Saw’ sequels to make horror fans
Hollywood was eager to pigeonhole ‘The Mighty Macs,’ the inspirational story of the first women’s college basketball champions, long before it reached movie theaters. “One challenge with Hollywood is getting caught up in the political fog,” ‘Mighty Macs’ director Tim
Sometimes a good film can become a great one with the proper ending. The thoughtful drama ‘Take Shelter’ takes a hit during its final moments, an ill-advised finish dampening two dynamic performances. Michael Shannon, an actor who can look traumatized
If it’s January, it must be time for Liam Neeson to start kicking butt. The 59-year-old actor has found himself in an unlikely position – the world-weary action hero. It started with the blistering thriller ‘Taken’ and continued with the
It’s not hard to suss out where playwright Richard Montoya stands on the immigration issue. His 2010 play ‘American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose’ features a Mexican man cramming for his U.S. citizenship test who dreams of how immigrants
Horror movies from the 1970s didn’t have CGI or other modern effects to scare us silly. They unnerved us all the same, in part, by their uniquely creepy soundtracks and penchant for atypical acting. That’s a kind way of saying
The Fox News Channel offers a brisk alternative to mainstream news reportage, allowing conservatives the kind of voice they don’t get on CNN, MSNBC or the Big Three Networks. Some would call that a measure of balance. Adam Levine, the
It’s almost impossible to watch ‘Pulp Fiction’ today without mentally checking off director Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic tics. Great soundtrack? Yup. Aging actors rescued from obscurity? Yes, indeed. Dialogue so quotable you could print bumper stickers from every other line in
Nothing is sacred in Hollywood, an industry that would remake ‘Casablanca’ if it could turn a profit. So TNT’s upcoming reboot of the classic soap opera ‘Dallas’ hardly strikes one as sacrilege. The new ‘Dallas,’ to star longtime cast favorites
Fans of ‘Atlas Shrugged: Part 1’ will have a decision to make while shopping for the home version of Ayn Rand’s timeless saga. They can opt for a standard Blu-ray or DVD copy sold at brick and mortar stores starting
Guess everybody didn’t want to cut ‘Footloose’ this weekend after all. The much ballyhooed remake came in a close second to ‘Real Steel’ at the box office, with a “prequel” to the 1982 horror hit ‘The Thing’ trailing behind in
Come July 3, 2012, Andrew Garfield will be forever known as either the Amazing Spider-Man or the sap who ruined a perfectly good reboot. Can the British actor, who previously appeared in ‘The Social Network’ and ‘Never Let Me Go,’
Those shuffling, oozing “walkers” are back on AMC, and that’s heartening news for horror junkies looking for a fix this Halloween season. Last year’s debut of ‘The Walking Dead’ proved the small screen was just the right size for an
Sorry, George, but your zombies have been served by a little ol’ TV show. Zombies have been shuffling across movie screens for decades in films like ‘I Walked with a Zombie’ and ‘The Last Man on Earth.’ But director George
Jim Henson’s Muppets are kids stuff no more. Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy were once meant for young audiences bored by Barney and his ilk. But Kermit and the gang grew in pop culture stature over the
Audiences lining up to see the new bird-watching comedy ‘The Big Year’ probably couldn’t tell a pink footed goose from a stifftail duck. The niche hobby of bird watching is far less popular than most leisure pursuits. And when they
Prequels usually mean studios can hire a younger, more demographically friendly cast to extend a popular franchise. Fans, in turn, get to see how a beloved story began. But audiences need something else – a credible reason to turn back
Alec Baldwin knows the ’30 Rock’ gravy train is bound to end sooner or later. So you can’t blame Baldwin, who plays Jack Donaghy on the award-winning NBC sitcom, for prepping for the next stage in his career. Baldwin is
What if Fox’s ‘Cops’ showcased not just shirtless thugs but Mexican drug runners making lives miserable for folks who live along the U.S.-Mexican border? ‘Bordertown: Laredo,’ a 10-episode series, debuting at 10 p.m. EST Oct. 13 on A&E, does exactly
Sometimes you have to shake your head over what passes for mainstream entertainment reporting. The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly features an in-depth piece on Arab-Americans in Hollywood. ‘Don’t Tell Anyone Your Real Name, or You’ll Never Work Again’ recalls
Fans have been cobbling together poster art and faux trailers for the 2012 superhero film ‘The Avengers’ for months. Today, movie audiences get a peek at the real deal – the first official ‘Avengers’ trailer. In a word – “Oh,
Comedians don’t have to pass any political litmus test to join Ron White in his annual ‘Comedy Salute to the Troops.’ Lewis Black, hardly anyone’s idea of a military hawk, is one of seven comics taking part in the fourth
Director Lucky McKee’s ‘The Woman’ would be an overt but timely critique of patriarchal societies had it hit theaters a few decades ago. Seeing it today with its grim look at the male-dominated family unit is an bewildering experience. And
Not every great director starts with a bang. Francis Ford Coppola toiled in the Roger Corman B-movie mines before striking gold with ‘The Conversation,’ ‘The Godfather,’ and ‘Apocalypse Now.’ James Cameron got his feet wet on ‘Piranha Part Two: The
Horror movie audiences think they would react with far more cunning than most movie victims. Why, if that were me, I’d grab the nearest sharp object and slice and dice my way to freedom. Take that, Freddy Krueger. It’s one
The 2007 smash ‘Juno’ left movie goers irrevocably divided. Either you loved Ellen Page as a wiseacre trying to give her new baby a good home, or you balked at the hamburger phone, quirky songs and other precious elements lined
Hugh Jackman really wants to entertain us, whether he’s shredding evil mutants as Wolverine or channeling his inner showman on Broadway. But he’s never had to work up a sweat like he does in the new action film ‘Real Steel.’
Writer/director Tom Six may think he’s outdone himself with the second installment of his horror franchise ‘The Human Centipede.’ All he’s really accomplished with ‘The Human Centipede 2 [Full Sequence]’ is prove his chorus of critics right. Yes, the new
Expectations were sky high after Quentin Tarantino stunned the film world with the double barrel greatness of ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Pulp Fiction.’ It’s one reason why his third directorial effort, the slow and soulful “Jackie Brown,” was met with indifference
Has any film been teased as much as the 2012 superhero film ‘The Avengers?’ The Marvel Comics epic won’t hit theaters until May, but we’ve already spent years watching end-credit snippets, fan-constructed posters and ‘Avengers’-related subplots meant to set up
Director Steven Spielberg is back on his two-films-a-year schedule. The Oscar-winning auteur pulled off that impressive stunt in 2005 (‘Munich,’ ‘War of the Worlds’), 2002 (‘Minority Report,’ ‘Catch Me if You Can’) 1997 (‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park,’ ‘Amistad’) and