Early results are looking good -- "21 Jump Street" is poised for a $30 million plus debut, unprecedented for a non-summer R-rated film (read our highly positive review here). Action comedies are a tough sell, but Sony handled this one masterfully, finding a way to guide an older brand name...
Read More »Following in the hallowed footsteps of 'The Brady Bunch Movie', '21 Jump Street' revives a vintage TV series and subverts it at the same time. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who have written and directed TV and theatrical animation such as 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs', resist the...
Read More »So what on Earth could Gavin O'Connor, the man behind testosterone-driven fare like "Warrior," "Pride And Glory" and "Miracle" (okay, he also did "Tumbleweeds," but you know what we're getting at), find interesting in a Peter Pan redo produced by Channing Tatum?
Read More »Whatever question there might be about how well a smart horror parody like SXSW opener "Cabin the Woods" will do with mainstream audiences, there is none with updated buddy cop comedy "21 Jump Street," which also played well at the Paramount Theater here, and will prove a huge b.o. home run.
Read More »In cinema as in life, self-awareness can be a virtue or it can be a deadly thing. Since there’s essentially no such thing as originality, conceding that you’re working within existing parameters or with familiar formulas excuses, and can sometimes enhance, the effectiveness of a lot of necessary dec...
Read More »For a moment there it seemed like "Crazy Heart" director Scott Cooper would just continually keep signing on to a bunch of stuff without ever shooting anything. Indeed, since country music movie became a big, Academy Award winning hit Cooper has put his name to plethora of projects includi...
Read More »'The Vow' was inspired by a news item that one of the producers read twelve years ago about a woman who, after an accident, had no memory of her husband. What a shame that the finished product—which comes after numerous attempts to create an effective screenplay over the past decade—is so lackluster...
Read More »The things that got us verklempt in the last week include the latest episode of “Downton Abbey” and the “Halftime in America” Chrysler ad with Clint Eastwood. Clearly, it doesn’t take much, but noticeably absent from that list is the would-be weepy “The Vow,” starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tat...
Read More »Last night’s SNL started off with the best sketch of the show: Newt Gingrich, President of the Moon, with cameos by Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Calista and a Reaganesque robot. (Everyone except host Channing Tatum.)
Read More »Channing Tatum did a pretty funny Matthew McConaughey impression in a not-so-funny sketch on SNL, and while he was a fine host overall the show didn’t really belong to him. All those sketches about his early stripper days became very one-note. But when the show turned away from Tatum, it took ...
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