Insurgent Conquers Box Office
In the Divergent franchise, people typically fill one of five primary factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless and Erudite. But this weekend, another faction was in play—one that changed everything: Opulent. OK, so technically Tris, Four et al are members of the Divergent faction (which makes sense, given the name of the series and all). But […]
Stepping Into the Cool, Creepy World of Health Tech
I recently upgraded my phone to a snazzy iPhone 6. It works just as well as my old iPhone did, only with a bigger screen. I still have the same apps. I still use it in much the same way. For me, phones are fairly utilitarian devices: I don’t want or need my new phone to […]
Cinderella Belle of the Ball
Forget the crown. Shelve the trophy or title belt. This weekend’s box office championship came with a dainty glass slipper. Not even a growling, gun-toting Liam Neeson could keep Cinderella locked in her attic this weekend. Disney’s fair maid waltzed to an estimated $70.1 million and sashayed to the tippy-tip-top of the box office, and […]
The Sun’ll Come Out … in Tomorrowland?
Disney just released a new trailer for Tomorrowland, a movie slated to hit theaters May 22. Starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie (House), Britt Robertson and a whole bunch of CGI, this thing looks like it could be a big deal. And for me, Tomorrowland can’t come soon enough. Tomorrowland is my second home—or it would […]
Chappie Chugs to Championship, Chump Change
Chappie, Neill Blomkamp’s emotional robot, learned another particularly human lesson this weekend: What it feels like to win for losing. While Chappie took the weekend’s box office crown, it did so in the most dispiriting way possible, collecting a tiny $13.3 million (estimated, of course) in a super-slow weekend at the Megaplex. Why, that’s barely […]
How a Movie Birthed an Art Form (And Tarnished a Nation)
A century ago this week, New Yorkers began lining up to watch The Birth of a Nation. Though the country was still more than a decade removed from the first talking picture, this black-and-white silent epic was apparently like Gone With the Wind, Star Wars and Avatar all rolled into one. Some theaters charged patrons […]
Chappie, Meet Ultron
Later on today, we’ll be publishing our review of Chappie, the latest sci-fi thinkpiece from Neill Blomkamp (Elysium and District 9). I’ll be interested to see what our reviewer Bob Hoose has to say about the flick, but the trailers suggest that Chappie’s a violent, R-rated version of Pinocchio—about a manmade creation who becomes a […]
Focus on the Box Office
There was a time that someone could’ve filmed Will Smith eating breakfast, put the footage in theaters and made a cool $100 mil. And while Smith’s star has dimmed a bit since, the guy can still help carry a movie to No. 1. Granted, Smith’s caper flick Focus earned just an estimated $19.1 million—not exactly […]
And They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Movies
Who watches Christian movies? You? Your pastor? That aunt who always gives you throw pillows for Christmas embroidered with Bible verses? How ’bout the atheist down the street? The answer might be all of the above, according to LifeWay Research and the National Religious Broadcasters. They say a new survey shows that about 35% of […]
Fifty Shades Gets Darker (But Still Wins)
Have you ever had a crush on somebody? Like, you see them in the school hallway and you just think she (or he) is just the cutest, and so pretty, and attractive to boot? And then one day, you wake up and realize that she (or he) is kind of a jerk? Yeah, the audience’s […]
