Apes: Will Dawn Be the Death of Us?
Come tomorrow, there’ll be an 800-pound gorilla in movie theaters. No, really. I haven’t yet seen Bob Hoose’s review (which is due to publish later today), but even without reading it, I’d imagine that The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will feature several of them. Hundreds, maybe. Millions. The coming ape army will […]
Movie Monday: Age of Transformers?
Sorry, Melissa McCarthy. Moviegoers just weren’t into Tammy. They didn’t want to be delivered from Evil, either. Apparently, audiences still just wanted to play with their Transformers. Sure, Transformers: Age of Extinction may have lost nearly two-thirds of its audience from the previous weekend. But it still held onto enough paying customers to collect an […]
Movies—As Red, White and Blue as You Can Get
When you look at how we United States citizens typically spend our Fourth of Julys, not much of what we often do is, technically, American. Fireworks? An ancient Chinese invention. Baseball? English cricket, greatly modified. Hot dogs? German bratwurst without the kick. All these things are still, paradoxically, quite American. After all, most of us […]
Movie Monday: Transformers Age of Extinction
Don’t let the name or the reviews or the robotic dinosaur fool you. The Transformers series is nowhere near extinct. Given the movie’s success this weekend, I think we can expect Transformers sequels until the end of the world. And who knows? Some critics think such sequels might, in fact, hurry it along. Despite a […]
Putting the World in the World Cup
The U.S. lost in the World Cup yesterday, but it’s still moving on to the knockout stage (to face Belgium Tuesday). Which means that my son and I will still have at least one more opportunity to root the home team on. Thanks to the wonders of DVR, my 23-year-old son, Colin, and I have been watching […]
Toying With Transformers (And Other Things)
Director Michael Bay and his Paramount Pictures overlords will trot out Transformers: Age of Extinction late tonight—a quiet period drama wherein Optimus Prime discovers new optimism and hope whilst visiting his wealthy cousin at his Southampton-area estate. Well, probably not. In truth, I have no idea what Age of Extinction is about, and I won’t […]
Movie Monday: Think Like a Man Too
We Americans love our leftovers. Oh, we claim that’s not true. We say we like something “new” and “fresh.” But when you look at what we actually buy—well, it’s often just the same stuff we’ve liked before. Just reheated. Take this weekend’s crop of movies, for example. The biggest flick in the land was Think […]
Jersey Boys: The Screens Are Alive …
Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of the Broadway hit Jersey Boys slides into theaters this weekend, perhaps introducing The Four Seasons to lots of moviegoers too young to remember them. I can’t say much about the movie here (be looking for my review later today), but I can say this: Jersey Boys earns its R rating (almost […]
Movie Monday: 22 Jump Street
In a titanic showdown of sequels this weekend—How to Train Your Dragon 2 vs. 22 Jump Street—the smart money was on the dragons. But money has never been known for its intelligence. I don’t know about yours, but mine just sits in my wallet until I do something with it. And most moviegoers with money […]
Is Dragon 2 Part of the New Golden Age of Animation?
I haven’t yet seen How to Train Your Dragon 2. Like you, I’ve heard some mighty interesting things about it—both good and bad—and, like you, I’ll be reading Adam Holz’s review when it’s published later today. I’m hoping he’ll have a whole lot more good than bad to say. See, I pretty much loved the […]