Movie Monday: Oz the Great and Powerful
You’d think giants would’ve held up a bit better against a fraudulent wizard. But no. Maybe the balloon freaked ’em out. In a box office showdown pitting Oz the Great and Powerful against Jack the Giant Slayer, it was Oz proving his powerful greatness. Across North America, moviegoers skipped down their respective yellow brick roads […]
A Lot of Barking Over Norwegian Wood
Controversial television? Sure, we think we know controversy here in the states, what with our Oscar telecasts, nudity-laden HBO fantasy dramas and our crass broadcast comedies. But if we want to learn what a real media controversy looks like, we need to spend some time in Norway. There, outrage takes on an entirely different timbre. Or, […]
Movie Monday: Jack the Giant Slayer
“Fee! Fi! Fo! Fums! Brothers Warner could use a Tums!” That’s what I imagine the studio’s bevy of giants are chanting right about now, their growly poetry reverberating in Warner Bros. back lots. Oh, the studio’s PG-13 fairy tale, Jack the Giant Slayer, did manage to win the weekend box office tourney. It did muster […]
Movie Monday: Identity Thief Steals Another
Wouldn’t you know it. Just as Hollywood’s attention was distracted by Jennifer Lawrence tripping the step fantastic and Shirley Bassey’s ageless set of pipes, Identity Thief sneaked its way into the box office penthouse again. Not that the office was tightly locked down, mind you. If the weekend’s two big new releases—Snitch and Dark Skies—were supposed […]
Oscar Nominees: Uncomfortable Ethics
Nine movies. Nine movies nominated for the Academy Awards’ Best Picture. On the surface, they couldn’t be more different, really: They swing from romantic dramedies (Silver Linings Playbook) to sweeping musicals (Les Misérables) to gritty war pics (Zero Dark Thirty). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences praised youth (Quvenzhané Wallis of Beasts of […]
Movie Monday: A Good Day to Die Hard
We’ve just moved past Valentine’s Day weekend, a time when our thoughts turned to love. And while we tend to celebrate the occasion in different ways (some with gallons of ice cream), most couples do tend to stick with some time-honored traditions. They give each other candy in heart-shaped boxes. They go to romantic dinners. […]
Do We Judge a Man by His Moviegoing?
It’s been interesting to read the comment string beneath Kevin Simpson’s post last week (“Advice From My Wife (Sort of Like Plugged In“). Little did Kev know that it would throw the doors open for a critique of all things Plugged In. As always, we’re so appreciative of our readers—your courtesy, your thoughtfulness and your […]
Movie Monday: Identity Thief
Either Identity Thief had a good weekend, or star Melissa McCarthy is getting pretty adept at using that credit-card maker. Identity Thief, an R-rated comedy with McCarthy in the titular role, pilfered an estimated $36.6 million from moviegoers this weekend—a boffo opening for an original R-rated comedy (particularly one released in the traditionally fallow month of […]
Confusion, Thy Name Is Television
I know there are people who can’t stand to be kept in suspense. They read the first 20 pages of a murder mystery, then skip to the back to see whodunit. They purposefully ignore the first three-and-a-half quarters of a basketball game, then tune in to the last five minutes. They might watch the first […]
Super Bowl Commercials: The Best and Worst
A whopping 108.4 million people watched the Baltimore Ravens eke out a narrow victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday—though for a lot of folks, the game was an afterthought. I know, as a football fan, it’s hard to believe. Some people couldn’t care less whether the Ravens stopped the 49ers on San Fran’s […]