Raiders of a Not-So-Lost Ark
It’s not the years, honey. It’s the mileage. And, for a movie that turned the big 3-0 this year, Raiders of the Lost Ark still holds up pretty well. In fact, it holds up so well that it’s tempting to forget how horrifying it was at the time. Or, at least, how horrifying it was […]
Movie Monday: Going Into Debt for the Help
Help—we need a movie Help—not just any movie Help—we’re going to see (The) Help! This was the refrain of American moviegoers on the way to the movie theater this weekend. For the third straight week, the sentimental Civil Rights tale The Help reigned supreme in the box office derby, earning $19 million over the extended […]
Unreal Reality
In two weeks, CBS’ Survivor—granddaddy of American reality television—will return to the airwaves for a 236th straight season. (Actually, it’s only been on the air since 2000; it just seems longer.) Once again, millions will watch a gaggle of regular ol’ Joes and Janes outplay, outwit and out-eat each other. But are they so regular […]
Movie Monday: No Help for Colombiana
The box office needed a little help this weekend, what with kids going back to school and Hurricane Irene causing all sorts of havoc on the East Coast. And, as it turns out, that’s exactly what it got. Or, should we say, a little more Help. The Help, a quiet drama focused on the fledgling […]
Steve Jobs: Entertainment Star
Steve Jobs, the computer visionary who helped create Apple, then was fired from Apple, then came back to Apple to take the business to unprecedented heights, is stepping down from his post as the company’s CEO. Speculation is that Jobs’ health forced his hand: He’s suffered from a form of pancreatic cancer for seven years. […]
Movie Monday: The Help
The calendar may say we have a month of the season left to enjoy. But as far as Hollywood is concerned, summer’s over. Audiences have quaffed the big blockbusters like so much iced tea and studios are pushing their bargain-basement remainders to the theaters—leaving room for some quiet holdovers to make a mark. Case in […]
The Stitchuation
So, would this count as a non-endorsement deal? Abercrombie & Fitch, the youth clothing marketeer, has apparently offered Mike “The Situation” Sorriento of MTV’s Jersey Shore a boatload of cash. And all The Situation (or any other Shore cast member) has to do is stop wearing A&F clothes. “We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorriento’s […]
Movie Monday: Those Apes Need No Help
You can’t keep a good ape down. That’s what movie prognosticators learned this weekend as Rise of the Planet of the Apes repeated as box office champ. The simian thriller peeled $27.5 million—50% less than last week, but still enough to best the rest, thanks to a bunch of underperforming entrants. Not that we can […]
Shelved
Don’t look now, but Apple—the quirky computer company of the 1980s, the one that always played nebbish outsider to Microsoft’s football jock in the 1990s—is now the most valuable company in the United States. As of Wednesday’s stock market close, Apple is worth an estimated $337 billion—surpassing old champ Exxon by a mere $6,000,000,000, give […]
Movie Monday: Going Ape for the Apes
We know that entertainment can impact the way we think or feel about certain things. Movies can make us happy or sad or encourage us to buy lots and lots of action figures. Sometimes they can even affect how we look at and deal with the world around us. So with all that in mind, […]
