For nearly a century after the publication of Bram Stoker's classic novel, the term "vampire" was synonymous with the name "Dracula." The only vampires anyone remembers from the '20s (Schreck), '30s (Lugosi), and '50s (Lee) were Draculas (although, ...
Cloverfield has become the latest motion picture to try to build excitement and word-of-mouth via the Internet. An informal poll of movie-goers has indicated that anyone who spends more than an hour per day surfing the web is more aware of ...
Movies you watch over and over and over and over again.
Every time you turn around, King Kong is another height. In the 1933 version, he started out about 18 feet tall, then grew seven feet for the New York scenes. In the 1976 re-make, he was between 40 and 50 feet tall. The Japanese Kong movies ...
A slump seems to be a poor way to define the free-fall situation in which the movie industry finds itself. Hollywood has only itself to blame. When the multiplex output consists of one lame film after another, what could the expectations be? This ...
First, let me say that I enjoyed "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck" more than the entire Oscar ceremony. Okay, so it wasn't as good as "I'm Fucking Matt Damon," but it was about as good as a rebuttal could be. Also impressive was the star power Jimmy Kimmel...
A couple of months ago, I wrote a column providing a superficial analysis of the rhythm of the 2009 box office. More than one reader questioned why the revenue accrued by any motion picture should be of interest to movie-goers. After all, there is ...
What is the truest measure of Internet traffic? Once upon a time, that was an easy question to answer: the so-called "hit." Everyone used the term without really understanding what it meant. (Remember the ubiquitous odometer-like web counters?) ...
It has been said that even bad press is good publicity, and there's a certain amount of truth to that. There's certainly no lack of press (good and bad) surrouding the release of The Da Vinci Code, which opens on Friday. It's a curious thing to ...
Starting today, ReelThoughts will go on a two week hiatus. This is to allow me to provide daily reports/updates from the Toronto International Film Festival. Those of you who like reading my daily output have nothing to worry about - I often write ...
Based on a sampling of e-mails I received this morning, I am in the position of having to defend my decision to review Herbie Fully Loaded while ignoring The Perfect Man. Both are targeted at pretty much the same demographic, although one could make...
As amazing as it is to consider, box office receipts of $125 million in 12 days are viewed as disappointing. I'm sure the executives at Warner Brothers aren't in mourning, but there is no doubt that Batman Begins has underperformed. Expectations ...
Don't worry - NO SPOILERS!!![The following was originally written for intended publication by CNN on July 20, 2012. Following the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, CNN understandably elected ...
Not that long ago, my position on 3-D was that of a Doubting Thomas. Then along came Avatar, which has been called everything from a "game-changer" to the "latest great cinematic breakthrough." It has been compared to The Jazz Singer in its ...
For fans of J.K. Rowling's mega-bestselling Harry Potter books, July represents the best of times and the worst of times. The best of times - because there are two reasons to get excited: the opening of the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of...
When Warner Brothers determined the opening date of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, they carefully examined the release schedule and decided this was the best weekend to put it into theaters. The only other "major" is the R-rated Wedding Crashers...
Today, January 26, 2004, represents the eighth anniversary of ReelViews. In real-world terms, that may not be very many years, but in terms of the Internet (and especially the younger World Wide Web), it's a solid age. (Think of Internet years like...