To use a common expression, the Hollywood machine is in the process of shooting itself in the foot. Or, to put it another way, they're killing the goose that laid the golden egg.Not all that long ago, things looked so promising. DVD players were ...
September is a transition month all around. In the Southern hemisphere, it announces the arrival of spring and all that the season promises. In the North, it's back to school and time to get ready for the cooler weather ahead. In Hollywood, it's ...
I have previously mentioned that I believe this to be a weak Top 10. Let me clarify: every movie on the list deserves to be there. They are, in my view, the ten best movies of 2007. However, the list as a whole does not stand up favorably to past ...
In recent years, I have taken to splitting my end-of-the-year comments into three sections. Before addressing the best ten performances of the year, however, I want to make a general comment about the overall quality of the 2007 product. This is the...
From among the numerous e-mails I have received in the last few days, I thought I'd reprint (and respond to) a few in a public forum. (This is a cheap excuse for me to superficially cover a number of topics without going into any real depth.)(1) "I ...
Negativity Alert!!!I recently read an article that touted the Sundance Film Festival (underway as I write this) as one of the world's three most important film festivals. This categorization flabbergasts me. Since when did the bigger-than-it-should...
I'm sure many of those reading this have had a similar experience to the one I am about to relate... You're sitting in a theater showing an R-rated movie waiting for the feature to start. In walks a mother or father pushing a stroller. Also with ...
Over the years, many of you have written to me to tell me about your favorite theater - often an oasis of sorts away from the impersonal, generic insides of a multiplex. For eleven years, I have had such a place. Called the Ritz 16, it was run by ...
If you're a Harry Potter fan, it doesn't get better than July. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it can't be a coincidence that the last Harry Potter novel (oddly titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) arrives in bookstores a week after Harry...
It has been said that Hollywood remakes films and TV shows because of creative bankruptcy. While there may be some truth to that statement, I view the situation in another way. Hollywood turns to remakes because filmmakers lack cojones. It takes ...
Lately, I have been doing a lot of research into online film piracy. I have learned a fair amount, some of which will be covered in future ReelThoughts, but there are two key points I want to touch upon here: (1) The movie studios and the MPAA have ...
I have gotten a lot of e-mails lately regarding my opinions of the two latest blockbusters, Transformers and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This gives me an opportunity to address some of these comments while exploring a few "larger" ...
Why has ReelThoughts been limited to once a week when it used to be almost every other day?Where have the video reviews gone?Are you ever going to do another list like your Top 100?Looking in my mailbox over the past few months, these are among the ...
To start with, I always mention September 11 when I write something on that day (usually a festival report from Toronto), so it's reasonable to note that today is December 7, FDR's "date that will live in infamy." (A.k.a. "Pearl Harbor Day." I am ...
It's a busy weekend at the multiplex, in part because several films that have previously opened in only a few theaters are going wider. Two of those are Starting out in the Evening, an affecting tale of the relationship between an aging writer and a...
The theaters runneth over. No matter what your likes and dislikes may be, there's something out there for you. Virtually every genre is represented: chick flicks, romances, serious dramas, comedy, horror, music, adventure, action, family fare, and ...
It used to be that Christmas was one of the year's most prestigious days for opening a movie. This was the day when true Oscar aspirants bowed. No longer, however. Now, a few movies get dumped unceremoniously into theaters but, for the most part, ...