It's time to start looking back at 2008. This year, I'll start this three-part series with a look at screen nudity. Before getting to the specifics, let me establish some parameters and provide a few definitions. For the purposes of this column, I'...
Okay, let me get this out of the way to start with. Who's not on this mixed lead/supporting actor list? Heath Ledger. It's not that I have something against the late performer or his work in The Dark Knight. In fact, I believe it was about the ...
To p 10 lists are curiosities: fun to glance at but not of much greater or lasting value. Take them for what they're worth. One reason I enjoy putting mine together is that it allows me to spend time re-watching and reconsidering some of the year's ...
Excited about going to the movies this weekend? Neither am I. Welcome to January, Wasteland of the Cinema. It's not a pretty sight.There is no more uninspired month out there - not even February or August, Hollywood's traditional dumping grounds. ...
[Note: As promised, in-text and pop-under ads have been removed from the site. The deletion of the pop-unders represents a leap of faith since they generated approximately 10% of my income. My hope is that the goodwill resulting from their removal ...
Sequels have been around for as long as movies have, but it's only in the last 30 years (or so) that they have begun to dominate the summer box office. Thus far this year, two of the top three movies are sequels. Last year, four of the top five fit...
This is a new regular (or semi-regular) feature for ReelThoughts that's intended to provide some weekend content as well as more interaction with readers. The idea behind "Short Clips" is for me to reply and react (in general) terms to e-mails from ...
Has the writer's strike actually ended, or are those just rumors flying around Hollywood? Tentative agreements are such fragile things; let's get an actual settlement before rejoicing, if that's what we're supposed to do. Actually, I was hoping the...
Three topics dominated the mailbag this week: site redesign, advertising versus donations, and HD-DVD. I'm also amassing a nice collection of hate mail, some of which I plan to share in the near future. The irregular "hate mail" features of this ...
Not much in the mailbag this week about advertising or the site redesign. There is one question I want to address, then I'll move on to other things. When I recently mentioned that I intended to "cap" ads, what did I mean? Simply, that the number ...
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this past week's e-mail was the lack of volume associated with The Oscars. There were a few obligatory messages but not the usual avalanche. The majority opinion of those writing to me is that this year's ...
Note: Numbers in this piece refer to domestic gross, not world-wide gross. While the latter total is widely available for films released in the last 20 years, estimates of international grosses become increasingly unreliable the older a title is.The...
The biggest theatrical movie being released on DVD this week is National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Within a week or two, it should be at the top of both the sales and rental charts. However, as is the case with all action-oriented would-be ...
Note: Over the next week (or so), there will be fewer than usual ReelThoughts entries. I'm in the middle of a stretch during which I'm making five speaking engagements in seven days, so my time for writing has been curtailed, and I want to ...
I have always found there to be something mournful about August. Temperature-wise, it's my second favorite month of the year (behind July), but it always feels more like an ending than a beginning. Perhaps it's the shortening of daylight hours. ...
It's widely expected - and accepted - that Christopher Nolan will make a third Batman film. And why not? The Dark Knight was critically successful, hugely popular, and made multiplex box office cash registers happy. The film accomplished what any ...
Today is baseball's Opening Day. For those of us who follow the sport, this Rite of Spring represents hope and renewal. That sense of rebirth may only last as long as it takes for a team to start its first losing streak, but it's there. The slow ...