Side Note: Check out the next Julie Powell of Chicago cuisine, my friend Stephanie, and her  blog “Stephanie Eats Chicago.” She was featured on WGN Radio this morning, plus if you click you might find pictures of puppies amidst her food-pegs. “Julie & Julia” is not about food so much as it is about setting […]

And we’re waiting … and waiting … who’s got the goods to dethrone Avatar? This is our what, fifth weekend of 2010 and no one has been able to generate enough buzz to make the cash that will finally snap the streak. And guess what: it won’t happen again this weekend. Yes, it will be […]

R.I.P movie star Jean Simmons, who starred opposite Kirk Douglas in this film. She passed away last week just 9 days before her 81st birthday. “Spartacus” (1960) and “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) were the two great epic war films of the 1960s. That said, the latter is superior, but not for the former’s lack of […]

He hasn’t starred in a film in eight years but you’d never know it. In that span he directed the most controversial highest-grossing film of all time as well as one of the weirdest foreign-language films and in 2006 he got pulled over for a DUI that made him the hideous butt of late night […]

I don’t necessarily understand the phenomenon that “Paranormal Activity” became in the Fall of 2009, especially considering the success of “The Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield” bringing exposure to the documentary-style and low budget horror/thriller. Yet people demanded this film be shown in their cities and towns and this $15,000 movie grossed more than $100 […]

If you are of the Net News generation or have any means by which to know anything when it happens via the Internet, than you’ve probably already heard about iPad, or at least saw a friend make a joke about iKotex on Twitter, were confused and then linked that to your knowledge that Apple had a […]

If one were taking a course on how to appropriately adapt a novel for the big screen, “Atonement’ would certainly need to be among the required materials. Though I personally have never read McEwan’s novel, the attention to detail that Joe Wright and his team bring to telling this story visually is superb.

Americans have long been ignorant of the comedic prowess of Ricky Gervais. The round- bellied Brit is the force behind “The Office” having played the Michael Scott equivalent, David Brent, on the original UK show and produced the American version. Yet to most of us he’s “the guy from the Night at the Museum movies.” […]

There’s no newsworthy angle on Avatar being number one at the box office, but there is on how far it is from Titanic. James Cameron’s sci-fi epic is just $4 million away from being the highest grossing film the world has ever seen and less than $50 M away from the highest grossing film in […]

The problem with “Knowing” is that it goes too far. It’s a tough act to juggle so many overused story conventions such as decoding numbers, the apocalypse and the supernatural these days. Movies like “Knowing” have become almost a genre of their own thanks to Roland Emmerich and other disaster/end-of-the-world-predicting filmmakers. And with that comes […]

“Trading Places” is a modern-day “Pygmalion”: a couple old codgers make a bet on whether or not they can turn a homeless con artist from a petty thief to a proper wealthy businessman and the opposite to a prim and proper wealthy young gentleman. More than an opportunity for comedy, this social experiment premise offers […]

“Changeling” reminds me a lot of 1997 thriller “L.A Confidential” in that it deals with police corruption and P.Ds’ frightening level of power. The problem with that is “Changeling” takes place about 25 years earlier — same police department, same problems, different era. It’s unfortunate how incompetent our criminal justice system was and in many […]

The ’60s was the decade of the movie musical with “West Side Story,” “The Sound of Music,” “My Fair Lady,” and “Oliver!” all taking home Best PIcture. It’s fair to say “Funny Girl” might’ve been on that list had it not came out the same year as “Oliver!” But the Academy had it right in […]

Just take a look at the movie posters above. Do any of those even remotely look like they can dethrone Avatar? Not a chance at the rate that it’s been decreasing. Here is the rough number of millions of dollars Avatar has made in its five weekends starting with its opening: $75, $77, $68, $50, […]

In an expected move, execs of Sony and Columbia Pictures and Spider-Man franchise producers Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin have contracted (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb to direct the next three Spider-Man movies. The news comes about a week after original trilogy director  Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire left the franchise for […]