Gather all ye Norse fans and worshipers of Asgard. Here’s your first official glimpse of Chris Hemsworth as the titular hero from Columbia Pictures “Thor” courtesy of Yahoo! Movies. You’ll have to click the link for the more complete shadowy profile shot, which reveals nothing but costume details and a golden mane that’s filling in nicely.

The first big-buzz horror film of the year in “A Nightmare on Elm Street” closes out an extremely disappointing spring movie season. At least in terms of box office. The spring’s biggest hits were “Alice in Wonderland” and “Clash of the Titans,” both of which received a fair amount of derision and both of which […]

Queens are not just characters is period romances. Or fantasy stories. “The Queen” is a fascinating look at a monarch of not only historical fact, but also of a modern world. Played with grace and poise by the great Helen Mirren, Queen Elizabeth II becomes a specimen for our the moviegoer’s microscope rather than remaining […]

At some point, every movie-watcher grows really tired of the horror film or thriller where a mysterious or overpowering killer knocks off one main character at a time and then only two survive long enough to make it to the final showdown and usually one of them is a minority. See, at least a dozen […]

Any good film, book, essay or song has a grabber that catches your attention and hooks you through the rest of that work. “Speed” is a two-hour grabber. It is the consummate thrill-a- minute movie, the kind where all sins of bad acting and preposterous events are forgiven because the action and suspense are like […]

Warner Bros. and IMAX Corp. just inked a 20-picture deal to put WB films on IMAX screens through 2013. A joint press release listed The Hobbit as having a 2013 release date, so that confirms the near-certain rumors that “Hobbit” would not meet its projected December 2011 release. Looks like you’ll have to deal with more […]

I expected an onslaught of summer movie trailers in these weeks, but instead we just got new ones from movies we’ve already trailers of before. I previously linked to the first teaser for “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” but the folks at Summit really stepped it up a notch with this new trailer. They’ve actually convinced […]

Lance Clayton’s (Wiiliams) son Kyle (Sabara) is a perverted and disrespectful jackass. He’s obsessed with pornography, despises music and movies entirely, is flunking his classes and most of all, he hates his dad. Lance is a failed writer trying to keep his job as a high school poetry teacher and his co-worker girlfriend. But all […]

Well, “The Losers” were big losers and “The Back-up Plan” was just that this weekend as “How to Train Your Dragon” won the box office despite last being out five weeks ago and not having been No. 1 since its opening. I have nothing to compare this to except maybe Grover Cleveland being elected to […]

Somewhere in the four-plus hours of film that New Zealand director Andrew Dominik shot for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” has to be a cut fully capable of winning an Oscar for Best Picture. This version, however, is not it, but it’s beautifully filmed and supported by incredible acting. Length […]

Earth Day weekend brings us a curious selection of new films, which at the least sets the box office up for another piss-poor weekend. That planned re-release of “Avatar” with extra footage would win the box office this weekend if it came out. The date movie option of the week is CBS Films’ “The Back-up […]

If you look at the Best Leading and Supporting Actress categories at last month’s Oscars, it was a good year for emerging female talent. Carey Mulligan got off to what’s sure to be a prestigious career and “Up in the Air” co-stars Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga got deserved attention too. None, however, broke into […]

Every comic-book fan has a fantasy lodged in the back of his or her head about what it would be like to be a superhero. “Kick-Ass” is the story of said average person and plays out that fantasy scenario under the most realistic conditions possible. How would being a superhero actually work in modern day? […]

Two films with vastly different target audiences get featured this week — a fairly slow week for new trailers. The first is supernatural teen romance “Beastly,” a modern re-telling of the classic Beauty and the Beast story. The second is Adam Sandler comedy “Grown Ups” starring a handful of his comedian friends.

Terrific, campy movie musicals don’t come around very often. How many films have been able to emulate the success of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show?” How many have even tried? “Reefer Madness” is about the closest any film has come to capturing the bizarre spirit of that cult classic. A film version of the Off-Broadway […]