Results tagged “amberheard”

              

I've been waiting for months and months for Where the Wild Things Are to finally reach the big screen. My exposure to the original book was negligible, but a new Spike Jonze film is always an event. Is anyone not blown away by the weirdo art direction of this film? I've been ruminating on this site for months on the quickly slipping stature of Gerard Butler. He was once always the most interesting thing in a movie, but now he appears to be doing little more than cashing checks. Law Abiding Citizen is his newest mortgage payment.

                            

When I think of my favorite movies of the last twenty years, the most curious inclusion is probably Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco. Now that it's been given the Criterion treatment (it's been out of print on DVD for years), I can't recommend it highly enough. If only Stillman would actually write and direct another film (Disco was his last and that was eleven years ago!). I enjoyed Adventureland so much at Sundance that I watched it again when it landed in theaters. Equally sad and sweet and funny, it was poorly marketed as a straight comedy and never really found an audience. I imagine that it will on DVD, though. Sunshine Cleaning was okay, but had that "deliberately quirky" vibe coursing through it. Duplicity was one of several failures earlier this year that probably marked the beginning of the end of the big-budget, adult-targeted film. Shame that.

In the latest example of Hollywood underestimating the size of the African-American audience, Basic Instinct knock-off Obsessed stormed to the top of the box office this weekend with a healthy take of $28.5M. Last week's lame champ 17 Again ($11.6M/$39.9M) edged out newcomer Fighting ($11.4M) while newbies The Soloist ($9.7M) and Earth rounded out the top 5 ($8.5M). Kiddie hit Monsters vs. Aliens continues to print money as it storms towards the $200M mega-hit benchmark ($8.5M/$174.8M).

For a certain generation (I'll call them the "Mike Tyson Punch Out!" generation), there has always been a strange fascination with the now-humbled pugilist. It's those people -- myself included -- who will be lining up to see James Toback's very well-reviewed documentary, Tyson. Those in need of a gooey validation of the human spirit, on the other hand, will be seeing The Soloist. Downey is obviously a huge draw these days (see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang if you haven't already), but I agree with Ken Turan that Joe Wright should have dialed back the sentimentality. Fighting looks terrible. Probably only suitable for those obsessed with Channing Tatum's abs.

Boobies, bathroom humor and bongs collide in Pineapple Express, the latest DVD release from indie writer/director extraordinaire, David Gordon Green. The film follows two dimwitted stoners, Dale (Seth Rogen) and Saul (James Franco), whose connections to the underworld of illegal drugs inadvertently make them witnesses to murder. It's the classic tale of marijuana dealer meets boy, boy meets marijuana dealer and over the river and through the woods into a drug dealer's hideout with guns they go.