Josh Tate

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Despite being hyped by its evil corporate owner AEG, Michael Jackson's This Is It only earned a decent-but-hardly-great $21.3M at the box office this weekend. It was enough to win the weekend, though Paranormal Activity made a strong charge at second place ($16.5M | $84.7M). After that it was all hold-overs. The unusually robust Law Abiding Citizen continued to do well ($7.3M | $51.3M) as did the moderately funny...

I know that plenty of people are looking forward to seeing Michael Jackson's ghoulish This Is It. I am not one of those people. Have fun, weirdos! Has Jared Hess lost his mojo? Nacho Libre was a step down from Napoleon Dynamite and Gentlemen Broncos looks like another step down the ladder. I was never really a fan of the original Boondock Saints, so Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is pretty low on my...

This may be the twentieth time I've declared this in this space, but one more time can't hurt: watch Battlestar Galactica! It may not be the best show of the last ten years, but it's as good as any. How a floundering NBC never thought to scoop it up from its little Syfy sister and air it on the big network still astonishes me. Whatever Works isn't nearly as good as recent Woody Allen gems...

In one of the rarest of rare occurrences, a movie in its fifth week of release finally clawed its way to the top of the box office. Paramount pushed Paranormal Activity into over a thousand new theaters and the gamble paid off handsomely as the horror sleeper raked in $22M ($62.4M) to easily win the weekend. Torture porn shit-show Saw VI endured a brutal debut as it pulled in a weak $14.8M (yay!) while last...

As some of you may know, I am perhaps the world's greatest fan of John C. Reilly. Anything John does (including music), I see (and usually like). Unfortunately, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant may test that theory. Not sure how to say this, but it looks...really, really stupid. Hilary Swank will definitely NOT win an Oscar for Amelia since she's not playing a boy/masculine character. Oh wait, yes she is. Go ahead and give...

Great to see Stephen Frears and Michelle Pfeiffer together again. Dangerous Liaisons was just about a perfect film, and Cheri is damn fine, too. Why did they make a Wrong Turn 3 when Wrong Turn 2 answered all of the questions posed by the original Wrong Turn? Oh, yeah. Smoking hot naked chicks. It's a very special week at the DVD store. The worst movie of the year -- maybe ever -- is now available. Yay!

I miss prison. | Photo courtesy of Venezzia Festival fanatics find an old standard turning about their head this week: "Hooray for Hollywood!" The Hollywood Film Festival features dramas, docs, mocks, horrors & even music videos. Highlights include The Upright Citizens Brigade (Wild Girls Gone), one of David Carradine's final roles (The Rain), North Korean defectors (Crossing), hipster murders (The Scenesters), Ugandan children (War Dance Returns), 30-year old "boy" scouts (Scout's Honor) & the...

Spike Jonze's long-awaited Where the Wild Things Are soared to the top of the box office this weekend as it brought in an impressive $32.4M to top the charts. Law Abiding Citizen came in a surprising second despite overwhelmingly mediocre reviews ($21.2M). After that it was gimmicky horror pic Blair Witch 2: Paranormal Activity ($20.1M | $33.7M), the unfunny comedy Couples Retreat ($17.9M | $63.3M) and the unnecessary remake The Stepfather which debuted to $12.3M....

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...

It was good to see Sam Raimi dipping his toes into the horror pool again with Drag Me to Hell. Even better to see the great Alison Lohman headlining a film. She's had me since White Oleander and secured my eternal loyalty by stealing Matchstick Men. I'm glad that Sandra Bullock's career hasn't gone south like, say, Meg Ryan's, but I still ain't gonna watch The Proposal. One of the summer's biggest flops was Land...