Josh Tate

Photo courtesy of western4uk via flickr Orson Welles has seen more devastation & studio interference than any other filmmaker. Major works like The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil & Lady from Shanghai were all slashed to ribbons and will never be seen as the writer/director/actor intended. Still, they retain their innovative style, fierce bite & raw power over 60 years on. Running through Saturday, the Aero's Orson Welles retrospective features valiant restorations of these...

That priest has got a fine ass. | Photo courtesy of Miramax If you are looking for an evening of light entertainment with the whole family, what better choice is there than Doubt? I love priest-rape dramas. Are you like me -- do you marvel at the rare ability of Adam Sandler to not ever make you laugh at anything? Ever. As far as I'm concerned, Keanu Reeves probably would have done a better...

Biggest weekend since...The Dark Knight? Wow. | Photo courtesy of Universal Defying all expectations (and good common sense), Fast and Furious roared to the top of the weekend box office chart with an April-record haul of $72.5M. Last week's champ, Monsters vs. Aliens, came in a very distant second ($33.5M/$105.7M), but easily outdistanced A Haunting in Connecticut ($9.5M/$37.2M), the awful Knowing ($8.1M/$58.2M) and the hilarious I Love You, Man ($7.8M/$49.2M). In the latest indictment...

Forget that vampire movie...this is real romance! | Photo courtesy of Miramax There is one movie that everyone should see this weekend and that movie is Adventureland. Alternately funny and touching, it is another rousing success from director Greg Mottola (LAist review here). That said, there is another movie that probably everyone will actually see and that is Fast & Furious. I admit it -- I liked the first title in this series. It...

Young love is ready to bloom! | Photo courtesy of Miramax After more than a decade in the wilderness following his fine 1996 debut, The Daytrippers, director Greg Mottola roared back into public consciousness in 2007 with the wonderfully foul Superbad. His follow-up to that, Adventureland, is a much gentler work that should cement his position as a sought-after director for years to come. Based on Motttola's teenage experiences working at an amusement park...

Best film of 2008 | Photo courtesy of Revolver Entertainment If you didn't see Tell No One in the theater last year, go out and immediately buy or rent the best movie released in the U.S. in 2008. Rarely does a film set up such a fantastical premise and deliver on it so perfectly. Slumdog Millionaire never deserved the mini-backlash it received. Based on its kinetic cinematography alone, it was one of the best...

Yeah, I know this picture has nothing to do with this weekend's movies. | Photo courtesy of Paramount Monsters vs. Aliens stormed past expectations en route to a rousing $58.2M opening weekend win at the box office. The Haunting in Connecticut may just be another generic horror pic, but it still managed to scare up a healthy $23M worth of business. Last week's champ, Knowing, slipped to third but still had a distressingly strong...

E.T. resumes career after long layoff. | Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Animation Does anyone else have the same feeling about Monsters vs. Aliens that I do? Namely, "Gee, I wish Pixar had made this movie instead of DreamWorks." It's either very sad or very cynical that two fine actors like Martin Donovan and Virginia Madsen are doing rote horror pics like The Haunting in Connecticut. The premise of 12 Rounds is that a criminal...

No, this isn't nakedly manipulative. | Photo courtesy of Summit Entertainment Two very good studio films opened at the box office this weekend (I Love You, Man and Duplicity) and, naturally, neither of them managed to win the box office crown. That went to the terrifyingly moronic Knowing which tricked America's rubes into shelling out approximately $24.8M of hard-earned money. The quite funny I Love You, Man under-performed to the tune of $18M as...

Renaissance artists couldn't weave this well. | Photo courtesy of Summit Entertainment Knowing looks so spectacularly bad that it may almost be worth seeing. Nic Cage really is a national treasure. The Apatow brand is so strong these days that a movie like I Love You, Man -- which isn't even an Apatow film -- actually feels like one. I'll see it for the ravishing Rashida Jones alone. Does Julia Roberts still have juice...