> Watch It At Home: As Long and Uneven As a Real-Life Wedding. Few recent movies have arrived bearing such a bouquet of goodwill as the new comedy BRIDESMAIDS.  It marks the movie starring and screenwriting (with Annie Mumolo) debut of Kristen Wiig, generally considered one of the shining lights of this generation’s “Saturday Night […]

> X-Men: First Class added to the Worldwide gross list in the top 10, while Pirates 4 continues to dominate. X-Men: First Class enters the 2011 Worldwide gross list at #8, while Hangover Part II is closing in on Thor and should take fourth place as early as next week.  Kung Fu Panda 2 jumped […]

>   Watch It At Home:  That’s MR. Spielberg To You JJ Abrams’ SUPER 8 is the Beatlemania of Steven Spielberg movies.   Abrams is no doubt absolutely genuine in his reverence for classics from the 1970s and 80s like Jaws, Close Encounters, ET, Poltergeist and The Goonies, all produced or directed by the master–Abrams […]

> TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON becomes the latest franchise movie to fall short in the US compared to prior chapters of the series, despite an increased 3D ticket price.  (Like others, most notably Pirates 4, it may well make up the shortfall overseas.)  That doesn’t make a US gross of $350M anything to complain […]

>Weekend #16 of 2012 looks like it will be about $105 million for the top 12 films, down 14% from last year’s comparable weekend (led by Rio’s second weekend) but up 6% from the four-year average for this weekend.  The Hunger Games should finally fall out of first place, dropping about 38% this weekend to […]

>Now we slog through September.  The top 12 films usually gross $73 million the weekend after Labor Day, and the September weekends afterward average around $85 million.  By October, however, the typical weekend perks up to over $100 million.  Contagion should takeover the #1 spot this weekend, with Warrior fighting The Help for #2 and […]

> It may not literally be true that if you look up “hack” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of Brett Ratner.  In fact, not all his movies are terrible:  there’s Family Man, and… well, Family Man really wasn’t bad at all.  But did we need the director of Money Talks, Rush Hour, Rush […]

> Gus Van Sant has been making movies for 25 years, but Restless–apart from its technical polish–feels like the work of a Sundance newcomer. And one who’s been reading too much Salinger, while meanwhile wearing out his DVD of Harold and Maude. Restless is way beyond twee; its mega-tweeness is like a Transformers movie compared […]