Yearly Archives: 2013

M. Night Shyamalan’s odd sci-fi meets faith thriller “Signs” might seem an odd jumping off point for a comedy about family, relationships and fate. But “odd” tends to show up in conversations when you’re talking with, or about, the filmmaking … Continue reading →

If you’re looking for a filmmaker to document, for all of humanity, “one of the greatest discoveries in the history of human culture,” the great Werner Herzog is your guy.

Here’s a modest and modestly effective Italian thriller with a supernatural twist.

“Super 8″ is the movie of the summer, the movie of MANY summers going back to the ’70s. It’s a creature feature, a first-love romance and a movie buff’s movie about movie buffs trying to become movie makers.

In the months after the zombie apocalypse, brought on by a virulent mutation of Mad Cow Disease, America has ceased to be.

Naomi Watts was in Los Angeles, on a break while filming “King Kong,” when it happened. “I was glued to the TV, watching in shock and horror,” she says. When George Clooney called for her help with a TV benefit … Continue reading →

Let’s call it “The Year in Stinkers.” Though we could say that about the worst of the worst in any given year at the movies. Statistically, Hollywood has an easy time of it, making hundreds of films, of which scores … Continue reading →

I’ve had my share of film classes, seen more than my share of History of Film documentaries, own a pretty generous collection of history of film books, but I cannot recall ever seeing the first-ever “closeup” in a movie, the … Continue reading →

When his “Sopranos” boss David Chase asked James Gandolfini to play another New Jersey Italian for his movie, a working class dad unhappy with his musician-son’s career choice in the swinging ‘60s, the big man didn’t hesitate. “I knew this … Continue reading →

Nobody really knew Matthew Broderick could sing, back in the early ’90s. Still, it’s a little bit of a surprise to recall that Disney used somebody else to do his crooning in 1994’s “The Lion King.” A year later, Broderick … Continue reading →