Folks, let’s be real: this summer pretty well sucks. Not only is general quality of movies quite low, but movie-goers are noticing–and across the board, opening weekends just ain’t what they used to be… and no matter how much the studios stuff every month with a new 3D release, the higher ticket prices are just turning people off.
And it is another summer stuffed with sequels, but as A.O. Scott pointed out in The New York Times, that’s certainly nothing new. What does seem new, however, is the sheer volume of …

Of all the supernatural powers and companions Jonah Hex possesses, his horse may be the most impressive. Consider that in the first scene, Hex’s horse is forced to carry or drag three dead bodies, two mounted Gatling guns, and Jonah himself, which probably totals up to over a thousand pounds of steel and dead weight. Now consider that this same horse can handle both the whiplash and noise generated by having those two Gatling guns firing from either side of its neck and I think you’ll agree: That’s some horse.
You’ll …

When I think of latter-day Liam Neeson movies, I think of a line Steve Martin used in Bowfinger to justify filming a guerilla movie around an unwitting and paranoid action star (played by Eddie Murphy): “Tom Cruise didn’t know he was in that vampire movie for two years!” Just so with Neeson. I do not believe Taken or The A-Team are movies, exactly; I think a crew just followed Neeson around and recorded his day-to-day activities.
Or maybe that’s just his value to movies like this one. Something about Neeson’s presence—the …

As an educator, I’m often curious about movies that feature members of my chosen profession. Therefore, it would seem that the 1974 film The Teacher would pique that particular interest.  However, the movie takes place during summer vacation rather than the school year, and no conventional teaching is conducted. Instead, the titular teacher, Diane (Angel Tomkins), is a randy near-divorcee who sets her sights on teenaged neighbor and van-enthusiast Sean (Jay North, TV’s Dennis the Menace).
The movie, written and directed by Hikmet Avedis, features two incongruous plots …

Let’s get this sorted: Russell Brand is reprising the role of Aldous Snow from the charming if overlong Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In that movie he played the new beaux for the titular Sarah, and generally carried on like the pompous but affable rock star he was. Jonah Hill, who played Matthew the creepy waiter and aspiring musician in Marshall, is playing a new character named Aaron Green. Kristen Bell makes a cameo as Sarah Marshall. Nicholas Stoller, the director of Marshall, apparently saw something in the one brief but divine …

Summer is here, and much like last year, the buffet of blockbusters and crowd-pleasers before us seems both grim and meager. There are a few bright lights–The Killer Inside Me seems like such an unlikely release for June–but for the most part it’s a lot of noise and movies that don’t get screened for critics. (Honestly, studios, that sends only one message, and we all know it.)

The planets have aligned again and Rockstar Games, the video game studio behind the groundbreaking, trend-setting Grand Theft Auto series, has given us Red Dead Redemption, a new entry in their Red Dead Western series and another prime demonstration of the “sandbox” style of game setting they pioneered.

Years back I went to the museum with my brother and mother. In one of the larger rooms—high vaulted ceiling, crisp white walls, echo chamber acoustics—we came across a forklift sitting in the middle of the floor, surrounded by some rubble and, to keep away curious hands, velvet ropes. The joke came naturally: Put a plaque next to this thing and too many people would take it for a sarcastically avant-garde piece of art. We laughed and moved on, because no one could be that dim, right?
Right?
Exit Through the Gift …

We’re edging ever closer to the summer blockbuster season now, and as April trudges into May the studios are firing their first major salvos: Iron Man 2, Prince of Persia, and Robin Hood all look poised to take in big bucks, carefully spaced out as they are so as not to infringe on each others’ business. And unlike last year’s never-ending festival of crap, this year’s crop of summer flicks looks to be pretty promising.
And not just among the blockbusters, either. As in previous In a World entries, Bureau Chiefs …

I’ll be plain: movies like this one bother me because they’re rigged games. I know, of course, that all movies (and all other kinds of art) are rigged games, if only because they’re created by someone to express a point of view. Nonetheless, the word “rigged” bubbled up in my mind time and time again as I watched Harry Brown unfold. There may be a more graceful way to tell a story like this; I’m skeptical, but I suppose it’s possible. But this is an ungainly enterprise, and quite possibly …