Big Screen
Not unlike the Japanese tourist who kicks off Paolo Sorrentino’s latest cinematic feast by collapsing under the scenic force of his search for the great beauty of Rome, I find myself more than a bit …
Aren't the people's choice awards handed out every Monday morning when the weekend box office receipts hit the trades? It’s been years since I sat down and watched a telecast of The People’s Choice Awards …
Will it be Redford or Streep? Captain Phillips or Philomena? The Croods or Despicable Me 2? Masters of Sex or The Big Bang Theory? Do you really care who or what takes home a Golden …
The Legend of Hercules is the first of this year's two Hercules films. The second, due in July, will star Dwayne Johnson, a suitably gigantic actor for the part of the original strongman. But Kellan …
At first glance, you might be tempted to think that Spike Jonze’s latest film is titled Her because it’s about her: Samantha, the sentient operating system (fetchingly voiced by Scarlett Johansson), who is purchased, befriended, …
No sooner had I finished praising Reading Cinemas and Jennifer Deering for their illustrious 40-Foot Films series do I check to see what films are on the January schedule. None. It's over. Finished. Kaput. Even …
So, over at Mr. Marks' Wolf of Wall Street review, the conversation has turned, as it does, to "Whatever happened to Robert De Niro?" For the longest time, my answer to that question has been, …
There has been some hubbub about director Peter Jackson's decision to inject "feminine energy" into his Hobbit adaptation through the inclusion of Tauriel, a lady elf. I thought it a lame decision in a movie …
People who complain that 2013 has been a lousy year for movies are spending too much time in a multiplex with only three letters in its name. Of the twenty films I single out as …
It’s hard out there for a film critic. It’s especially hard right now — January. People say, “Happy New Year.” People think of new beginnings and better times. A chance to slough off the encrusted …
If a film is so bad that I can’t make it all the way through to the end, then it automatically qualifies as one of the year’s worst. This year found me making a mad …
Having never read Jordan Belfort’s autobiography, The Wolf of Wall Street — which forms the basis of Martin Scorsese’s latest, most outrageous essay on common denominators living the life of upscale, drug-enhanced, and power-infested businessmen …
Tonight brings a stereotypical Jewish Christmas Eve: Chinese food and a movie. The festive pre-show meal takes place at China Too on Fifth, the only Cantonese chow house in town where ambiance is defined by …
When you consider all the questionable "bile" this column pumps, I am amazed to report that one Joseph Genoese has decided to take offense to a goof column written under the guise of "Earl Stiff." …
When news hit this desk that Tom Laughlin died earlier this month of complications from pneumonia, I...just...went...BERSERK! You want berserk? I was in the audience the night Laughlin four-walled the UA Cinema 150 in Oakbrook, …