Big Screen
I’m not sure American Hustle is the best picture of the year. I’m not even sure if it’s my favorite picture of the year. But I’m pretty sure it brought me more oh-hell-yes pleasure than …
The mention of Melanie Hamilton in GWTW or the second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca might be enough to jog a few memories, but seeing how it's been over 20 years since either Olivia de …
My column on the San Diego Film Critics Society year-end picks met with such little resistance that I received a callback. On top of that, I think there’s a Christmas present in my future! While …
The hobbit in The Hobbit may get the title, but it's pretty clear by now that the real star of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy is the dragon Smaug. This isn't exactly surprising; Jackson's roots are …
Why waste time and money on Miyazaki's animated wallpaper or Disney's sitcom ice princess when this holiday season's foremost anthropomorphic amusement stars our disgraced former mayor, Bob Filner, and could be coming soon to a …
Let me begin by thanking Marx and Lickona for allowing me to cover the San Diego Film Critics Society year-end vote for The Big Screen. It's been my pleasure to work the society pages at …
I mean, why else would Disney buy the aging Indiana Jones franchise unless Indy was close to discovering the truth?!?
I overheard a fellow critic at a screening recently saying what a terrible year it had been for movies. His conversational fellows seemed to agree. I haven't been playing the critical game long enough to …
What can be said of a Christmas season wherein Disney's holiday offering ends with its heroine resorting to senseless physical violence to make her point? Remember the good old days when the plight of Bedford …
Spoilers ahead, folks. I need to see Gravity again before I can really go after my co-critic for his dismissal of a film that actually manages to dramatize the Christian notion of being “born again” …
A film series focused on presenting the history and diverse cultures of Muslims around the world is coming to downtown San Diego. The new Central Library downtown begins this month’s series of Friday Talking Pictures …
"Oh, my God," said my friend, staring at her smartphone. "Paul Walker died in a fiery crash." For a split-second, it registered as maybe a joke. Paul Walker? The star of the Fast & Furious …
Jeffrey Tambor has been a fixture on movie and television screens for the past 40 years, so it’s safe to assume that by now he has become somewhat of an authority on the subject of …
Spike Lee’s remake of Chan-wook Park’s celebrated tale of a man who is mysteriously imprisoned and then just as mysteriously released has plenty of spattered brain matter and sadistic gut-punches. What it lacks is the …
Tales of toddlers dying on film is generally not my genre du jour, but when you present the material in musical form, it’s difficult to resist. Don’t expect wet-eyed characters to break into song in …
The stakes-raising gambit that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire plays in order to surpass the original Hunger Games is this: after Katniss's rebel-tinged victory in the 74th Games, President Snow decides to make the 75th …