The Week: Most Recent Movies:Summer Movies

Premium Rush: Finally, a great CGI-free action movie?

The Week — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:31:00 -0400

Hollywood blockbusters don't generally come out in the final days of August, but writer-director David Koepp believes his new film, Premium Rush, "gives audiences something they should be craving at this point in the summer," says John Horn in the Los Angeles Times: "A relatively straightforward action film whose visual effects take a back seat to actual stunts." The movie traces the harrowing journey of bike messenger extraordinaire Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as he delivers a valuable package from New York City's Upper West Side to Chinatown, dodging cars, pedestrians, and crooked, gambling...

Goodbye, Twilight: Robert Pattinson's chillingly crude turn in Cosmopolis

The Week — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 15:06:00 -0400

Cosmopolis, director David Cronenberg's dark, cynical film about power, greed, and youth, based on the novel by Don DeLillo, is a harsh critique of capitalism and modern society. At the epicenter of the movie (which opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday) is Robert Pattinson (the Twilight series) as Eric Packer, a callous billionaire who helps trigger the collapse of the international economy then travels indifferently through Manhattan in his souped-up limo... in search of a haircut. Despite other attempts to move past his tween-friendly Twilight image, Pattinson is still pigeonholed as a...

Savages: Does Oliver Stone redeem himself?

The Week — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:37:00 -0400

For decades, Oliver Stone was considered one of Hollywood's most exciting and bold directors, thanks to controversial hits like Platoon, Wall Street, and Natural Born Killers. But his recent films — the bloated swords-and-sandals flick Alexander, the overly schmaltzy World Trade Center, the presidential misfire W., and the lackluster Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps — have been largely dismissed by critics and disappointed fans who are worried that the director has lost his creative touch. Stone will try to turn things around with his latest film, Savages, which hits theaters...

Is the new Spider-Man reboot really a hit?

The Week — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:38:00 -0400

Many film critics contend that rebooting the Spider-Man franchise was unnecessary, but audiences seem to disagree. The Amazing Spider-Man set a box-office record on July 3, as its $35 million opening-day total registered as the most profitable Tuesday opening ever, besting the previous record of $27.8 million set by Transformers in 2007. Forecasters now expect a holiday weekend total in the range of $110 million to $120 million for the film, which would be far less than the $146 million Transformers managed to grab over its first week of release, and certainly much less than the most recent...

4 quiet movies to enjoy this summer

The Week — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:00:00 -0400

As the box-office and critical success of Wes Anderson's endearingly precious Moonrise Kingdom proves, a winning summer movie doesn't always need a nine-figure special-effects budget. In that vein, three recently released smaller films — Your Sister's Sister, Take This Waltz, and People Like Us — have received high praise from critics, with a fourth, Ruby Sparks, is coming later in the summer. Of course, over the Fourth of July holiday, plenty of people will flock to screenings of The Amazing Spider-Man, which hit theaters July 3 — but for moviegoers looking for something a little...

The Amazing Spider-Man: An impressive but unnecessary reboot?

The Week — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:20:00 -0400

It's been just 10 years since Sam Raimi's celebrated Spider-Man film hit the big screen and shattered box-office records, and just five years since the trilogy stumbled to its conclusion with the messy Spider-Man 3. So when Sony Pictures announced a new franchise reboot fans of the franchise, many argued that it was too soon. Unlike Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy or 2006's Superman Returns, which put new tonal spins on their superheroes, The Amazing Spider-Man tells an awfully familiar origin story of how a teenage Peter Parker got his superpowers and became Spider-Man. Even the new Spidey...

After Magic Mike, will Hollywood cater more to female audiences?

The Week — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:03:00 -0400

Speaking at the Women in Film Awards last month, Meryl Streep lamented the fact that even though five recent movies aimed at women — The Help, The Iron Lady, Bridesmaids, Mamma Mia!, and The Devil Wears Prada — earned more than $1.6 billion at the box office, Hollywood continues to resist making female-targeted films. "Why?" she asked. "Don't they want the money?" Streep can now add Magic Mike to the list of hit films marketed toward women, as the male-stripper movie has already raked in a massive $40 million on a $7 million budget,...

Ted, Magic Mike, and the surprisingly strong weekend box office

The Week — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:52:00 -0400

What was the only thing more popular than Channing Tatum in a thong this weekend? A pot-smoking teddy bear, apparently. Both of this weekend's R-rated releases — Ted, the gleefully vulgar comedy about a grown man who's childhood teddy bear has become a foul-mouthed horndog — and Magic Mike — about a troupe of Florida male strippers — surpassed industry expectations at the box office. Ted won the weekend with $54 million, followed by Magic Mike with a similarly impressive $39 million; it's the first weekend ever that two R-rated films grossed more than $21 million...

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Does the Sundance hit live up to the hype?

The Week — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:39:00 -0400

Call it the little film that might. Helmed by first-time feature director Benh Zeitlin, starring a cast of Louisiana locals making (in most cases) their film debuts, and led by a 6-year-old unknown child actor, the whimsical and harrowing indie Beasts of the Southern Wild took Sundance by storm, won the Un Certain Regard prize for new filmmakers at Cannes, and has been championed wildly by critics. Now, opening in limited release, Beasts stars Quvenzhané Wallis (now 9 years old) as Hushpuppy, a Southern girl whose dying father takes the lead in rebuilding their bayou neighborhood after a...

Is Brave's heroine gay?

The Week — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:24:00 -0400

Brave's Merida, the celebrated first female hero of a Pixar film, is a tomboy. She's a skilled archer, she fights, she detests girly clothes, rejects all her male suitors, and explicitly expresses that she does not want to get married. So, asks Adam Markovitz in a controversial article at Entertainment Weekly, "Is Merida gay?" It isn't just that the character bristles at "traditional gender roles" that raises suspicion, Markovitz says. It's the timing of Brave's release to coincide with major parades in New York and San Francisco in honor of LGBT Pride Month, which he thinks was an intentional...

Magic Mike: Could a male-strippers movie be a box-office smash?

The Week — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:30:00 -0400

Magic Mike isn't your typical summer blockbuster. There's not a spandex superhero costume in sight; in fact, there are hardly any clothes at all. Loosely based on actor Channing Tatum's days as a young male stripper in Florida, the film, which is directed by Steven Soderbergh and hits theaters Friday, is about a veteran stripper (Tatum), his green protege (Alex Pettyfer), and how the not-always-glamorous world of male-stripping affects both of their lives. (Watch the trailer below.) It's "arguably the raunchiest, funniest, and most enjoyably nonjudgmental American movie about selling sex since...

Brave: Actually a box-office disappointment?

The Week — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:25:00 -0400

Pixar's latest film, Brave, debuted at number one this weekend, earning $66.7 million. Though seemingly impressive, that total is just half-a-million dollars more than the opening haul for Pixar's critical bomb, Cars 2, last summer. Not only did Brave receive stronger reviews than Cars 2, it was pegged as culturally important, the first Pixar film to feature a female protagonist (the fiery-haired and strong-willed Princess Merida). Do those factors actually make the film's box office gross a disappointment?

Comparatively, it's not that impressive: Brave opened strong, and surpassed the $55 million...

To Rome With Love: Another win for Woody Allen?

The Week — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:10:00 -0400

Last summer's potently whimsical Midnight in Paris was Woody Allen's best-reviewed effort in decades and his highest-grossing film ever. Like Paris, his latest, To Rome With Love, which hits theaters Friday, is a veritable cinematic postcard comprising three vignettes that explore romance in the City of Love. Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Page, Penelope Cruz, and Roberto Benigni star. Are critics as charmed by it as they were by the Oscar-winning Midnight in Paris?

Not quite, but it's still good: The only unsatisfying thing about To Rome With Love is that it's not Midnight in Paris, says...

Rock of Ages flops: Is Tom Cruise's star power dimming?

The Week — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:19:00 -0400

Not even Tom Cruise in assless chaps could save Rock of Ages. The movie musical, which stars Cruise as '80s-esque metal rocker Stacee Jaxx, earned a shoddy $15.1 million over the weekend, landing in third place behind the second-weekend efforts of Madagascar 3 and Prometheus. That gross is far less than a Tom Cruise-toplined film is expected to make, and subpar for the genre; similar big-budget summer movie musicals Hairspray and Mamma Mia each each earned $27 million in their opening weekends. Like Johnny Depp and Will Smith, Cruise is often considered one of the last box-office movie stars, with...

Rock of Ages: Does Tom Cruise embarrass himself?

The Week — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:52:00 -0400

Tom Cruise: Rock god? In the new '80s jukebox musical Rock of Ages, which hits theaters Friday, the insistently ageless A-lister plays Stacee Jaxx, an assless-chaps-wearing, tatted-up hair-metal rocker who belts out "his" hits (actually classics from Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Foreigner). The film, which is earning mixed-to-negative reviews, follows a pair of star-crossed, Journey-singing lovers who work at the doomed Bourbon Room bar, which will shut down unless a farewell concert headlined by Cruise's Jaxx is a hit. An all-star cast boasts Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Mary J. Blige...

Summer's 3 must-see documentaries

The Week — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 15:25:00 -0400

This summer, superheroes of all shapes and sizes will cram the cineplex, with The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Dark Knight Rises among the buzziest blockbuster releases. But of course, a handful of films featuring real people are proving to be worthy counter-programming to the glut of effects-heavy blockbusters. For instance, three new documentaries have already generated raves at festival debuts earlier this year, and will be screened in theaters this summer. Here's what you should know:

1. Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (Opened June 14)
(Warning: Trailer NSFW.) ...