After a slow theatrical unveiling, Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino has become a massive box office hit. Now in its 7th week of release, Torino has grossed $97.8 million. Thanks to extremely positive word of mouth, the Warner Bros. release has held its audience very well. During its first weekend of wide release Torino grossed a staggering $39 million, then it dropped only 23% the following weekend and 47% this past weekend. All of that without garnering even a single Oscar nomination. Considering that mainstream audiences are checking off Oscar nominees from their must-see lists, the lack of support should have hurt Torino. It hasn't.
Read moreAs Louis Salinger in The International, Clive Owen is a British agent who jets around the world with a gorgeous blonde on a mission to keep an evil global entity from destroying the planet to fatten their its bank accounts. The role sounds oddly close to the part many thought Owen was destined to play—that is, until , another blonde, Daniel Craig, was cast as James Bond. But Owen emphasizes qualities in his character that make him the opposite of Bond’s detached cool in a film that’s at once passionate and pessimistic about saving the world.
Read moreUPDATED: The full list of winners (from sundance.org): 2009 Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic: Lee Daniels, Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire Audience Award: Dramatic: Lee Daniels, Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic: Lone Scherfig, An Education Directing Award: U.S. Documentary - Natalia Almada, El General Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic - Cary Joji Fukunaga, Sin Nombre World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary - Havana Marking, Afghan Star
Read more“The Oscars were invented to sell movies.” That’s the way director Edward Zwick sees the annual awards show, but he doesn't necessarily consider that to be bad thing. Primarily known for his epic films Glory, The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond, Zwick recently made a stop in San Francisco to promote Defiance, an epic story of a different sort. The film tells the true story of three Jewish brothers who escape the Nazis in Poland, banding together to save themselves and groups of refugees by creating a sanctuary in the forest.
Read moreUPDATED : Make sure to check out what Ray Greene and Cathleen Rountree had to say about the two most buzzed-about films at Sundance, Black Dynamite and An Education . From 1/21/09: B OXOFFICE's Ray Greene has delivered high praise to Spike Lee's Sundance entry, Passing Strange : Nothing at Sundance 2009 will be better than Spike Lee’s amazingly cinematic transcription of Passing Strange, the sensational Broadway musical by journeyman rock and cabaret artist Stew (leader of LA band The Negro Problem) about his own life and struggle for identity.
Read moreDespite being the second-highest grossing film of all time, The Dark Knight was not nominated for Best Picture Thursday morning. Overall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button led with 13 nominations and Slumdog Millionaire was close behind with 10. Leading up to the nominations, many predicted that Benjamin Button, Milk, Frost/Nixon and Slumdog would occ...
Read moreOn a moderately cold winter's morning, a medium-sized group of people found themselves huddled together outside of the Clearview Chelsea Movie Theater in New York City. The facial reactions of people passing by said one simple thing: "Why are they waiting outside of a movie theatre at 9:45 on a Tuesday morning?" The answer is that the inauguration of Barack Obama was scheduled to begin a live broadcast at 11 a.m. inside. After months of anticipation, and an incredibly heated election, an assorted group of political junkies (present company included) gathered together to watch history on a much larger screen than our living rooms would allow.
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