Inside Movies

Who needs movie stars? Two new films with big stars open disappointedly

Eric Harrison — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:33:49 +0000

It looks like Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 3D is headed for a third-place finish for the four-day Presidents Day weekend, ahead of Reese Witherspoon’s This Means War. Two holdovers have snatched the top two spots. Safe House, starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, won the first three days of the long weekend, [...]

Watch the first 12 minutes of ‘Sound of My Voice’

Eric Harrison — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:57:38 +0000

Here is the first 12 minutes of Sound of My Voice, a drama directed by Zal Batmanglij and co-written by Batmanglij and Brit Marling, who also stars. Synopsis: Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius), a couple and documentary filmmaking team, infiltrate a mysterious group led by an enigmatic young woman named Maggie (Brit Marling). [...]

Abraham Lincoln as you’ve never seen him

Eric Harrison — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:18:00 +0000

Steven Spielberg has spent years developing a film biography of Abraham Lincoln. The movie, to be released this year and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field and Hal Holbrook, will be a prestige release, a sure bet to win multiple Oscar nominations. Don’t confuse it with that other Lincoln [...]

Whitney Houston’s last movie, ‘Sparkle,’ to be released in August

Eric Harrison — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:04:49 +0000

Whitney Houston’s death Saturday in Beverly Hills apparently will not effect the opening date for her last movie, Sparkle. The music-based drama which ironically deals with a singer whose life spirals out of control because of drug addiction will open in August, as originally planned, according to the Los Angeles Times. Houston reportedly acquired rights [...]

Whitney Houston, dead at 48

Eric Harrison — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 04:24:38 +0000

Whitney Houston, the reigning queen of pop and soul music from the 1980s to the late 1990s, was found dead in a Los Angeles hotel room on Saturday, hours before she was to appear at a star-studded party on the eve of Sunday’s Grammy Awards. Houston’s incredible musical talent was accompanied by great beauty and [...]

‘M:I – Ghost Protocol’ on track to become Tom Cruise’ highest-grossing movie ever

Eric Harrison — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:47:26 +0000

That’ll teach ‘em to count Tom Cruise out. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise, this weekend became the highest-grossing film of the series with a worldwide gross of $571 million, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie is on track to become Cruise’s highest grossing movie ever. That [...]

‘The Grey’ dominates the weekend

Eric Harrison — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:35:23 +0000

Liam Neeson’s The Grey dominated the weekend with an estimated $20 million. It was followed by Underworld Awakening, dipping 51 percent in its second week to an estimated $12.5 million. One for the Money came in third with $11.75 million followed by Red Tails, a George Lucas-produced action drama about the Tuskegee Airman. It earned [...]

Despite promising premise, ‘Albert Nobbs’ feels like a vanity project foremost aimed at Oscar

Eric Harrison — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:46:33 +0000

Movies like Albert Nobbs annoy the hell out of me. Co-produced and co-written by Glenn Close, who not only also stars but even acted as a location scout, Albert Nobbs seems to exist for one purpose – to win Close an Academy Award. (At that, it just might succeed: Close was nominated this week for [...]

With ‘Red Tails,’ George Lucas bids adieu to blockbusters

Eric Harrison — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:44:32 +0000

We won’t have George Lucas to kick around anymore. Maybe. Lucas, who produced and financed Red Tails, the just-opened drama about the Tuskegee Airmen, says he is through with the blockbuster movie business. One of the men most responsible for the ascendancy of expensive, high-concept, comic book-style action fare says he wants to make small, [...]

Movie review: ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’

Eric Harrison — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:29:04 +0000

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the most objectionable kind of manipulative and sentimental Hollywood exploitation, but because it deals “sensitively” and “respectfully” with a large and noble subject – New Yorkers dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 – the movie all but begs to be treated as a sacred object. The plot involves Oskar, [...]