Entertainment

Soldier Sequel SNAFU: G.I. Joe: Retaliation Stands Down, For Now

Lily Rothman — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:25:59 +0000

No summer blockbuster season for these American heroes: the new G.I. Joe movie has been pushed back to March

Second Annual Edition: If I'd Been Tweeting from Cannes...

Richard Corliss — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:10:01 +0000

TIME's critic gives us all chatter onscreen, in the press conferences and at café tables in 140 characters or less

The Intouchables: France's Biggest Hit Dares You to Resist Its Charms

Richard Corliss — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:23:28 +0000

Hollywood rules the movie world, dominating the box office in every country where American films are freely shown. So how to explain the startling success of the French dramatic comedy Intouchables? Since it opened last November, the film has earned $340 million, an all-time record for a foreign-language movie not made, nor yet released, in [...]

Idol Watch: Are You In a Rut, America?

James Poniewozik — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:53:28 +0000

Spoilers for last night’s American Idol finale below: Was anyone surprised? I don’t want to take anything away from Phillip Phillips. Though his music is not to my taste, I came to appreciate over the American Idol season that he does what he does well, and between him and the powerful but generic Jessica Sanchez [...]

Men in Black 3: Somebody Get Tommy Lee Jones a Gold Watch Already

Mary Pols — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:45:48 +0000

The years off have not been kind to the Men in Black

Legendary Creature Creator Rick Baker Talks Aliens and Men in Black 3

Tim Newcomb — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:45:45 +0000

The special makeup effects wizard talks to TIME about time traveling with his monsters and taking Angelina Jolie's call

Explainer: In Blockbuster Season, How Do Theaters Determine Which One Gets the IMAX Screen?

Lily Rothman — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:44:48 +0000

For a while there it looked like the continued box-office dominance of The Avengers, number one the past three weekends, would cause a problem. After just one week, Dark Shadows was due to take over many of the IMAX auditoriums in which the blockbuster was still filling seats, but theater owners (understandably) wanted to keep things as [...]

Kerouac's On the Road Comes to Cannes: Where's the Beat?

Richard Corliss — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:45:33 +0000

Back in the early ’60s, a 16-year-old high school senior sat across from an admissions official at Princeton University. Glancing briefly at the student’s erratic academic record, he asked what field of study the boy hoped to pursue. When he heard “Creative writing,” the official came to life. “You want to be a creative writer? [...]

Glee Watch: NYADA, NYADA, NYADA

James Poniewozik — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:24:53 +0000

Spoilers for the season finale of Glee below: One beef I often have with Glee episodes is that they move too fast, go in too many directions, try to cram in too much at once. You might say that about “Goodbye,” the season 3 finale, but in this case that approach seemed about right. It’s [...]

Today's Movie Trailer: The Great Gatsby

Stephanie Abrahams — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:07:05 +0000

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan star in the upcoming film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic, out Christmas Day. The first trailer is typical Baz Luhrmann — watch Daisy dance to Kanye and Jay-Z.

Dancing with the Stars Watch: The Last Dance

Melissa Locker — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:48 +0000

Did you know that this was the most competitive season of Dancing with the Stars ever? If you somehow missed that completely made-up fact, the hosts Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke Charvat will remind you of it again and again. As they should, because as we enter the finale of the show’s 14th season there is [...]

Idol Watch: The Sing-Off

James Poniewozik — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:31:57 +0000

I’m not convinced that American Idol finale performances actually mean anything. They don’t happen in a vacuum; fans have the whole season to base their votes on, and they’ve already fallen into camps. I’ve seen enough Idol finales where an underdog had a great night–and lost anyway. Still, there are the casual viewers you can [...]

Are Superheroes Too Big For Television?

Graeme McMillan — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:45:32 +0000

Despite what seemed like overwhelmingly good news for Marvel Enterprises lately — including the record-breaking success of The Avengers as it remained the best-selling movie three weekends in a row and Avengers vs. X-Men topping the comic book charts — the skies above the self-styled House of Ideas aren’t entirely clear of clouds: While everyone [...]

Music Festival Watch: Pearl Jam, D’Angelo and Red Hot Chili Peppers Coming to a Stage Near You

Aylin Zafar — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:45:27 +0000

Pearl Jam will co-headline Jay-Z's inaugural "Made in America" music festival, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Black Keys lead Austin City Limits' massive lineup

Literary Revolution in the Supermarket Aisle: Genre Fiction Is Disruptive Technology

Lev Grossman — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:45:11 +0000

(Lev Grossman writes about books here on Wednesdays. Subscribe to his RSS feed.) This post is by way of a reply to Arthur Krystal’s “Easy Writers,” a thoroughly thought-provoking piece about the relationship between genre fiction and literary fiction that ran in the New Yorker this week. I was happy to see the New Yorker weighing [...]

‘Polka King’ Eddie Blazonczyk Dies

CARYN ROUSSEAU / Associated Press — Tue, 22 May 2012 23:22:15 +0000

(CHICAGO) — Grammy Award-winning polka great Eddie Blazonczyk, who began playing the lively music in the 1950s and went on to earn the nickname “Polka King” after starting his own band and label, has died. He was 70. His record label, Bel-Aire Recordings, and his son, Eddie Blazonczyk Jr., said Tuesday that Blazonczyk died of [...]

Today's Movie Trailer: Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master

Lily Rothman — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:52:39 +0000

Joaquin Phoenix is a damaged WWII vet who struggles to remember his most recent misdeed in the ominous trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's latest. No sign of Philip Seymour Hoffman or any Scientology references.

Girls Watch: A Spartan Existence

James Poniewozik — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:25:30 +0000

Hannah comes home to East Lansing and visits the netherland between college and full-fledged, independent adulthood, in an outstanding episode co-written by Judd Apatow.

Killing Them Softly: Brad Pitt's the Hitman, But the Movie's Not a Hit

Richard Corliss — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:19:11 +0000

The movie’s poster says it all: a pair of shades reflecting the American flag, and a gun where the nose and mouth would be. In Killing Them Softly, playing today at the Cannes Film Festival and opening in the U.S. September 21, screenwriter-director Andrew Dominik wants you to know that the underworld is our world, with [...]

Dancing with the Stars Watch: The Final Performances

Melissa Locker — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:02:50 +0000

Going into tonight’s finale of Dancing with the Stars, either by chance or design, it is anyone’s game. To make it to the finish line the finalists — Superbowl champion Donald Driver with his partner Peta Murgatroyd, telenovela star William Levy and Cheryl Burke, and classical singer Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas — will have to [...]