NewsTrust - Movies - Most Recent Stories

Oscar Predictions, Election-Style

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By NATE SILVER - Feb. 22 (Opinion) - Our Academy Awards forecasts are based on the awards that were given out in the run-up to the Oscars, the closest equivalent to pre-election polls. But just as our election forecasts assign more weight to certain polls, we do not treat all awards equally.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Prometheus: The Science in Idea of Aliens Populating Earth | Entertainment | TIME.com

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Time - By Jeffrey Kluger - Jun. 19 (Special Report) - It's not such a crazy idea. Research has long supported the theory that life originated elsewhere.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Role Reversal: Why TV Is Replacing Movies As Elite Entertainment

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Hollywood Economist - By Edward Jay Epstein - May. 13 (News Analysis) - Once upon a time, over a generation ago, The television set was commonly called the “boob tube” and looked down on by elites as a purveyors of mind-numbing entertainment. Movie theaters, on the other hand, were considered a venue for, if not art, more sophisticated dramas and comedies. Not any more. The multiplexes are now primarily a venue for comic-book inspired action and fantasy movies, whereas television, especially the pay and cable channels, is increasingly becoming a venue for character-driven adult programs, such as The Wire, Mad Men, and Boardwalk Empire. This role reversal, rather than a momentary fluke, proceeds directly from the new economic realities of the entertainment business. Consider what happened to Pay-TV. Back in the 1970s, HBO provided something home viewers could not get elsewhere: movies uninterrupted by commercials. It was, as a HBO executive put it, “the only game in town,” so its subscribers paid a monthly fee, no matter how little or often they watch it, to their local cable provider who in turn forked over a share to HBO. As the cable systems grew, so did HBO. By 2010, it had (including its Cinemax unit) over 40 million subscribers, and just the monthly fees produced cash flow of over $1.5 billion a year. Getting new movies was no problem. HBO simply licensed them from a few major studios for an exclusive period (which began a few months after they were released on video and DVD) in so-called “output deals.” To continue to harvest this immense bounty, HBO had merely to stop subscribers from ending their service.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

HBO’s ‘Game Change’ Goes Easy on Sarah Palin, John McCain in 2008 Saga

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Daily Beast - By Michelle Goldberg - Mar. 10 (Review) - If you're a fan of Sarah Palin, or if you just haven't followed the recriminations from John McCain staffers in the wake of the 2008 campaign, you will likely find Julianne Moore's portrayal of her in the HBO movie Game Change to be sexist. It's not just the depiction of her shocking ignorance""*at one point, she has to be told that the Queen of England doesn't conduct that country's foreign policy, while at another, she is confused to hear that Saddam Hussein was not behind the September 11 attacks. She's also absurdly vain, going on the...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

'Game Change': How accurate is the movie about Sarah Palin?

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Gloria Goodale - Mar. 10 (News) - Words have been flying between supporters of Sarah Palin, who charge the ‘Game Change’ filmmakers with a smear job, and the producers, who insist they’re committed to accuracy. ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Choosing sides on Sarah Palin in 'Game Change'

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By James Rainey - Feb. 18 (News Report) - 'Game Change' on HBO portrays her as woefully misinformed and emotional. Her supporters blast the film, but some former John McCain aides say it's accurate.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

"Granito: How to Nail a Dictator": New Film Tracks Struggle for Justice After Guatemalan Genocide

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Sep. 15 (Review) - A new documentary links Guatemala’s turbulent past with those who are active players in its present.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Black leaders give 'The Help' a hand in marketing

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Nicole Sperling - Aug. 09 (News Report) - The chairwoman of the NAACP is among those spreading the word about the DreamWorks film, which focuses on relationships between white Southern women and their maids during the civil rights era. When Roslyn Brock, chairwoman of the NAACP, first heard about "The Help," a new film based on a novel about the volatile relationships between Southern white women and their black maids at the dawn of the civil rights movement, she was skeptical.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Marilyn Monroe's iconic dress sells for $5.6 million at auction

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Alan Duke - Jun. 19 (News Report) - Marilyn Monroe's white "subway" dress sold for more than $5.6 million in a Beverly Hills, California auction Saturday night in which bidders paid another $2.7 million for three other Monroe movie outfits.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Debbie Reynolds is parting with her movie treasures

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Susan King - Jun. 14 (News Report) - The actress has amassed a collection of about 5,000 pieces of memorabilia. Finally admitting that her dream of a permanent museum won't be a reality, she is auctioning off the artifacts.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Cannes kicks off with hommage to Bertolucci

Thu, 12 May 2011 11:48:00 -0700

Dawn - By Afp - May. 12 - Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (L), is awarded with the Honorary Palme d'Or for his career from the president of the Cannes Film Festival Gilles Jacob (C) as President of the Jury Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun,

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Werner Herzog Enters 'The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams'

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

NPR - By Terri Gross, Werner Herzog - Apr. 25 (Interview) - In 1994, three French cave explorers discovered hundreds of prehistoric paintings and engravings on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in southern France. Carbon dating has since shown that the depictions of rhinoceroses, lions, cave bears, horses, bison, mammoths and other animals are between 30,000 and 32,000 years old. That doesn't mean the ancient drawings are any less sophisticated than what artists create today, says filmmaker Werner Herzog. "Art ... as it bursts on the scene 32,000 years ago, is fully accomplished. It doesn't start with 'primitive scribblings' and first attempts like children would make drawings," Herzog says. "It's absolutely and fully accomplished." The acclaimed German director, who has produced, written and directed more than 40 films, gained exclusive access to the Chauvet caves. He tells their story and the story of the world's oldest cave paintings in The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a 3-D documentary film. "Since early adolescence, I have been fascinated by cave paintings," Herzog tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It actually was my personal intellectual awakening ... and shook me to the core — seeing an image of a horse [from the] prehistoric Stone Age. I couldn't believe it." Part of Herzog's interest in the paintings, he says, is the knowledge that tens of thousands of years ago, humans had the instinct to make art in order to represent the world around them.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Prehistoric Cave With a Hornet on the Wall

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Larry Rohter - Apr. 24 (News Report) - The director Werner Herzog remembers being about 12 years old when he saw, and was transfixed by, a picture of a horse on the cover of a book about Paleolithic art, displayed in the window of a bookstore in the isolated Bavarian village where he lived. Ever since, even as he was making films like “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” and “Nosferatu,” that image “has engaged me and haunted my mind,” he said. “It has never left me.” But it took more than 50 years after that first exposure to prehistoric cave art for Mr. Herzog to be able to act on his childhood fascination. In the spring of 2010 he was allowed to film in the Chauvet cave in southeastern France, where archaeologists have found exquisite wall paintings some 32,000 years old, the oldest ever discovered, and the result is an 90-minute documentary called “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Gwyneth Paltrow Is Right. We're All Jealous. (Of Her and George W. Bush.)

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Keli Goff - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - Sometimes the truth hurts -- especially when it's an embarrassing truth and someone calls you out on it in public. Gwyneth Paltrow, whose image, particularly in cyberspace, has taken quite a drubbing in the last year or two, recently called out her critics (or anyone who doesn't appear to be her biggest fan) with her version of truth telling.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The one and only Liz

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Editorial Staff - Mar. 24 (Editorial) - There's no doubt that Elizabeth Taylor defined 'celebrity' for the modern age.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

'Becoming Chaz' tells the complicated, touching story of Chaz Bono's sex change

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Steven Zeitchik - Jan. 24 (Review) - Chastity Bono says she always wanted to be male. 'Becoming Chaz,' which tells the story of her transition to male, screens at the Sundance Film Festival.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

More TV viewers may be cutting the cord this year

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Dawn C. Chmielewski, David Sarno - Jan. 04 (News) - New mobile devices and Internet-connected televisions that could let viewers cancel their pay-TV subscriptions are expected to be among the hottest items at the Consumer Electronics Show.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Two films, two sex scenes, two different ratings

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Steven Zeitchik - Dec. 04 (News Report) - 'Black Swan,' which shows a sex scene between two actresses, gets an R rating while 'Blue Valentine' shows a similar scene between a man and woman and gets the MPAA's dreaded NC-17. A film's label can make a big difference in box office receipts.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

To the MPAA ratings board, 'The King's Speech' is just as bad as 'Saw 3D'

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Patrick Goldstein - Nov. 02 (Opinion) - “The King’s Speech,” a British film being touted as a leading contender for the best picture Oscar, is a delightful, heart-warming account of how a cheeky Australian speech therapist helped King George VI conquer a terrible stammer. “Saw 3D” is the seventh installment in the torture-porn horror film series, which as the Orlando Sentinel’s Roger Moore described it, has grown more and more gruesome, “with the filmmakers caught up in ‘What would it look like if somebody’s jaw was ripped out, or their skin was glued to a car seat?’”

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Irish man spots "time traveler" on a cell phone in a 1928 film

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

allvoices.com - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - After buying a DVD box-set of old Charlie Chaplin films, George Clark, a self-described film buff spotted something odd in one of the scenes. In the 1928 footage "The Circus,"

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

James Cameron on 'Avatar,' 'Titanic,' and the Future of 3-D

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Dave Itzkoff - Oct. 19 (Interview) - Mr. Cameron spoke recently to ArtsBeat about “Avatar”s past and present, as well as his future plans. These are excerpts from that conversation.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

With Film, Afghan-German Is a Foreigner at Home

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michael Slackman - Oct. 18 (News) - While Mr. Qurbani appreciates the reception that his film has gotten, its timing has cast him as a symbol of the fragile fault line currently challenging societal cohesion in Germany. “It is tragic what is happening here,” said Hatice Akyün, a writer and lifelong German resident of Turkish descent who, like Mr. Qurbani, must confront the frustrating daily exclamation from other Germans who never seem to tire of telling them, “You speak German so well.”

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Scoundrel Time

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Weekly Standard - By John Podhoretz - Jun. 10 (Review) - Remember when wacky codgers in movies used to sit in rocking chairs on porches dispensing cranky wisdom? Or how, on television, Uncle Joe would be “a-movin’ kinda slow at the junction—Petticoat Junction”? Uncle Joe was played by an actor named Edgar Buchanan, and when the show debuted in 1963, Edgar Buchanan was all of 60 years old. Sixty happens to be the age of the character played by Michael Douglas in the compelling new movie Solitary Man.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

FCC hands Hollywood the keys to your PC, home theater and future

Sat, 08 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Boing Boing - By Cory Doctorow - May. 08 (Opinion) - The FCC has given Hollywood permission to activate the "Selective Output Control" technologies in your set-top box. These are hidden flags that allow the MPAA to deactivate parts of your home theater depending on what you're watching. And it sucks. As Dan Gillmor notes, "Fans of old TV science fiction will remember the Outer Limits. Given Hollywood's victory today at the FCC -- they'll be able to reach over the lines and disable functions on your TV -- the intro to the show takes on modern relevance."

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Michael Moore Says Judge’s Ruling Could Have ‘Chilling Effect’ on Documentaries

Fri, 07 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Dave Itzkoff - May. 07 (News Report) - The director Michael Moore says that a federal judge’s ruling to allow Chevron to subpoena footage from the documentary “Crude” could have dire consequences on the documentary filmmaking process, and urged that film’s director to resist the subpoena if he can. On Thursday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of United States District Court in Manhattan said that Joe Berlinger, the director of “Crude,” would have to turn over more than 600 hours of footage from that documentary. The film chronicles the Ecuadorians who sued Texaco (now owned by Chevron) saying an oil field contaminated their water. Chevron said that Mr. Berlinger’s footage could be helpful as it seeks to have the litigation dismissed and pursues an international treaty arbitration related to the lawsuit.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer