Marvel Studios' Iron Man dominated the movie box office during its first weekend, at a near-record pace. Even more surprisingly, it has some serious thoughts behind it.
Continue reading "'Iron Man' Is Super Box-Office Hit--And More" »
For the first time since 2002, actor Mel Gibson will be the lead actor in a new movie. Gibson has signed on to star in Edge of Darkness, a crime thriller based on a 1985 BBC miniseries.
Continue reading "Mel Gibson to Star in Crime Drama" »
The embarrassing Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair photo shows the value of public relations people—and why investing real money makes people more careful about what they do.
Continue reading "Miley Cyrus, Unprotected Celebrity" »
As you've seen if you clicked on the link in the story immediately below, the film Fitna was removed from the Livelink site because of threats of violence against the proprietors. We've embedded a new link that should work, as numerous sites are carrying the film, in the grand tradition of liberty that the Internet has already developed.
Those who dislike the film—whether they have seen it or otherwise—are trying to ensure that it gets lost on the internet, by posting other videos with "Fitna" as the title. Those who wish to make sure others can see the film should point them to this permalink: http://stkarnick.com/blog2/2008/03/post_120.html.
We will monitor the situation and continue updating the link as necessary. If it should prove necessary in future, we'll download the file and save it to our own site.
The Jennifer Lopez 'message film' Bordertown is seriously mixed up about the causes of crime, but it does manage to entertain—and it includes some real libertarian lessons. TAC correspondent Thomas M. Sipos provides the details.
Continue reading "Mixed-Up Messages from J-Lo's 'Bordertown'" »
The Dutch politician Geert Wilders has released Fitna ("Fatwa"), his short film about Islam's plans for the west and for world domination (see earlier article here).
Continue reading "'Fitna' Outlines Muslim Plans for the West—and the World" »
Two crime movies based on the same play nicely illustrate the change in the mind of the American elite during the twentieth century.
Continue reading "The Changing of the American Mind" »
Hollywood actor Richard Widmark dies at age 93, represented Hollywood's heyday.
Richard Widmark, best known for his Academy Award-nominated performance as a giggling, grinning gangster in the 1947 film noir classic Kiss of Death and as an NYPD policeman in the 1970s TV program Madigan, represents a Hollywood long gone and greatly missed, where on-camera performers and others involved in making films saw themselves as professionals, not artists—and succeeded in creating real art much more often than today's more overtly ambitious and politically active generation.
Madigan was based on a very good film directed by Donald Siegel, which is well worth seeing.
For more on Widmark and his career, see the AP story.
TAC correspondent Michael D'Virgilio analyzes the cultural implications of the political journey of David Mamet, another modern liberal mugged by reality.Continue reading "David Mamet Swings to the Right" »
Continue reading "Jack Black Wrestles for God" »
Continue reading "The Light in "Dark" Fiction" »
Michael Clayton, now on DVD, blu-ray, download, and pay per view, is presented as a "ripped from the day's headlines" true story of corporate greed and perfidy—but in fact it's a fairy tale.
Continue reading "Clooney's Anti-Business Fairy Tale" »
American film critics detest violent movies—unless there's an antisocial message involved. TAC correspondent Mike D'Virgilio looks at critical reactions to violence in movies.
Continue reading "The Violent Hypocrisy of Mainstream Film Critics" »
In addition to the low box office numbers for most of the films nominated for Academy Awards and those that won, perhaps the strongest evidence that Hollywood—like the U.S. cultural elite in general—has become very distant from its audience is the fact that the TV ratings for Sunday's Academy Awards show were the lowest ever.
Continue reading "Oscars Draw Record-Low TV Audience" »
As expected, Joel and Ethan Coen won the Academy Award for Best Picture for their film No Country for Old Man last night at the Oscar ceremony.
The brothers also shared the award for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film picked up another award as Javier Bardem won for Best Supporting Actor.
The violent crime drama, which many critics have described as extremely grim, disturbing, amoral, and even nihilistic—meaning all of those terms as compliments, which may be the most disturbing thing of all—had earlier swept the awards from the major film talent organizations, including the Directors Guild. The film clearly captured the mood of Hollywood and the media, although as noted here yesterday, underneath the surface No Country for Old Men actually contradicts their values.
Continue reading "Hollywood Honors Coen Brothers, 'No Country for Old Men'" »
Here's a preview of an article coming soon on another site. I've been working with the editor for a week to get this published, and an updated version will run eventually, but in the meantime here's a version that is timely because the season-ending of Prison Break will run on Fox tonight at 8 EST.Continue reading "A Defense of Pop Fiction" »
U.S. film audiences continued to show their preference for light fare this week, as two new releases, both comedies, topped the weekend's U.S. movie box office competition.
Continue reading "Romantic Comedies Are Strong Draws in Runup to Valentine's Day" »
S. T. Karnick examines Warner Herzog's Rescue Dawn, now available on DVD and pay per view.
Continue reading "Herzog's Brilliant 'Rescue Dawn'" »
Continue reading "Super Bowl, Miley Cyrus Rule the Weekend" »
Correspondent Mike D'Virgilio reviews the musical film Once. Or is it more than a musical?
Continue reading "An Ode to the Power of Music" »
Cloverfield, the innovative monster movie directed by TV producer J. J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Felicity), achieved the strongest January box office opening weekend in film history this past weekend.
Continue reading ""Cloverfield" Leads Pack, Shows Value of Ingenuity, Human Scale" »
I haven't seen The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie, so of course I have no opinion on whether it is any good, but I found a fascinating assumption in Lou Lumenick's review of the film in the New York Post.
Lumenick suggests that a work reflecting Christian values must necessarily be bad.
In an outline of what's wrong with the film, Lumenick states the following:
The CGI animation is crude, the humor is cruder, and the plot is Christian-friendly. Proceed at your own risk.
My advice to all, including non-Christians: when reading reviews in the New York Post, proceed at your own risk.
Continue reading "Weird Comedies Take Movie Box Office Lead" »
Turner Classic Movies is presenting a documentary on filmmaker Val Lewton, produced and narrated by Martin Scorsese, tonight at 8 EST with a repeat presentation at midnight.
Lewton (b. Vladimir Ivan Leventon in Yalta, Russia) was a highly talented writer and producer whose atmospheric suspense and horror films of the 1940s for Hollywood's RKO studio are much admired by film critics and scholars and the more tasteful and well-informed of today's filmmakers.
Continue reading "Salute to Val Lewton" »
TAC Mystery Fiction Correspondent Mary Reed reviews a classic novel by English suspense writer "Sapper," now available for free online through Project Gutenberg Australia.
H. C. McNeile, aka "Sapper," is one of the most popular and most reviled of mystery-suspense writers.
Writing largely between the two World Wars, the former British military man brought an American-style hardboiled approach to British fiction with his popular character Bulldog Drummond, a wealthy, intrepid, honorable former military officer. The Drummond tales combined suspense, espionage, and detection, rather after the fashion of Leslie Charteris's Saint stories. The character also appeared in the movies and on television and radio.
Sapper also wrote straight detective novels, one of which is Ronald Standish, the item currently under review.
Sapper's books sold very well indeed, and readers enjoyed them immensely, but literary critics of later decades, especially since the 1960s, have criticized his books as representing an obsolete, politically damaging, and personally vile point of view—for the narratives frankly demonstrate that different types of people behave differently. This is a reality that contemporary thought (if it can be honored with that designation) would like to deny and ignore, consigning it to the ash heap through force of career destruction of those who dare to speak it.
Hence, reading books such as those by Sapper is a dangerous act and should be undertaken only by the bold. I recommend that you do so immediately.—STK
Continue reading "A Dangerous Mystery Writer" »
The witty, charming comedy Juno, about an unmarried, pregnant teenager who decides to bear her child, moved into third place in U.S. movie box-office take this past weekend.
In its second week of general release, Juno pulled in an average of nearly $8,500 per screen, significantly more than the healthy $5,376 gathered by National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which was once again the top moneymaker for the weekend. In just three weekends and the intevening weekdays, National Treasure: Book of Secrets has brought in a stunning $171 million in U.S. ticket sales.
Continue reading "Cheerful Juno, National Treasure: Book of Secrets Still Going Strong" »
Jud Apatow provides a comic history of modern American culture.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story has already dropped off the top ten list of movie box office draws, after only a couple of weeks in general release. It appears to have been held back by the lack of a big star, as although John C. Reilly gives a good performance, he doesn't have the charisma to draw people into theaters to see him.
That's a shame, because the movie is both funny and pointed.
Continue reading "A Hard Walk Through the Omniculture" »
A couple of 2007 films that didn't get much attention but were at least entertaining and at best something more are The Reaping and Next. Both are available on DVD (info here and here) and HD DVD (info here and here), and I recommend giving them a look.
The Reaping was the best new horror-gothic film I've seen since the first Saw film, which, alas, isn't saying a lot. Like Saw, The Reaping had a strong foundation in something other than shock and gore. (And even the first Saw film was self-contradictory in the logic of its central premise, which The Reaping isn't.)
Continue reading "Two Entertaining Genre Films, with a Little More" »
A year ago, upon the release of the Fox Faith theatrical film Facing the Giants, I reported on an analysis by Christian screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi criticizing the film. It took me a long 
time to get around to seeing Facing the Giants, in large part because of the many negative reviews, but I saw it a few weeks ago and corrected the record in an addendum to the original post on this site from November 1, 2006. I think it worth placing the full text here on the main page, to give readers my own comments on the film. The original piece and my update follow:
Screenwriter and script analyst Barbara Nicolosi is extremely disappointed by the Christian-produced film Facing the Giants. I have not yet gotten around to seeing the film, but I suspect that Ms. Nicolosi is quite right. She points out that Facing the Giants is the cinematic equivalent of Contemporary Christian Music, bland nonsense meant to make Christians feel good and thereby bring in a steady stream of money from a highly defined market segment, what is known in the entertainment business as a cash cow.
Continue reading "A Bad Sign for Christian Cinema—UPDATE" »
Most movies, even those that seem rather mindless, actually do have some serious thematic content behind the action, comedy, romance, and other surface elements—as I have observed frequently on this site and elsewhere.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets initially seems very unusual in this respect: it appears to have no interesting thematic content whatsoever.
It's amazingly fluffy and superficial, and works as great, unserious Hollywood entertainment. It is thoroughly successful at that.
Nonetheless, there is some serious thematic content to the film, which we would do well to see.
Continue reading "The Unusual Appeal of "National Treasure: Book of Secrets"" »
Old-fashioned entertainment once again emerged as the strong preference of American moviegoers as National Treasure: Book of Secrets and Alvin and the Chipmunks again dominated the U.S. box office this past weekend.
The two fluffy and cheerfully entertaining movies again finished 1-2 in weekend movie ticket sales for the second weekend in a row.
Continue reading "Lighthearted Fare Remains Strong at U.S. Box Office" »
New The American Culture correspondent Mike Long has put together a very contrarian and very good list of the best movies of the year for National Review Online, and he has been gracious enough to allow us to reprint it here in its entirety.
Contrary to most critics, Mike claims this was a good year for the movies. I agree. Another thing I strongly endorse about the article is that it does not succumb to political shibboleths of either left or right. That's our approach on The American Culture.
And there's more. In an exclusive for The American Culture, Mike informs us that since he wrote the article, he saw Sweeney Todd and would move it to number 4 on the list. Instead of altering the article, however, we're leaving it as is, so that you will not miss the number 10 movie, which is well worth seeing.
Here's Mike's "2007 at the Movies":
Continue reading "2007 at the Movies" »
That is actually the natural position for U.S. audiences, although most critics would very much prefer the masses to support more "edgy," arty fare that distrurbs them and questions bourgeois values.
Given that audiences are bourgeois, of course, it is absurd to expect them to want to pay to have their values questioned and denigrated, but most mainstream media denizens are sure they know what people should want, and that the hoi polloi should just line up and take it.
That's not happening. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Continue reading "Escapism, Star Power Drive Movie Box Office" »
Planned sequels to failed pro-atheism children's film are increasingly unlikely.
The controversial children's film The Golden Compass, which has accomplished only very weak box office appeal in the United States, has fallen off in foreign appeal as well, landing in second this past weekend, behind I Am Legend.
The Golden Compass has earned $130 million in non-U.S. markets and is fading.
None of this foreign money will go to the studio that made the film, New Line, because the company sold off the foreign rights a couple of years ago in order to raise enough money to produce and market the film. It has earned only $48 million in the United States since opening three weekends ago.
As a result of the poor U.S. showing, it is unlikely that any sequels will be made.
Continue reading "Golden Compass Sliding Outside U.S." »
Comedian-actor Sacha Baron Cohen is retiring two characters that made him famous—and notorious.
He has announced that he will no longer portray the characters of Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakh journalist notable for his amazing ignorance, anti-semitism, lack of respect for women, and overall vulgarity, and Ali G, a young English yobbo version of the same character.
"I am never going to play them again," he told the London Daily Telegraph.
Continue reading "Cohen Retires Famous Characters" »
As expected, the Will Smith-starring intellectual zombie film I Am Legend opened very strong at the U.S. box office last weekend, leading all films by a good measure in its opening weekend.
The film starring the well-liked Smith, whose movies consistently deliver his likeable personality and positive personal and religious values, grossed an impressive $77.2 million during its first weekend in theaters. That's $25 million more than any film in which he has starred has taken in during its opening weekend, and is a very strong performance indeed.
Finishing a surprising second was the CGI animated comedy film Alvin and the Chipmunks, selling a startling $45 million worth of tickets for the Fox studio. Fox was expecting the film to bring in about $20 million. The presence of Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl) as the Chipmunks' boss probably helped extend the film's appeal, though obviously the chipmunks must have been the big draw.
It is now obvious that audiences do not want to see the controversial fantasy film The Golden Compass, as it took in only $8.8 million and finished third. The money total represents a vertiginous 66 percent drop from the film's already disappointing opening weekend total the week before. It is officially a disaster for New Line Cinema.
Continue reading ""Legend," "Chipmunks" Dominate Movie Box Office" »
Continue reading ""I Am Legend" Not an Ordinary Action Film—And That's Good" »