Tuesday, January 22

• DVD Tuesday

  Leading this week's crop of new releases is torture-porn sequel Saw IV, available in both standard and extra-disturbing unrated editions. Also arriving on DVD are Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's surprise hit The Game Plan, the grieving parents drama Reservation Road, the modern-day Snow White update Sydney White and the Richard Gere/Terrence Howard thriller The Hunting Party.
  
  

  Posted 01/22/2008 by Thomas

  Saw IV | The Game Plan | Reservation Road | Sydney White | The Hunting Party

Sunday, October 21

• Weekend Box Office Wrap

  Vampires have forcefully removed Tyler Perry from the top spot at the box office this weekend. 30 Days of Night took in $16 million at the box office this weekend to plunge their proverbial stake into the top spot and virtually assure that the rumored sequels (which ReelzChannel.com reported last week) are a go.

  Perry's Why Did I Get Married held strong in second place with $12.1 million. Gone Baby Gone lead the the Oscar buzz newcomer crowd, taking fifth place with $6 million in receipts.

  Other the newcomers The Comebacks, Things We Lost in the Fire, and Rendition didn't fare as well. The goofy sports comedy placed sixth with $5.85 million, and political drama Rendition debuted ninth with a lowly $4.175 million. Halle Berry appears to have lost her star luster a bit; Fire made only $1.6 million for 15th place.

  
  

  Posted 10/21/2007 by Jeff

  30 Days of Night | Wristcutters: A Love Story | Rendition | Reservation Road | Gone Baby Gone

Friday, October 19

• By the Numbers: Reviews of this Weekend's New Releases

  It's a good weekend for movie fans as a slew of new releases hit theaters for the first time or expand this weekend. For genre fans, there's the gory 30 Days of Night and for drama lovers, there's Rendition and Ben Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone.

  A rundown of our reviews of this weekend's new releases:  

  30 Days of Night  
  "This vampire movie with a novel twist makes for a refreshing anomaly: a horror flick that's actually scary." [Full Review] 

   

  Gone Baby Gone 
  "A double dose of Affleck in a Boston-set (where else?) investigatory drama that establishes a solid second career beachhead for older brother Ben."  [Full Review]  

   

  Rendition 
  "Critics are lukewarm on this one, but what will the standard movie-goer think?"      [Full Review]

   

  Reservation Road 
  "This drama about intrigue and loss in the suburbs is a little too bitter a pill for even me to swallow." [Full Review]     

   

  Wristcutters: A Love Story 
  "An occasionally clever, moderately amusing black comedy in the vein of Heathers."  [Full Review]

   

  Also opening: Things We Lost in the Fire, The Ten Commandments, Paranormal Hour and The Comebacks.

   

  
  

  Posted 10/19/2007 by Jeff

  30 Days of Night | Rendition | Reservation Road | Wristcutters: A Love Story | Gone Baby Gone

Thursday, July 12

• 2008 Oscar race beginning at Toronto

  The Toronto Film Festival (TIFF), which takes place in September, is heralded as the beginning of the annual Oscar race. That is to say, studios often save up the films they think will be contenders to release in the fall (they don't trust the Academy's memory to reach back more than a few months come nomination time), and often debut said films at the TIFF.

  So what are some of the films on the TIFF lineup that are being buzzed about?

  Rendition, a Middle East political thriller starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a costume drama about Queen Elizabeth I with Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush (reprising their roles from Elizabeth) lead the pack.

  Other potential TIFF Oscar candidates: Tony Gilroy's directorial debut Michael Clayton, a law firm drama starring George Clooney; Peter Greenaway's historical drama about Rembrandt, Nightwatching; the Indian drama Before the Rains; the Jodie Foster revenge drama The Brave One; a Joaquin Phoenix-Jennifer Connelly drama about coping with the death of a child entitled Reservation Road; the biography about paralyzed Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Beauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; and Alan Ball's (American Beauty) drama about the struggles of an Arab-American girl, Nothing is Private.

  Source: Variety.com.

  
  

  Posted 07/12/2007 by Heather

  Rendition | Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Michael Clayton | Nightwatching | The Brave One | Reservation Road | Nothing is Private