While Watchmen delivered a robust opening of about $55.7 million in North America, it came in lower than expectations--and much lower than Snyder's last film, the blockbuster 300--both domestically and overseas. Finally, Watchmen works best as the narratively complex, visually dazzling comics series...

Multiple Men Jezebel has words for Vanity Fair on their self spoofing Erik Lundegaard on the NYT box office coverage and love of Paul Blart. "Dudes: Cover the industry. Don’t cover for the industry." Well played Erik, well played. Mighty God King "If Batman Did Rap Battles" (What's the equivalent ...

Jocelyn Pook’s Oppenheimer mixes Robert Oppenheimer invoking the Bhagavad Gita with a recording of the liturgy of the Yemenite Jews and the text of the Catholic requiem mass, all underpinned with violin, viola and and keyboards. The seven minute long Oppenheimer is one of the sections in Flood; th...

Yesterday, the day I saw "The Curious Life of Benjamin Button" and wrote that post, I conked out early. Oh, I don't know if it was from the movie or from the pizza and one glass of wine I had afterward or just from being somewhat old. Most of the people in the movie audience were old, so old, that w...

I’m somewhat flattered. Diane Johnson, novelist and co-writer of the script to Kubrick’s The Shining, references ballardian.com in a review of Miracles of Life: “Ballard’s novels, especially the early ones, have been treated by a range of serious critics, most notably in Fran...

Welcome to another edition of Movie Playlist, where we talk to the writers, directors, and stars about their favorite films. I’ve always found the celebrity playlists on iTunes to be interesting. Most everyone in the film business moved to Hollywood after discovering their love of films. And I...

Welcome to another edition of Movie Playlist, where we talk to the writers, directors, and stars about their favorite films. I’ve always found the celebrity playlists on iTunes to be interesting. Most everyone in the film business moved to Hollywood after discovering their love of films. And I...

You learn something new every day. Mick Jagger wanted to star as Alex in A Clockwork Orange. The Beatles wanted to compose the film’s soundtrack. So says a letter from Mick Jagger’s manager, dating back to 1968. He was writing to John Schlesigner, the director attached to A Clockwork Ora...

What A Clockwork Orange might have been, including Mick Jagger as Alex....

For all its confectionery imagery, Christina Ricci scene-stealing and the few other things Speed Racer gets right, it still faces a box-office false start that could make Leatherheads look like a hit in comparison. We sketched a few of the hurdles here yesterday (number one being its own studio's re...