movies
File Under 'Duh': The Avengers Is the Second Biggest Friday Opening of All Time
Louis Peitzman · 05/05/12 03:37PMFor weeks, I've been reminding you all that The Avengers is on the horizon — it doesn't take a box office psychic to realize a film of this magnitude will do well. And wouldn't you know, The Avengers' Friday take was $80.5 million, making it the second biggest Friday opening of all time. (Number one remains Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, because wizards are cooler than superheroes, clearly.)
Sci-Fi Comedy Seeks to Distance Itself From Trayvon Martin Case
Louis Peitzman · 05/05/12 11:48AMFox's summer sci-fi comedy Neighborhood Watch has been renamed The Watch, after concerns that the film would remind people of the Trayvon Martin case. And it's tough to blame them: the original poster featured a "Neighborhood Watch" sign complete with a shadowy figure and bullet holes. Trayvon Martin was shot by real-life Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman, currently facing charges of second-degree murder.
Your Guide to Attending (and Surviving) Mid-Week Midnight Premieres
Leah Beckmann · 05/04/12 03:15PMThe Dark Knight Rises and Channing Tatum Strips: Gawker's Guide to Summer Movies
Rich Juzwiak & Leah Beckmann · 05/03/12 09:55AMThe beginning of May brings us so many things to celebrate: warm weather, late sunsets, flip-flops, May-he-co. It's also the start of the summer movie blockbuster cash-grab. To commemorate it, we've provided our humble predictions for the summer's obnoxious hits, laughable misses, erstwhile sleepers, and inevitable trends.
The Avengers Has Earned $178.4 Million, And It Hasn't Even Opened in the U.S. Yet
Louis Peitzman · 04/29/12 01:29PMWhat The Hell Is This Movie About? Let's Watch It One Hundred Times.
Caity Weaver · 04/26/12 12:06AMThis is the trailer for Samsara, a "non-narrative" film coming to U.S. theatres in August of 2012. It is the "sequel" (if non-narrative films can have sequels) to the 1992 film Baraka, of which Roger Ebert said, "If man sends another Voyager to the distant stars and it can carry only one film on board, that film might be Baraka."
Zac Efron, Think Like a Man Dethrone The Hunger Games
Louis Peitzman · 04/22/12 03:42PMFor the first time in a month, The Hunger Games is not the number one movie this weekend. That spot belongs to Think Like a Man, an ensemble romantic comedy based on a Steve Harvey self-help book. But the dystopian teen thriller wasn't even number two — instead, the charm of Zac Efron and the inexplicable appeal of Nicholas Sparks launched The Lucky One into second place.
Die, Dying, Death, Dead, Die: The Cabin in the Woods
Rich Juzwiak · 04/13/12 03:37PMSo Weird It’s Weird: Showgirls 2 Doesn't Suck
Rich Juzwiak · 04/12/12 12:15PMLet's Discuss the Gay Classics
Rich Juzwiak · 04/05/12 05:41PMWhen I watched Making the Boys, the documentary about Mart Crowley's seminal gay play Boys in the Band and its film adaptation, from which the clip above was pulled, I was a little horrified to see Christian Siriano conflating his ignorance with cuteness. (I'll concede that getting goofy could be his way of dealing with embarrassment, and it seems very gotcha of director Crayton Robey to spring this question without checking first if this small, smirking haircut of a human was familiar with the subject of his doc.) Regardless, don't do this. Don't neglect the work that helped facilitate the increasing levels of public acceptance you experience, and don't act like it's funny when you do. Don't be a Christian.
Bounding Toward Your Face This July: Katy Perry’s Boobs, in 3D
Caity Weaver · 04/04/12 11:33PM'I'm the King of the World' Titanic References Throughout Pop Culture History: A Video
Rich Juzwiak · 04/04/12 10:23AMToday, Titanic 3D docks in theaters. Here's a supercut of almost 50 instances of Leonardo DiCaprio's (unfortunately?) immortal line, "I'm the king of the world," popping up throughout pop culture since the movie's original 1997 release. The phrase might be the most obnoxious thing you can say on a boat and otherwise. Sometimes the people making the reference note this. Sometimes, tragically, they do not.
James Cameron Alters Titanic in Nerdiest Way Possible
Louis Peitzman · 04/02/12 11:18PMCriterion Finally Releases Beloved Schwarzenegger Classic
Louis Peitzman · 04/01/12 02:03PMThe Odds Are Still in The Hunger Games' Favor
Louis Peitzman · 04/01/12 12:13PMBloodthirsty Bully Harvey Weinstein Releases Movie About Bullies
John Cook · 03/30/12 04:00PMToday marks the release of Bully, a "moving and troubling documentary" about the victims of adolescent bullying. It's being distributed by the Weinstein Company, which is co-run by Harvey Weinstein, a monstrous and violent bully who has hurt hundreds of people with his frequent rages and sociopathic lack of concern for the emotional or physical well-being of anyone with less power than himself.
When Dick Slips In: A Brief History of PG-Rated Penis
Rich Juzwiak · 03/29/12 06:05PMAs a companion to our earlier post about the sanitization of film through the PG-13 rating, here are a few examples of when things swung the other way. (It is namely dicks that are swinging.) Though the penis's on-screen presence virtually guarantees an R-rating today, we found a few examples of fully naked guys on PG-rated film. All of these instances date back before the introduction of the PG-13 rating in 1984, though that rating turned out to be even less permissive regarding penis (Cider House Rules contains the rare PG-13 dong flash).
Zooey Deschanel Might Be in Time-Travel Movie
Max Read · 03/28/12 03:18PMThe Reign of the PG-13 Rating: Sanitized, Safe, and Worth Shitloads of Money
Rich Juzwiak · 03/27/12 04:30PMIt's a great time for PG-13. Seven out of the nine films nominated for Best Picture at this year's Oscars were rated PG-13. Eight of the Top 10 grossing films of last year in the U.S. sported that rating. It's become something of a badge of honor: This Means War was edited to qualify (not that it made a difference in its paltry box office take), The Expendables sequel is being tailored to be a PG-13 "barbeque of grand scale ass bashing [that] will not leave anyone hungry" (according to Sly Stallone) and high-profile outrage met the MPAA's decision to slap Lee Hirsch's documentary Bully with an R instead.