Tag Archive for: movies

Weekend box office offers laughs, thrills


By
 in ,
Though more than a third of the country was busy watching the Super Bowl (or at least the commercials) last weekend, a sizable audience was willing to see a zombie try to fall in love. Barely anyone, though, wanted to see Sylvester Stallone shooting up criminals in Bullet to the Head. You’d think Stallone would […]

Brits, witches and celebrities abound


By
 in ,
Though this weekend features witches, an obscene amount of celebrities and Jason Statham doing what Jason Statham does best, looking back, last weekend proved to be great for Jessica Chastain and a very bad week for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mama broke out with $32.1 million over the four-day MLK weekend thanks to moderately good reviews and […]

Mama to see strong weekend sales


By
 in , ,
Though the box office can be pretty unpredictable, there are some basic elements that go into anticipating how well a film is going to do.   Some factors include: how other films have done recently, what weekend a film is coming out and what competition it faces. This column will look at these elements to […]

Family films suffer during the holidays


By
 in ,
Movie theaters have hosted many record-breaking blockbusters this holiday season – the most notable being Breaking Dawn II and Skyfall. The Twilight finale was number one its premiere weekend and grossed $43.6 million. Skyfall, thanks to a $50.5 million five-day gross and a $221.1 million total, is not only the highest grossing of the franchise, […]

Film involves both art and leisure


By
 in ,
Film is an art form, but many often perceive it — first and foremost — as a leisure activity. Just look at the disparities between the potential awards contenders. This year, some of the most likely awards contenders  span all of genres and audiences: Skyfall (action-adventure), Lincoln (biopic), Beasts of the Southern Wild (fantasy), Flight […]

Enjoyable films don’t need to be highbrow


By
 in ,
Last year I reviewed Breaking Dawn — Part 1 for the Daily Trojan, and I took a lot of flak for it. Twi-hards can be pretty vicious when they’re hiding behind an anonymous comment system. I won’t deny that my words were harsh, but I have — embarrassingly enough — read all the books and […]

Films fail to make significant political impact


By
 in ,
Hot off of last week’s presidential debate, everyone has the November election on their minds. The Huffington Post cited the debate as the most tweeted event in U.S. political history, clearly showing that it’s easy to get a message — even one about Big Bird — across to viewers. Unfortunately, recent political films haven’t quite […]

Films should fuel deep religious discussions


By
 in ,
Some of the best films address tricky societal themes, reflecting real life issues. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s hotly anticipated The Master, which hits theaters in limited release Sept. 14, is no exception. The film tackles the issue of religion and documents Lancaster “The Master” Dodd’s (Philip Seymour Hoffman) pursuit to spread his ever-growing faith-based organization […]