Box Office Guru Wrapup: Bourne and The Campaign Dethrone the Batman (72 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Sunday, Aug. 12 2012, 04:49 PM

Box Office Guru Wrapup: The Dark Knight Rises Again (72 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Aug. 06 2012, 12:33 PM

This weekend, a pair of new franchise films could not stop Bane and Batman from ruling the North American box office for a third straight time as The Dark Knight Rises continued to reign supreme, once again taking the gold medal position. The big-budget sci-fi remake Total Recall took home the silver while the bronze went to the kidpic Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. Neither of the new releases showed major muscle and the overall Top 20 slumped 27% from last year's levels as overall moviegoing continued to be affected by a lack of exciting titles and the ongoing drama of the London Olympics.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Dark Knight Leads Sluggish Frame (87 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Jul. 30 2012, 08:03 AM

RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: The Hunger Games and The Raid (70 comments)

by Ryan Fujitani on Tuesday, Aug. 14 2012, 08:47 AM

There have been a few noteworthy selections on home video in recent weeks, but pickings have been decidedly slim. Luckily, this week promises to be a good one (only one Rotten film on our list), from big blockbusters to arthouse winners. Click through for the full list!

RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: The Lorax and Marley (25 comments)

by Ryan Fujitani on Tuesday, Aug. 07 2012, 09:12 AM

We've got another sparse week on home video, but it's at least bolstered by one outstanding documentary of a cultural icon. Beyond that, we've got a whopping three book adaptations and a historical epic actioner, so click through for the full list!

RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: LOL, ATM and Total Recall (27 comments)

by Ryan Fujitani on Tuesday, Jul. 31 2012, 07:52 AM

If you couldn't tell by the movies we decided to headline with, this week marked another round of less than stellar new releases on home video. Thankfully, it was somewhat saved again by a handful of worthy re-releases. Click through for the full list!

Critics Consensus: The Expendables 2 Is (Mostly) Big, Dumb Fun (38 comments)

by Tim Ryan on Thursday, Aug. 16 2012, 04:30 PM

This week at the movies, we've got macho mercenaries (The Expendables 2, starring Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham); a zombified community (ParaNorman, with voice work by Kodi Smit-McPhee and Casey Affleck); an arboreal child (The Odd Life of Timothy Green, starring Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton); and troubled songstress (Sparkle, starring Jordin Sparks and Whitney Houston). You pretty much know what you're getting with The Expendables 2: a group of past-and-present action stars wisecracking and blowing stuff up real good. The surprise, say critics, is that this sequel tops its predecessor in just about every way; sure, it's dumb, loud, and a little too self-conscious, but it's got enough muscular action and funny one-liners to delight the popcorn crowd.

Critics Consensus: The Bourne Legacy Is A Solid Sequel (92 comments)

by Tim Ryan on Friday, Aug. 10 2012, 08:46 AM

This week at the movies, we've got a man on the run The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz), a pair of congressional hopefuls (The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis), and spouses in a rut (Hope Springs, starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones). With Matt Damon in the title role, the Bourne franchise was a commercial and critical juggernaut. Now, Jeremy Renner tries to give the series a reboot, and while critics say The Bourne Legacy is a bit overlong and more disjointed than previous installments, it's still a capable chase thriller with strong action scenes.

Critics Consensus: Total Recall Isn't An Affair To Remember (71 comments)

by Tim Ryan on Friday, Aug. 03 2012, 09:31 AM

This week at the movies, we've got artificial memories (Total Recall, starring Colin Farrell and Kate Beckinsale) and summertime blues (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, starring Zachary Gordon and Steve Zahn). If you're going to remake a modern classic, you'd better bring something new to the table. Unfortunately, critics say this new Total Recall is visually impressive, but it swaps out the existential anxiety and eccentric panache of Paul Verhoeven's 1990 film for an overabundance of action set-pieces. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise has been nothing if not consistent; each movie chronicles the terrors of middle school with moderate wit and little elegance.

Total Recall: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Best Movies (132 comments)

by Jeff Giles on Thursday, Aug. 16 2012, 11:57 AM

He's been a bodybuilder, a bricklayer, a politician, and a restaurateur -- but for our purposes, Arnold Schwarzenegger has always been at his best when he's blowing stuff up in front of a camera, so it's with great enthusiasm that we greet his return to action in this weekend's The Expendables 2. Sure, Arnie isn't really the star of the movie, but with his political career putting his acting ambitions on hold for most of the last decade, we haven't had many chances to celebrate his greatness, and we couldn't resist taking the opportunity here. It's not a tumor, it's Total Recall!

Total Recall: Tommy Lee Jones' Best Movies (88 comments)

by Jeff Giles on Thursday, Aug. 09 2012, 12:52 PM

Since making his big-screen debut in Love Story more than 40 years ago, Tommy Lee Jones has carved out one of the most eclectic, idiosyncratic career paths in Hollywood, going from soap opera star to cinematic leading man -- and appearing in an impressive array of critical and commercial successes along the way. He helped kick off the summer of 2012 with Men in Black 3, and now, with this week's decidedly more mature Hope Springs, he's helping usher it out; in appreciation of his efforts, we decided to dedicate this week's list to some of the many critical highlights from Jones' distinguished filmography. Get ready to squint into the distance and give us your best world-weary sigh, because it's time to Total Recall, Tommy Lee Jones style!

Total Recall: Partial Recall (56 comments)

by Jeff Giles on Thursday, Aug. 02 2012, 12:49 PM

After many months of examining cinematic history under the Total Recall banner, our column meets its destiny this week with the release of Len Wiseman's Total Recall remake. Of course, we knew we needed to dedicate this week's list to recall -- specifically, movies featuring protagonists who have lost their memory. Amnesia is a popular topic for filmmakers, leaving us with enough material to make this a special super-sized edition that features examples from pretty much every genre -- and we're still sure we managed to (ahem) "forget" at least one of your favorites. It's the total partial recall you've been waiting for!

Weekly Ketchup: Even More Tough Guys for The Expendables 3? (55 comments)

by Greg Dean Schmitz on Friday, Aug. 17 2012, 05:34 PM

This Week's Ketchup includes biopics about two influential 20th century women (Nina Simone and Gertrude Bell), new entries in the Hangover and Expendables franchises, and new roles for Dakota Fanning, Jesse Eisenberg, Tom Hardy, Robert Pattinson, Michael Shannon, and Christoph Waltz. The Expendables 2 is first opening in theaters this weekend, but producer Avi Lerner is already talking up the even bigger stars he hopes to entice into appearing in The Expendables 3. And according to Lerner, one of them, Nicolas Cage, already signed on. Here's what Avi Lerner said to TotalFilm on the subject, exactly, "We've approached Clint Eastwood to be one of the guys, we've got a character in mind for him."

Weekly Ketchup: Joss Whedon to Return for Avengers 2 (78 comments)

by Greg Dean Schmitz on Friday, Aug. 10 2012, 04:20 PM

This week's Ketchup includes new movies for actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Reese Witherspoon, comedians Steve Carell, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Will Ferrell, and new projects for directors Joss Whedon and Alexander Payne. And, oh yeah... an ALF movie.

Weekly Ketchup: X-Men: First Class Sequel Details Revealed (78 comments)

by Greg Dean Schmitz on Friday, Aug. 03 2012, 05:40 PM

This week's Ketchup includes two movies with Stephen King connections (The Dark Tower, and a prequel to The Shining), sequels for Prometheus, Thor, and X-Men: First Class, and a new movie for He-Man and The Masters of the Universe.

What The Hell Happened To ... Cuba Gooding Jr.? (105 comments)

by Jen Yamato on Friday, Sep. 05 2008, 02:24 PM

This week, Rotten Tomatoes turns its gaze upon the once promising, now perplexing career of a certain boat-tripping, dog-sledding Oscar winner in hopes of pinpointing just where things went wrong. So what the hell happened to Cuba Gooding Jr.?

What The Hell Happened To Shannon Elizabeth? (125 comments)

by Jen Yamato on Thursday, Aug. 21 2008, 05:57 PM

In our second installment of What The Hell Happened To... we again turn to the Tomatometer to chart the rise and fall of a once-promising Hollywood talent. [To read our inaugural assessment of Wesley Snipes, click here.] What will the Tomatometer tell us, and is there any remedy for Shannon Elizabeth?

What The Hell Happened To Wesley Snipes? (122 comments)

by Jen Yamato on Wednesday, Aug. 13 2008, 05:02 PM

In the first part of a new Rotten Tomatoes feature, we examine the career ups and downs of our favorite fallen celebrities -- as charted by the Tomatometer, of course, and with only the best of intentions in mind.

Five Favorite Films with ParaNorman Directors Chris Butler and Sam Fell (41 comments)

by Luke Goodsell on Thursday, Aug. 16 2012, 11:58 AM

Following the success of Henry Selick's wondrous Coraline in 2009, the team at Laika studios are back this week with their second animated feature, ParaNorman, another stop-motion marvel concerning the misadventure of a young outsider and his spooky connection to the land of the dead. Pitched as "John Hughes meets John Carpenter," it's written by Coraline and Corpse Bride animation artist Chris Butler and co-directed by Butler and Aardman alum Sam Fell, with voices by Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick and John Goodman, and music by Jon Brion. We had a chance to chat with Fell and Butler this week ahead of the movie's release, where they talked about five of their favorite movies -- and how they influenced the creation and execution of ParaNorman.

Five Favorite Films with David Duchovny (58 comments)

by Luke Goodsell on Friday, Aug. 10 2012, 12:10 PM

David Duchovny became a bona fide pop culture star in the '90s with his wry, oddball performance as alien-chasing Special Agent Fox Mulder on TV's The X-Files -- though some may remember his even more eccentric FBI turn on Twin Peaks -- a role he reprized over several award-winning seasons and two big-screen films. Duchovny parlayed the success into his current starring role on the hit Californication, while on occasion finding time to appear in films like this week's Goats, in which he plays a bearded, stoned Arizona goat herder -- and quite convincingly, it should come as little surprise to learn. With the film opening in limited release this week we got a chance to sit down and chat with Duchovny, where we talked about his five favorite films.

Five Favorite Films with Timothy Spall (33 comments)

by Luke Goodsell on Friday, Aug. 03 2012, 03:32 PM

One of the busiest and most recognizable British character actors in movies, Timothy Spall cuts a unique figure of comedy and menace that's seen him play everything from Winston Churchill in The King's Speech to the nefarious Wormtail in the Harry Potter series. Along the way, Spall has worked for the likes of Clint Eastwood, Tim Burton, Ken Russell and Bernardo Bertolucci, while his collaboration with longtime friend Mike Leigh yielded an acclaimed lead performance in the director's Secrets & Lies. This week, Spall makes an appearance alongside Donald Sutherland and Christian Slater in the action thriller Assassin's Bullet, and we had the chance to chat with the very charming actor about his career and five of his favorite movies.