DreamWorks Animation has had an interesting decade. In its heyday, the animated studio was the biggest threat to the dominative minds at Pixar thanks to mega-franchises Shrek and Madagascar, as well as the critically acclaimed adventure How To Train Your Dragon. And yet, DreamWorks has taken quite the stumble in recent years as their insistence on starting franchises has yielded nothing but failed attempts in Puss in Boots, Megamind, and Rise of the Guardians. Importantly, Rise of the Guardians bombed last November, grossing just over $100 million domestically opposite a lofty $150 million budget and forcing DreamWorks to write an $83 million mark down. Ouch! Fortunately, DreamWorks returned to the top of the charts this weekend with the wonderful animated family romp The Croods, a movie that could very well signal the return of DreamWorks Animation. Just how good is this movie? Is it really DreamWorks’ version…
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We’ve been reading a whole lot about Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers all weekend, and whether people loved it or absolutely loathed it as a piece of cinematic trash, everyone who saw it can’t stop talking about the twisted, nauseating tale of 4 college girls gone wild and the drug dealing rapper who seduces them into a world of crime and danger. Here at Reel Reactions, we absolutely are loving Korine’s generation defining vision (our own Mike Murphy gave it a glowing 9/10 review), and a Critical Reaction podcast seems absolutely necessary for a film that demands conversation as much as this one does. Is this the best film of 2013 so far? Should James Franco be in contention for the 2014 Best Supporting Actor award? Did stunt casting Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens pay off? And what the hell do we mean when we say that the film is the…
Alright, now we’re talking! After an abysmal January and February at the box office, March has picked up things considerably, first thanks to Oz: The Great and Powerful and now thanks to the second big weekend of 2013 that saw three films gross more than $20 million. Though this weekend never had a shot at out-grossing the same frame from 2012 – this is the historic weekend in which The Hunger Games shocked the industry with $152 million – it nonetheless proved that the box office is finally showing some strength in 2013. With The Croods resurrecting DreamWorks and Olympus Has Fallen bringing back the R-rated actioner, it was definitely a weekend to celebrate; click below for a full box office preview:
One of last year’s most exciting trends was the emergence of great animated movies outside of the Pixar wheelhouse. While the acclaimed animation studio was busy releasing Brave, arguably their safest effort to date, Laika Animation Studios was pushing the animated art form to new extremes with the ingenious ParaNorman while Disney’s solo animation branch was turning in heartfelt gems like Frankenweenie and Wreck-It Ralph. In the heyday of the Shrek and Madagascar franchises, DreamWorks Animation was probably Pixar’s biggest rival, though the desire to continue launching franchises has bit DreamWorks in the butt thanks to underwhelming efforts Megamind, Puss in Boots, and Rise of the Guardians. And yet, just when DreamWorks was falling into last place, here comes The Croods, a rather simple movie about a prehistoric family-at-odds that hits all the right emotional chords and provides some of the most beautiful animation ever done outside of…
Allow me to introduce you to the first feel-great movie of 2013. I’m willing to bet most of you have never heard of The Sapphires, the Australian musical comedy sensation that was a huge hit abroad last year, but if this isn’t the most joyful time you’ve had at the movies in quite some time, I’ll be damned. Not every movie has to be an acclaimed potential Oscar-winner to be considered worthy of a look, and while The Sapphires’ thin script and banal direction are hardly memorable, the film makes up for its mistakes with a high-spirited vibe that’s utterly infectious. Sometimes all you need is a great story and some winning performances to make a worthwhile movie and, fortunately, The Sapphires has both, plus the added bonus of some sensational soul music. In a year that has seen more crap than usual, this Australian light-hearted Dreamgirls is some…
In honor of Spike Lee’s birthday today, it could not be a better time for a Movie Rewind of Do The Right Thing, a film that is always the first to come to mind when someone asks what my favorite movie is. Yes, Do The Right Thing is my favorite movie of all time; it’s also one of the most powerful movies ever made. I knew this the moment I first saw it when I was 12, for it was also the moment I knew I wanted to watch movies and talk about them for the rest of my life. Here was a film that shook me to my core, that introduced me to the idea that movies and art could be more than entertainment and do more than just make me feel happy or sad. Here was a movie that wasn’t a movie at all but rather a conversation…
There have been many a great phone calls throughout cinematic history. Hell, there have even been movies devoted to entire phone call conversations; there’s Phone Booth, for instance, where Colin Farrell enters the last remaining phone booth in New York City, receives a call from a mysterious stranger, and is tested to reveal his cheating ways if he wants to say alive. In Cellular, party boy Chris Evans picks up a call from a kidnapped Kim Basinger and is thrusted into race against time to save her. Tomorrow, Halle Berry finds herself in a similar position in The Call, where she plays a 911 operator who picks up the call of Abigail Breslin, who has been kidnapped by an infamous serial killer; the twist: Berry has been in the same position before but the victim died at the hands of the killer the last time. Oh, the drama! In honor…
Now that Emerson College’s Spring Break is over and done with, it’s back to business as usual here at Reel Reactions and what a great day it is to dive back into the movies! After 2 months of abysmal box office results – only one movie this year, the Melissa McCarthy vehicle Identity Thief, has managed to cross the $100 million mark – magic returned to break the box office slump in what was the first blockbuster weekend of 2013. As we’ve seen with The Lorax, The Hunger Games, and Alice and Wonderland, March has often proven to be the first big box office month of the year after the slumps of January and February, and thanks to Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful, it appears this year’s March is no exception. Though other newcomer Dead Man Dead was truly a dead man down, Oz reached…
SHARF @ THE MOVIES 