Articles tagged "jack black"

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview Feature

Summer of Same: June 2009

by Bill Gibron

[28.Apr.09] :. This month's "original" fare offers a take on a Sid and Marty Krofft classic, more battling seizure robots, and the retaking of '70s subway thriller. Everything old is new again.

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview

News

This year’s Supporting Actor?

by Rafer Guzman [Newsday (MCT)]

[19.Feb.09] :. When it comes to the best supporting actor Oscar, the winning hand could be held by The Joker. That, of course, is the late Heath Ledger, whose eye-popping turn as The Joker in “The Dark...

PopWire

Film DVD Review

Tenacious D: The Complete Master Works 2

by Thomas Britt

[21.Jan.09] :. This honestly confronts the shifting personas of a now legitimately famous band whose fictional identity once depended on a willful defiance of its own obscurity.

Recent DVD reviews

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008 Feature

The New Classics - The 30 Best Films of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[16.Jan.09] :. Unlike previous years, where classics came crawling out of the celluloid woodwork with regular reckless abandon, 2008 was more calm… and considered. That's not to say that choosing 30 top titles was hard. The difficulty in placing them in some manner of rank order suggests the actual depth of quality involved.

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008 Feature

Iconic - The Top 20 Male Performances of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[14.Jan.09] :. Like the gladiators of old, 2008 resembles a battle of formidable acting gods, especially when looking over the 20 choices presented below. Indeed, if anything, choosing a winner requires more of a leap of faith than any amount of critical skill - they all were that good.

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008

Film DVD Review

Tropic Thunder: Unrated Director’s Cut

by Evan Sawdey

[14.Dec.08] :. A fun, occasionally brilliant satire of these Hollywood tropes that actually retains its comic punch after multiple viewings.

Recent DVD reviews

Are We Not Funny? Laugh, Damn You!

by Chris Barsanti

[5.Sep.08] :. The problem with the (inexplicably popular) Tropic Thunder may be that Ben Stiller is just not a funny filmmaker. Not even remotely.

‘Madness’ Maintains Tropic Thunder’s Gimmick

by Bill Gibron

[29.Aug.08] :. Say what you will about Tropic Thunder - hilarious Hollywood satire or sorry excuse for politically incorrect potshots - but it’s hard to deny its insularity. Of all the contained within...

Jack Black talks ‘Tropic Thunder’ and how he got the girl

by Roger Moore [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[14.Aug.08] :. They teach it in Interviewing 101: find common ground with your subject. But when your subject is rich, famous, plump and happy Jack Black, that might be tricky. Do your homework and there, in the...

Tropic Thunder

by Cynthia Fuchs

[13.Aug.08] :. Tropic Thunder tells you that race and masculinity and class identity issues make men in this business mean and juvenile. And then it tells you again.

‘Tropic’ Blunder

by Bill Gibron

[13.Aug.08] :. We hear it all the time, that comedy cop out meant to assuage the offender of all implied guilt: “It’s just a joke.” Be it a race under attack or a particular person getting the...

Danny O.D.: Too Much McBride?

by Bill Gibron

[12.Aug.08] :. That’s it. I’ve had it. I am officially at my character actor capacity. Nothing personal on the man in question, but after a summer where it seems like he shows up in every movie made, I...

Be Kind Rewind

by Andrew Gilstrap

[19.Jun.08] :. Uneven and a little muddled, Be Kind Rewind might be a prime candidate for the very fan remixing it portrays.

Kung Fu Panda

by Cynthia Fuchs

[6.Jun.08] :. Big and bouncy, Kung Fu Panda is another powerhouse Family Entertainment that means to pummel its young viewers into adulation.

‘Panda’ Stays True to Its Kung Fu Confines

by Bill Gibron

[5.Jun.08] :. It’s been interesting to watch the youth-ification of martial arts. Sure, kids have always been the major market when it comes to karate lessons, video games, and other media oriented kung...

The Return of the Popcorn Circus: August 2008

by Bill Gibron

[1.May.08] :. Talk about a crowded schedule. There are more offerings scheduled this month than in the previous two combined.

The Return of the Popcorn Circus: June 2008

by Bill Gibron

[29.Apr.08] :. If May almost tent-poled itself out of existence, June will be even worse. After all, are audiences really ready for 13 major release in less than two months -- with more to come?

Margot at the Wedding

by Jesse Hassenger

[6.Mar.08] :. Vivid impressions that make us look closely into Baumbach's fascinating, semi-miserable world.

A Gallery of Good Works: The Best Films of 2007

by PopMatters Staff

[11.Jan.08] :. From Julian Schnabel's artsy The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to the legendary Coen Brothers splendid adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, PopMatters counts down the 30 best films of 2007.

Performance Art: The Best Acting of 2007 - Female

by PopMatters Staff

[9.Jan.08] :. From the most sweetly nuanced performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh's career to Cate Blanchett's revelatory portrayal of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, the women of 2007 were stellar.

Brothers and sisters bare their fangs on the big screen

by Chris Vognar [The Dallas Morning News (MCT)]

[5.Dec.07] :. It’s that time of year when intimate strangers come over to eat large birds and drain your liquor cabinet. You know these people from childhood, but your lives have diverged since then. They...

A couple who collaborated on a ‘Wedding’

by Steven Rea [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[29.Nov.07] :. Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh have been married for a little over two years. And they were an item for a while before that. When Baumbach had “The Squid and the Whale”...

Nicole Kidman probed deep for ‘Margot at the Wedding’

by Steven Rea [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[21.Nov.07] :. “I responded to the wicked comedy of it. And the way in which it sort of disturbs you, gets under your skin,” says Nicole Kidman, speaking about “Margot at the Wedding.”...

Margot at the Wedding

by Cynthia Fuchs

[20.Nov.07] :. Margot at the Wedding doesn’t resolve as much as it devolves into a series of arguments and dire revelations.

Ice Age (2002)

by Tracy McLoone

[6.May.07] :. 'Ice Age' is not quite as liberal as it might appear on the surface.

The Holiday (2006)

by Matt Mazur

[19.Mar.07] :. Even though the nostalgic aspects are mildly graceful, the contemporary characters' every move is still riddled with cliché and schmaltz.

Time Encapsulating: The Best DVDs of 2006

by PopMatters Staff

[10.Jan.07] :. From solid single issues to amazingly complete film and television compilations, the works highlighted here argue for DVD's continued importance.

The Holiday (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[8.Dec.06] :. The Holiday pretends its happy endings are premised on the women realizing their capacities as leading ladies. Really, what they're doing is finding the "right" men.

Nacho Libre (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[16.Jun.06] :. On one hand another formulaic loutish white boy saga, it also undercuts that premise, at least intermittently, offering instead a vision of unregulatable, unanxious, unwhite masculinity.

Ice Age: Super Cool Edition (2002)

by Bill Gibron

[13.Mar.06] :. While studios have often been accused of meddling in the creative end of moviemaking, the new DVD presentation of this 2002 blockbuster, illustrates how readily Fox pandered to the movie-going public -- and how eager the filmmakers were to follow the audience's test scoring lead.

King Kong (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[14.Dec.05] :. Jackson's film makes Ann's admiration for Kong an earnest distraction from her eventual, proper coupledom with Jack (who, even with Brody's Men's Health coverboy abs, can't compete with the potent spectacle of Kong).

Shark Tale (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[1.Oct.04] :. Oscar aspires to fame, wealth, and dates with beautiful women-fish.

Envy (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[29.Apr.04] :. Scheduled to open a year ago, Envy is as dopey, uninventive, and smug as you'd expect from a movie that's 'all from shit'.

The School of Rock (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[1.Mar.04] :. 'I'm always going 10 miles too far over the top, and sometimes I have a tendency to go crazy ham and cheese,' says Jack Black.

The School of Rock (2003)

by Elbert Ventura

[2.Oct.03] :. A welcome reminder that studio comedies need not be shoddy, dumbed down, vulgar, and impersonal, the movie is unimaginable without Jack Black.

Orange County (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[10.Jan.02] :. More than anything else, 'Orange County' is mundane.

Shallow Hal (2001)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[8.Nov.01] :. Jack Black is always a pleasure. Irony, weirdness, perversion -- he has it all. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood came a-knocking.

Shallow Hal (2001)

by Todd R. Ramlow

[8.Nov.01] :. What is unfortunate about 'Hal' is that while the Farrellys' previous offerings were, for all their sophomoric dick and fart humor, somewhat good-spirited, their new film is just plain old mean.

Saving Silverman (2001)

by Cynthia Fuchs

I’d say it’s official: Amanda Peet is the reigning go-to-girl for neo-romantic comedies involving nasty jokes about death, sex, and what might be best described as “control...

Jesus’ Son (2000)

by Cynthia Fuchs

The elegance of Maclean's film, however, lies i

High Fidelity (2000)

by P. Nelson Reinsch

In keeping with the spirit of the film itself, I humbly offer the top 5 reasons the new film High Fidelity is worth seeing.