Articles tagged "jason bateman"

TV Review

Sit Down, Shut Up

by Marisa LaScala

[19.Apr.09] :. The characters are boorish and egomaniacal. The comedy is crude. And the cast is terrific.

Recent TV reviews

Film Review

State of Play

by Cynthia Fuchs

[17.Apr.09] :. In this new universe where facts are mutable and ends are means, so-called ethical triumphs can only be short-term.

Recent Film reviews

News

Unheroic superhero appealed to director ‘Hancock’ director Peter Berg

by Steven Rea [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[3.Jul.08] :. “I loved the idea of an alcoholic, nihilistic, subversive superhero, fighting crime drunk,” says Peter Berg about “Hancock” - a screenplay that’s been kicking around...

PopWire

News

He’s the straight man, the Every man — the Bate-man!

by Roger Moore [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[2.Jul.08] :. The part reads, “mild-mannered, middle-aged white guy, kind of idealistic, sort of a cheerleader, not the utter pushover he seems.” And oh yeah, “Make him funny.” Sounds like...

PopWire

Film Review

Hancock

by Cynthia Fuchs

[2.Jul.08] :. John Hancock is a black superhero desired and derided by crowds who are informed by spectacles, stereotypes, and fear.

Recent Film reviews

Short Ends and Leader

‘Hancock’ Hampered by Schizophrenic Script

by Bill Gibron

[1.Jul.08] :. Will Smith is the new up to date version of the late in life career of Charleton Heston. No, he’s not some gun wielding NRA apologist who narrates Bible videos in between bouts with aging. As...

Short Ends and Leader

The Return of the Popcorn Circus: July 2008

by Bill Gibron

[30.Apr.08] :. And it just doesn't stop. If part two in this three-ring play was packed with well hyped product, July just keeps the receipt treats coming.

Juno

by Jarrett Berman

[14.Apr.08] :. Teens have their precious catchphrases and secret languages, but they're nervous, fumbling creatures. They don’t come equipped with Chaucer-like witticisms, or razor-sharp retorts.

‘Juno’ grows and grows

by Robert W. Butler [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[17.Jan.08] :. For a low-budget movie with no major names in its cast, “Juno” has become a force to be reckoned with. Last weekend the indie comedy about a pregnant teen took third place at the box...

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.

Oh, baby! 2007 gave birth to a brood of pregnancy comedies

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

[20.Dec.07] :. In “Juno,” the new, life-affirming teen pregnancy comedy, our spunky 16-year-old heroine is aghast to learn she’s been knocked up. “I was thinking I’d just nip it in the...

Diablo Cody, from stripper to The Screenwriter

by Colin Covert [Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT)]

[10.Dec.07] :. Diablo Cody’s Cinderella moment had arrived. Her film “Juno” was less than four hours from its Hollywood premiere. As the Centerpiece Gala presentation of the annual American Film...

Juno

by Daynah Burnett

[5.Dec.07] :. A movie about a 16-year-old girl's unplanned pregnancy, Juno manages to avoid any significant emotional depths, despite its plainly complex subject.

It Felt Fluid and Rhythmic: An Interview with Diablo Cody and Ellen Page

by Tricia Olszewski

[5.Dec.07] :. The story in Juno is unpredictable and touching. But Cody's dialogue is exceptional, a flurry of hip, witty words that snap and dissipate before you can accuse them of being too stylized.

Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium

by Cynthia Fuchs

[19.Nov.07] :. The adults aren't fully to blame for their dreariness, as they are saddled with a cumbersome script that too plainly emulates Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Today’s foreign wars are Hollywood hell

by Lewis Beale [Newsday (MCT)]

[9.Nov.07] :. This is not your grandfather’s war. This war is unpopular and controversial, seemingly endless. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from releasing a series of films about Iraq and its evil...

Part 5 - Beyond the Envelope

by PopMatters Staff

[12.Oct.07] :. The format forced the issue among cult and commercial products. And TV on DVD highlighted the cream of the creative, forward thinking crop.

A new script for Hollywood war movies

by Carrie Rickey [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[11.Oct.07] :. Anti-war demonstrators storm the Pentagon in the movie “Across the Universe.” A career soldier protests the Iraq conflict in “In the Valley of Elah.” The tactics of an elite...

Hollywood goes to war: Mainstream movies focus on Iraq, terrorism

by Cary Darling [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[1.Oct.07] :. Writer Matthew Michael Carnahan makes a living pounding out movie scripts, where flights of fantasy and retreats from reality are the daily stock in trade. But a couple of autumns back, while...

The Kingdom

by Cynthia Fuchs

[28.Sep.07] :. Boasting charismatic stars and a topical focus on terrorism, the film adds one more cagey detail -- a hint of moral challenge to its own thrills-and-chills violence.

The Ex (2007)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[11.May.07] :. Zach Braff just gets more annoying by the minute. Braff brings what he always does -- a basic mopey charm, some sarcasm, even a rudimentary self-awareness.

Net-Works: The Best TV of 2006

by PopMatters Staff

[10.Jan.07] :. You won't have to look far along your television dial to discover the Top TV picks from PopMatters staff. From 20 upward, each entry represents the boob tube at its best.

Arrested Development

by Amanda Ann Klein

[21.Feb.06] :. Arrested Development went down uncompromised, with guns a-blazing and showing no remorse over its own potential demise.

Arrested Development: Season Two

by Stephen Kelly

[15.Nov.05] :. Twenty-two minutes of a single episode of Arrested Development is still funnier than an entire night of Must-See TV.

Arrested Development

by Jesse Hassenger

[2.May.05] :. Arrested Development is too dense, too smart, too strange. These are all ways of saying that it's too good.

Arrested Development: Season One

by John G. Nettles

[24.Nov.04] :. Arrested Development is Bad Behavior writ large, and it is the most consistently funny half-hour to grace the Idiot Box in a long time.

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[17.Jun.04] :. The team is scrappy and determined, willing to endure repeated -- and I mean repeated -- batterings with wrenches and balls.

Starsky & Hutch (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[4.Mar.04] :. Who could have anticipated that Snoop would be the saving grace of a major studio buddy flick?"

Arrested Development

by Stephen Kelly

[10.Nov.03] :. That Arrested Development mines its laughs by taking potshots at the filthy rich makes it so much more delicious.

The Sweetest Thing (2002)

by Todd R. Ramlow

[11.Apr.02] :. The Sweetest Thing targets moviegoers who seek out the familiar and formulaic.

Some of My Best Friends

by Michael Abernethy

The series premiere of 'Some of My Best Friends' was like a 'Reader's Digest' version of 'Kiss Me, Guido', with a few changes so that the writers couldn't be accused of total plagiarism.