Features
Tuesday, April 30 2013
The PopMatters Summer Movie Preview - May 2013
Within the first two weeks of the 2013 summer season, we'll see two of the most highly anticipated releases of the year. We'll also get more Hangover, some F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the (hopeful) return of M. Night Shyamalan to the ranks of legitimate filmmaker.
Tuesday, January 11 2011
The Worst Films of 2010
When Hollywood delivers the stink bombs, they are strident in their creative stench. Need proof? Just check out the ten titles below.
Wednesday, May 5 2010
2010 Summer Movie Preview - July
In July, Christopher Nolan unleashes his eagerly awaited new film Inception, M. Night Shyamalan returns with The Last Airbender and Adrien Brody stars in a Predator remake.
Tuesday, April 29 2008
The Return of the Popcorn Circus: June 2008
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?
Reviews
Friday, May 31 2013
Fear Is Literally Fatal in 'After Earth', and the Obvious Is Fatal, Too
Alas, M. Night Shyamalan's After Earth is obvious and unoriginal, a science fictional meditation on excess by way of exceptionalism, loss by way of triumph.
Thursday, July 1 2010
Welcome to the Wacky World of 'The Last Airbender'
In The Last Airbender, poor Prince Zuko frets that his father thinks, “I’m like my mother,” hinting at some gender-role anxieties the film never quite addresses.
Monday, November 10 2008
The Happening
Watching this is rather like watching the grass grow. And blow in the wind. And trees. Bushes. Hedges. Blowing. You get the idea.
Friday, June 13 2008
The Happening
The Happening features an effectively stylized physical environment: rarely have clouds drifting overhead and wind blowing through trees and a sunny day been filmed so ominously.
Friday, July 21 2006
Lady in the Water (2006)
Story's whiter-than-white skin, bloody cuts, color-shifting hair, and need to keep wet make her a bizarre amalgamation of fantasies, alternately "male" and "childish."
Blogs
Monday, June 3 2013
The Lame Lessons We've Learned About the Future in 'After Earth'
The savaged sci-fi epic After Earth is another nail in the coffin of Will Smith's once dominant commercial appeal, and the final one in M. Night Shyamalan's struggles to regain his more or less DOA cred.
Tuesday, May 28 2013
The Curious Case (and Continued Disgrace) of M. Night Shyamalan
How do you go from "the next Spielberg" to a critical joke in the span of a single decade? Just ask M. Night Shyamalan. He knows all too well.
Wednesday, July 14 2010
"Devil": M. Night Shyamalan Gets Back to Horror Roots (trailer)
Billed as coming "From the Mind of M. Night Shyamalan", the first trailer for Devil traps us in an elevator with someone "who is not who they appear to be".
Wednesday, February 24 2010
'Unbreakable 2' on the Horizon?
During a recent junket interview for his upcoming buddy comedy Cop Out, Bruce Willis gave film geeks like yours truly a real reason to rejoice.…
Thursday, June 12 2008
Mess Hysteria: The Happening vs. The Signal
Newsweek Magazine must still be smarting. Back in 2002, as Signs was gearing up for its box office assault, the publication called M. Night Shyamalan…
News
Friday, August 6 2010
M. Night Shyamalan is popular at the box office, but not with critics
What's wrong with this picture? M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender," his adaptation of Nickelodeon's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" cartoon series, topped $125 million in…
Wednesday, June 11 2008
Will M. Night Shyamalan's new R-rated film scare up bigger box-office numbers?
As he waits for his beverage at a Starbucks along West Chester Pike, the portly, middle-aged businessman has no idea of the sinister plot being…
