Author: Jake Coyle
-
‘Ghostbusters’ holds its own, but ‘Life of Pets’ still No. 1
NEW YORK (AP) — After months of prerelease debate, Sony Picture’s female-led “Ghostbusters” reboot arrived in theaters as neither a massive success nor the bomb some predicted, as the much-scrutinized film opened with an estimated $46 million in North American theaters, second to the holdover hit “The Secret Life of Pets.” “The Secret Life of…
-
Review: Savagery and virtuosity mingle in ‘The Revenant’
Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s frontier survival saga “The Revenant,” filmed in the Canadian Rockies, seeks to join the ranks of Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”: movies that take some of their primal madness from their raw, remote natural landscapes. The making of those movies are mythic tales in their own right, and…
-
Del Toro’s ‘Crimson Peak’ casts a gothic spell
Starring Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain; directed by Guillermo del Toro; 118 minutes; R for bloody violence, some sexual content and brief strong language. The most pressing threat in Guillermo del Toro’s gothic horror “Crimson Peak” isn’t the ooze-filled cauldrons of dead souls in the basement of the old Victorian mansion, nor the plotting,…
-
In a time of progress, dramatizing a gay rights landmark
TORONTO – “Freeheld,” a gay-rights drama about the turning tide of social justice, was shaped by the same currents of change it depicts. In the course of making the true story about New Jersey police detective Laurel Hester’s fight for pension benefits for her domestic partner, Stacie Andree, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of…
-
Fall movie preview
NEW YORK – Though the fall movie season is traditionally the time of year when Hollywood gets serious, this fall is stuffed with spectacles. Alongside the seasonal biopics, true-life tales and period dramas that will surely contend for Oscars, some of the biggest franchises around are set to add a whiff of popcorn to awards…
-
A pugilist parable of transformation in ‘Southpaw’
If you’ve ever wondered what might have happened to Job if he had a strong left hook, “Southpaw” may be the film for you. The rapid descent of light heavyweight champ Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Antoine Fuqua’s boxing drama is of biblical proportions. Not weeks after Hope – rich, happy, successful – has defended…
-
A prequel for the pipsqueaks called ‘Minions’
Starring the voices of Geoffrey Rush, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Carell; directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda; 91 minutes; PG for action and rude humor Sidekicks rarely shine when thrust into the spotlight, but what about a few hundred of them? The Minions, having been the best part of…
-
Time to terminate
Thirty-one years and counting, and the Terminators keep rolling off the assembly line like new iPhones, upgraded with shape-shifting abilities, rebooted Sarah Conner assassination levels and, one presumes, better selfie cameras. “Terminator Genisys,” directed by Alan Taylor (“Thor: The Dark World”), is the fifth entry in the series begun by James Cameron and a naked…
-
Sequels multiply in summer movie season
“I’ll be back,” the line Arnold Schwarzenegger first uttered more than 30 years ago in that indelible manly monotone, belongs to the Terminator, of course. But it might as well be the official slogan of the summer movie season. It’s the time of year when Hollywood’s older, reliable brands, with the tenacity of Schwarzenegger’s lethal…
-
10 MOVIE ORIGINALS TO WATCH THIS SUMMER
The summer movie season isn’t just sequels and reboots. OK, well, it mostly is. But there are originals trying to squeak through, too. Here are 10 to look for this summer: 1. “Inside Out” (June 19) – By June, it will have been two years since the last Pixar release (“Monsters University”). They have been…