Jacob Hall

Sometimes, a film can effortlessly open at number one at the box office while still being a pretty huge disaster. This is the case with ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings,’ which rode a wave of terrible reviews and an even more terrible marketing campaign to a hugely disappointing start. With a lot of big movies opening the next two weeks, the new Biblical epic won’t even find time to grow some legs. Chances are strong that it is dead on arrival.

Read More|Comment

If you loved ‘Divergent’ and are already totally on board with the cinematic adaptations of Veronica Roth’s young adult science fiction novels, then the trailer for the awkwardly titled ‘The Divergent Series: Insurgent’ is probably going to prove exciting. If you’re unfamiliar with the franchise, prepare for 144 seconds that might as well be in a foreign language.

Read More|Comment

The first 'Into the Woods' trailer was strangely lacking in singing, which was an odd way to sell a movie based on one of the most beloved of all modern musicals. Thankfully, Disney has course corrected with trailer number two, which actually lets us see and hear the ensemble cast performing Stephen Sondhiem's iconic songs. It's an improvement by default.

Read More|Comment

Unlike previous messages, this one actually has demands outside of vague, frightening threats: Sony must delay the release of ‘The Interview,’ “the movie of terrorism,” or face the consequences.

Read More|Comment

Honestly, we could have just copied and pasted last weekend’s box office report and gotten away with it. Outside of the shifting numbers, the order of the top 10 is almost identical to what it was a week ago. This is Hollywood in a holding pattern. The weekend after Thanksgiving is a wasteland. That’s probably why ‘The Pyramid’ was dumped this weekend. However, the lone newcomer in the top 10 didn’t just bomb, it bombed spectacularly.

Read More|Comment

Stephen King’s ‘It’ is a beast of a book. Over its 1,000-plus pages, the novel follows a group of close-knit friends who do battle with a malevolent, child-killing force in their youth, only to reunite decades later to finish the job. It’s a messy, ambitious and insanely (perversely, even) detailed work. It feels unadaptable. But no one tell that to ‘True Detective’ director Cary Fukunaga, whose long-gestating adaptation is finally going before cameras next summer.

Read More|Comment

Appropriately, the Thanksgiving holiday box office was all about the leftovers. While two high profile new releases struggled to open, films from the past few weeks continued to do solid business. In fact, this was one of the most varied weekends at the box office in quite some time, with YA adaptations, animated family movies, epic blockbusters, and small independent films all performing better than expected.

Read More|Comment

‘Big Hero 6’ may only be tangentially related to the Marvel comic on which it is based and completely unconnected to the larger Marvel cinematic universe, but it still has the obligatory Stan Lee cameo. Yes, this is an animated movie featuring an animated version of the legendary comic book icon/Marvel mascot. But hey, it’s a tradition at this point.

Read More|Comment

It’s no secret that Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz has been cast as the main villain in the next James Bond adventure (which we’re all just calling ‘Bond 24’ for the moment). However, the exact nature of the role may have been revealed and, if it’s true, 007 fans all over the world will rejoice. Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is: Waltz may be playing Bond’s old arch-nemesis, Ernst Stravo Blofeld.

Read More|Comment

Ever since it was first revealed that director Gareth Edwards and screenwriter Gary Whitta were teaming up to make the first official ‘Star Wars’ spin-off movie, the internet has been ablaze with theories concerning what this thing could possibly be about. Now, an unconfirmed report from a reliable source claims to have discovered the plot of the 2016 film and if it’s true, fans of the saga are in for a real treat.

Read More|Comment