Saturday, March 27th, 2010
'Alice' a wonder for film-goers
NEW YORK — Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's trip down the rabbit hole drew huge crowds, as "Alice in Wonderland" earned a whopping $116.3 million in its opening weekend — a record for a 3-D film.
The surprisingly huge total easily surpassed all other films in release and gave Walt Disney Studios an even bigger opening than that of the hugely popular 3-D film "Avatar." It also marked the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel.
"This is just one of those cultural phenomenons that has caught everybody's interest," said Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution. "They don't come like this very often."
Source: www.kansas.com
'Ghost Writer' Hitchcockian
Yeah, Roman Polanski may be a perv.
He's also a master filmmaker, a fact driven home with just about every minute of "The Ghost Writer."
Smart and atmospheric, with a delicious undercurrent of brutality, this is a political thriller executed with the panache of Hitchcock in his prime. There's no showing off here, just the quiet competence of a man who knows how to be scary, subversive and satiric all at once.
Source: www.kansas.com
'Time Machine' lands guys back in the '80s
"Hot Tub Time Machine's" title may say it all. But just in case it doesn't, here's an alternative —"Back to the Hangover."
A sloppy, raucous, time travel farce in the grown-men-gone-wild "Hangover" style, it's surprisingly satisfying.
Nick (Craig Robinson) works at a dog grooming parlor, "Sup Dawg." But back in the day, he had a band.
Source: www.kansas.com
