Movies World - Reviews - Part 1

In his best movie roles, Karl Malden is specifically the other man, the guy defined partly by his lack of certain attributes abundantly present in the protagonist.

Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” is a grave and beautiful work of art.

“Tony Manero” tells the story of a thug who dreams about a fictional fleeting success.

What? Dawn of the dinosaurs? In the Ice Age? You’ve got to be kidding.

“The Beaches of Agnès” is at once an illustration of the fine art of foraging and an autobiographical portrait.

The conflicted lovebirds in “I Hate Valentine’s Day” may be in their 30s, but they play the game of romance with the finesse of sixth graders.

“Lion’s Den” is the Argentine director Pablo Trapero’s sprawling, unpredictable drama about a woman who gives birth in prison while awaiting trial for murder.

If in the end “The Girl From Monaco” is neither a cogent psychological thriller nor an effervescent sex comedy, it does at least have an interesting sense of place.

“Nollywood Babylon” profiles the explosive success of this truly populist cinema.

Bollywood casts a proprietary eye on Hollywood in “Kambakkht Ishq.”

From film to fashion, vampire mania seems to stem from the ethereal cool and youthful sexiness with which the demons are portrayed.

Mr. Presnell’s operatic baritone thrilled audiences in the stage and film versions of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

In a sign of growing caution in the industry, production was halted on a high-profile film starring Brad Pitt just days before shooting was to begin.

Some home video duties could be handed off to other studios, saving Paramount millions.

Seth Rogen (among others) is elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Smokehouse Pictures, Mr. Clooney's three-year-old production company, has not renewed its deal with Warner and plans to decamp to the Sony lot.

The Kicing and Screening International Film Festival from July 14-18 will include movies about the 1998 French World Cup team and the New York Cosmos.

And they say the Oscars are never much of a surprise.

Horrid reviews couldn’t dent “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” which sold an estimated $201.2 million in tickets at North American theaters over its first five days.

Agnès Varda, the only female filmmaker associated with the New Wave, is still making movies at 81.

Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” owes its very existence to a roster of films that never happened.

“Conquest of the Useless” is a journal about the shooting of Werner Herzog’s Amazonian epic “Fitzcarraldo.”

The actor Bill Pullman keeps things strange in his latest film, “Surveillance.”

Ben Gazzara plays a cadet with an affinity for silk dressing gowns in “The Strange One” and Jon Voight plays a happy-go-lucky gambler in “Lookin’ to Get Out.”

Digital techniques to compile, exchange and assess lists of actors have simplified casting, and could be used in other industries.

“The Stoning of Soraya M.” thoroughly blurs the line between high-minded outrage and lurid torture-porn.

“Local Color” is so well acted that you almost forgive its formulaic structure, treacly score and earnest voice-over narration.

“Quiet Chaos” demonstrates that the sad-dad melodrama is a global (or at least a midlevel European art film) phenomenon.

Riding a wave of successful films as the president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, Peter Rice will become the top entertainment executive. New films from Steven Soderbergh, Eric Bana and Cheryl Hines join the lineup at the coming TriBeCa Film Festival. The merger of the two talent agencies would challenge the leadership position of Creative Artists Agency. Mr. Pinelli’s prolific screenwriting career included a long partnership with the director Federico Fellini, with whom he wrote “I Vitelloni,” “La Strada,” “La Dolce Vita” and “8 ½.” The Sundance Film Festival has found its new director. A judge has ruled that the novelist Clive Cussler must pay $13.9 million in legal fees to the production company that made the film “Sahara.” A large number of the Times’s critics’ picks release on DVD this week. Mara Manus, the Public Theater’s top financial executive, is taking the helm as the Film Society undergoes a $38 million expansion. Betsey Johnson and 20 other designers are recreating Dorothy’s glittering ruby slippers to commemorate the 70th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz” next year to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The 46th New York Film Festival will open with the North American premiere of “The Class” (“Entre les Murs”). Mr. Joffe was a co-producer of Woody Allen’s movies and the business expert in the talent agency that managed the careers of a host of high-profile comedians. Paramount Pictures said it had pulled out of a planned film finance deal that was meant to raise as much as $450 million. An oral biography of the comedian Chris Farley. The film has earned an estimated $55.7 million since Thursday, making it an unconventional summer hit. A fire at NBC Universal’s studio lot in Universal City, Calif., destroyed a vault full of movie and television images and parts of the popular studio tour. At least six firefighters were injured. In the gender wars, men generally win the race to the bottom. This past week though, women were the ones who seemed completely preoccupied by the reproductive act. Ryan Kavanaugh pleaded no contest to, and was convicted of, one count of driving under the influence of alcohol, while more serious charges were dropped. Ian Fleming, had he lived, would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Wednesday. James Bond, his greatest invention, is ageless and immortal. Dario Argento’s latest danse macabre, “Mother of Tears,” starring his daughter Asia, is now on DVD. Fashion has been a regular character defining trait throughout the “Sex and the City” series, and in the film version, the fashion is jaw-droppingly fantastic. Two years in, the merger of Disney and Pixar is notable for how well the two companies have made it work. “Speed Racer” sets out to honor and refresh a youthful enthusiasm from the past and winds up smothering the fun in self-conscious grandiosity. “Surfwise” has a bohemian vibe and a cool sheen, but it’s an eager-to-please, pleasing commercial enterprise with a reassuring narrative arc. “Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead” is just about as perfect as a film predicated on the joys of projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea can be. While many actresses fantasize about wearing Valentino or Zac Posen on the red carpet, Ellen Page has a completely different idea. The British actor Ian McShane opens next week as the patriarch Max in Harold Pinter’s “Homecoming,” a man-monster of diminishing powers and, of course, many vulgarities. The “Black List” has become the kind of underground document that writers with projects in development pray will mention their script. Miramax may be a smaller and calmer organization under Daniel Battsek, but the studio has nonetheless remained in the thick of the awards race. Wiley College is suddenly feeling the glow of celebrity with the release of a film about the school’s debating team. “Ford at Fox” is a gargantuan boxed set that assembles 24 of the 50-some films John Ford made for the studio that was his most consistent home. After months of worrying and diplomatic wrangling, the movie studio that is releasing “The Kite Runner” has whisked to safety four young actors. She no longer dances naked, but the first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody is still exposing herself. Twenty-seven years and 16 features after they began their mutual career, John Sayles and Maggie Renzi are still making movies. A documentary about last year’s disputed presidential election has drawn big crowds and generated controversy in Mexico. The screenwriters called the proposals from producers a “a massive rollback,” and called on their members to continue their walkout.