Bryan Singer, a director known for his superhero cinema (including X-Men and Superman Returns), is injecting a dose of modern movie magic into the classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Though Jack the Giant Slayer features a strong cast, the action adventure sacrifices story for spectacle, says Eli Glasner.
Category: Movies
FILM REVIEW: Jack the Giant Slayer
Categories: Movies
Oscar predictions: the shoo-ins and the should-have-beens
Categories: Movies
Tags: Oscar predictions
Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony could be a night of notable snubs and strange choices. From best picture to best screenplay to best animated film, Eli Glasner gives his predictions of who will take home the Oscar and who ought to win.
Beyoncé's Life Is But a Dream a curated peek behind the curtain
Categories: Movies, Music, Television
Tags: Beyoncé Knowles, Blue Ivy, doc, Jay-Z, Life Is But a Dream, personal
Fresh from her fierce gig at the Super Bowl, notoriously private pop star Beyoncé Knowles is offering a glimpse at her vulnerable side in her doc Life Is But a Dream. But this self-directed, self-produced peek behind the curtain is more carefully engineered confessional (with some admittedly electrifying performance footage) than a true exposé of the real Bey.
6 bone-crushing football films
Categories: Movies
Tags: college, football movies, high school, NFL, Super Bowl
Gridiron athletes, embattled coaches, behind-the-scenes politics and hedonistic partying -- football films have definitely carved out a distinctive niche in the history of cinema. As NFL fans gear up for this weekend's Super Bowl, CBC News offers a quick look at 6 noteworthy films of the bone-crushing genre.
FILM REVIEW: Warm Bodies
Categories: Movies
Warm Bodies director Jonathan Levine breathes new life into the undead with the story of a zombie who falls in love. R, played by Nicholas Hoult, spends his days shuffling around a deserted airport until the day a girl, Julie, twigs some human spark in him. It's a mash-up of rom-com and horror, with enough twists to be truly engaging, Eli Glasner discovers.
Argo moves to the fore in Oscar best picture race
Categories: Movies
Tags: Academy Awards, Argo, Ben Affleck, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty
With wins at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Producers Guild Awards, Argo is scooping up loads of movie world glory as the Academy Awards approach. It's been an unexpected, but perhaps unsurprising, development. Ben Affleck's thriller delivers a warm and tidy package, without any dirty politics, that makes Hollywood feel good about itself.
FILM REVIEW: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
Categories: Movies
Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton do their best to save Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, with game performances as a duo who grow up to be bounty hunters. But there's only so much they can do with this medieval muddle of gingerbread houses, crude witches and modern firepower.
At first glance, Knife Fight looks like a promising political satire. A Democrat damage control wiz co-wrote the screenplay and the film features two familiar faces from The West Wing. Unfortunately the story of Knife Fight isn't as sharp as it thinks it is, writes Eli Glasner.
Continuing a career built on charming thugs, Jason Statham appears as Parker, a thief with a strict code of conduct. It's boilerplate stuff for fans of the bald Brit, but Jennifer Lopez seems an unnecessary addition to the formulaic film.
FILM REVIEW: The Last Stand
Categories: Movies
Arnold Schwarzenegger returns in his first feature film in over a decade in The Last Stand. While the plot is predictable and the characters cartoonish, the combination of an age-appropriate role and an energetic Korean director may be impossible to resist for the former Terminator's legion of fans.
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Deana Sumanac (10)
CBC News arts reporter, lit lover and music geek.
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March (1)
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February (9)
- Canada's Stella Sisters sing a birthday tribute to the Man in Black
- Oscar swag the ultimate consolation prize
- Oscar predictions: the shoo-ins and the should-have-beens
- Authors bare all for PEN Canada
- Anoushka Shankar and the One Billion Rising campaign
- Beyoncé's Life Is But a Dream a curated peek behind the curtain
- Drake gets wild in the street over Grammy win
- 25 billion songs downloaded on iTunes, and counting
- CBC Music's Searchlight seeks best new artist
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January (16)
- 6 bone-crushing football films
- FILM REVIEW: Warm Bodies
- Justin Timberlake's musical comeback
- Argo moves to the fore in Oscar best picture race
- FILM REVIEW: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
- FILM REVIEW: Knife Fight
- FILM REVIEW: Parker
- Kroll Show parodies Degrassi with "Wheels, Ontario"
- FILM REVIEW: The Last Stand
- FILM REVIEW: Gangster Squad
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