The weekend box office opened early this weekend, with Wednesday openers rounding out the top spots. Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro brought in a healthy $48.3 million in the five-day opener of Little Fockers to claim first place, with $34 million over the 3-day weekend; reviews, however, are not as kind. In second, Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin made good numbers with the western remake True Grit and its $36.8 million in five days (almost the movie’s entire budget), $25.6 million of it in three days, to much more positive reception. Jeff Bridges is also enjoying success with 3rd place entry Tron: Legacy, which slips from its first place perch last week, earning $20.1 million.

In fourth, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader made $10.8 million, keeping ahead of last week’s 2nd place contender, Yogi Bear, which fell to 5th with $8.8 million. Mark Wahlberg’s The Fighter falls behind both family films, earning $8.5 million, for a total of $27.5 million in its third week.

Opening at a lackluster 7th is Gulliver’s Travels. The Jack Black comedy earned just $7.2 million and more than a few scathing reviews. Black Swan gained yet more theaters in its fourth week, but even so couldn’t place higher than 8th with $6.6 million. So far, the independent film has made back its budget ($13 million) twice over with $29 million.

Disney’s Tangled still managed to hang in the Top 10, placing 9th with $6.5 million. The animated fairy tale has secured $143.7 in its 5-week run, while in 10th in its third week, The Tourist continues its plunge, dropping four spots since last week and bringing in only $5.7 million.

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Pandora's Box brings to mind familiar questions about film-as art—whether the art arises from the director's work, from the performances, from the editor's decisions, or from a combination of all these elements. Pandora's Box might well be an unremarkable film without the magnificent presence of Louise Brooks, but then again, this presence was never evoked by any director other than G. W. Pabst.

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At the end of 2010, with royal watchers going mad about the engagement of William and Kate, a movie about William's great grandfather seems timely. And Colin Firth watchers are certainly swirling around the possibilities that his portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech could make this, the second of two notable back to back performances (including last year's The Single

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I think the current trend in Hollywood is that if you don't have an original idea for a movie, either remake an old movie or reinterpret a literary classic. The well must have been pretty dry because not only do we get a modern Gulliver's Travels, but we get to see the studio milk us for a few extra bucks by converting the

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The halo surrounding the accolade "film classic" can weigh heavily, indeed, and few films have encountered the extremes of opinion as has Frank Capra's classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It has been considered a most profound American tragedy. It has also been called sheer cornball on celluloid, even a veiled paean to fascism.

When an idealistic youth leader is named

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For the sake of full transparency, I want to start this review by revealing that I've never seen the John Wayne version of True Grit nor have I read the novel by Charles Portis. I've come to the Coen Brothers take on True Grit with a completely open mind, and after the credits rolled, I must say I was blown away. This is

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As he set out to plan Apocalypse Now filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola ranked as one of the most important young talents then working in Hollywood. His two Godfather films (1972, 1974) had landed on the list of the most profitable in Hollywood history, while The Conversation (1974) had been hailed as a masterful "art film." In Apocalypse Now Coppola attempted to create both

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Tron: Legacy is not a reboot or a re-envisioning of the cult sci-fi classic Tron. Rather it's a retooled and amped up version of the same. Ultimately, there's nothing new here. The story follows the template set up in the first one. Hero has problem in the real world. Hero is zapped into virtual world. Hero solves problem in virtual world and the

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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre has become the archetypal John Huston film. One reason is that it is a clear examination of the exploration or the quest. As in many of his films to come (and The Maltese Falcon, to some extent, before it), Huston here examines a small group of people on a quest for wealth. Generally, in his films with

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Isabelle Huppert is a treasure of European cinema, held in the same esteem that Meryl Streep is in America. A perpetually searching, hungry actress, she has worked for many of the most vital and demanding filmmakers in her nearly forty year career. Bold and confrontational in films like The Piano Teacher (2001), Ma Mere (2004), and Loulou (1980), she has never been concerned

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