Well-cast thriller lurches to a halt a few too many times

Here’s one thing the movies get wrong pretty consistently ― the reaction of seemingly rational people upon seeing the supernatural, the impossible, the miraculous.“Red Lights,” the new film from the director of the nervy minimalist thriller “Buried” (Ryan Reynolds in a box), has great actors reacting exactly the way their characters would respond to things that fall under “This CANNOT be happening.”There’s Sigourney Weaver as Margaret, the jaded, not-quite smug academic and veteran debunker of t

July 13, 2012

Peter O’Toole retires with ‘dry-eyed farewell’

Peter O’Toole is retiring from show business, saying he no longer has the heart for it and that it’s time to “chuck in the sponge.”O’Toole, who turns 80 on Aug. 2, said in a statement Tuesday that his career on stage and screen fulfilled him emotionally and financially, bringing “me together with fine people, good companions with whom I’ve shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits.” “However, it’s my belief that one should decide for oneself when it is time to end one’s stay,” he s

July 12, 2012

Spike Lee works on Jackson documentary

NEW YORK - Spike Lee worked with Michael Jackson and considered him a friend, but the director says even he learned a lot combing through footage of the icon for a planned documentary about the singer’s “Bad” album. Lee calls it a “treasure chest of findings.” “We have footage in this documentary that no one’s ever seen, stuff that Michael shot himself, behind-the-scenes stuff,” he said in an interview Monday. “We had complete access to the vaults of Michael Jackson. ... He wrote 60 demos for th

July 12, 2012

Korean film ‘The Concubine’ sold to eight countries

The South Korean film “The Concubine” has been sold to eight Asian countries, including Singapore, China and Japan, its distributor Lotte Entertainment said Thursday.Directed by Kim Dae-seung, the erotic period drama is about the love triangle involving a Joseon-era king, his concubine and another man.The film has sold more than 2.6 million tickets since opening at local theaters on June 6, according to the company. (Yonhap News)

July 12, 2012

The last one-screen cinema in Seoul plays classic finale

Seoul’s last old-style, one-screen cinema, soon to be knocked down and replaced by a hotel, played its final movie Wednesday ― the Italian classic “The Bicycle Thief’’ ― a moment so emotional for the theater operator that she publicly shaved her head in frustration.The theater, which opened in 1964, had become a place where mostly elderly moviegoers gathered regularly to watch classic Hollywood and South Korean films and indulge in nostalgia for cinematic days gone by. As huge multiplexes made i

July 12, 2012

Christopher Nolan says no more Batman for him

The Dark Knight Rises trailer posterHollywood filmmaker Christopher Nolan has confirmed "The Dark Knight Rises" will be his last Batman movie.Asked if there is any truth to rumors claiming he plans to helm a Justice League superhero ensemble picture featuring Batman, EW.com said Nolan replied: "No, none at all.""We're finished with all we're doing with Batman. This is the end of our take on this c

July 11, 2012

Cruise, Holmes reach settlement in divorce case

NEW YORK (AP) ― Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes reached a settlement on Monday, legally sorting out their divorce with the same speed that kicked off their much-scrutinized romance seven years ago. Just as Hollywood was settling in for what was expected to be a long and nasty separation, lawyers for the couple said the pair settled less than two weeks after Holmes unexpectedly filed for divorce.“The case has been settled and the agreement has been signed,” Holmes attorney Jonathan Wolfe said in a st

July 10, 2012

Oscar-winning star Ernest Borgnine dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Ernest Borgnine, the beefy screen star known for blustery, often villainous roles, but who won the best-actor Oscar for playing against type as a lovesick butcher in “Marty” in 1955, died Sunday. He was 95. His longtime spokesman, Harry Flynn, told the Associated Press that Borgnine died of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with his wife and children at his side. Borgnine, who endeared himself to a generation of Baby Boomers with the 1960s TV comedy “McHale’s Navy,”

July 9, 2012

007 exhibition looks at screen spy as style icon

LONDON (AP) ― If there’s one thing James Bond has taught us it’s that behind every great spy is a great tailor.A new exhibition at London’s Barbican Centre explores the style of the suave secret agent, displaying costumes, props, set pieces and design drawings from half a century of 007 films.Assembled with help from the films’ producer, EON Productions ― which has a new Bond movie to promote in the fall ― the exhibition includes the spy’s tuxedos, Bond girl ball gowns and villains’ vestments, a

July 8, 2012

Korean films of the ’80s: Why so erotic?

On Feb. 6, 1982, director Jung In-yeop’s legendary erotic romance “Madame Ae-ma” was released at the Seoul Cinema Theater in Jongno, central Seoul. The venue was completely packed with an excited crowd, and fierce competition for tickets ensued, resulting in broken windows. It was the first Korean movie to be screened late at night, after the nightly curfew had been lifted exactly one month before. The sexually explicit film, which is considered one of the iconic works of 1980s Korean cinema, dr

July 8, 2012

Box Office

The Thieves (Korea)Opening July 25Crime. Action. Directed by Choi Dong-hun. Anycall (Gianna Jun), Popeye (Lee Jung-jae), Chewing Gum (Kim Hae-sook) and Zampano (Kim Soo-hyun) are professional thieves who work together. After their success in a gallery heist, the group hears that Popeye’s old partner and mastermind of robbery Macao Park is back for another job after many years of missing. Pepsi (Kim Hye-soo), a genius safecracker and old flame of Macao Park, decides to join the group to settle th

July 6, 2012

Hollywood tour bus driver knows what fans pine for: celebrity sightings

Behind the wheel of his tour bus, Don Baisa prays.Please. Give me George Clooney today, he thinks as tourists scramble aboard the 12-seat, open-top van marked “City Tours!”Or Charlize Theron. Or Jennifer Aniston.Will Ferrell. He’d take Will Ferrell.Baisa, a 61-year-old veteran of the tour bus scene with a neatly groomed, salt-and-pepper mustache, knows what his passengers want during their two-hour journey through Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Spotting stars means big tips. One day, after Ryan Se

July 6, 2012

Beloved U.S. actor Griffith dies at 86

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) ― Andy Griffith, who made homespun Southern wisdom his trademark as the wise sheriff in “The Andy Griffith Show” and the rumpled defense lawyer in “Matlock,” died Tuesday. He was 86. Griffith died about 7 a.m. at his coastal home, Dare County Sheriff Doug Doughtie said in a statement. “Mr. Griffith passed away this morning at his home peacefully and has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island,” Doughtie told the Associated Press, reading from a family stateme

July 4, 2012

Seoul festival to show best of world animation

SICAF 2012 to feature 300 animated  films, diverse cartoon exhibitionsSome 300 animated films, diverse cartoon exhibitions and business workshops for anime-artists are to take place in Korea’s capital this month, offering entertainment for viewers and market opportunities for artists.The annual Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival (SICAF) opens on July 18 in several locations in Seoul, the festival’s organizing committee announced last week. The festival this year is divided into t

July 4, 2012