Manipulative, contrived, melodramatic ― all labels we slap on that most perfectly titled movie genre, “the weeper.” All fit “If I Stay” like original packaging. Teenage girls and the boys who want to date them need to discover the pleasures of a well-executed teen weeper for themselves, and this film fills the bill.Chloe Grace Moretz takes on her first real star-vehicle romance in this adaptation of Gayle Forman’s novel. Moretz is Mia, a Portland, Oregon, high school cello prodigy who, 12 minute

Aug. 22, 2014

The Letters (U.S.)Opened Aug. 21 Drama, Directed by William RieadBased on Mother Teresa’s letters to her spiritual mentor, Father Celeste van Exem, over a 50-year period, “The Letters” is a biopic of her life in Calcutta, India. The film reveals that Mother Teresa had struggles with faith and doubts about God despite being a woman of strong faith. She was distressed when she left home in Albania at a young age to become a nun and felt agony over the hardships of the abandoned and the dying on th

Aug. 22, 2014

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A gay couple who have been together for almost four decades are separated ― at least physically ― by factors beyond their control in “Love Is Strange,” the latest tender and meandering exploration of human relationships from indie darling Ira Sachs (“Keep the Lights On,” “Forty Shades of Blue”). Set in the Big Apple, this is a sprawling yet intimate narrative, constructed almost entirely of in-between moments rather than the big turning points and tragedies. The starting point

Aug. 21, 2014

The 2014 edition of the Korean Film Festival will open in Beijing and Shanghai, the Korean Film Council said on Wednesday. The fourth biennial festival, which launched in 2008, will screen 10 Korean films with a focus on helping Chinese audiences experience and understand Korean movies better.The festival will kick off at CGV Indigo in Beijing on Aug. 27 and continue until Sept. 3, with the films being shown at different theaters, including CGV Indigo, CGV Qinghe, Lumiere Pavillions and Broadway

Aug. 20, 2014

Veteran Japanese actor Ken Watanabe will open this year’s Busan International Film Festival, the event’s organizers said Tuesday.Watanabe has been chosen to cohost the festival’s opening ceremony on Oct. 2 along with South Korean actress Moon So-ri, they said.He will be the third foreign national to open the festival following Chinese actress Tang Wei and Hong Kong actor Aaron Kwok.  Ken Watanabe (center). (Yonhap)He is one of Japan’s most-loved actors and has also carved a place for himself in

Aug. 19, 2014

South Korean actress Song Hye-kyo on Tuesday apologized for committing tax evasion, stating in a news release that she “deeply regrets mishandling her tax affairs due to ignorance.”Song said that she had not been aware that her accountant had underreported her income taxes until the tax authority told her in 2012 that it could not acknowledge them due to a lack of documents on tax-deductible expenses.Through her accountant, the actress reported 5.5 billion won ($5.4 million), or 92.3 percent, of

Aug. 19, 2014

Disaster movies are by design not long on character development. Instead they bank on our love of being virtually, vicariously in fear for lives.Still, they need to establish personalities deep enough to care about, or at least halfheartedly root for. Despite spending the first interminable 20 minutes attempting just that in the earnestly unrealistic manner of an after-school special, “Into the Storm” quickly spirals downward into a vortex of vapidity.The action transpires in a single momentous

Aug. 18, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) ― Moviegoers continued to shell out for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” while Sylvester Stallone’s action ensemble “The Expendables 3” was easily out-gunned in its weekend debut. Paramount Pictures’ rebooted reptiles took in $28.4 million in the film’s second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. That far surpassed the limp $16.2 million earned by Stallone’s gang of aged but buff warriors. The paltry, fourth-place total for “The Expendables 3” is well below previous debuts

Aug. 18, 2014

Moviegoers have seen quite a lot of the sea this summer, as ocean-themed films filled the silver screen. Period action flick “Roaring Currents” showed Adm. Yi Sun-sin’s historic victory, while comedy action flick “The Pirates” depicted imaginary and colorful pirates in search of a whale that swallowed the Joseon royal seal. Nothing like the first two films, “Sea Fog” presents a grim but realistic look at the ocean, depicting human greed lying under the surface. “Through the life of six crew memb

Aug. 17, 2014

A homegrown action film about a 16th-century Korean naval hero’s astonishing victory against Japan gathered more than 13.62 million in attendance at home, a local box-office tracker said Saturday.The Korean Film Council said “Roaring Currents” became the most-watched movie at theaters in the country as of Friday, breaking the previous record held by Hollywood blockbuster “Avatar” that gathered 13.62 million.The record came a day after “Roaring Currents” became the most-watched South Korean-made

Aug. 17, 2014

A homegrown action film about a 16th-century Korean naval hero's astonishing victory against Japan gathered more than 13.62 million in attendance at home, a local box-office tracker said Saturday.The Korean Film Council said "Roaring Currents" became the most-watched movie at theaters in the country as of Friday, breaking the previous record held by Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" that gathered 13.62 million.The record came a day after "Roaring Currents" became the most-watched South Korean-made

Aug. 16, 2014

The number of viewers who have seen “Roaring Currents” exceeded 10 million on Sunday, just 12 days after its premiere, marking the fastest time for a film screened in Korea to hit the box office milestone.The period action flick centers on the historic Battle of Myeongnyang in 1592 at the dawn of the Japanese invasion of Korea (1592-1598), in which Adm. Yi Sun-sin uses brilliant strategy to defeat 133 Japanese warships with only 12 vessels under his command.

Aug. 11, 2014

As its subtitle “The Seafaring Mountain Bandits” suggests, period adventure flick “The Pirates” is out to make audiences laugh.Though the film that opened on Aug. 6 faces strong competition from another period movie, “Roaring Currents,” it has taken off in its own way, offering fun and laughter. “‘The Pirates’ is a film for men and women of all ages,” said director Lee Seok-hoon at the press premiere. “I think the main difference from other films (such as ‘Kundo’ and ‘Roaring Currents’) is that

Aug. 11, 2014

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” sliced off $65 million at the weekend box office. Paramount Pictures’ comic-book adaptation featuring Megan Fox alongside computer-generated renditions of the pizza-eating, sewer-dwelling superheroes lunged into first place in its debut weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. The action film’s totally tubular result prompted the studio to announce plans Sunday for a sequel set for June 3, 2016. Megan Colligan, Paramount’s head of domestic

Aug. 11, 2014

The period action flick “Roaring Currents” has set yet another breakthrough box office record by drawing 10 million viewers quicker than any other film in Korean cinematic history.According to CJ E&M, the viewership of the historical action film topped 10 million as of Sunday, just 12 days since its premiere, becoming the fastest Korean movie to pass the milestone in the local film market. The previous record of surpassing the 10-million mark the quickest was held by two Korean films, “The Host”

Aug. 10, 2014

When chef Floyd Cardoz arrived in France last year, he knew he’d spend most of his time cooking. What he didn’t expect was a quest for the perfect Hollywood shot that would force him to roast a wild bird artfully stuffed with truffles ― 12 times.“I asked someone, ‘Do you really need this amount of food?’” Cardoz said. “There were takes and retakes, and a lot of the food just gets thrown out. For me, that was a learning experience.”Cardoz spent five days working elbow-to-elbow with eight other ch

Aug. 8, 2014

The Fault in our Stars (U.S.)Opening August 13Drama, Romance. Directed by Josh BooneBased on John Green’s best-selling novel of the same name, “The Fault in our Stars” centers on a 16-year-old thyroid cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) who attends a cancer support group because her parents insist that she make some friends. It is at the group that she serendipitously meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), an 18-year-old teen whose basketball career was cut short when he lost

Aug. 8, 2014