In this latest episode, the Substandard discusses the new Avengers trailer, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and the Netflix gambit. Sonny loves Office Space, JVL shares theories about the Avengers, and Vic shows off his Rainbow Loom bracelet—plus a possible connection between gout and salad?
John Podhoretz on seeing the Coen brothers’ new western on screens large and small.
Tim Markatos’s whirlwind weekend at this year’s New York Film Festival.
John Podhoretz: The new Neil Armstrong biopic starring Ryan Gosling is a joyless schlep.
John Podhoretz reviews the latest of Tom Cruise's 'Mission: Impossible' movies—an instant action-adventure classic.
In this latest episode, the Substandard takes on Mission Impossible: Fallout. The cohosts rank the M:I series (they all agree on what's the worst). JVL returns from San Francisco, Vic's Bachelor Week comes to an end, and Sonny appears on another podcast. Plus love from the fans, a spirit of the…
Sophia Buono on a starkly authentic film depicting a young athlete’s struggles.
In this latest micro episode, the Substandard breaks apart the trailers for Aquaman and Shazam! Everyone agrees Aquaman will be an unmitigated disaster. Sonny is betting Shazam! does great numbers. JVL strongly disagrees. Vic liked the version of Shazam! starring Shaquille O’Neal.
In this latest episode, the Substandard discusses the Rock's latest actioner, Skyscraper, and the disaster flick genre (The Poseidon Adventure > Beyond the Poseidon Adventure). JVL buys a ton of baseball cards. Sonny reappraises The Dark Knight III: The Master Race. And Vic reappraises Neve…
John Simon introduces the great director to a new generation on his centennial.
In this latest episode, the Subtandard discusses Ocean's 8 (spoiler alerts). But things get really interesting when Sonny asks Vic and JVL to come up with their own gender-flipped cast. Plus kid updates on baseball and tap dancing!
Paul Schrader’s dreary latest film creates a noxious new cliché for our times.
The real reasons the latest Star Wars movie flopped.
In this latest episode, the Substandard breaks down Deadpool 2, much like breaking down a fourth wall. Vic gets grilled by JVL over his fancy new Weber. Sonny envisions Guy Ritchie's Aladdin. Plus the return of fanboy JVL and bonus bleeps!
Al Pacino plays Penn State’s ‘JoePa’ in an HBO movie about the rape scandal.
Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore will release his next movie in September in Toronto. Moore made the announcement on the Twitter live-streaming service Periscope. It'll premier at the Toronto Film Festival:
Have you ever wondered what would happen if the conservative fantasy of taking over the culture came to pass? What if one major movie studio, and a few popular actors, comedians, writers, directors were conservative?
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with assistant editor Ethan Epstein on the Sony hacking and his blog item "Franco and Rogen, Useful Idiots?"
In October 1940, Americans flocked to movie theaters to see Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, mocking the most powerful tyrant on the globe. In December 2014, movie theaters and then the production company cancelled the release of The Interview because of threats of terror from a tinpot, though…
It’s easy to see how Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood—a Bible-reading, pro-gun, pro-life, Democrat—has survived in statewide office even as his already conservative state has turned a deeper shade of red. Quite simply, he’s a likeable, quotable guy who doesn’t seem to have forgotten his roots…
There’s nothing quite so pointless as a movie about gloomy and depressed criminals. Why watch two hours about life on the other side of the law if there’s no kick to it? Crime movies are fun because they acknowledge the pleasures of transgression even as they show the wages of sin. So crooks on…
Three crusading filmmakers intent on doing stories that no one else will touch have moved on from a truth-telling documentary about natural-gas extraction to a planned TV movie about the man they’ve dubbed “America’s worst serial killer.” By the looks of it, plenty of people want the movie to be…
Sonny Bunch on World War Z:
Critics aren’t crazy about Man of Steel, the new Superman movie. It has a 56 percent favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the site that aggregates reviews. But audiences love it; the Cinemascore poll gives Man of Steel a grade of A-.
Last night at the Kennedy Center concert hall, Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese delivered the 2013 National Endowment for the Humanities Jefferson Lecture. He spoke of the importance of preserving film and lamented the studios' fixation with box office grosses. The end of celluloid saddened…
In testimony on Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brought up the movie Argo last month to help explain the terror attack against Americans in Benghazi, Libya. And now, with the Oscars tonight, the new secretary of state, John Kerry, is again plugging the film.
During questioning today at a Capitol Hill hearing on the Benghazi terror attack, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to the Hollywood movie Argo to explain her point:
Actor Jackie Chan has committed to visiting the rogue Iranian regime, according to a report from the Iranian outlet ISNA. The story is headlined, "Jackie Chan: I will definitely come to Iran."
In response to a report that classified information had been leaked to the makers of the Hollywood movie Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, says he's concerned.
Can the Colorado shootings be blamed on the culture? On too much violence in the movies? The argument is made all the time. But it is surprising to hear someone like Harvey Weinstein—who has made a career and a fortune turning out spectacularly violent movies—say it's time for Hollywood to address…
Bill Kristol, with Evan Bayh, Liz Cheney, and Kirsten Powers, yesterday on Fox News:
President Obama issued a proclamation directing government flags to be flown at half-staff "honoring the victims of the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney gathered with supporters in New Hampshire this morning for "a word of prayer."
In brief remarks about the movie theater shooting, President Obama led the audience in prayer and a moment of silence.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters this morning on Air Force One that, in regards to the Colorado movie theater shooting last night, "We do not believe at this point there was an apparent nexis to terrorism."
Every year, there is a movie that becomes an unexpected hit because it finds an audience among people the Hollywood studios resolutely ignore: the over-50 crowd. Last year, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris struck a chord loud enough among those who still dream of arrondisement-hopping with Gertrude…
A mysterious mailer appeared in our mail boxes this week. It reads, "President Robert Mugabe and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Art and Culture invite you to the Premiere of The Dictator." The event's location? The "Presidential Residence" in Harare, Zimbabwe:
There may be an overtly political reason that moviegoers will be seeing the story of the Osama bin Laden raid just before they vote for president. Sony Pictures, the company distributing next year's film, hosted a fundraiser for Barack Obama on their studio's premises in California last April. So…
Last April, when I was in Sarajevo, the Bosnian metropolis, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt happened to make a quick tour of the country, coming by private plane from Venice, where Jolie was filming The Tourist, a mystery pic with Johnny Depp. The arrival of the superstar couple was itself somewhat…
What is combat in Afghanistan like? For those of us who have not been embedded as reporters, but want to know what our soldiers in this difficult war are up against, there is now Restrepo, a documentary film by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger. The subtitle of the film is “One Platoon, One…
Warren Beatty's world extends from the hotel in Beverly Hills where he lived for thirty years all the way to the House in Beverly Hills where he now resides. The man who won an Oscar for directing Reds, the endless 1981 movie glorifying the Russian Revolution that would murder more than sixty…