The poor eyesight of an aged Indy causes terrible car accident. | Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures Plenty of people were disappointed by the latest Indiana Jones adventure, but I thought there were enough vestiges of the original character to make it worthwhile. Note to George, though: you should have stuck with the Darabont draft. Small, foreign films need critical attention to draw in audiences and the AMPAS really blew it by not recognizing 4......

While Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull couldn't quite break the Memorial Day weekend record ($139.8M), it did come close by grossing a robust $126M ($151M) over the long holiday. As the only new film in wide release, it won the weekend by a wide margin. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian fell to $28.6M ($96.6M) in its second frame while mega-blockbuster Iron Man continued to do great business, finishing just......

Don't fucking push any levers! | Photo courtesy of Paramount By now you've probably read everything you want to read about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. All I'll add is a few interesting stats: the total domestic box office of all the films that Harrison Ford has appeared in is a staggering $3,094,851,491. That's just ahead of the films that George Lucas has produced ($2,977,630,768) and behind the movies that......

Atonement hits theaters this weekend as one of the few, definite contenders for an Academy Award. It bears all the traditional hallmarks of an Oscar-caliber film: lavish period piece (check), excellent source novel (check), epic scope (check), high-powered English cast (check), nude scene from Keira Knightley (double check). Those critics who've already seen it have been generous with praise, so I'm expecting nothing less than a winner. It's virtually certain that The Golden Compass......

Did anyone else catch SciFi's Tin Man last night? Definitely worth watching into Part Deux (they will repeat Part One at 7:00pm). I wish I could say the same about Comedy Central's Last Laugh '07 - I love Lewis Black, Dave Attell, and D.L. Hughley, but they crammed their acts, a lengthy animated intro, and a Q/A session into one hour. The end result left a lot to be desired. 7:00pm David Copperfield TCM -......

There was a welcome flight to quality this weekend as movie-goers finally gave some love to a good flick. American Gangster blasted its way to the top with an impressive haul of 46.3 million dollars. Bolstered by positive reviews and the stellar box-office power of Denzel Washington, Gangster should continue to thrive in the coming weeks. Jerry Seinfeld's initial foray into the motion picture business can certainly be called a success. Despite mediocre notices,......

This weekend is one of those weekends where--if you love movies--you'll be hard-pressed to choose which one (or two) to see. Most will probably settle on American Gangster, and I don't see anything wrong with that. Couple two powerhouse actors (Denzel & Crowe) with a reliable director (Ridley), add a compelling story that has slipped through the cracks for years and you have what looks to be a great, studio picture. If, like the......

If you've missed Ken Burns' latest sprawling effort on PBS, you can catch it today when it drops on DVD. Silver Surfer was better than the original Fantastic Four, but that's not really saying much. Got to love Doug Jones, though. 1408 was a surprise summer hit. I think it'll work even better when you're watching it alone at home with the lights turned off. Entourage was never the same after the Aquaman arc,......

Get this, there's another sequel coming out today. You're surprised, I know, I was too. Alas, in a summer of recycled story lines, the comedy genre takes center stage today with "Evan Almighty. With "The Office" on hiatus, I'm itching for some Steve Carell. He arrives, riding an ark, in time for your weekend. Evan Almighty - It's the most expensive comedy ever (there are reports that Universal has been recruiting churches to try......

If you see John Cusack in the stands, someone's in the playoffs or world series. You might recall the Chicago-native in the bleachers of Wrigley Field when the Cubs had a healthy Kerry Wood and Mark Prior and if not for Bartman would have made it further than the playoffs, and then a few years later you may have heard about him wanting to get tickets to see the White Sox as they played......

So we noticed something when catching a few minutes of Chasing Liberty on HBO last weekend. (Btw, LAist was just channel surfing and not actively watching the forgettable Mandy Moore flick – but we so happened to catch a glimpse of dreamy Matthew Goode from Match Point in it.) But back to the purpose of this post. Jeremy Piven is also in the movie, playing a secret service agent. We noticed, however, that the......

New! Updated Roscoe's Edition Have you ever had a perfect waffle experience (PFE)? Not to be confused with the GFE (girlfriend experience) offered by the rotund Dennis Hof and his girls on call at the Cat House. Nor is this what graces your backside after a long time sitting in a pool chair. And we don't mean having John Kerry change his mind on you. (Whoops, LAist sets us back many months by working......

The romantic comedy can sometimes be a bit of a hard sell these days. What passes as comedy can often leave a lot desired to a certain discerning audience, whereas sometimes a discerning audience feels compelled to just put up and shut up, and drop a ten dollar bill on a couple hours' worth of entertainment. We're sometimes kind of suckers for the lighter, lovelorn fare, which, in combination with a couple of good......

While we scratch our heads figuring out how to increase civic engagement here in the city of LA, the restless lefties at MoveOn.org are thinking nationally. Monday they launched a Flash animation contest To Stop the Republican Social Security Scam. There are 16 days left for you to submit your wickedly funny, wierd, politically persuasive Flash animation. Al Franken and Arianna Huffington (of course) are among the judges, plus Richard (Slacker) Linklater, Aaron McGruder (The......