J.D. Shapiro has written many screenplays throughout his career in Hollywood, including the 1993 Mel Brooks‘ comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He also happens to be the screenwriter who penned the 2000 John Travolta starring mega bomb, Battlefield Earth, which recently won the Razzie Award for the “Worst Film of the Decade.” In addition to accepting the award in person, he recently wrote an open letter Read more…
Business was booming at the box office over the busy holiday weekend. Despite several new releases including Disney’s Old Dogs, the top three remained holdovers from last week. The Twilight Saga: New Moon added another $42M to make its domestic total $231M. The real surprise though, was the continuing success of Warner Bros. smartly marketed The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock, which nearly matched Twilight’s numbers, earning $40M in second place. It would be hard to find a more successful example of Read more…
It was all bad news for the new releases this week. Both The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, and Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That landed with a resounding thud. Pelham came in third, with a disappointing $25 million total (my prediction was way off). But that wasn’t even half as bad as Read more…
The Sci-Fi flicks have gone on vacation this weekend to make room for Action and Fantasy. The big box office winner is sure to be The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a slam-bang special effects-filled remake, starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, two of Hollywood’s most bankable actors.
Like most other movies directed by
Tony Scott, this one has received
mixed reviews.
David Edelstein, of New York Magazine, has
issues with the inert–at least in feeling–heist plot. “Travolta’s high-tech 21st-century scheme turns out to be not just preposterous but superfluous, demented: Why would he need to do something so…so…1974 as hijacking a subway train to do what a lot of hedge-fund managers do before breakfast? Travolta doesn’t suggest a man who
Read more…
