Why Armond White Was Kicked Out of the New York Film Critics Circle

Why Armond White Was Kicked Out of the New York Film Critics Circle
Owen Gleiberman — Entertainment Weekly

This morning, the members of the New York Film Critics Circle, including me, voted to expel Armond White, the former critic of the now-defunct New York Press (and currently the editor and movie critic of CityArts), from the group. To me, it was a sad moment — pathetic, really, though Armond brought it on himself. A week ago, at the Circle’s annual awards dinner, White made a rude and bellicose spectacle of himself, as he did the year before, by heckling one of the winners — in this case, Steve McQueen, the director of 12 Years a Slave, a movie that White, in his review, had dismissed as…

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Saving Mr. Banks — Review

4 of 5 stars
Saving Mr. Banks

Let me be clear from the outset, I enjoyed this film quite a bit. That said, I feel like I would have enjoyed it better if I actually liked Disney’s Mary Poppins. As it is I really do not like Disney’s classic film that much. While P.L. Travers’ concerns and complaints about the film may be too far reaching and come from a bit too dour of an attitude, I tend to agree with her underlying issues regarding Disney’s version of the film. It’s too goofy, doesn’t make a lot of sense, has no coherent story, and doesn’t drive its point home. If the whole point of the Mary Poppins story is the saving…

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‘Catching Fire’ Topples ‘Iron Man 3’

‘Catching Fire’ Topples ‘Iron Man 3’
Jeff Labrecque — Entertainment Weekly

Iron Man 3 had the year’s biggest opening weekend and dominated the summer box office, but when the dust eventually settles on 2013, Catching Fire will go down as the year’s biggest smash. The second film in the Hunger Games franchise, based on Suzanne Collins’ book trilogy, inched past Marvel’s superhero movie on Jan. 9 and now holds the top spot with $409.4 million.

Combined with the original Hunger Games, which grossed $408.0 million in 2012, the Lionsgate films became the first franchise whose initial two installments each topped the $400 million barrier. In addition, Catching Fire has…

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‘Lone Survivor’ Takes Top Box Office Spot

‘Lone Survivor’ Takes Top Box Office Spot
Kevin Jagernauth — The Playlist

Here’s a lesson Hollywood might want to consider: Peter Berg’s “Battleship” cost over $200 million and took $25 million on its opening weekend. By contrast, the tough adult war thriller “Lone Survivor” cost $40 million, and almost made up its budget this weekend earning $38 million and taking the number one slot.

Shocker…

And I must apologize, somehow I’ve missed listing this film in my What to See articles. I’m blaming the holiday befuddlement.

Winners at The Golden Globes

Winners at The Golden Globes
Film.com

In between the jokes on Sunday night (January 12), the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is revealing its picks for the best films, TV shows and actors of 2013.

Regardless of whether you want to revel in your winning picks or comment angrily about why your favorites were more deserving than the winners, we’ve got you covered. Keep us bookmarked for the full list of Golden Globe winners below!

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Best Motion Picture – Drama
WINNER: ”12 Years a Slave”
» ”Captain Phillips”
» ”Gravity”
» ”Philomena”
» ”Rush”

I’ve listed only the one category in my quote above,…

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The Operating System is Alive! What To See This Weekend.

The Operating System is Alive! What To See This Weekend.

This week we can either go back in time and discover the legend of Hercules, or we can go forward in time to when our Operating Systems will be, apparenty, sentient. Of, you can do what I’m doing and catch up on films you may not have gotten to see in December. I’m going to be catching Saving Mr. Banks because a). I want to see it a lot and am dissapointed I didn’t get to see it before year’s end, and b). I think it will be better than either of the two new options I’m listing here. But I do plan to at least see Her I just don’t know when.

New This Weekend

Her — R

So this film looks…

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Disney Appoints a Committee (I am not a committee!) To Determine ‘Star Wars’ Canon

Disney Appoints a Committee (I am not a committee!) To Determine ‘Star Wars’ Canon
James Plafke - Geek.com

The complicated Star Wars canon can be separated into two groups. The official, main Star Wars canon is composed of the (currently) six feature films and the animated Clone Wars series, while the expanded universe is composed of everything else — every weird book you see in the sci-fi section of Amazon, every video game, and every comic.

The canonical Star Wars universe is a mess, and now that Disney owns the franchise, the House that Mouse built has appointed a committee to sifting through that mess, and determining what the official Star Wars canon will be.

Disney, Lucasfilm, Star Wars,…

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Chad’s Top Ten

Chad’s Top Ten
Chad Hopkins - ChadLikesMovies

2013 was a pretty great year for me. I saw more films than ever before, largely due to my involvement in The MovieByte Podcast with my friend TJ. If I totaled everything correctly, I saw 40 new films this year in theaters, so this list is drawing from a pretty wide selection.

An important note: this is a list of favorite films, which may conflict with my ratings. My ratings are usually based on a combination of both quality and enjoyment, whereas this list will mostly be based on enjoyment with quality mixed in just a bit.

Chad and I talked about my top twenty, and his top ten on the

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Rebel Wilson Joins ‘Night At the Musem 3’

Rebel Wilson Joins ‘Night At the Musem 3’
Mike Fleming Jr. - Deadline

Rebel Wilson has been set to join Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan and Ricky Gervais in Night At The Museum 3, which Shawn Levy is directing from the script written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant and David Guion and Michael Handelman for Fox. Wilson will play the night guard at the British museum where the action takes place this time around.

Remember how I put this movie on my list of movies to look forward to this year and everything? Well, YIKES! I take it all back. Ugh.

Dave Chen Interviews Armond White about Steve McQueen Heckling

Dave Chen Interviews Armond White about Steve McQueen Heckling
David Chen - /Film

12 Years a Slave was my favorite film of the year, so I was pretty disappointed when I read in outlets such as The Guardian and Variety  that former /Filmcast guest Armond White had heckled Steve McQueen during the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. Sure, White was no fan of 12 Years a Slave, as demonstrated in our /Filmcast review of the film with him. But shouting down a man during an evening meant to praise him? It struck me as wildly inappropriate. The Chair of the NYFCC, Joshua Rothkopf, agreed and issued a public apology. 

You can listen to some low-quality audio of the incident…

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