Promised Land was swept under the enormous blockbusters’ success of December, so little has been said about the film starring Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, and John Krasinski. For a simple drama set in the heartland of America, one that was written by the dynamic talents of Gus Van Sant and Damon, it seems the film would have met bigger acclaim for its themes and entertainment value. Or at least, the film should have lived up to someone’s expectations (films usually do). Why are audiences and critics bashing Promised Land?

TJ and I are reviewing the movie this week on The MovieByte…

Quentin Tarantino probably had a vastly different idea of how the months leading up to the 85th Academy Awards would transpire for him. As he began to promote Django Unchained, he no doubt expected to spend the majority of Awards Season talking about America’s legacy of slavery, about his decision to portray it as unambiguously horrific, and how the peculiar institution has historically been treated in film.

No doubt.

In the interview, which I’ll embed below, Tarantino pretty much blew up, and the interviewer kept trying to come back to it, kept trying to get him to say something…

Before filming began on the sequel to the 2009 hit Star Trek, we posted multiple articles showing Abrams’ aversion to 3D. He said he had nothing against it but it never really sold him and suggested he didn’t want to make Into Darkness in 3D. Soon after, it was revealed the film would be shot in 2D and post-converted, which gave fans a lot to worry about. The question became, “what happened?”

...

The studio said, ‘You have to make it in 3D if you’re going to make it, for economic reasons.’ But my feeling was I didn’t like 3D. So the idea of doing Star Trek in 3D was ridiculous. But…

Riots. Famine. War. Politics. Scandal. And Shakespeare.

Ralph Fiennes works both sides of the camera in a stunning directorial debut that reimagines one of the Bard’s lesser known works in a 21st century setting. Coriolanus is the answer to those who wonder if Shakespeare still matters.

A Remarkable Reimagining


Fiennes stars as Caius Martius “Coriolanus”, a proud and illustrious Roman general suddenly pitted against his own people. Rebelling against the schemes of his manipulative mother, Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave), and banished by the republic he has protected at all costs,…

Here we are. Another week has come and gone and you may want to head to the cinema this weekend to see something. But you might be wondering what that something might be. That’s why we’re here to help.

New Films

Gangster Squad (R)
This film looks pretty good and I will be seeing it tomorrow. On Monday I posted six teaser clips from this upcoming film which you can find here. And here are the trailers on Apple Trailers site.

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns,…

Though it suffers from tonal inconsistency and a lack of insightful retrospection, Hitchcock is elevated by nigh-to-inspired performances from its distinguished cast.

Hitchcock is unique to me because it was the first film in theaters that TJ and I saw together. ¹ Hardly what we would’ve picked for the occasion, it surprised us both to be more-or-less an entertaining portrayal of Hitchcock’s life and times during the production of the classic horror film Psycho. Since I know a lot of Hitchcock films by heart, and TJ hadn’t taken the time to watch any besides the original Psycho, this…