5 articles

1 hour ago

Spare a thought for Snow White: So casually has she been written out of “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” that even Queen Ravenna’s all-knowing mirror, when called upon to name the fairest of them all, omits her as a contender. Vague excuses are made for her absence from a film that awkwardly positions itself as both prequel and sequel to the Goth-lite derring-do of 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman,” though perhaps Snow skimmed Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin’s perfunctory script and reasonably decided she couldn’t be bothered. In her (and Kristen Stewart’s) place, a Katniss Everdeen-styled Jessica Chastain steps into the breach, fighting for good alongside Chris Hemsworth’s eponymous hero — this time against two wicked-queen combatants in Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt, whose glittery sisterly feud would have made for an adequate spinoff vehicle on its own. Even their doubled-up diva-tude, however, can’t ignite a rhythmically flat, »

- Guy Lodge

5 hours ago

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” remained on top of the Korean box office, albeit with a sharp 71% weekly decline.

The DC Comics superhero movie earned $2.53 million between Friday and Sunday, for a total of $14.5 million from 1.99 million admissions after two weekends.

“Zootopia” remained in second, enjoying a 16% week-on-week rise in revenue.  The Walt Disney animation earned $2.12 million between Friday and Sunday, extending its total to $24.4 million after seven weekends.

Korea’s “The Great Actor” opened third, scoring $830,000 between Thursday and Sunday. “Actor” is the feature debut of Seok Min-u, previously assistant director to some of Korea’s top filmmakers. Starring prolific Oh Dal-su, the story sees a washed up stage actor use every means available to make an elaborate lie about making a big movie come true.

Newcomers from the U.S., crime thriller “Misconduct,” horror “The Forest,” and comedy “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2,” opened in fourth, »

- Sonia Kil

7 hours ago

Two new Chinese movie releases and a still strong “Zootopia” this weekend dashed expectations that “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” would be a breakout hit in China this year.

“Batman v Superman” occupied fourth spot of the Chinese box office on each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but ranked third over the three-day period, earning $12.6 million (RMB81.8 million,) narrowly ahead of “Zootopia” which earned $12.5 million (RMB81.4 million.)

That represented a 78% drop from the superheroes’ first weekend. After 10 days “Batman v Superman” stands on a cumulative of $86.2 million (RMB560 million.)

Action drama “My Beloved Bodyguard” (aka “The Bodyguard”) debuted on top and scored $25.2 million (RMB164 million.) Directed by veteran martial arts star Sammo Hung, and starring Hung and Andy Lau, the Hong Kong-Chinese co-produced film claimed top spot on each day.

In second spot on each of the three days was dark comedy “Chongqing Hotpot.” It earned $21.8 million (RMB138 million) over three days. »

- Patrick Frater

8 hours ago

Thailand’s slide from a country known as the Land of Smiles to a land dogged by religious conflict and political violence is lamented in the elegantly composed arthouse entry “The Island Funeral.” Centered on three young Bangkok residents searching for a long-lost relative in the nation’s troubled South, the pic mixes road-movie and mystery-thriller elements with the scent of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” to produce a quietly gripping tale with its own distinctive voice. Awarded the Asian Future prize at Tokyo and now gaining traction with appearances at Rotterdam, Goteborg and Hong Kong, the film looks primed for a lengthy stint on the fest circuit. Local release is tentatively set for August.

Following a 12-year hiatus from narrative features, Pimpaka Towira makes a winning return here. Concentrating on short subjects and documentaries (“The Truth Be Told: The Cases Against Supinya Klangnarong”) since her 2003 feature debut, “One Night Husband, »

- Richard Kuipers

8 hours ago

Disgruntled fantasy fans who found “The Witch” or “It Follows” too slow, talky and slim on conventional payoff will be apoplectic over the purported sci-fier “Alienated,” which advertises itself as being an alien-invasion tale. Imagine their emotions upon discovering they’ve actually signed on for 80 minutes of sniping between two ill-matched spouses, with just a blip of bookending genre material. The bait-and-switch might be excusable if Brian Ackley’s feature were a good marital relationship drama, but the divorce-ready characters prove as irksome for viewers as they are for each other. The movie is bravely playing a few U.S. theaters (it opened March 19 in New York, then added Boston, with Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles to come), but will likely make less noise than its argumentative protags. More entertaining than anything on screen will be the eventual responses of average VOD renters lured by the promised theme — particularly »

- Dennis Harvey

5 articles

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