...was a palpable sense of relief. The movie was kind of a gamble, especially for fans of the novels. Peter Jackson was the Oscar-winning fantasy auteur he would become, and previous attempts to bring Tolkien to life had been sketchy at best.But...

...Barbra Streisand will perform at the Oscars next month, the first time she's...Star Is Born" that night.She won the Oscar for best actress for 1968's "Funny...British singer Adele will perform at the Oscars. She and producer Paul Epworth are...

Opens Friday, Aug 2, 2013 Synopsis: A notorious artistic and financial failure, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate was blamed for critically wounding the movie Western and definitively ushering out the 1970s Hollywood New Wave of young, brash, independent filmmakers. Taking a revisionist, post-Vietnam view of American imperialism, Cimino used the historical Johnson County War incident in Wyoming to create an impressionistic tapestry of Western conflict between poor immigrant settlers and rich cattle barons led by Canton (Sam Waterston) and his hired gun Nate Champion (Christopher Walken). Attempting to mediate is idealistic Harvard graduate and county marshal Averill (Kris Kristofferson), who is both Nate's friend and his romantic rival for the affections of Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert). However, war erupts, at great cost to all involved. Flush from his success with the Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter (1978), Cimino demanded creative control, and his insistence on shooting on location and building historically accurate sets and props multiplied the film's original budget to a then-astronomical $36 million. When United Artists premiered the original 219-minute version (sight unseen), they discovered that Cimino had produced an elliptical epic, compounding the box-office difficulties of making a Western without any major stars. Critics howled about Cimino's incomprehensible self-indulgence, and United Artists pulled the film after several days. Re-released five months later, 70 minutes shorter, Heaven's Gate bombed again, and MGM bought out the financially crippled United Artists. The ailing Western genre virtually vanished during the 1980s, Cimino's career never recovered, and Hollywood studios had had enough of bankrolling financially risky ventures by "auteur" directors. Heaven's Gate's reputation recovered somewhat after its video release, as it garnered praise from some viewers for such visually remarkable sequences as the Harvard dance and the final battle, as well as for David Mansfield's haunting score. Steven Bach's book Final Cut provides a full production history. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, Sam Waterston, John Hurt, Brad Dourif Movie Details Movie Review

...In 1970, when even Sinatra had temporarily retired, Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records, three platinum and five Grammy award nominations.Williams was also the...

...In order to give our trapped Americans a cover story which will allow them to escape the country, Mendez, along with the Oscar-winning make-up artist from "The Planet of the Apes," John Chambers, decides to create the illusion that a science-fiction...

Opens Friday, Jan 4, 2013 Synopsis: "You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," warns water baron Noah Cross (John Huston), when smooth cop-turned-private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) starts nosing around Cross's water diversion scheme. That proves to be the ominous lesson of Chinatown, Roman Polanski's critically lauded 1974 revision of 1940s film noir detective movies. In 1930s Los Angeles, "matrimonial work" specialist Gittes is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to tail her husband, Water Department engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling). Gittes photographs him in the company of a young blonde and figures the case is closed, only to discover that the real Mrs. Mulwray had nothing to do with hiring Gittes in the first place. When Hollis turns up dead, Gittes decides to investigate further, encountering a shady old-age home, corrupt bureaucrats, angry orange farmers, and a nostril-slicing thug (Polanski) along the way. By the time he confronts Cross, Evelyn's father and Mulwray's former business partner, Jake thinks he knows everything, but an even more sordid truth awaits him. When circumstances force Jake to return to his old beat in Chinatown, he realizes just how impotent he is against the wealthy, depraved Cross. "Forget it, Jake," his old partner tells him. "It's Chinatown." Reworking the somber underpinnings of detective noir along more pessimistic lines, Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne convey a '70s-inflected critique of capitalist and bureaucratic malevolence in a carefully detailed period piece harkening back to the genre's roots in the 1930s and '40s. Gittes always has a smart comeback like Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but the corruption Gittes finds is too deep for one man to stop. Other noir revisions, such as Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) and Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), also centered on the detective's inefficacy in an uncertain '70s world, but Chinatown's period sheen renders this dilemma at once contemporary and timeless, pointing to larger implications about the effects of corporate rapaciousness on individuals. Polanski and Towne clashed over Chinatown's ending; Polanski won the fight, but Towne won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Chinatown was nominated for ten other Oscars, including Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Score. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, John Hillerman Movie Details Play Trailer Movie Review

...movie, and plays the gritty part so well that pundits were shocked to see the bright and beautiful teen who showed up to the Oscar ceremony. The steely determination required of the performance would have been difficult to pull off for even a seasoned...

Opens Friday, Nov 18, 2011 Synopsis: The eagerly anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning hit Happy Feet Two finds tap-dancing penguin Mumble (voice of Elijah Wood) and his pals using their smooth moves to save the penguin nation. Mumble and Gloria (voice of Pink) have started a family of their own, and their young son, Erik, is just finding his footing among his fellow emperor penguins when a dire new threat thrusts their future into jeopardy. Just when it begins to look as if all hope is lost, the penguin nation bands together to dance the darkness away. Writer/director George Miller and star Robin Williams both return in this sequel also featuring the voices of Hank Azaria, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Sofía Vergara. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi Cast: Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Alecia Moore, Hank Azaria Movie Details Play Trailer Movie Review

Opens Friday, Nov 18, 2011 Synopsis: The eagerly anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning hit Happy Feet Two finds tap-dancing penguin Mumble (voice of Elijah Wood) and his pals using their smooth moves to save the penguin nation. Mumble and Gloria (voice of Pink) have started a family of their own, and their young son, Erik, is just finding his footing among his fellow emperor penguins when a dire new threat thrusts their future into jeopardy. Just when it begins to look as if all hope is lost, the penguin nation bands together to dance the darkness away. Writer/director George Miller and star Robin Williams both return in this sequel also featuring the voices of Hank Azaria, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Sofía Vergara. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi Cast: Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Alecia Moore, Hank Azaria Movie Details Play Trailer Movie Review

Opens Friday, Nov 18, 2011 Synopsis: The eagerly anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning hit Happy Feet Two finds tap-dancing penguin Mumble (voice of Elijah Wood) and his pals using their smooth moves to save the penguin nation. Mumble and Gloria (voice of Pink) have started a family of their own, and their young son, Erik, is just finding his footing among his fellow emperor penguins when a dire new threat thrusts their future into jeopardy. Just when it begins to look as if all hope is lost, the penguin nation bands together to dance the darkness away. Writer/director George Miller and star Robin Williams both return in this sequel also featuring the voices of Hank Azaria, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Sofía Vergara. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi Cast: Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Alecia Moore, Hank Azaria Movie Details Play Trailer Movie Review