In the Romeo and Juliet-inspired Warm Bodies, a zombie known only as R (Nicholas Hoult) falls in love with Julie (Teresa Palmer), who's still human.
Credit Adopt Films
Brutus (Salvatore Striano) delivers the final blow to the dying Caesar (Giovanni Arcuri) during a performance of Shakespeare's JuliusCaesar in the film Caesar Must Die.
The Italian art-house film Caesar Must Die and the teen zombie-comedy Warm Bodies do not, at first glance, appear to have much in common. But they share a bit of creative DNA, both being inventive riffs that turn Shakespearean tragedies into something else entirely.
Sung Kang plays a D.C. cop at large in New Orleans, where he finds himself in an uneasy alliance with hit man Sylvester Stallone in the blues-rock driven crime drama Bullet to the Head.
Credit Frank Masi / Warner Bros. Pictures
Sarah Shahi's tattoo artist — who has ties to both Kang and Stallone's characters — falls into the clutches of a mob enforcer (Jason Momoa).
Adapted from a French graphic novel and outfitted with an ethnically diverse cast, Bullet to the Head is an artifact of a newly internationalized Hollywood. But that doesn't mean it feels especially new.
Rock musician Dave Grohl recorded Nirvana's Nevermind at L.A.'s Sound City Studios; now, he's turned his musical memories of the place into a documentary film of the same name.
Credit Variance Films
Grohl is the happy, hectic force at the musical core of Sound City.
Originally published on Mon March 4, 2013 11:25 am
Dave Grohl has always been a joy to watch onscreen, whether bashing away at a drum kit like the heavy-footed, wild-haired spawn of John Bonham and the Muppets' Animal in Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, or flashing an endearingly goofy grin in the Mentos-spoof clip for the Foo Fighters' "Big Me." And a big part of that appeal is the sense that no matter how long he's been in the business, Grohl is still a guy who is acutely aware that he's living out a teenage daydream every day of his life.
Originally published on Fri February 1, 2013 10:35 am
Editor's Note: This review was edited and published before news of Koch's death broke. The headline has been updated to reflect that news, but the text of the review is unchanged.
Intended as a victory lap for three great stars of advancing age, Stand Up Guys is another entry in the "old folks doing stuff" subgenre, which offers comic affirmation that life is not strictly for the young.
Originally published on Wed January 30, 2013 4:05 pm
Quick, what word goes before the following: man, model, market? If you guessed "super", you may be the exact kind of super-genius who will enjoy this next game, wherein our own John Chaneski challenges contestants to find the common link to create three compound words.
Originally published on Wed January 30, 2013 4:05 pm
Celebrities like to intermingle. This next game imagines some creative combinations of the rich and famous that make Brangelina look tame. For example, if you merged the singer of "Candle in the Wind" with the mobster nicknamed the "Dapper Don," you'd get Elton John Gotti. Saturday night's alright for fighting, indeed.
You may have a New York Times brain, but we know you've still got a Scholastic News heart. Ophira Eisenberg feeds some of your favorite childhood books through the Five-Dollar Word Machine for our contestants. Can you figure out the original titles without your thesaurus?
