Thompson on Hollywood

Media Watch: Hulu Lets You Choose Your Ads, Amazon Splits Streaming, Transformers Streamed Directly

- Amazon's stand-alone streaming service might follow the path of Netflix, reports Fierce Online. Amazon's plans to break its streaming business from its e-commerce store marks another instance, like Netflix, in which corporations make business decisions that do not cater to their consumers. Amazon might also have plans to split Prime from its original site.

By Maggie Lange
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October 5, 2011 12:21 PM
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Now and Then: The Transformation of Michael Bay to Sunday Hangover Auteur

Occasioned by the DVD release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon last week, and a few too many drinks Saturday night, Matt Brennan’s “Now and Then” column celebrates director Michael Bay, Sunday hangover auteur. Trailers below:

By Matt Brennan
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October 3, 2011 3:48 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Harry Potter 8 Beats The Dark Knight's Opening Weekend Record UPDATED

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 smashed opening weekend records as moviegoers flocked to the ultimate event movie, the last in Warner Bros.' beloved eight-film series based on J.K. Rowling's global literary phenomenon. (See Richard Corliss's fine summation in Time.) Anthony D'Alessandro reports.No woe in the world -- neither national debt nor the closure of the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles -- crimped U.S. moviegoers from seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 this weekend as they made the final film based on J.K. Rowling’s book series the biggest domestic opening of all-time at $168.55 million, ripping the wings off of Dark Knight’s $158.4 million – a record the Christopher Nolan Batman film has held over the past three years.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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July 17, 2011 4:01 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Transformers 3D Holds at Number One; Horrible Bosses Strong at Two

Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3-D extravaganza, the top-grossing movie of the year, stayed on top despite a respectable 52% dip, followed by yet another R-rated raunch comedy at number two, (top ten box office chart, review links and trailers below). Anthony D'Alessandro reports. Paramount’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon remained in full orbit at the weekend box office, earning $47 million and revving its domestic total to $261 million to overtake The Hangover Part II ($250.8 million) as the highest-grossing film of the year.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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July 10, 2011 4:24 AM
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Will Transformers 3-D Make Room for Crass Horrible Bosses, Dopey Zookeeper or Quality Indie Fare?

Don't go looking at your local multiplex for class this weekend. Raunch and dopiness and Transformers in 3-D still reign. We round up Horrible Bosses reviews here, best summarized by Rex Reed of the New York Observer: "It's one of those revolting, raunch-fueled movies churned out in their sleep by the Farrelly brothers and Judd Apatow that I usually hate, but with real cleverness, off-center wit and edgy imagination," although it has also been declared guilty of "murdering its own potential."

By Sophia Savage
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July 7, 2011 3:45 AM
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Weekend Box Office: 3-D Transformers 3 Breaks Records, Larry Crowne Fizzles

The weekend box office brings back event 3-D with Michael Bay's Transformers 3's $372 million worldwide so far (UPDATE: six day worldwide total was $379 million), and puts major movie stars on notice that they'd better deliver high quality if they want to target adults: Tom Hanks may have bitten off more than he could handle by co-writing, producing, directing and starring in Larry Crowne, an old-fashioned romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts which has totaled just $13 million (UPDATE: four day total was $15.7 million). Anthony D'Alessandro reports:

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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July 3, 2011 4:23 AM
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Weekly Wrap: Transformers Good News for 3-D, Oscar Lineup Shaping Up, Original Content in the Works

BOX OFFICE

By Sophia Savage and Anne Thompson
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July 1, 2011 7:42 AM
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Transformers 3 Set to Slaughter 2-D Field; Plus Terri, Aurora, Perfect Host, Uninspired Larry Crowne

Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon, in all its 3-D glory, is going to score huge and remind us that good acting doesn't always accompany box office success. The visual payoff, especially in IMAX 3-D, is worth the ticket price, and reinstates 3-D as a positive cinematic achievement after months of disappointments. One critic speculates: “One gets the feeling that if [director Michael] Bay could stop including people in his films altogether we’d all have a much better time with this franchise.” Tom Hanks' adult-targeted counterprogrammer Larry Crowne, despite having America's Sweetheart (Julia Roberts) and America's Other Sweetheart (Hanks himself), is having a hard time convincing anyone it's worthwhile. The WSJ's John Anderson says: "You wonder who thought any of this was funny."

By Sophia Savage
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July 1, 2011 5:35 AM
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Holiday Weekend Box Office Gets Off to Record-Setting Start with 3-D Transformers: Dark of the Moon

The buzz has grown to a crescendo on Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Whatever you do, see the movie in IMAX 3-D, because Bay and ILM VFX supervisor Scott Farrar have taken on the challenge of outdoing the 3-D standard set by James Cameron's Avatar and by Jove they've done it. (I saw it at IMAX's own screening room; here's perfectionist Bay's letter to theater projectionists.)

By Anne Thompson and Anthony D'Alessandro
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June 30, 2011 6:19 AM
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon Reviews: 3-D Action Porn, Nostalgia for Megan Fox

Transformers: Dark of the Moon opens June 29 after its June 23 premiere at the Moscow Film Festival. So far reviews confirm that the third installment of this mega-franchise indeed delivers visual spectacle lacking from most post-Avatar 3-D. Some say the movie is too long and may actually make you miss Megan Fox's acting chops. One writer compares Fox to Kate Winslet, while Brit replacement Rosie Huntington-Whiteley "suck[s] the life out of every scene she appears in," says TotalFilm. "[Shia] LaBeouf has graduated to full-on liability," according to Daily Mail. Character-wise, it's the robots coming out on top, causing one critic to speculate; "One gets the feeling that if [director Michael] Bay could stop including people in his films altogether we'd all have a much better time with this franchise."