Angel Has Fallen, Review: Dad’s Bad, Banning’s Mad, Jennings’s Glad Angel here is the guardian angel of the President of the United States of America, and fallen refers to his being critically wounded and, allegedly, falling from grace. So much for ethereal and angelic interpretations of the title. Now, the subject: it is a run-of-the-mill ‘cop injured in attempt to murder a VVIP that kills all others except him, falsely accused of attempted murder, discredited, arrest...

The Spy Who Dumped Me, Review: Jumped, Pumped, Slumped, Stumped Pre-credit scenes à la James Bond, the JB theme variation in a couple of scenes and a title that is a clear Ian Fleming lift—remember The Spy Who Loved me? This one is an action comedy, with both components in equal measure. Action is fast and furious and the comedy punctuates the thrills, with the help of a comedians+mimics cast. The Spy Who Dumped Me is funny enough to make you chuckle and laugh at regular interval...

Ben Hur, Review: Chariots for hire What do you remember about the 1959 screen version of the 1880 story? Nothing, unless you are a Senior Citizen, even if the Indian release was probably two years later than the Hollywood opening. I remember the chariot race, with Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur and Stephen Boyd as Messala. Edge of the seat stuff, especially Messala. The sub-text of Christ, Christianity, Judaism, and the Roman Empire’s sadistic tyranny, was lost on the bunch of school-...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent That’s not click-bait in the headline, and we will get to the Morgan Freeman Appreciation Society in a moment; but first Day One of the Produced By Conference held June 4-5 at Sony Studios by the Producers Guild of America (PGA). It was nothing short of a rousing success yesterday. To a person, attendees gave it raves, whether from Arkansas or Iceland or Pasadena. An Infolist sponsor rep even whispered it is the only must-attend event on h...

London Has Fallen, Review: The Butler did it If he can save the White House, can London be far behind? To be accurate, it never really fell. Yes, London Bridge was blown up. A few hundred armed terrorists, with a few dozen combat vehicles, had gained access to the city’s communications network, donned local police uniforms, blown-up most of the historical monuments and deployed surface to air missiles locked at the escaping US President’s helicopter, and all was well, until Mike B...

Lucy From La Femme Nikita and The Professional to The Fifth Element, writer/director Luc Besson has created some of the toughest, most memorable female action heroes in cinematic history. Meet the latest: Lucy (Scarlett Johansson). Lucy is attractive, not tall, not muscular, with a cutish face, vulnerable, even gullible--An unlikely action hero, an unlikely drug-racket battling, science’s accidental guinea pig who is about to prove unwittingly the theory of an eminent scientist concerni...

by Marla Lewin The 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Academy Award winners Marion Cotillard with the Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award and Quentin Tarantino with the Sonny Bono Visionary Award, named after the Festival’s founder. The Awards Gala will kick off the 2010 awards season on Tuesday, January 5 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Hosted by “Entertainment Tonight’s” Mary Hart, the Awards Gala will also honor Jeff Bridges...

by Marla LewinHelen Mirren Photo taken by Stephan Rabold, Courtesy of Sony Pictures ClassicsThe 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Academy Award winner Helen Mirren with the Career Achievement Award. Presented by Cartier, the Awards Gala will kick off the 2010 awards season on Tuesday, January 5 at the Palm Springs Convention Center and will be hosted by "Entertainment Tonight's" Mary Hart. The Festival runs January 5-18, 2010.Mirren will join pre...

 Monday, August 6-------Two-time Academy Award winner Robert Benton was especially eloquent as he was interviewed by film critic Janet Maslin at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Westchester County last Wednesday evening, following the screening of Benton's latest film, FEAST OF LOVE. The ensemble drama, based on Charles Baxter's acclaimed novel, features a superb cast headed by Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Jane Alexander and Radha Mitchell. The film will be released on September 28th by...