Jacob Hall
After months of feverish anticipation and a marketing campaign that left everyone at ScreenCrush practically speechless, 'Man of Steel' has arrived (amidst a flurry of mixed reviews) and taken its place at the top of the box office chart. Although the latest Superman film broke June box office records, it's yet to be seen whether or not the film is truly prepared for the long road ahead.
We've all had that teacher at least once in our lives. You know the one. The oddball. The eccentric. The one whose bizarre worldview and teaching methods have a lasting (and not always positive) impact on his or her students. However, the award for the year's strangest teacher undoubtedly has to go to Jean-Baptiste Clément, a sixth grade math teacher who subjected his students to James Wan's horror film 'Saw.'
Hugh Jackman has been playing the clawed, mutant superhero Wolverine since the first 'X-Men' movie back in 2000; a run that has spanned six films. Like all things that last longer than a decade, it's starting to get a little old for Jackman. Although we can still look forward to his take on the iconic superhero in 'The Wolverine' and 'X-Men: Days of Future Past,' it sounds like Jackman's days as an X-Man are coming to a close.
What looked like one of the big box office showdowns of the summer turned out to not be battle at all. Not only did 'Fast and Furious 6' take the number one spot at the box office, it did it while shattering records, leaving 'The Hangover Part 3' coughing on its exhaust.
No one expected 'The Great Gatsby' to take number one at the box office over 'Iron Man 3' this weekend, but it did the next best thing: it opened huge at number two. There is no shame in this silver medal.
Some will call this a slow weekend, but it may be better to think of it as the calm before the storm. Next week, the summer movie season begins and people are saving their pennies for 'Iron Man 3,' so it's not really surprising that this was an uneventful couple of days at the multiplex. At least the folks behind 'Pain and Gain' can be glad that their film led an otherwise quiet weekend.
Tom Cruise and science fiction are a powerful combination. Although the opening weekend of 'Oblivion' didn't break any records big or small, it's a more than solid start for a non-franchise, non-sequel, non-reboot. That's a sad statement on the current state of Hollywood, but that's another topic for another day.
SNL knows that it is a good thing in Bill Hader's wonderfully deranged Al Pacino impression and they put it to good use on last night's episode, having the incredibly talented performer play Pacino playing multiple roles. Parodying Pacino's involvement in HBO films like 'You Don't Know Jack' and 'Phil Spector,' the sketch finds Hader's Pacino making HBO biopics where he plays every convicted murderer under the sun.
Jonathan Winters, a titan of comedy on both the big and small screens, passed away at the age of 87.
Annette Funicello, best known as one of the original "Mouseketeers" on Walt Disney's 'Mickey Mouse Club' has passed away at the age of 70.
If someone glanced at this weekend's box office, they could be forgiven for thinking they accidentally stepped into some kind of time portal. After all, films called 'Evil Dead' and 'Jurassic Park' were in the top five.