Movies

Every year, when the bottom drops out of the summer movie season and audiences decide to stay home and watch television instead, some well-meaning critic will publish an article asking if cinema is dead. And every year, I pose the same question in response: “Is Tom Cruise still an action star?” As long as Tom Cruise is running across multiplex screens — fighting rogue nations, government consiparcies, and even the occasional mummy — there is still hope for cinema. Then, when Cruise’s career is done and Hollywood is in ashes, then, cinema, you have my permission to die.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at Dolly Parton's new 'Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love' made-for-TV movie.

The box office success of Moana feels like destiny: an old school Disney formula plus 21st century polish plus great songs plus the mere presence of Dwayne Johnson and near-universal critical notices is a surefire recipe for success...

It looks like the general public reacted to one of the most stressful weeks in living memory by flocking to the movies for a few hours of escape. Both Doctor Strange and Trolls, which debuted to solid numbers last week, held on strong. Arrival, the biggest newcomer of the bunch, also opened well, proving that it’s entirely possible to open in third place and still be a winner at the box office.

Flash Gordon, for those of you who don't already know, is an epic 1980s rock opera. It's campy, it's silly and it's really fun. Oh, and the soundtrack is QUEEN.

The hearts of country music fans broke with the passing of Joey Feek, one half of musical duo Joey + Rory, in March of 2016 to cervical cancer. But now they have the chance to relive the heartwarming story of the Feeks in a DVD version of To Joey, With Love.

The Lubbock Alamo Drafthouse has a fun one scheduled for you. Think Rocky Horror Picture Show, but more for all ages.

We don’t know much about Ben Affleck’s solo Batman movie, save for its blessedly punctuation-free title and the fact that Affleck and Deathstroke will be in it, and with all the work being done on Wonder Woman and Justice League, The Batman is probably pretty far on the back burner right now. But plans are still being set in motion, and our latest Alfred, Jeremy Irons, says that the movie will start production as soon as next summer.

Don’t let that headline mislead you too much. Tom Cruise is fine. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back also did fine in its opening weekend. But there’s something inherently amusing about one the most recognizable movie stars in the world playing second fiddle to Tyler Perry and his ever-popular creation, Madea. The seasonally appropriate Boo! A Madea Halloween edged out Cruise’s latest sequel at the box office this weekend, contributing to a top 10 where moderately budgeted movies reigned supreme.

For hundreds of years, we lived in a world where clowns were popularly understood to be funny and whimsical ... or, at the least, not absolutely freaking terrifying. Pop stars sang songs like “Everybody Loves a Clown” and “Send in the Clowns.” Parents hired entertainers in colorful satin outfits to do magic tricks and make balloon animals at their children’s birthday parties. Ronald McDonald sold us hamburgers. Emmett Kelly and Red Skelton were TV staples. We had a tacit cultural agreement not just to tolerate clowns, but to look forward to having them around.

I had no idea that getting a pickle at the movies was a Texan thing. I have never lived in a world without pickles at the movies, so this is all very strange to me.

Going to the movies in 2016 can be a frustrating situation. People texting on their phones. Exorbitant ticket prices. People talking on their phones. Sound that’s either way too loud or way too soft. People taking pictures of the screen with their phones and then posting them to Facebook in the middle of the movie. For a lot of these problems, there’s no easy solution. An experience designed to take us away from our everyday troubles is now fraught with them.