Archive for June, 2010

Movie Ratings for June 4th, 2010

Here are the MPAA movie ratings for the new films hitting theaters in the U.S. on June 4th, 2010. In addition to the ratings, I’ve also included the MPAA’s insightful notes on why each film received the certificate it did.

Finding Bliss – Rated R for strong sexual content, including graphic dialogue and nudity, and for language.

Get Him to the Greek – Rated R for strong sexual content and drug use throughout, and pervasive language.

Killers – Rated PG-13 for violent action, sexual material and language.

Marmaduke – Rated PG for some rude humor and language.

Ondine – Rated PG-13 for some violence, sensuality and brief strong language.

Splice – Rated R for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language.

Okay, I’ve got to ask the question. What defines sci-fi violence, exactly?

If you have an interest in any of these films, be sure to check out the review section of A1 Movie Reviews, as we’ll be giving you to lowdown on Get Him to the Greek, Killers, Marmaduke, and Splice. I guess we’ll have an answer for that sci-fi violence question soon enough.

Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews

Leonard Maltin movie reviews can be found all over the place, as this noted film critic and historian has worked on television, in print, and even on those mini-reviews you seen before the movie theater goes dark. With his casual critical style and nice-guy demeanor, he’s managed to maintain his status as one of America’s top film experts for several decades.

Maltin was born on December 18th, 1950, and he was already writing about film by the age of 15. During this time, he published a fanzine known as Film Fan Monthly and penned articles for Classic Images. A degree in journalism was a logical next step, and Maltin received one from New York University.

His film criticism career exploded after graduation, with articles in everything from TV Guide to Variety. But many know him best for his continuing stint as film critic for Entertainment Tonight and his annual series of books entitled Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide.

Other Leonard Maltin film books include:

And the list goes on and on…

Those looking for Leonard Maltin movie reviews will also find that he’s all over television (Starz, syndicated TV, ReelzChannel) and even radio (Leonard Maltin on Video). And if you’ve got kids, you’ve probably seen him hosting the films included in the Walt Disney Treasures collection.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Leonard Maltin also has a presence on the Internet. His site, Leonard Maltin’s Movie Crazy, is billed as a place for people who love movies.

One of the many Leonard Maltin movie reviews actually got him in the Guinness Book of World Records for the shortest review. For the 1948 musical entitled Isn’t It Romantic?, Maltin’s review consisted only of one word: “No.”

Leonard Maltin’s 100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century

Released at the turn of the century, this list includes Maltin’s suggestions for the 100 best films of the 20th century. While I haven’t included the complete list, here are a few of those that made the cut.

If you’ve enjoyed this post about Leonard Maltin movie reviews, then you may also like the following:

Peter Travers Movie Reviews

If you’ve ever been a subscriber of People or Rolling Stone, then chances are you’ve read a few Peter Travers movie reviews. In addition to his work in print, he also serves as the host of Popcorn, an ABC News.com and ABC News Now program featuring celebrity interviews. Known for his straightforward review style that doesn’t put you to sleep with antiquated words, Peter Travers movie reviews are among my favorite to read. And I’m not the only one, as he’s the most blurbed film critic in the nation.

He’s been with Rolling Stone since 1989, joining their staff after four years spent at People magazine. His style is immediately recognizable, with a four-star rating system and reviews usually clocking in at around 500 words. A few examples of his highest-rated movies include:

On the opposite end of things, the following films have received the lowest rating (zero stars) available from a Peter Travers movie review:

While Travers seems to hate all things Michael Bay, he is smitten with the following directors, often giving their films superior ratings: Tim Burton, Clint Eastwood, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ang Lee, and the Coen brothers.

Top-Rated Films from Peter Travers

Each year, Peter Travers put out his top 10 best films of the year list. The following details the top movie chosen each year, beginning with his first year at Rolling Stone.

Peter Travers Movie Reviews

If you’d like to check out some of the most recent Peter Travers movie reviews, just click on any of the following links:

Other recommended links from A1 Movie Reviews:

Gene Siskel Movie Reviews

While fans can no longer enjoy new Gene Siskel movie reviews, we can still look back fondly on a career filled with astute observations, humorous bickering, and a true passion for cinema. Alongside fellow critic Roger Ebert, Siskel hosted At the Movies from 1982 until his death in 1999. During that time, the duo became famous for their passionate on-air debates, and many fans simply referred to them as “the fat guy” and “the bald guy.” But there was so much more to Gene Siskel.

Born on January 26th, 1946, Eugene “Gene” Kal Siskel would experience a love for the movies while watching Dumbo as a child. Years later, he would cite this Disney classic as the first film to make a real impression on his.

Years later, he would go on to graduate with a degree in Philosophy from Yale in 1967. During that time, he studied with Pulitzer-winning writer John Hersey, and landed a job with the Chicago Tribune in 1969.

But Siskel’s life was in for a dramatic change in 1975, as that’s when he teamed up with Roger Ebert, a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. Their first show was known as Sneak Previews, and it aired on a Chicago-based PBS station. Their recognizable “thumbs-up, thumbs-down” rating system caught on, and the duo had gained a sizable following by 1978.

In 1982, they departed PBS for syndication, launching their trademark show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies. By 1986, the program was being produced by Walt Disney , and the title was eventually shortened to just Siskel & Ebert. Throughout the years, the pair appeared on everything from The Tonight with Johnny Carson to The Howard Stern Show, always ready to defend their reviews and cheerfully discuss their sometimes heated arguments.

During all his years as a critic, Siskel only walked out of a film on three occasions. The first came in 1971, with the Dean Jones comedy The Million Dollar Duck. Next was the 1980 film Maniac, and the third was for Penelope Spheeris’ 1996 film Black Sheep. With the latter, he admitted to pretending to go to the bathroom, only to never come back.

His two favorite films were Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Saturday Night Fever. Siskel was such a big fan of the latter that he purchased Tony Manero’s white disco suit at a charity auction. Here’s a portion of what he said about the film in his written review, “My fever for ‘Fever’ goes beyond its music, even beyond its spectacular dancing sequences. I have come to love the film’s characters–all of them. And the only explanation that comes close to describing my visceral attachment to the film is that it is a 119-minute compression of most everyone’s teenage years. It’s all there: the clothes, dancing, cars, booze, fellowship, sexual thrills, sexual frustration, parental affection, parental hatred, unrequited love, the first job, doubting religion, and seeing oneself slowly becoming an adult.”

Sadly, Gene Siskel was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in 1998. He continued to work for as long as he could, but then took a leave of absence in February of 1999, stating with good humor, “I’m in a hurry to get well, because I don’t want Roger to get more screen time than me.”

After undergoing surgery to remove the tumor, Gene Siskel died from complications at the age of 53 on February 20th, 1999. He is survived by his wife, Marlene, and their children, Will, Callie, and Kate. The final Gene Siskel movie review was for Simply Irresistible with Sarah Michelle Gellar, which received a “thumbs-down” rating.

In 2009, 10 years after Siskel’s death, on-air partner Roger Ebert delivered this touching tribute. Despite the fact that the duo hasn’t been together in over a decade, many film fans still think of them as being synonymous.

Gene Siskel Top 10 Films

Each year, in addition to his usual Gene Siskel movie reviews, the critic would also put together a top 10 list for his column in the Chicago Tribune. He would also do the same thing for the television, and slight differences would sometimes exist between the two. Below, I’ve collected an assortment of these lists for your enjoyment.

1998
01. Babe: Pig in the City (George Miller)
02. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
03. Pleasantville (Gary Ross)
04. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
05. The Truman Show (Peter Weir)
06. Antz (Eric Darnell/Tim Johnson)
07. Simon Birch (Mark Steven Johnson)
08. There’s Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly/Peter Farrelly)
09. Waking Ned Devine (Kirk Jones)
10. Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa)
11. Beloved (Jonathan Demme)

1995
01. Crumb (Terry Zwigoff)
02. Toy Story (John Lasseter)
03. Nixon (Oliver Stone)
04. Babe (Chris Noonan)
05. Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins)
06. Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
07. The American President (Rob Reiner)
08. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
09. Apollo 13 (Ron Howard)
10. Les Miserables (Claude Lelouch)

Best Films of the 1980s
01. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
02. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann)
03. The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman)
04. My Dinner With Andre (Louis Malle)
05. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)
06. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
07. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone)
08. Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski)
09. Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox)
10. Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa)

1979
01. Hair (Milos Forman)
02. Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton)
03. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
04. Breaking Away (Peter Yates)
05. Manhattan (Woody Allen)
06. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
07. Nosferatu, the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
08. The Onion Field (Harold Becker)
09. Time After Time (Nicholas Meyer)
10. The China Syndrome (James Bridges)

1969
01. Z (Costa-Gravas)
02. Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)
03. Alice’s Restaurant (Arthur Penn)
04. Simon of the Desert (Luis Bunuel)
05. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Robert Ellis Miller)
06. Oh! What a Lovely War (Richard Attenborough)
07. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)
08. if…. (Lindsay Anderson)
09. Pretty Poison (Noel Black)
10. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Paul Mazursky)

Oh, and here’s a list of 10 movies he absolutely never wanted to see again (compiled in 1985):

Friday the 13th (1980)
Friday the 13th, Part 2 (1981)
Friday the 13th, Part 3 (1982)
Friday the 13th – The Final Chapter (1984)
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
The Cannonball Run (1981)
Cannonball Run II (1984)
Porky’s (1981)
Porky’s II (1983)
Porky’s Revenge (1985)

Gene Siskel Quotes

As we wrap up this article on Gene Siskel movie reviews, I’d like to leave you with a few quotes from one of the greatest critical minds of modern cinema.

And here are a few links to other A1 Movie Reviews blog posts you might be interested in: