Super Bowl Casts Shadow Over Movie Box Office
. Two studios offered smaller films aimed at audiences considered the least likely to be interested in the football game.
Movie Review: Focus is exactly what Will Smith needed
When watching the new Will Smith film Focus, I went in with very low expectations. The trailers looked awful and to be honest, ���The Fresh Prince��� hasnt done a good movie since the mid 2000s. There are a lot of great big heist films out there like The.
Focus Gives Will Smith New Direction, Shot at Box Office.
Thats because ���Focus��� is Smiths first film since ���After Earth,��� the pricey 2012 sci-fi bomb that he starred in with his son, Jaden Smith. Before that, enthusiastic foreign audiences offset disappointing domestic returns on the��.
Margot Robbie talks with Gino about the new movie ���Focus.
(WITI) ��� The movie ���Focus��� is now in theaters. It features Will Smith as ���Nicky,��� a veteran con artist who thinks he has it all figured out. That is, until Jess steps into the picture. Gino sits down with the woman in question, Margot��.
Putting a Face on Memory Loss and Recovery
A documentary presents a treatment for Alzheimers and other forms of dementia, while it offers profiles of people suffering from the disease.. David DeWitt reviews documentary film Do You Know What My Name Is?, directed by Naomi Kazama and Shigeru Ota.
Movies opening this week: Focus, The Lazarus Effect, Leviathan, A La Mala
In that respect, at least, Focus, opening Friday, looks like it could be a return to some of the stuff that made him an A-lister: fast talking, slick moves and sunglasses. Smith plays a master con artist who, years after breaking it off with a.
Maybe These Zombies Need to Focus on Their Veggies
In George A. Romero’s movie, the zombies no longer scare. They’re like old friends you see every couple of years who have let themselves go.
Will Smiths Top 5 Hottest Onscreen Girlfriends; Focus.
Eva Mendes, Hitch- In the movie Mendes plays the woman who manages to get the best of the suave and calculating Alex Hitchens (Smith). With her flawless pearly white teeth, bodacious curves and quick wit, Mr. Hitchens��.
Box office preview: Focus and Fifty Shades face off
Fifty Shades of Grey had a good two weeks on top of the box office, but thats about to change when Focus���a film starring one-time box office king Will Smith���arrives in about 3,200 theaters this weekend.
Movie Studio by Amazon for Screens Big and Small
The online retailing giant signaled its broader ambitions to revolutionize the traditional system used to shepherd movies from the theaters to home screens.. Amazon will produce and buy films for theatrical release and early distribution on its Prime Instant Video service, in rivalry with Netflix; plan indicates broader goals of both companies to greatly reduce window of 39 to 52 weeks in which movies normally play in theaters before becoming available for streaming.
Putting an Old Saw to Work in the South
Here in this riverside city of 10,000, where gracious mansions were seized early in the Civil War by Union forces, a new invader has stormed the town. As before, the draw is real estate. With its picturesque harbor, quaint downtown and elegant homes, Beaufort (pronounced BYEW-furt) has become a favored location for moviemakers. While one production company was filming in a rural area outside town at the end of May, Paramount was scouring the city with a real estate broker, looking for just the right house.
Will Universal Sell Focus Features?
Universal has denied reports that it may sell off its art house film production unit, Focus Features, to Alec and Tom Gores, a pair of entertainment industry investors. Our colleague Brooks Barnes reported on the courtship between the parties for DealBook.. Universal Studios denies reports it plans to sell Focus Features, but others say negotiations the company is preparing to sell the unit.
Box Office Prediction: Focus vs. Fifty Shades of Grey
Our box office predictions for the weekend of February 27 - March 1, where Focus will face off against Fifty Shades of Grey.. However, Lazarus isnt going to be the next horror movie sensation. Projections are currently��.
Focus, Maps to the Stars and other new movies, reviewed
It wouldnt do to inflate expectations ��� this is an instantly disposable movie, arriving in the midst of what is traditionally Hollywoods dump season ��� but theres much to be said for a film that doesnt overreach, delivers on most of its promises.
At the Film Market, Where Deals Are Made
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - A crusty old film business operative once said the Cannes film festival was like spending a week in Nicky Blairs. Youd have to remember the late Nicky Blairs namesake hang-out on Sunset Boulevard to get the joke.. Buyers, sellers, looking for hits, and the cash to make those hits -- the grist mill of moviemaking.
Focus movie review: Will Smith, Margot Robbie cant kindle convincing.
This person renders the rules of an entire fictional world unreliable, as is the case with Focus. The movie is set on a recognizable version of Earth reality, where people walk with both feet on the ground, and dont levitate over it. But one of.
Movie review: Focus entertaining, but its good p.
Its all a matter of ���Focus,��� says Nicky (Will Smith), himself a master grifter, who takes amateur con Jess (Margot Robbie) under his wing, as well as his sheets, and supplies her with insightful tricks of the trade: ���The brain is very predictable. It.
FOCUS MOVIE Review 2
Then Focus comes along, a surprisingly entertaining film that basically highlights Will Smith, reminding audiences about the actor he used to and still can be after all these years. It serves as a breath of fresh air to Will Smiths faltering career.
Living Above the Store in Santa Monica
Few of the people who crowd into the Broadway Deli and an adjoining multiplex cinema in Janss Court, a recently completed building in this oceanfront city, are aware that they are in an apartment building. Yet on the sixth floor -- above two restaurants, five movie theaters and three floors with 80,000 square feet of office space -- Charles S. Smith, a self-employed aircraft salesman, makes his home. He said he does not mind the crowds on the Third Street Promenade, a popular shopping street restricted to pedestrians, and is happy to live within walking distance of most of the banks, restaurants and messenger services he uses.
Focus: Film Review - The Hollywood Reporter
A romantic caper stocked with con artists, good looks but little sizzle, Focus is no Trouble in Paradise, House of Games or The Grifters. This ultra-slick, fantasy-inducing visit to an international wonder world of wealth and��.
Upcoming IndyCar Movie Will Be Satisfyingly Cheaterlicious.
What better place to set a movie about a con mans biggest stunt than in racing, where you know that everyones trying to bend every rule possible to eke out an advantage, anyway? Thats what theyre doing with Focus, and it��.
May the Best Actor Get the Most Attention
There is good news for fans of Gary Oldman, who somehow span the generations from Sid & Nancy to Harry Potter. Mr. Oldman, even more amazingly a first-time Oscar nominee only this year, for his performance in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, is the subject of a film retrospective in New York this week, organized by WNYC and Focus Features. (Get tickets to one of the free screenings of Sid & Nancy, JFK or Bram Stokers Dracula here.) Mr. Oldman himself will do a Q. and A. following a screening of Tinker on Wednesday.. The contenders in the best-actor Oscar race arent campaigning, unless you count all those television and press appearances this week.
Will Smith And Margot Robbie Present The New Movie Focus
Will Smith and Margot Robbie attend Sanremo 2015 Day 3 Photocall during the 65th Festival della Canzone Italiana 2015 at Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Italy. Advertisement��.
12 at the Easel, Painting a Poets Life
The Color of Time, a montage of the life of the poet C. K. Williams, features James Franco and Jessica Chastain.. Nicolas Rapold reviews movie The Color of Time, directed by 12-person team who were former students of James Franco at New York University.
Single Focus: An Outsider With Doomsday Vision
A chilling monologue of imminent catastrophe, “Collapse” is not just sobering; it’s a full-on assault.
Watch Will Smith and Margot Robbie in the Thrilling New Movie
Its time for Tripicans Wednesday Movie Feature and we have got Will Smith from movies like Independence Day and Margot Robbie from The Wolf of Wall Street in the exciting new movie ��� ���Focus���. Before we get into the��.
Screenwriter Found for Fifty Shades Film Adaptation
. Kelly Marcel will write the screenplay for Fifty Shades of Grey, which begins the fetishistic adventures of the wealthy businessman Christian Grey and his inexperienced apprentice, Anastasia Steele.
Rex Reed Reviews Focus | Observer
From credit cards to identity theft, the movie has you believe theres a thief in every hotel room in the French Quarter. Before they move in for the kill, we get a delicious tour of the Crescent City and he teaches her a few extra��.
Philadelphia Riverfront Plan in Low Gear
This citys plan for a single cohesive riverfront development has been ambushed by a recession, slack demand for new housing and the travails of a real estate market in decline. Instead of high-rise apartment and office towers at the Delaware Rivers edge, the parcels have sprouted smaller, less expensive projects that go up quickly, like restaurants, nightclubs and open-air markets. They provide a modest income for some owners of property that otherwise would have lain fallow, as well as jobs in what is emerging as a regional playground and shopping center. Two years ago, a city agency, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, envisioned not only the complexes of high-rise office and residential towers, but also office buildings and hotels. These were to have bracketed Penns Landing public space and to have been connected by an esplanade. But after Willard Rouse, the Philadelphia development company, withdrew in early 1989, convinced there was no way to make the 37-acre project profitable, smaller developers took on parts of the development. Five new nightclubs or restaurants have opened this summer. And two weekend flea markets have opened, the larger covering an acre beneath multicolored tents at Vine Street and the north side of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which spans the river between Philadelphia and Camden, N.J. The other, on the rivers edge near Tasker Street and Delaware Avenue, opened during the Fourth of July weekend and has not yet reached its peak. At least two planned residential developments have been shelved. One, Portside, envisioned as 286 high-rise condominium units, ran aground for lack of financing even before any physical work was done. And at Liberty Landing, a $300 million mixed-use development that last year was being re-evaluated for the combination of office, housing and hotel elements, weeds have nearly obscured the optimistic blue sign announcing the project, which also never even reached the groundbreaking stage. The only housing actually built was not started from scratch but was a renovation at two municipal piers, 3 and 5, which jut into the river with a marina between them just south of the bridge. The former was converted into 96 fee-simple town houses, the latter into 172 rental apartments, by a joint venture of three Philadelphia partners, Silver Harting & Company, the Edward S. Brown Group and the Radnor Corporation. The rentals range from one to three bedrooms, with rents of $700 to $3,000 a month. Rudy Hanisch, a Radnor senior vice president, said that six town house units were presold and that they got a lukewarm reception when they went on sale shortly after completion in 1990, selling out only after prices were cut to below market value. This case is illustrative of the cyclical nature of real estate, he said. We made the decision to go forward in 1987, real estate values peaked in 1988 and by the time we delivered the units in 1990 the cycle was declining. Instead of the $300,000 market value the company predicted, the units sold for an average price of $170,000 earlier this year, part of a $1.3 billion write-off taken by Radnors parent company, the petroleum giant Sun Company, Mr. Hanisch said. From its peak in 1988, real estate values dropped by 30 percent by 1991 in Center City. Sales of luxury condominium units slowed at the same time, to under 200 closings downtown at more than $150,000, he said. We came to the conclusion that we had a disproportionate percentage of the market and had to sell them below cost, Mr. Hanisch said. Im personally bearish on real estate values and levels of activity in the Delaware Valley for the rest of the decade. Americas appetite for the good life has slowed. Mr. Hanisch said the grand riverfront plans predicted for 30 years by city officials were expensive and came apart just as demand for new offices and housing was softening throughout the region. The downtown feeling of Philadelphia neighborhoods like Rittenhouse Square and Society Hall is not available on the waterfront because it is severed from the city by Interstate 95, despite bridges for pedestrians and vehicles. A brief drive along Delaware Avenue offers many sights that suggest the state of flux on the riverfront. Tropical theme bars look out on dredge barges moored on the New Jersey side and on a state prison in Camden. Orange and tan self-storage lockers line one side of the six-lane street across from the tony Katmandu nightclub. One pier near Spring Garden Street is used for a trash transfer station and storage yard for city garbage trucks, another is the citys main impounding lot for towed cars. Still, the Comfort Inn, with 180 rooms at the south end of the Ben Franklin Bridge near Penns Landing, about a 10-minute drive from Center City, had an occupancy rate in 1991 somewhere above 70 percent, when the rest of the city was in the mid 60s, said a hotel industry analyst, Peter Tyson, of Peter Tyson & Associates. Even the name Delaware Avenue was changed to Columbus Boulevard by the City Council, despite public opposition, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbuss voyage. Yet most highway signs still direct motorists to Delaware Avenue and there is no plan to change them. Highway access has been the lifeline for such projects as the Riverview Plaza, a $30 million retail center farther south near warehouses and plants that once served the citys thriving port and manufacturing, both of which have been withering for years. Bart Blatstein and Marc Haber, principals of Tower Investment, bought a narrow parcel between Tasker Street and Washington Avenue on the landlocked side of Delaware Avenue knowing that an exit ramp from I-95 would be able to bring motorists to their doorstep. The 150,000-square-foot center includes a multiscreen movie theater that opened last November and draws people from both states. There are 30,000 square feet of occupied offices space in Riverview Plaza, with a potential for 220,000 more in a vacant warehouse, according to Mr. Blatstein. There is also a Staples office products store and several restaurants, food shops and small stores. Plans have been drawn for a second retail component across Delaware Avenue in a former sugar refinery. There were no movie theaters at all in South Philadelphia, so people went over the Walt Whitman Bridge to South Jersey, Mr. Blatstein said. Residential may not be an important part of the waterfront. The holding actions may be a year, it could be 10 years. If theyre making money, why tear it down to build housing? Indeed, although planning maps still indicate that Marina Towers will rise where the Katmandu nightclub now stands, the clubs owners are fashioning their own long-term expansion plans. Three partners, Stuart Harting Lance Silver and David Preefer, were involved in the Pier 3 and 5 project and said they see potential for new hotel or conference center facilities, but not residential growth. Among the factors that have fueled growth along the riverfront are Camdens aquarium, which opened in February, and a new ferry service linking the two cities. Most vital was last years opening of half a dozen new I-95 off-ramps up and down the riverfront and of the Vine Street Expressway, which offers quick east-west travel to the citys other major highways. Seeing the crowds of cars bouncing over the freight railroad tracks that still rut Delaware Avenue and slow traffic, Marvin Venable started Venables Philadelphia Water Taxi, using three 26-seat boats to ferry passengers north and south among the clubs and restaurants and the Camden ferry. Only three restaurants now operate all year, but the success of summertime clubs that close has prompted some restaurateurs to explore year-round ventures. A Texas-based nightclub company, Dave & Busters, is negotiating to open a recreation center in an enclosed pier owned by Bell Atlantic Properties and, several blocks inland, a 4,000-seat concert hall and an adult-entertainment nightclub are under construction.
In Focus, A Con Movie Without Enough Of A Con
There is a golden rule of movie plans that goes double for con and heist films: When the characters spell out their playbook ahead of time for the audience (Ill pose as a dot-com billionaire while you rewire the security cameras), something will.
Russian Movie ‘Leviathan’ Gets Applause in Hollywood but Scorn at Home
The film has admirers and won a Golden Globe, but some Russian detractors want it banned and accuse its director of acting under Western orders.. Leviathan, Golden Globe winner and Oscar-nominated Russian film, has polarized Russia ahead of its long-delayed release Feb 5; critics applaud movie as realistic account of life in country in Putin era, but others demand it be banned as propaganda; few Russians have seen film.
Film Inspired by ‘Abortion Survivor’ Is Quiet Hit
“October Baby,” inspired by a woman who claims to be an “abortion survivor,” is doing well in movie theaters.. October Baby, a film inspired by a woman who claims to be an abortion survivor, is doing well in movie theaters thanks to the backing of evangelical groups and churches, but also because abortion is once again causing agitation in political circles; critics say that the film carries an extreme anti-abortion message, a claim that directors Andrew and Jon Erwin deny.
When a Marriage Goes South
In Red Knot, a newlywed couple voyaging to Antarctica confront stresses in their marriage.. Ben Kenigsberg reviews movie Red Knot, directed by Scott Cohen and starring Vincent Kartheiser and Olivia Thirlby.
If After Earth Was Will Smiths Waterworld, Is Focus His Tin Cup?
Last night saw the release of Will Smiths Focus, which pairs the iconic movie star with rising star Margot Robbie in an R-rated con artist comedy. The unofficial tracking puts the opening weekend at around $20-$25 million, which would be a solid start.
Factory Farming, From an Animal Point of View
“Speciesism,” a documentary written and directed by Mark Devries, explores animal rights and factory farms.. Jeannette Catsoulis reviews documentary film Speciesism: The Movie, directed by Mark Devries.
Universal Acquires Movie Rights to Trilogy of Erotic Novels
Fifty Shades of Grey, the erotic novel that went from X-rated underground sensation to mainstream literary phenomenon, is poised to become a Hollywood movie.. Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels, which became underground sensations and attracted interest from major publishing houses, is headed for Hollywood.
Spoiler Alert: What Will Smiths new movie Focus tells us about racial.
Focus is causing controversy -- and not because its hero is a thief, or its heroine plays the badger game with drunken businessmen, or it has some crude sex jokes or that it even has a Hispanic actor playing a Persian nerd called Fatass. No, Focus.
Smith and Robbie fail to spark in ���Focus��� - Movie Nation
The trouble with movies about The Big Con is that they condition us to not believe anything we see up on screen -- relationships, who is conning whom, deaths, etc. Focus one-ups that by pushing a romance to the fore, one��.
Focus Movie Reviews: What Do Critics Think Of Will Smiths Latest?
Even with split reviews, Focus is on track to topple the hugely successful Fifty Shades of Grey from the number one spot at the box office. According to Variety, Focus brought in $900,000 during its special Thursday night showings. The movie is.
FOCUS MOVIE Cast, Trailer and Release Date 2015: Adrian Martinez Talks Playing.
While Martinez is recognizable, you may not realize the wealth of his character roles unless you take a closer look at his body of work on TV, film and Off-Broadway. Currently, he plays Will Smiths funny, smart-mouthed yet lovable sidekick, Farhad, in.
Movie Review ��� Focus (2015) - Flickering Myth
There are several issues with Focus, but the main one of which is that its main story ��� the relationship between Nicky and Jess ��� isnt very interesting. When the movie focuses (no pun intended) on the hustles and the��.
Apple Showcases Final Cut Pro X Usage in Production of.
Just a few days before the release of the Hollywood romantic comedy film Focus, starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie, Apple has provided a behind-the-scenes look at how Final Cut Pro X was used to produce the movie.
The Professor of Micropopularity
James Schamus of Focus Features makes the most successful “small” movies around. His secret? Spiking the mainstream with just a touch of weird.
Review: In Focus, a Grifter (Will Smith) as Life Coach
A silky high-end caper about a pair of good-looking con artists, ���Focus��� is a movie blessedly free of self-importance. It constructs a seductive fantasy world out of actual places (New Orleans, Buenos Aires) and milieus (Super Bowl skyboxes, Formula.
Movie review: Focus is a blurry mess
Sometimes, reviewing a movie is like trying to grab on to a goldfish in a bowl. It just keeps slipping away, and you cant get your hands around it, and you begin to wonder why on Earth you were trying to capture this goldfish anyway. In the case of.
Focus Review: Welcome Back, Movie Star Will Smith!
Saying what happens beyond that set-up would risk spoiling the surprises, and a con man movie is all about the surprises. Maybe thats why I enjoy them so much; at a time when most Hollywood genres have grown stale, Focus is refreshingly��.
Box Office: Will Smiths Focus Opens with $900000 Thursday Night
The Warner Bros. film has been tracking to launch with around $21 million for the weekend as it expands to 3,323 locations. It should take the top spot in whats expected to be an otherwise lackluster weekend at the U.S. box office. The marketing for.
Margot Robbie talks with Gino about the new movie ���Focus���
(WITI) ��� The movie ���Focus��� is now in theaters. It features Will Smith as ���Nicky,��� a veteran con artist who thinks he has it all figured out. That is, until Jess steps into the picture. Gino sits down with the woman in question, Margot Robbie, to break.
A Literary Triumvirate of Love and Lust
Beloved Sisters imagines a fraught ménage à trois among the German poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller and the sisters Charlotte von Lengefeld and Caroline von Lengefeld.. Stephen Holden reviews Dominik Graf film Beloved Sisters, starring Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius and Hannah Herzsprung.
Box Office Preview: Focus to Test Will Smiths Star Power.
Will Smith returns to the big screen this weekend in Focus, his first leading role since box-office bomb After Earth in summer 2013. As such, the Warner Bros. movie will be a test of Smiths star status, both in North America and��.
First Hollywood film edited with Final Cut Pro X hits theaters.
The movie entitled Focus (trailer above) stars Will Smith and is set to be released this Friday. From the USA Today: Focus directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa choose Final Cut for a simple reason: ���We wanted to do the��.
Movie Review: Focus | Salt Lake Magazine
Focus, this con runs deep.. the big con flick ���Focus.��� In the film, con man Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith) is thrown for a loop when his former lover Jess Barrett (Margot Robbie) ends up on the opposing side of the same scam.