Free Republic

When Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL sniper instructor who helped train Chris Kyle, first watched "American Sniper," he was disappointed in the movie about his former student and friend. "I had high expectations and I have to say, when I first watched the movie, I felt really let down, for a number of reasons," Webb told ABC News Thursday. "It's hard to capture someone's life in two hours, and I get that, but I felt the film could have been, should have been, a military epic on the scale of a 'Saving Private Ryan.'" But Webb said when he...

"Photographer Levi Bettweiser is the man behind the Rescued Film Project, an effort to find and rescue old and undeveloped rolls of film from the far corners of the world. He recently came across one of his biggest finds so far: 31 undeveloped rolls of film shot by a single soldier during World War II. Bettweiser tells us he found the film rolls in late 2014 at an auction in Ohio. About half the rolls were labeled with various location names (i.e. Boston Harbor, Lucky Strike Beach, LaHavre Harbor). “I know nothing about who shot the film or who it...

I’ve seen just about every film about the Iraq War ever made. I’ve produced and associate produced a few. I even appeared in one (for about a millisecond). And without a doubt, “American Sniper” is the single best work of film about the Iraq War ever made. Now, it’s not the most complex film. Not the deepest film. Not even the most provocative. But in terms of storytelling, action, emotion, production and performance, attention to detail and especially the frighteningly accurate soundscape, there’s been nothing else close that’s been made since my platoon entered the war in Iraq in 2003....

Everything is not awesome in Oscars-land. The Academy Awards snubbed The Lego Movie Thursday morning, denying the brick flick a nomination for Best Animated Picture. Lego Movie co-director Phil Lord responded to the snub on Twitter with perfect, plastic grace.

Which Movies Make Grown Men Cry? After an evening at Grassroots Tavern, some friends and I got into a heated argument about “Love Actually,” which I contend is a good movie. This eventually became a slightly less heated argument about which movies make people cry. The consensus was that everyone has at least one movie that gets them. The lone dissenter was my friend Alex Kaufman, who claimed he had never cried during a movie. After we listed approximately half the films on IMDb, he eventually recanted, saying that “Saving Private Ryan” had, at points, briefly broken his steely resolve....

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning. There will be plenty of analysis regarding good surprises and bad surprises....he most egregious omission is the sadly not-entirely-surprising absence of Selma’s Ava DuVernay from the five contenders nominated for Best Director.... I fear that it will affect the artistic opportunities afforded to its African-American female director in a manner different than if Selma would have come under fire under the directorial lens of a white male filmmaker.

In a recent interview with Michigan Capitol Confidential, Brandeis University economist Bob Tannenwald remarked that film incentives were a bad deal for taxpayers. "Another way to look at that would be that a state might be getting only 50 cents or 75 cents value for each dollar per dollar of personal income created by the program for the state’s residents. A state might be better off just sending the checks out directly to its residents rather than creating the program." With roughly $500 million offered in incentives from the start of the program to present, the state could have sent...

A few days before Christmas, a U.K. mother of two reached out to Christian radio show program Stand Up For Truth with a plea for prayers and support. She had been notified that Child Protection Services would be contacting her because she had permitted her children to watch the pro-life documentary 180. The controversy began when the mother (who wishes to remain anonymous) included Gospel tracts and a card advertising the 180 movie in party favor jars for a Christmas fair. She distributed these favors at the Church of England Primary School her children attend, and where she was employed...

A simple biography of the film critic Roger Ebert would have made for a full documentary, but the director Steve James set the bar much higher with “Life Itself.” The film, receiving its television premiere Sunday night on CNN, covers the life and career of Mr. Ebert, who died in 2013 ...

‘Unbroken’ and Billy Graham The movie and the book about Louis Zamperini’s life skimp on the pivotal role of a certain preacher. By Grant Wacker Jan. 1, 2015 Newspaper headlines agreed. Billy Graham —“heaven’s super salesman,” “the Lord’s top salesman”—knew how to close the deal. If he just read from a telephone book, one associate quipped, people would stand up and commit their lives to Christ. Louis Zamperini, who died July 2 at age 97, was a case in point. The Olympic distance runner and World War II hero is the subject of Laura Hillenbrand ’s acclaimed 2010 biography, “Unbroken,”...

Hollywood (also known as, Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film) is a 1980 documentary series produced by Thames Television which explored the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture. The series consists of thirteen fifty-minute episodes, with each episode dealing with a specific aspect of Hollywood history. The actor James Mason, an enthusiast of the period, supplied the narration; a lilting score was contributed by Carl Davis. Technical quality was an important aspect of the production. Silent films had often been screened on television from poor-quality copies running at an inaccurate speed,...

These ten films are not remotely the worst films of 2014, but their respective artistic failures were the most disappointing. This is arguably the most subjective list of my year-end wrap up, with the caveat that of course all of my "best/worst" lists are as subjective as any critical analysis. None of the films on this list belong anywhere near a "worst-of" rundown, but in some ways they were more explicitly dissatisfying than the actual films I chose as the "worst" or "least favorite" films of 2014. Some were genuinely bad, some were mostly good save for a few key...

Clint Eastwood returns to form with “American Sniper,” his best directorial effort since his one-two shot hits “Mystic River” (2003) and “Million Dollar Baby.” (2004) Based on Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s autobiography, “American Sniper” is an introspective – yet incredibly intense – look at Kyle (Bradley Cooper), the SEAL’s most lethal sniper, throughout his four tours of duty in Iraq. Kyle quickly became famous as America’s most deadly sniper, becoming a legend among fellow American soldiers as well as an infamous target by the Iraqi insurgents. Eastwood’s film shifts between the mutual manhunt between Kyle and a savage insurgent leader...

VICTORY!!!!!!! The PEOPLE and THE PRESIDENT have spoken!!! SONY to release THE INTERVIEW in theaters…

Joseph Sargent, who directed The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and MacArthur for the big screen and captured three Emmys for his telefilm work, died Monday at his home in Malibu from the lung disease COPD, publicist Dick Guttman announced. He was 89 ...  In addition to the taut New York City subway hostage drama The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) starring Walter Matthau and the 1977 biopic MacArthur toplined by Gregory Peck, Sargent directed the features The Hell With Heroes (1968) starring Rod Taylor; White Lightning (1973) with Burt Reynolds; and Jaws: The Revenge (1987) ... He gained...

Coal miners and gay activists — two groups that, in 1980s England at least, you might have figured would steer clear of each other — partner surprisingly effectively in the real-life story that's affectionately fictionalized in Pride.....

China said on Monday it opposed all forms of cyberattacks but there was no proof that North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony Pictures, as the United States has said. North Korea has denied it was to blame and has vowed to hit back against any U.S. retaliation, threatening the White House and the Pentagon. The hackers said they were incensed by a Sony comedy about a fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which the studio has pulled.

When known unbeliever Ridley Scott was announced as the director, faithful film buffs feared the worst. Not only were many unsure whether he would treat the Biblical story with respect, but his film record since the smash hit Gladiator has been rather uneven (Robin Hood, Kingdom of Heaven, and Prometheus all failed to connect with wide audiences). As it turns out, Exodus is thankfully respectful of believers, if not a little ambiguous about the goodness of God. But sadly, a number of Scott’s artistic decisions effectively rob the story of its potential to entertain and to uplift. Here are five...

Think you've got a hard-knock life? Try sitting through the new "Annie." A rewritten, re-orchestrated but far from revitalized version of the old Broadway musical, this latest edition moves it out of the Depression and into a modern, tech-driven New York..... Where's the excitement? They're not very apparent here, judging by the kids I saw at my screening. The row in front of me spent most of the movie talking....

National Review's editorial board, Mitt Romney, and other Republicans seem to be MORE willing to stand for freedom of speech than the Obama administration. Getting pushed around by third world tin pot dictators is modus operandi for Demon Rats.