Free Republic

The R-rated comedy with the combined star power of Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron could barely stay afloat at the Memorial Day box office after being savaged by reviewers. Not even Dwayne Johnson could save Baywatch from sinking like a rock in its big-screen debut. Crippled by critics, the R-rated adaptation of the classic TV action drama debuted to a dismal $23 million over the long Memorial Day weekend, well behind expectations. The film placed No. 3 after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and holdover Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, now in its fourth weekend,...

Out of the countless superhero movies I have to consume ever year (and have watched in my life), there are only a handful that I completely enjoyed and thought were masterworks of the genre: "Superman," "Batman: The Dark Knight." Now "Wonder Woman" has made that small list. Princess Diana of the Amazons starts out as a naive girl who dreams of being a great warrior like her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), and aunt General Antiope (Robin Wright), but she is purposely being held back in her warrior training to keep secret an important truth about her. But when Steve...

Memorial Day revenue at the domestic box office falls to its lowest level in nearly two decades; overseas, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ makes up ground with a $208.4 million launch. Memorial Day weekend was no picnic this year for Hollywood at the domestic box office. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales may have won the holiday frame with a four-day haul of $77 million from 4,276 theaters, but it is the lowest start for any Pirates movie outside of the first film. It did make up ground overseas, where it found plenty...

“No one really knows what it’s like to be queen.” It’s 1887, and the British Empire is celebrating Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee — 50 years on the throne. Kings and princes are in attendance. So is Abdul Karim, who has traveled from his famine-ravaged India to the event to present the aging monarch with a ceremonial coin. “Whatever you do, you must not look at Her Majesty,” he is admonished. But eye contact is made, followed by a sweet smile, and a most unlikely historical friendship is born.

Unlike many of today's 'anti-war' duds, these seven works honor Americans who served in war. Memorial Day is of course when we remember those who died serving their country in our armed services. There was a time when America's movie industry took pride in honoring American servicemen, both the living and the dead; there are a few actors and directors in Hollywood who still do. But since movies about Americans at war have largely gone in the opposite direction since Vietnam, this weekend it might be worthwhile going back to see seven movies that deal with war in an honest...

No science fiction franchise has been more influential than Star Wars. (Sorry, Star Trek fans!) Over the last 40 years, the space opera saga created by George Lucas has delivered 1,062 minutes of lightsaber duels, intergalactic dogfights and dynastic drama. Even non-fans are likely to immediately recognize iconic imagery like Darth Vader’s helmet, the Millennium Falcon, or Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. Which begs the question: of the hundreds, maybe thousands, to choose from which Star Wars moments are the best? The series, now owned by Disney, turns 40 on May 25. So TIME's entertainment team and sundry Star Wars super fans...

Hollywood is facing a very bad weekend unless there’s someone who hasn’t seen “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.” Paramount’s “Baywatch” with Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron is a disaster. Currently at 9% on Rotten Tomatoes, our Leah Sydney says it just falls flat. (See her review below.) Disney’s 5th “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie has a 33, which ain’t much better. After the first night, big things are not expected.

Former James Bond star Roger Moore has died after a battle with cancer, his family confirmed Tuesday. He was 89. Moore, who epitomized James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985, died in Switzerland “after a short but brave” cancer fight, according to a statement released by his three children. “The love with which he was surrounded in his final days was so great it cannot be quantified in words alone,” said Moore’s kids, Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian.

Conservative Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood has no problem voicing his political opinions, something we learned from his infamous empty chair skit during the 2012 Republican National Convention.He is still boldly speaking his mind as of this week, this time at France’s prestigious Cannes Film Festival.“It was far-out at that time, so I brought it to [director] Don [Siegel], and he liked it,” Eastwood recalled Sunday during a visit to the Cannes Film Festival. “A lot of people thought it was politically incorrect. That was at the beginning of the era that we’re in now with political correctness. We are killing ourselves, we’ve...

The new “Alien: Covenant” boasts stellar production design, Michael Fassbender’s subtly masterful dual performance and thoughtful musings about the creation of life. But that’s not why anyone is going to see it. They want to see how Ridley Scott’s prequel to his groundbreakingly gory, 1979 “Alien” — a film that delivered on its pitch line “In space no one can hear you scream” — tops the chest-bursting slaughter of the original sci-fi classic. “I think Ridley’s first line was, ‘We’re going to make a hard R-rated film, and we’re going to need a lot of claret,’ which is a term...

Hollywood may experience one of the worst slumps at the box office in the last decade this summer as Americans grow tired of the seemingly endless number of sequels and big-budget tentpoles churned out by the film industry. Multiple reports by the the Hollywood Reporter show box office revenues are on track to decline by five percent this summer season when compared with last year, and could drop by as much as ten percent. In real dollars, that could calculate out to a net loss of $450 million for Hollywood’s film industry, with summer earnings for movies expected at about...

Hollywood's highest profile feminist gets smacked around by film critics for some surprising reasons. It isn’t easy being a woke celebrity. You try. And you try. Yet it’s never good enough. Katy Perry attempts to turn her grrrl power shtick into a political movement and gets popped by a withering op-ed in The Daily Beast. Will Ferrell does everything humanly possible to support progressive causes. What happens next? he gets dubbed a racist for a comedy co-starring a black superstar. And now there’s Amy Schumer’s Snatched. The new comedy stars the uber-progressive comic and Goldie Hawn in a mother-daughter adventure....

Every summer has them. Big studio movies launched with massive budgets that saddle into multiplexes looking to kick off new film franchise only to be greeted by the forces of audience indifference. Well, it looks like summer 2017 has its first official flop. Warner Bros.’ “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,” Guy Ritchie’s attempt to make the Knights of the Round Table hip again, is collapsing at the box office. Based on its Thursday pre-shows and Friday afternoon mid-day grosses, the $175 million epic is looking at a disastrous $18 million debut. Those projections come from rival studios. Insiders at...

In the closing minutes of Saturday Night Fever, the following events occur: A racist injustice, an attempted date rape, a gang rape, a horrific accidental death with an element of suicide, and (not least) a nighttime ride on the disco-era New York City subway. The film concludes with the hero getting rejected by his lady. Naturally it was one of the biggest hits of 1977. Baby Boomers jammed theaters to see Saturday Night Fever (which earned the equivalent of over $350 million in today’s dollars) and Gen-Xers (like me) either sneaked in to see its forbidden R-rated depravities or...

On April 29, 1980, the world lost a great storyteller when Alfred Hitchcock, the “Master of Suspense,” died in his Bel Aire home at the age of 81. His repertoire included more than 50 films in the suspense genre – films such as “The Birds,” “Psycho,” “North by Northwest” and others. The 2012 film “Hitchcock”, which purported to tell the director's life story, gave little attention to his faith. Instead, it spotlighted Hitch's alleged behind-the-scenes discord with his wife of 54 years, screenwriter Alma Reville, and his domineering approach to actors on the set of his films. Two biographies...

Make no mistake: “The Circle” is not a great movie by any means. However, it is a movie I would highly recommend that every American see. Although we’re not even halfway through 2017, it’s hard to believe Hollywood will release a more conservative movie this year. I have not seen a contemporary film that does a better job of deconstructing the fake utopian schemes of progressivism. I only doubt whether that was the movie’s actual purpose … or the filmmakers couldn’t help but subconsciously go there, given the subject matter. Just look at the movie’s main characters. The heroine, Mae...

The closing night of the Tribeca Film Festival brought together the cast from two of the most important and influential movies ever made: The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. Led by the festival’s co-founder, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Talia Shire took the stage with their director, Francis Ford Coppola, to look back on the iconic films after they screened back to back for the audience. The discussion, which was led by director Taylor Hackford, focused mainly on the first film, which allowed De Niro — who only appeared in Part II...

Baby boomers with cash and a campy bucket list take note: Movie director John Waters is hosting a summer camp for grown-ups in Connecticut. While the first iteration, slated for the third weekend in September, is already marked "sold out" (there were 300 slots) on the Camp John Waters page, dreamers of a follow-up will note that the $499 price of admission grants attendees access to a one-man show by Waters, a Q&A, a marathon viewing of his films, Bloody Mary Bingo, Hairspray Karaoke, and more, reports Dazed. Guests also receive an autographed copy of his book Make Trouble, which...

.... ...The song helped. Years and years ago, at his home in Montauk, Paul Simon showed me his draft sheets for the lyrics. He was late delivering the three new pieces he'd promised (Dave Grusin wrote the orchestral score) so he told Mike Nichols he'd had an idea for a song that was a remembrance of things past - about Joe DiMaggio and whatnot. "But I don't know if the song's called 'Mrs Roosevelt' or 'Mrs Robinson'," he said. "We're making a movie here," snapped Nichols. "It's 'Mrs Robinson'." .... Their cleverest scene together is the one in which Benjamin...

Jonathan Demme, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who observed emphatically American characters with a discerning eye, a social conscience and a rock ’n’ roll heart, achieving especially wide acclaim with “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Philadelphia,” died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 73. His publicist, Leslee Dart, confirmed the death. Mr. Demme disclosed that he had cancer in 2015. Mob wives, CB radio buffs and AIDS victims; Hannibal Lecter, Howard Hughes and Jimmy Carter: Mr. Demme (pronounced DEM-ee) plucked his subjects and stories largely from the stew of contemporary American subcultures and iconography. He created a body...