“movies” on The Daily Caller

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Avengers” is taking a page out of Superman’s comic book — flying faster than a speeding bullet to the billion-dollar mark at the box office. (more)

I was sitting on the subway in New York last week, reading my book, pretty much in my own world, and trying to ignore the bodies that were pressed up on me from all sides, when I noticed a pale little red-headed boy, probably around eight or nine years old, sitting across from me, looking scared, and crouched up close to his mother, who had her arm around him. Neither of them were talking. Near him were two other kids, maybe age 11 or 12, who were being noisy. I didn’t really give the scene much thought. (more)

On Tuesday night, I went to a screening of “Damsels in Distress,” a new movie written and directed by the conservative filmmaker Whit Stillman (the creative mind behind “Metropolitan,” ”Barcelona,” and “The Last Days of Disco“). “Damsels,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, is set for a limited release in New York City and Los Angeles on Good Friday, April 6 (you can watch the trailer here). (more)

CHICAGO (AP) — Young people want their music, TV and movies now — even if it means they get these things illegally. (more)

Paramount Pictures announced on Monday that director Michael Bay will be back to direct the fourth film in the blockbuster series “Transformers,” set to hit theaters June 29, 2014. (more)

Six years ago, a major newspaper hired a polling company to find out what teenagers aged 12 to 17 like and don’t like. The results broke with conventional wisdom: 58 percent of boys and 74 percent of girls said they were offended by sexual material in movies and television programs. Similar percentages said they didn’t like hearing obscene language. (more)

In 2002, director Joel Schumacher and actor Colin Farrell proved that 81 minutes of a guy in a phone booth could be interesting. With 102 minutes, director Asger Leth and writer Pablo Fenjves struggled to do the same with a guy on a ledge. Though the title conjures up memories of “Snakes on a Plane,” an awesomely terrible film starring an F-bomb-spewing Samuel L. Jackson, “Man on a Ledge” contains little of the fun that “Snakes” boasted and doesn’t match the suspense of “Phone Booth.” But it’s still entertaining. (more)

The silent film “Wings” won the very first best picture Academy Award in 1929. Since then, no silent film has won a best picture Oscar. This year that might change. (more)

Stieg Larsson, the author of the Millennium series, died before his stories were published. Considering he personally had no say over the cinematic adaptations of his work, the just-released David Fincher version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and the 2009 Swedish version both stick remarkably close to their gritty source material. (more)

Let’s face it — Christmas is all about the children, so grown-ups are going to be stuck watching kid-friendly flicks like Miracle on 34th Street for the thousandth time. (more)

I’m having a Spike Lee moment. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood’s holidays are off to a dreadful start: Fewer people went to the movies the last two weekends than during the box-office hush that followed the Sept. 11 attacks 10 years ago. (more)

Each year, watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” gets more depressing. No, not the story — that’s still sweet. What’s depressing is seeing how, in just 65 years, our government has come to intrude on so many aspects of our lives. (more)

Whenever I have nightmares about the documentary I am attempting to make about Whittaker Chambers, one thought keeps me going. (more)

It’s time for a movie about Whittaker Chambers. (more)

By all accounts, J. Edgar Hoover was a workaholic. Where biographies and Clint Eastwood’s just-released biopic on Hoover differ is how they deal with this. Biographers tend to focus on what is known — Hoover’s life’s work — allowing a few pages for hearsay and gossip about his sexuality. Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s “J. Edgar” focuses on the little known and assumed about Hoover’s sexuality, using it as the key to understanding Hoover’s actions. (more)