- Atty: Ex-NY art dealer to admit nearly $100M fraud
(AP)
AP - A once-high-flying art dealer plans to admit swindling nearly $100 million from a star-studded clientele that included tennis great John McEnroe and the estate of actor Robert De Niro's father, the dealer's lawyer said Thursday.
- Hollywood and Bollywood join arms to fight piracy
(AP)
AP - Hollywood and Bollywood linked arms Thursday to fight piracy, with the announcement of a coalition among the Motion Picture Association of America and seven Indian companies to tackle counterfeiting in one of the world's largest film markets.
- Capsule reviews: `The Bounty Hunter' and others
(AP)
AP - Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
- Bullock cancels appearance at London premiere
(AP)
AP - Sandra Bullock canceled her appearance at the London premiere of "The Blind Side" days after Internet reports alleged she was having trouble in her marriage and that she had left the couple's Southern California home.
- Review: 'Repo Men' offers bloody awful future
(AP)
AP - In the happy future of "Repo Men," if you need a pancreas, you can get a pancreas. It'll cost you $618,000 and, if you miss one of your scheduled "easy" payments, you'll find yourself hounded by a hired goon who will slice you open, retrieve the organ and leave you on the floor, bleeding to death.
- Review: 'Wimpy Kid' fleshes out stick-figure novel
(AP)
AP - The movie version of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" manages to put flesh and bone on the stick figures in Jeff Kinney's wildly successful cartoon novel without altering the book's mildly subversive comic tone.
- "Diary" no wimp when it comes to wit
(Reuters)
Reuters - "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is a likable movie for kids that will make adults chuckle as well because of the movie's key ingredient -- wit. This usually gets left off the To Do list by most filmmakers who aim at young audiences.
- "Precious" tops DVD sales chart
(Reuters)
Reuters - "Precious," the double Oscar winner about an illiterate Harlem teen who turns her life around, debuted on home video atop the sales chart released Wednesday.
- "Repo Men" an aggressively ridiculous thriller
(Reuters)
Reuters - The future looks awfully predictable (underscore "awfully") in "Repo Men," a blood-soaked, derivative and increasingly ridiculous sci-fi thriller in which Jude Law and Forest Whitaker play a pair of hotshot repossession agents who forcefully remove artificial organs from those who fall behind on their payments.
- "Bounty Hunter" tracks down no laughs or thrills
(Reuters)
Reuters - "The Bounty Hunter" tries to lasso an action thriller into a marital comedy about battling former spouses to the detriment of both story lines. The mishmash ends up as a thoroughly unfunny adult cartoon where neither the heroes' lives nor their love lives are in any serious jeopardy.
- SEAsia's first Universal Studios opens in Singapore
(AFP)
AFP - Southeast Asia's first Universal Studios theme park, featuring rides and attractions from box-office hits like "Shrek" and "Madagascar", opened to enthusiastic crowds Thursday in Singapore.
- Former "Sunshine" star Breslin yearns for horror
(Reuters)
Reuters - Former "Little Miss Sunshine" star Abigail Breslin, currently bringing tears to the eyes of Broadway theater audiences as the blind and deaf Helen Keller, has a grown-up message for movie scouts. She's ready for much darker roles.
- Bullock cancels London trip, film premiere called off
(AFP)
AFP - Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock has cancelled her upcoming trip to the capital for "personal reasons", forcing organisers to call off the London premiere of "The Blind Side".
- Mesa emerges as bidder for Disney's Miramax: sources
(Reuters)
Reuters - Mesa Global, an investment banking firm co-founded by former Creative Artists Agency executive Mark Patricof, has emerged as a potential bidder for Walt Disney Co's Miramax film unit ahead of an offer deadline on Friday, said sources familiar with the matter.
- Hollywood A-listers line up for Asian pro-am
(AFP)
AFP - Movie stars Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey will headline a bevy of celebrities taking part in a new tournament in China that will offer the richest individual prize in Asian golf.
- WWE aims for PPV knockout with WrestleMania
(Reuters)
Reuters - The Super Bowl is done, the Oscars have been handed out. Now World Wrestling Entertainment is gearing up for its signature event: WrestleMania.
- David Byrne's avant-garde dance film makes sense
(Reuters)
Reuters - "Stop Making Sense" is a tough act to follow, but David Byrne gives his younger self a run for his money with "Ride, Rise, Roar."
- Review: Aniston and Butler in `The Bounty Hunter'
(AP)
AP - In Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight," George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez memorably created romantic sparks while huddled in the trunk of a car. By contrast, the action-laden romantic-comedy "The Bounty Hunter" begins with Jennifer Aniston bursting out a trunk in a smokey blaze of ignited flares as Gerard Butler chases after her.
- "Precious" director hires Brit to play MLK
(Reuters)
Reuters - Lee Daniels is firming up the cast of "Selma," his civil-rights follow-up to "Precious," even as its funding is on shaky ground.
- Review: The outer-borough farce `City Island'
(AP)
AP - Set in the Bronx during an eventful spring break and populated by sexual, dark-haired people, "City Island" could, on the surface, be confused for a "Jersey Shore" sequel.