Action and Adventure Movies

Black Rock's babes-in-the-woods horror is as unsettling as it is exciting

Bruce Willis needs G.I. Joe more than it needs him

Five prequel, sequel and remade movies I will watch -- no matter how bad they are

I'm among the petulant grumblers about super-popular movies getting prequels, gaining sequels and being retrofitted to appeal to current fans while grabbing up new fans with sexy, glammy, glitzy things like turbo-hottie actors and actresses and the expensive magic of CGI. But I grumble because I car ... More >>

James Holmes: Post-its in courthouse bathroom promote film that says he was set up

Accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes was in court yesterday for a short hearing to determine whether lawyers were ready to proceed with what will likely be a revealing preliminary hearing next week. (They are; the hearing starts Monday, January 7 at 9 a.m.) After the hearing, we used the wome ... More >>

Loner of the Ring

Reader: James Holmes theory about music triggering murder foreseen by Tipper Gore

The National Enquirer's story about James Holmes's alleged confession to the theater shooting included the assertion that something in The Dark Knight Rises' soundtrack set off the lethal rampage. One reader believes this tale is possible and connects the concept to Tipper Gore's campaign against mu ... More >>

Wachowski World

See also: The many daring stories of Cloud Atlas can't be told properly in its run time

Reader: Turn theater 9 at Century 16 into a place of remembrance, with Batman clips

The City of Aurora is conducting a survey through August 31, asking people what should be done with the Aurora Century 16, the theater where twelve people died when a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises; the results will be shared with Cinemark, owner of the theat ... More >>

Today's action movies are on a whole different kick

The six most memorable dancing robots from pop culture

If there's one thing that pop culture has taught us, it's that robots fight. From Terminator to Transformers, robots are duking it out everywhere. But maybe it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe some robots just want to dance.

Aurora theater shooting: Torrence Brown Jr. first to sue over attack

Only days after the Aurora theater shootings, and mere hours after the initial court appearance by accused gunman James Holmes, TMZ reports that the first lawsuit over the assault has been filed. The plaintiff: Torrence Brown Jr., who was not physically injured in the melee but was friends with vic ... More >>

Videos: Aurora Century 16 shootings at The Dark Knight Rises

Overnight, a gunman opened fire during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises at the Aurora Town Center Century 16 movie complex. At this writing (and these numbers could well change, and change soon), fourteen people are confirmed dead, with an estimated fifty wounded, some said to be in criti ... More >>

Aurora theater shooting: "We are all just crying"

Editor's note: Sam Levin is at Gateway High School, near the scene of the Aurora Century 16 theater shooting. People continue to gather at Gateway High School, where witnesses were taken after the attack -- among them more and more panicked individuals trying to find out whether friends and loved o ... More >>

Aurora theater shooting prompts volleys from pro-gun, anti-gun forces

Whenever there's a shocking example of firearm mayhem like the shootings at the Aurora Century 16 theater, it doesn't take long for those on either side of the pistol-availability argument to start trying to make ideological points. Prime examples: Texas Representative Louie Gohmert, who wondered wh ... More >>

The winner: Lady Shiva is my favorite Batman villain

Although The Dark Knight Rises will be released officially just after midnight tonight, at Premiere to Remember, people will be able to see the movie four and a half hours earlier -- and also party with fellow fans. And in a contest announced earlier this week, we promised to give a pair ofVIP upgr ... More >>

Reader: My love for Catwoman should make me a Dark Knight VIP

The Dark Knight Rises officially opens at midnight tomorrow. Buy a ticket to Premiere to Remember, though, and you can see the movie a full four-and-a-half hours earlier, at the United Artists Colorado Center 9 -- and then go to an after-party at Dave and Buster's. And if you win our contest, you ... More >>

Comic Relief

Make Your Own Legends: Apply now for a 2012 Jonny Copp Award grant

Jonny Copp's credo for the Adventure Film Festival he founded in Boulder was "Make Your Own Legends," and, while the climber/artist/musician/writer/adventurer made many legends of his own before his death in 2009, one of his greatest legacies may turn out to be posthumous, thanks to the Jonny Copp F ... More >>

Top five sci-fi films according to Dan Landes

Science fiction isn't for everyone. But those who get it, really get it. "Comics and sci-fi are the new archetypes of our culture, we relate to Star Wars and Stan Lee's characters; we've created new mythologies through them," says Dan Landes, restaurateur and self confessed sci-fi geek. And this Fri ... More >>

This Means War is a pandering, too-familiar film

Ron Paul is two tacos short of a combo plate

One-Man Star Wars Trilogy review: The Force can only do so much.

Courtesy of Charlie Ross​The road to Alderon was paved with good intentions, as was One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, but unfortunately the Force can't fix everything. Charlie Ross's solo adaptation of the first (not the second, thank Emperor Palpatine!) Star Wars trilogy was presented to a packed ... More >>

Reader: Michael Bay has made a dozen blockbusters the world loves. And this blogger?

Run while you can!​Filmmaker Michael Bay's entire career has been about punishing the audience for their awful taste -- namely, their taste for his work, Tim Davids suggests. And with the recent Transformers 3, Davids adds, Bay assaults us where we feel it most -- our souls. But Sutava isn't ... More >>

Vodka: a shaken, but not stirred, history of the spirit on screen

​Vodka's rise to popularity wasn't just a matter of taste. As outlined in "Clear Thinking," this week's cover story, brilliant marketing also had a lot to do with the spirit's growth. And that marketing included placements in both movies and television shows -- sometimes purchased, sometimes j ... More >>

Starfox 3D, Michael Chabon and zombies, zombies, zombies this week, August 6, 2011

​We told you last week that things were about to pick up, so hopefully you didn't blow all your hard earned cash on mimosas this weekend, because there is a ton of great content to highlight this week. We've got not one, but two different pieces of zombie media -- a game and a comic -- and the ... More >>

Man goes completely ape for advanced screening of Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Kurt Weinreich is "going ape" as General Marcus from Rise of the Planet of the Apes​According to the employees at the AMC Westminster Promenade 24 theater, people are already "monkeying" around in line, waiting to see the advanced screening of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The Promenade is h ... More >>

13 Assassins, Once Upon a River and other new-release picks for July 5, 2011

​Going back to work after a three-day weekend sucks, so take a few minutes to deviate from your expected tasks and plan your evening. Today promises some exciting new releases, which translates to exciting new ways to bond with yourself, whether it be chillaxing in your hammock reading a new b ... More >>

Asteroid! A look back at the cinematic space-rock bombardment of the late '90s

Only Bruce Willis can save us now.​At 11:00 this morning, an asteroid 5-20 meters in diameter came within 7,800 miles of Earth. Asteroids and meteorites (ever wonder the difference?) make close calls with Earth all the time, but no time in the history of the world was so harrowing as 1997 and ... More >>

Cars 2 and other sequels that tried (and failed) to freshen up by going abroad

​What's the best way to perk up a tired movie franchise? Most of the time, there is no way. But movie producers still continue to try by taking the old characters overseas and hoping the new locale will reheat the leftovers. Case in point: Cars 2. The film comes out this Friday and promises to ... More >>

In honor of The People Vs. George Lucas, here are our five favorite Star Wars fan films

​LucasFilm has had a long and storied past dealing with fans, which is a large chunk of what the film The People vs. George Lucas, which is screening this weekend at Denver FilmCenter, deals with. When fans first started making films inspired by Star Wars, LucasFilm quickly started sending out ... More >>

How would the Predator, the Terminator and others have said goodbye to Stan Winston?

​Stan Winston, silver-haired demon and chief architect of nightmares the world over, died in his home in Malibu on this day in 2008, hopefully after transferring his consciousness to an ageless state-of-the-art animatronic he developed in his spare time that continues to work in secret, creati ... More >>

Gratuitous randomness: Spider-Man about town

Why yes, yes someone did.​What with Tobey Maguire all sincerely pining for Mary Jane and the (admittedly badass) spectacle of CGI overload in the new Spider-Man movies, we occasionally long for the good old days, the days when Spider-Man was shittily drawn and was sort of a dick. Well, that se ... More >>

Priest is this week's most ridiculous trailer

​OMG like how hot are vampires right now? So hot, is how hot they are right now, but as everyone knows, Dracula is pretty much played out and the whole vampires-as-sexy-brooding-potential-lovers thing is already taken -- what we need is a new angle on vampires. So let's see... how about priest ... More >>

The Phantom Tron Menace Legacy: It's the same movie

Tron: Legacy, hittin' the streets on DVD and bluray yesterday, was supposed to be a coup of geekery. A sequel no one really wanted but diehard fans of a box office flop from 1982; it got made anyway -- and against all odds, it looked like awesome 3D geeknip. Jeff Bridges was back and young due to ad ... More >>

Paul has a fondness for sex, drugs and swear words

Why Facebook movies isn't a threat to anyone

​Facebook dove into the movie streaming arena with The Dark Knight yesterday and people flipped out: Netflix's stock, in particular, took a significant dive. But what evidence do we have that this will actually work on a large scale?

Top Ten Pay Phone Scenes in Movies

Is there anyone there?​In a way, there's nothing sadder than obsolescence, a thing no longer useful left to fall into misuse and disrepair -- and there's maybe no better example of that than the pay phone. That's why, for the past couple of weeks, we've been highlighting one Sad Payphone of th ... More >>

Take a Peak

Weirdest Breakfast Cereal Pop Culture Tie-Ins

​Marketing stuff to kids is pretty easy -- which is why the government prevented tobacco companies from doing it -- even subtly, supposedly accidentally -- a few years back. McDonald's Happy Meals are the latest to feel their knuckles rapped by this particular ruler -- the obesity epidemic am ... More >>

YOU DON’T KNOW DICK

The Karate Kid and The A-Team: Ten films that shouldn't ever be remade

​ We don't know if you've noticed or not, but Hollywood has a knack for remaking films (brazenly displaying its pronounced lack of creativity). These movies tend to fall into one of three categories: Pop-film, genre-film or foreign. We've never fully understood the system of how they decide w ... More >>

Swine flu protocol: Children and inmates first

​In the movie The Dark Knight, the Joker conducts a nail-biting sociology experiment by rigging bombs on two ships -- one loaded with ordinary folk, the other transporting prisoners. A detonator for each bomb is then placed in the hands of the opposing camps, who are invited to blow up the oth ... More >>

Final Days

Remakes can’t hold a candle to The Last Man on Earth.

The End Is Near

The Bad Astronomer’s book chronicles the end of the world.

Run For the Hills

Red Rocks hosts Blade Runner for Film on the Rocks.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy franchise has seen better days.

Redemption Song

Celebrate Bob Marley's life and music at What About Bob?

Send in the Clones

Michael Bay's up to his old tricks -- now older than ever.

Drunk of the Week

Benny's Restaurant

Drunk of the Week

Whiskey Bar