Movies opening Friday in S.F. Bay Area The Heat The cop-buddy flick goes full chick mode in this tale of a mismatched FBI agent (Sandra Bullock) and a Boston police detective (Melissa McCarthy). Hey Bartender The elixir of bar life comes not from the heady crowd but the vibrant blending of artistry, assessment and engagement
Top-rated Mark Wahlberg movies In collaboration with Rotten Tomatoes and its parent company, Flixster, The San Francisco Chronicle presents the critical consensus of Mark Wahlberg’s best-reviewed films. Featuring outstanding work from an excellent cast that includes Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Wahlberg, this film is an engrossing drama with the gritty authenticity and soupy …
Channing Tatum’s best-reviewed movies In collaboration with Rotten Tomatoes and its parent company, Flixster, The Chronicle presents the critical consensus of Channing Tatum’s best-reviewed films. The figure listed is the percentage of critics who have rated the film positively, based on reviews listed at rottentomatoes.com.
Worth seeing at the movies The Incredible Burt Wonderstone This comedy about Las Vegas magicians, starring Steve Carell, would be a borderline case were it not for Jim Carrey, who is hysterically funny in the supporting role of a crazy, masochistic street magician.
New on DVD and Blu – ray , March 15 An Autobiography About Love, Death & Technology Tiffany Shlain’s documentary uneasily mixes an optimistic view of new technology (“The Internet is rewiring our brains to think interdependently”) with a touching tribute to her late father, the surgeon and author Leonard Shlain.
DVD review: ‘Fear and Desire’ Fans of the great director Stanley Kubrick will want to have “Fear and Desire,” his first film, made 50 years ago and until recently available only in bootlegged copies. Four soldiers – their country is not identified – crash-land behind enemy lines and then develop a plan to get back to their unit. Look for Paul Mazursky as a private named Sidney who cracks under …
New on DVD and Blu-ray, March 1 The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare This well-crafted documentary by Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke offers an X-ray of what’s wrong with this nation’s health care system and suggests solutions – among them, that the medical industry needs to switch its focus from intervention to prevention and that patients should change their lifestyles.
DVD review: ‘Smash: Season One’ “Smash hit” is the only way to describe this visually compelling show depicting the struggle to produce a musical about Marilyn Monroe and get it to Broadway. this set with 15 episodes comes just when executive producer Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is up for numerous Academy Awards
DVD review: ‘The Duellists’ The film was considered a low-budgeter of limited popularity by the releasing company, Paramount. what made the movie for critics were its impeccable Napoleonic-era costumes and pastoral settings, and photography resembling paintings of the early 19th century
New on DVD and Blu-ray, Feb. 19 The Strike” (2012), “Bagdad Cafe” (1987), “Broken Roads” (2012), “The Cyclist” (2012), “The Factory” (2012), “Fangoria Presents: Renegade Version” (1991), “Hipsters” (2008), “Hollow” (2011), “I Love You to Death” (2012), “Innocent Bystanders” (1972), “Irreconcilable Differences: Special Edition (1984), Julius Caesar (1970), Lake Noir (2011), Live Nude Girls (1995 …