Seth Rogen

A misguided, aimless, and frequently irritating send-up of tinseltown egotism from the late 1960s until the early 1980s, director and star James Franco’s Zeroville feels like the work of a feverish cinema studies student on death’s door after overdosing on caffeine pills, everclear, Iggy and the Stooges records, and Martin Amis novels.

Director Jon Favreau’s “live action” remake of Disney’s dearly beloved animated classic The Lion King is both a hard and easy film to review, but a good one nonetheless.

Take The American President, Notting Hill, and Pretty Woman and put them into a blender with some modern political subtext, copious amounts of illegal substances, and a handful of jokes about unfortunately timed erections and you’ll get Jonathan Levine’s Long Shot, a film that’s far more charming, sweet, and hilarious than it sounds.

Have you ever seen a movie SO bad you just can’t stop watching? Well… The Room (2003) written, starring and directed by Tommy Wiseau is just one of those films and it’s subject of the new feature, The Disaster Artist.

In the second episode of The GATE’s Media Box podcast, co-writers and co-directors Adam Goldberg and Seth Rogen talk about their new film, This Is The End; a look at what new shows are coming to television this fall; reviews of This Is The End, plus Oz the Great and Powerful and House of Cards on Blu-ray; an interview with Craig Olejnik and Ennis Esmer for the fourth season of The Listener; and ahead of North by Northeast this week in Toronto, an interview with director Jon Brewer for his documentary, B.B. King: The Life of Riley.

Like a lot of movies, 50/50 was not exactly what I expected based on the trailers I had seen. Newcomer Will Reiser wrote a script that I knew would be tough at times, but even though I was prepared for the fact that it was a drama about one man’s fight with cancer, I still expected the comedy elements to win out somehow.

This week’s new releases on Blu-ray and DVD include: Paul, the tongue-in-cheek alien comedy starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; the animated Disney film, Mars Needs Moms; and the stoner comedy, Your Highness.

May 27th is the weekend of twos. Opening in theatres, The Hangover Part II heads to Thailand for another memorable night with Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis; plus Jack Black and Angelina Jolie star in the animated sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2.

Continuing last week’s void of new arrivals, this is yet another slow week for DVD and Blu-ray releases. Only two new arrivals land on home video today: Seth Rogen and Jay Chou star in the action-comedy, The Green Hornet; plus Vince Vaughn and Kevin James try to laugh it up in the weak Ron Howard comedy, The Dilemma.

Opening this weekend in theatres: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star in the sci-fi comedy, Paul; Bradley Cooper unleashes the power of his mind in Limitless; and Matthew McConaughey plays cat and mouse against his own client in The Lincoln Lawyer.