Madonna's Directorial Debut Hits Berlin Festival

Almost 50, Madonna has 2 films and a pop record on the way

(NEWSER) - Pushing 50, Madonna is still rolling out movies and tunes like a true blue star, Vanity Fair reports. And she is unfazed by nasty reviews for Filth and Wisdom, a feature that she directed starring a Ukrainian gypsy punk singer. “You have to get to a point where you care as little about getting smoke blown up your ass as you do when you become a whipping boy in the press,” she said. More»

Movie reviews: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum can't save amnesia romance

(NEWSER) - In The Vow, Rachel McAdams plays a woman who must learn to love her husband again after amnesia wipes her memory. It's no surprise it was released ahead of Valentine's Day: It's pure mushiness, critics say.

• In the New York Daily News , Elizabeth Weitzman calls the film a "down-the-middle, by-the-numbers fantasy, in which no one is too quirky or interesting or challenging in any way." Still, "there’s no shortage of viewers ready to embrace an old-fashioned, guilty-pleasure romance."

Silent movie from 1923 discovered in New Zealand vault

(NEWSER) - Here's a plot twist Alfred Hitchcock likely never envisioned: The earliest feature film he worked on has finally been discovered in the vaults of a New Zealand archive. A nitrate film expert found the long lost 1923 British movie White Shadow, which credits the then-24-year-old Hitchcock as writer, assistant director, editor, and production designer. The silent film will be screened Sept. 22 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, reports the Los Angeles Times . More»

Action flick less than the sum of its all-star parts

(NEWSER) - Sylvester Stallone directed and co-stars, alongside a Magnificent Seven-style roster of action-film legends—Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, and Jason Statham—but critics have some issues with The Expendables.

• James Verniere (and a friend), Boston Herald : "Hulk like Expendables. It SMASH. Guns go BANG-BANG. Things go BOOM. Fire EVERYWHERE. Cars crash and make even MORE FIRE. HA-HA-HA. Hulk no like Rourke, though. Rourke NUTS."

Michael Cera and original storytelling make this a winner

(NEWSER) - Critics generally love the inventive storytelling of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a very modern romance that stars Michael Cera. It's based on a graphic novel, and it shows.

• Joe Neumaier, Daily News : "Plugged into some kind of mental electrical socket by director Edgar Wright, this is a romantic adventure for the ADD age, a pop poem for Millennials that could just as well be titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the Old Ways of Storytelling."
• Eric D. Snider, Film.com : It's "an exuberant mixture of comic books, video games, and hipster romance," tied together with "unconventional filmmaking techniques." It might be the norm in 10 years, but "for now it's almost revolutionary."