Coens Burn, But Not Brightly

Comedy thriller records biggest opening ever for Coen brothers

(NEWSER) - The Coen brothers' Burn After Reading led an unexpectedly strong box office weekend by nabbing top spot with $19.4 million, Variety reports. With overall sales up 35% over this frame last year, Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys took second with $18 million, followed by Righteous Kill ($16.5 million), The Women ($10 million), and The House Bunny ($4.3 million). More»

Critics love and hate new Coen brothers film with top-flight cast

(NEWSER) - Burn After Reading, a dark comedy about Washington bureaucrats and other buffoons, “tries to mate sex farce with a satire of a paranoid political thriller, with arch and ungainly results,” Todd McCarthy writes in Variety. The Coen brothers dial everything up to “an almost grotesquely exaggerated extent … making for a film that feels misjudged from the opening scene and thereafter only occasionally hits the right note.” More»

Samuel L. Jackson thriller beats Coen brothers for top spot

(NEWSER) - Samuel L. Jackson thriller Lakeview Terrace debuted at number one over a soft box office weekend, Variety reports. Banking $15.6 million, it ousted Burn After Reading ($11.3 million) and outpaced My Best Friend’s Girl ($8.3 million), Igor ($8 million), and Righteous Kill ($7.7 million). Ricky Gervais laffer Ghost Town notched only eighth with $5.2 million despite good reviews. More»

Juno , I'm Not There , and No Country take top spots

(NEWSER) - Film critics offer their top picks for 2007, ranging from quirky dramedy (Juno) to drama (Michael Clayton) to foreign fare (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times:

1. Juno
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

1. There Will Be Blood
2. No Country for Old Men
3. I'm Not There

Justin Bieber punks Taylor Swift, and more

(NEWSER) - In honor of April Fools' Day, the Huffington Post found video of 10 awesome (or awesomely embarrassing) pranks pulled on and by famous people:

• Tom Cruise: Upon being squirted in the face with a water gun by a British reporter, Cruise's priceless response included the line, "You're a jerk."
• Justin Timberlake: When Ashton Kutcher and Dax Shepard pranked him for Punk'd, with Shepard posing as a government official seizing his property because of unpaid taxes, JT actually cried. He later blamed his behavior on being stoned.