Bob Mondello

When 'G' Movies Are For Kids, Do Kids Avoid 'G' Movies?

Bob Mondello — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 20:08:00 +0000

If you're a parent with small children, summer is traditionally a time when there's lots for them to see at the multiplex. That's not untrue this summer. But if you're specifically looking for a film with a G rating, you may just be out of luck.

Two years ago, out of the more than 600 films submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America, 16 got rated G — the most in a decade. Last year, even if you counted re-releases, only 10 films got rated G. And this year, of the 250 films that have opened so far, not a single one has been rated G. Not one.

Movie Reviews: What 'After Earth' And 'Kings' Have In Common

Bob Mondello — Fri, 31 May 2013 21:04:00 +0000

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block. Two movies open today that at first glance have little in common, the science fiction blockbuster "After Earth" and the suburban indie comedy "Kings of Summer." Leave it to our critic Bob Mondello to find similarities.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Will Smith is playing a general in "After Earth" named Cypher Raige, which tells you all you really need to know about the character, but let's brush in a few details.

Summer Movie Preview: Kids, Theft, The Apocalypse, And Joss Whedon

Bob Mondello — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:15:00 +0000

Trending, trending. M Night Shyamalan sees dead people. I see trends.

This will be a summer of Adolescents Triumphant, with kids overcoming parental units specifically to tame a hostile environment, be it a planet (Shyamalan's After Earth) a woodsy suburban clearing (Kings of Summer), or a waterpark (The Way Way Back).

More Time Together, Though 'Midnight' Looms

Bob Mondello — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:49:00 +0000

Celine and Jesse are sporting a few physical wrinkles — and working through some unsettling relational ones — in Before Midnight, but that just makes this third installment of their once-dewy romance gratifyingly dissonant.

It's been 18 years since they talked through the night that first time, Julie Delpy's Celine enchanting and occasionally prickly, Ethan Hawke's Jesse determined to charm; their chatter then, as now, scripted but loose enough to feel improvised as captured in long, long takes by Richard Linklater's cameras.

Take a peek back at 1995's Before Sunrise, and

New 'Trek' Goes 'Into Darkness,' But Not Much Deeper

Bob Mondello — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:14:00 +0000

The opening sequence of J.J. Abram's new entry in the Star Trek universe has all the ingredients of the classic franchise.

There's Kirk and his crew bellowing on the bridge, everyone worrying about the prime directive and our favorite Vulcan trapped in a volcano.

OK, I'm in. I may not be a fanboy anymore, but I sure was in my youth, and having these guys in their youths again is just as cool at the outset as it was last time.

Chris Pine's baby-Shatner is spitting his lines while Zachary Quinto channels his inner Nimoy.

Polley's 'Stories': A Family Saga Strikingly Spun

Bob Mondello — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:47:00 +0000

Sarah Polley grew up the fifth of five children in a Canadian theatrical family. Her father, Michael, is a transplanted British actor; her mother, Diane, was an actress and casting director. No wonder Sarah feels her family's narrative has the stuff of drama.

"I'm interested in the way we tell stories about our lives," she says in the film, "about the fact that the truth about the past is often ephemeral and difficult to pin down."

Prophetic words, those.

But let's start from the film's beginning.

In 'Iron Man 3,' A Metalhead Gets The Blues

Bob Mondello — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:14:00 +0000

Y'know, I think this bummed-out superhero thing is catching. Depressed Bat-guy, brooding Spider-dude, even the Man of Steel seems existentially troubled in previews of his most recent incarnation.

And smart-alecky Iron Man? He'd appeared inoculated by Tony Stark's reflexive snark from succumbing to a similar ailment — but even he's having anxiety attacks these days.

Digging Into Ricky Jay's 'Deceptive' Card Tricks

Bob Mondello — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:26:00 +0000

When people talk about movie magic, they rarely mean card tricks.

On The Big Screen, The Tax Guy Can Be Your Buddy

Bob Mondello — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:24:00 +0000

It's fair to say that the bakery employees who hooted and jeered "tax maaaaaan" when mild-mannered auditor Will Ferrell showed up in Stranger than Fiction were no fans of the Internal Revenue Service. In that, they're like a lot of us, no?

So it's intriguing that Hollywood generally treats tax inspectors as nice guys. On the big screen, it's typically their IRS bosses who are the bad ones.

"High bracket, low bracket — if Uncle doesn't get his cut we nail your hide to the barnyard door," snarls Tony Randall's boss in the 1959 comedy The Mating Game.

A Film So Sumptuous, 'Renoir' Himself Might Have Helped Out

Bob Mondello — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:29:00 +0000

The year is 1915. A beautiful young woman bicycling through sun-dappled woods passes under an effigy of a German soldier and seems entirely unfazed. World War I is raging elsewhere in Europe, but here on the French Riviera life is serene.

The cyclist, Andree, is on her way to pose for an elderly Impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet), whom she somewhat startles by claiming to be an artist herself.

"An artist," wonders the great man.

"Actress, dancer, singer," she says, smiling, as he chuckles.