Universal Studios Inc.

2012 Summer Guide: Summer Movie Preview

Union Protest at Comcast Friday Over Low-Income Kids Internet Program

Comcast says: Yes, we do care! ​Back in September, Comcast made a deal with the Federal Communications Commission as part of its takeover of NBC and Universal Studios, that it would provide low-cost Internet services and a cheaply priced computer to low-income families -- but that hasn't happe ... More >>

Reviews For The Easily Distracted:
War Horse

Title: War Horse What Is It Good For? Almost absolutely nothing, unless you're desperate for a terribly clichéd, family-friendly movie about one of the bloodiest wars in human history. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: One Big Bertha out of five. Tagline: "Separated by war. Tes ... More >>

5 Origin Stories We'd Rather See Than Puss in Boots

Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots debuted at number one its opening weekend and has continued to dominate the box office ever since. Although much worse films have had that honor (lookin' at you, Paul Blart Mall Cop), we must still ask -- really? This makes the fifth film of the Shrek genus and while Boo ... More >>

Space Shuttles: Ten Ways Los Angeles and New York Can Show Theirs Off, Dammit

Bi-wing airplanes...pfft. Try this on for size, Kong.​This week, we learned that Houston, essentially the birthplace of the space shuttle program, will not be given one of the four remaining shuttles. Two of the four cities receiving them are both deserving and appropriate: Washington D.C. (fo ... More >>

Laurens Hammond, True Synth-Pop Sire, Would Be 115 Today

thehammondorganstory.com​Today we celebrate the birthday of one Laurens Hammond, who basically invented everything that Edison and Tesla didn't. For instance, he designed an automatic transmission at age 14 in 1909, but French carmaker Renault rejected it. No matter; he went on to develop the ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Remake My Day 2 (The Remakening)

Honestly, do you really care?​I write a lot about Hollywood's obsession with remakes because I'm a movie buff, first and foremost, and because as a "writer" it's easy to milk an announcement of the latest atrocity from Platinum Dunes for 750 indignant words regarding the creative demise of Hollywo ... More >>

WorldFest Discovered Steven Spielberg...And Oliver Stone...And Ang Lee...And...

​The 43rd Annual WorldFest -- Houston International Film & Video Festival (damn, that's a long name) can claim to have been the launching pad for several major directors; Steven Spielberg, George Lucas (in the same year), Ang Lee, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, the Coen Brothers, Brian de Pal ... More >>

Farewell, Conan: Don't Give Yourself Away

Fare thee well, Conando.​About two weeks before I graduated from college, my best friend got out of the poisonous relationship he'd been in for five years. He was ecstatic at the possibilities before him, and those final moments of school held for him a wonder and freedom he didn't even know h ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "Body in Fragments", "Exit Art Portfolio Collection", "Perspectives 168: Anna Krachey, Jessica Mallios, and Adam Schreiber", "Recent Accessions in Design"

Fare thee well, Conando.​About two weeks before I graduated from college, my best friend got out of the poisonous relationship he'd been in for five years. He was ecstatic at the possibilities before him, and those final moments of school held for him a wonder and freedom he didn't even know h ... More >>

Memo Re: Slap Shot Remake

TO: President, Universal Pictures FROM: Script Department RE: Slap Shot Remake We received a copy of Peter Steinfeld's (21) first draft for the planned Slap Shot remake. Before we pass it on to the director currently attached to this project (Dean Parisot, Fun With Dick and Jane), we though ... More >>

Memo Re: Slap Shot Remake

TO: President, Universal Pictures FROM: Script Department RE: Slap Shot Remake We received a copy of Peter Steinfeld's (21) first draft for the planned Slap Shot remake. Before we pass it on to the director currently attached to this project (Dean Parisot, Fun With Dick and Jane), we though ... More >>

Fourth and Inches: Leatherheads

George Clooney's ode to screwball comedies of yore is sooooo close. But yet.

Lights On or Off?

The fight for a TV show about truth, justice and high school football

Wild, Then Crazy

Steve Martin's May-December romance turns unseasonably cold

Another Look at a Legend

Steve Martin's May-December romance turns unseasonably cold

New releases available this week

Steve Martin's May-December romance turns unseasonably cold

Lost in the "Woods"

Negative Space Gallery's new show has bark and bite

Fahrenheit 2004

Remembering the movies that heated up cinemas this year

Dome of Doom

Can the county's rehab plans save the Astrodome from demolition?

Lowbrow, Meet Eyebrow

Between The Rock and a hard place, The Rundown isn't so bad

The War with Chirac

Guerin's Bistro fights the good fight while anti-French sentiment swirls about Houston and the United States

Miss American Pie

A Hollywood agent tries to read between the lines of a casting call

Cat Fight

Peter Bogdanovich works out his demons on Citizen Hearst

Gangstas in Paradise

Galveston has beautiful beaches, the Strand and Moody Gardens. North of Broadway it has the projects, crippling poverty and big-city problems. And now the bad guys are back.

Making Wookie

The MFA explores the fine arts of marketing and merchandising with its Star Wars exhibit

A Tangled Web

Along Came a Spider's flimsy plot survives only because of its many cheats

Cough It Up

The man who created Josie and the Pussycats can't understand why his girls don't belong to him

Vampire Music

The Kronos Quartet presents a Philip Glass score for the 1931 movie classic Dracula

Win, Lose, or Draw

Or: How do you bring a comic book to life without killing a superhero?

[S]hit

Behind current blaxploitation pulp literature is - surprise! - the music biz

The Man Who Knew Too Soon?

Eight years ago Tom Curtis reported that AIDS could have been spread by an experimental polio vaccine grown on monkey kidneys. Scientists sniffed. Journalists scoffed. The story died. Now, a new book says the theory wasn't so stupid after all.

Gods and Monsters

Eight years ago Tom Curtis reported that AIDS could have been spread by an experimental polio vaccine grown on monkey kidneys. Scientists sniffed. Journalists scoffed. The story died. Now, a new book says the theory wasn't so stupid after all.

News of the Weird

Eight years ago Tom Curtis reported that AIDS could have been spread by an experimental polio vaccine grown on monkey kidneys. Scientists sniffed. Journalists scoffed. The story died. Now, a new book says the theory wasn't so stupid after all.

Whale's Tale

Gods and Monsters traces a gay film director's complex life

Haunting Happiness

A dark comedy takes a compelling look at lonely heartbreak

This Is Your Brain on Drugs

Like, wow: Half Baked proves to be half-witted

Static

Like, wow: Half Baked proves to be half-witted

The Wet Look

Waterworld is a whirlpool of dazzling action, and muddled ideas