Movies : NPR

Screen Time: Bob Mondello's Favorite Films Of 2013

Lea Seydoux plays Emma in the film Blue Is the Warmest Color, directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. AP hide caption

toggle caption

AP

Screen Time: Bob Mondello's Favorite Films Of 2013

December 30, 2013 • TV may have been great this year, but don't roll the credits on 2013 films just yet. The film critic lists his annual best of the best for your pleasure.

Screen Time: Bob Mondello's Favorite Films Of 2013

Listen · 8:20 8:20

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/258426582/258712001" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

The Case For — And Against — Loving 'Love Actually'

Karen (Emma Thompson) tries to console Daniel (Liam Neeson), whose wife has recently died. Universal Pictures/Photofest hide caption

toggle caption

Universal Pictures/Photofest

The Case For — And Against — Loving 'Love Actually'

December 14, 2013 • These past few weeks, a battle over why you should love or hate the film has bubbled up on the Internet. We wade in.

Violence In PG-13 Movies Comes With Plenty Of Sex And Booze

Explosions during the filming of the PG-13 hit The Dark Knight in Chicago in 2007. Nam Y. Huh/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Nam Y. Huh/AP

Violence In PG-13 Movies Comes With Plenty Of Sex And Booze

December 9, 2013 • Watching violent movies makes teenagers more aggressive, and that violence is almost always associated with sex, drinking and smoking. Violent characters in PG-13 movies are as likely to indulge in violent activities as those in R-rated flicks.

At Auction, Maltese Falcon Goes For $4 Million, Dreams Included

How much will it bring? Bonhams/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Bonhams/AP

At Auction, Maltese Falcon Goes For $4 Million, Dreams Included

November 25, 2013 • Sam Spade would say the falcon is much more than a bird: It's the "stuff that dreams are made of." One of the two statues used in the 1941 movie was sold at an auction in New York Monday.

Movies Rated PG-13 Feature The Most Gun Violence

Gun violence has become increasingly common in PG-13 movies like The Avengers, released in 2012. Zade Rosenthal/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Zade Rosenthal/AP

Movies Rated PG-13 Feature The Most Gun Violence

November 11, 2013 • Banning R-rated movies for your kids isn't enough to spare them from scenes of gun violence. The amount of gun violence in R-rated films has stayed fairly stable since 1985, while gun violence in PG-13 movies has soared.

Blockbuster Fades Out, But Some Zombie Stores Will Live On

This Blockbuster store in Mission, Texas, is franchised by Border Entertainment. The company has 26 stores across Texas and Alaska that will live on after the last 300 or so company-owned stores are closed by early January 2014. Courtesy of Alan Payne hide caption

toggle caption

Courtesy of Alan Payne

The Two-Way

Blockbuster Fades Out, But Some Zombie Stores Will Live On

November 8, 2013 • Dish Network announced this week that it will shutter the 300 or so remaining Blockbuster stores it owns across the country. But in some places, dozens of the video stores will have an unlikely afterlife.

Blockbuster Fades Out, But Some Zombie Stores Will Live On

Listen · 4:25 4:25

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/243967587/243992035" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

New Closed-Captioning Glasses Help Deaf Go Out To The Movies

Sony's Entertainment Access Glasses, seen here in a prototype image, display captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing moviegoers. Sony Entertainment hide caption

toggle caption

Sony Entertainment

All Tech Considered

New Closed-Captioning Glasses Help Deaf Go Out To The Movies

May 12, 2013 • This is a big moment for the deaf, many of whom haven't been to the movies in a long time. The new glasses display closed captions just for the wearer, and they're headed for 6,000 screens across the country.

New Closed-Captioning Glasses Help Deaf Go Out To The Movies

Listen · 3:01 3:01

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/183218751/183429844" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Ray Harryhausen, Master Of Stop-Motion Animation, Dies

American film animator and special effects creator Ray Harryhausen with one of his creations in 1965. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

toggle caption

AP via Twentieth Century Fox

All Tech Considered

Amid Oscars Fanfare, Visual Effects Industry Faces Difficult Times

February 26, 2013 • In a business where effects-laden movies bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, many of the studios that create those effects are barely staying afloat.

'Lincoln' Leads With 12 Oscar Nominations

Daniel Day-Lewis, in the lead role of Lincoln. David James/DreamWorks hide caption

toggle caption

David James/DreamWorks

toggle caption

Ng Han Guan/AP

July 15, 2011 • A long-running campaign to discourage the depiction of smoking in movies is paying off. There were far fewer incidents in 2010 than five years earlier. Filmmakers with public policies to reduce smoking in films showed the steepest declines.

Love It Or Hate It: Few Are In Between About 'Tree Of Life'

Part creation epic and part family drama, The Tree of Life stars Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt as the parents of three boys in the '50s. Merie Wallace/Fox Searchlight Pictures hide caption

toggle caption

Merie Wallace/Fox Searchlight Pictures

The Two-Way

Love It Or Hate It: Few Are In Between About 'Tree Of Life'

June 30, 2011 • Theater owners say there's a trend: A small percentage of moviegoers always seem to leave before the highly acclaimed film is over. Some even want their money back. Have you ever done that?

Love It Or Hate It: Few Are In Between About 'Tree Of Life'

Listen · 4:35 4:35

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/137533978/137533684" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Monday December 30, 2013

Screen Time: Bob Mondello's Favorite Films Of 2013

Saturday December 14, 2013

Monday December 9, 2013

Monday November 25, 2013

Monday November 11, 2013

Friday November 8, 2013

Blockbuster Fades Out, But Some Zombie Stores Will Live On

Sunday May 12, 2013

New Closed-Captioning Glasses Help Deaf Go Out To The Movies

Tuesday May 7, 2013

Sunday April 7, 2013

Tuesday February 26, 2013

Thursday January 10, 2013

Tuesday June 26, 2012

Friday May 25, 2012

Friday July 15, 2011

Thursday June 30, 2011

Love It Or Hate It: Few Are In Between About 'Tree Of Life'