Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull—oft-cited these days as the director’s magnum opus— first premiered in New York on November 14, 1980 to a volley of mixed reviews. At least, that’s what the Internet would have modern researchers believe. Now, 35 years later, digging up a negative review of this not-quite-a-sports-movie, not-quite-a-bio-pic seems limited to a shallow dig by Variety critic Joseph McBride, who wrote that Scorsese “excels at whipping up an emotional storm but seems unaware that there is any need for quieter, more introspective moments in drama.” Meanwhile, a glance at Rotten Tomatoes’ records show that 98 percent of contemporary critics have showered Raging Bull with praise, and even Roger Ebert, reviewing in 1980, rejects McBride’s view, awarding four stars to a film that does “a fearless job of showing us the precise feelings of their central character, the former boxing champion Jake Lamotta.”
Fearless though it was in the characterization of its violent antihero,...
Fearless though it was in the characterization of its violent antihero,...
- 11/14/2015
- by Christina Leo
- SoundOnSight
![Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., James Spader, Paul Bettany, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Chris Hemsworth in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTM4OGJmNWMtOTM4Ni00NTE3LTg3MDItZmQxYjc4N2JhNmUxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTgzMDMzMTg@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., James Spader, Paul Bettany, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Chris Hemsworth in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTM4OGJmNWMtOTM4Ni00NTE3LTg3MDItZmQxYjc4N2JhNmUxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTgzMDMzMTg@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
Avengers: Age of Ultron has topped the UK box office, delivering record-breaking figures.
The Marvel blockbuster earned more than £18 million to record the biggest ever April opening, as well as the highest ever for a superhero movie.
Fast & Furious 7 drops to second place after three consecutive weekends at the top, ahead of Cinderella and Home.
The Met Opera's Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci is a new entry at number five, while Get Hard re-enters the top ten at number nine.
The UK box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Avengers: Age of Ultron - £18,015,774
2. (1) Fast & Furious 7 - £1,607,659
3. (2) Cinderella - £757,113
4. (3) Home - £675,401
5. (-) Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci - £337,698
6. (5) Woman in Gold - £281,230
7. (6) The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water - £251,199
8. (4) Child 44 - £229,653
9. (Re) Get Hard - £155,632
10. (8) The Duff - £151,514
Source: Rentrak
Watch Digital Spy's video review for Avengers: Age of Ultron below (contains spoilers):...
The Marvel blockbuster earned more than £18 million to record the biggest ever April opening, as well as the highest ever for a superhero movie.
Fast & Furious 7 drops to second place after three consecutive weekends at the top, ahead of Cinderella and Home.
The Met Opera's Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci is a new entry at number five, while Get Hard re-enters the top ten at number nine.
The UK box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Avengers: Age of Ultron - £18,015,774
2. (1) Fast & Furious 7 - £1,607,659
3. (2) Cinderella - £757,113
4. (3) Home - £675,401
5. (-) Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci - £337,698
6. (5) Woman in Gold - £281,230
7. (6) The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water - £251,199
8. (4) Child 44 - £229,653
9. (Re) Get Hard - £155,632
10. (8) The Duff - £151,514
Source: Rentrak
Watch Digital Spy's video review for Avengers: Age of Ultron below (contains spoilers):...
- 4/28/2015
- Digital Spy
![Cavalleria rusticana (1982)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTIwNDQyNjA3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTk0ODcxMQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Cavalleria rusticana (1982)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTIwNDQyNjA3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTk0ODcxMQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, that classic diptych of tuneful weepies, has returned to the Metropolitan Opera in a lopsided new production. One piece is black-and-white, the other polychrome; one stodgy, the other Stooge-y; one grim, the other strenuously entertaining. Serious opera people are constantly apologizing for these enduringly popular one-acts, and director David McVicar hedges his bets, too. He mutes the simple plot and supercharged emotions of Cav with a bleak, bare staging, then amps up Pag with cream-in-the-face, spaghetti-on-the-head, duck-puppet comedy. The result is a show with two halves that each half work. In Cavalleria, McVicar gives us a southern Italian town at the turn of the 20th century, trapped in poverty and perpetual mourning. There’s grace in that starkness, brought out by the choreographer Andrew George and the Met’s unfailing marvel of a chorus. But the stage’s big turntable turns, choristers...
- 4/15/2015
- by Justin Davidson
- Vulture
From a range of eras and genres, here's Jenny and Alex's light-hearted pick of 50 great opening title sequences from the movies...
Odd List
We don’t go to the cinema much, because we hate people. We also don’t go because there’s always the risk of accidentally going to see the wrong film. It's not helped by the fact that there's no way of telling until it’s too late, because there are no bloody opening credits on lots of modern films. And by the time you do realise, you’ve eaten all your popcorn and you can’t be bothered to move.
The movies on this list won’t give you that problem. These opening credits are perfect scene setters for the movies that follow, so you won’t have to worry about awkward popcorn wasting moments. It's not a top 50, rather a selection of 50 interesting credits sequences,...
Odd List
We don’t go to the cinema much, because we hate people. We also don’t go because there’s always the risk of accidentally going to see the wrong film. It's not helped by the fact that there's no way of telling until it’s too late, because there are no bloody opening credits on lots of modern films. And by the time you do realise, you’ve eaten all your popcorn and you can’t be bothered to move.
The movies on this list won’t give you that problem. These opening credits are perfect scene setters for the movies that follow, so you won’t have to worry about awkward popcorn wasting moments. It's not a top 50, rather a selection of 50 interesting credits sequences,...
- 6/25/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
![Robert De Niro in Raging Bull (1980)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjRmODkzNDItMTNhNi00YjJlLTg0ZjAtODlhZTM0YzgzYThlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzQ1ODk3MTQ@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR1,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Robert De Niro in Raging Bull (1980)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjRmODkzNDItMTNhNi00YjJlLTg0ZjAtODlhZTM0YzgzYThlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzQ1ODk3MTQ@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR1,0,140,207_.jpg)
If you've ever seen "Raging Bull," the film's iconic opening credit sequence is likely burned in your brain. "Intermezzo" from "Cavalleria rusticana" plays as Robert De Niro gracefully bobs up and down in the stark tones of Martin Scorsese's now legendary use of black and white.
Well, the first stills from "Raging Bull 2" are the opposite of that.
The sequel, which actually exists and is actually filming right now in Los Angeles, has no creative connection to Scorsese's original. Neither he nor De Niro is involved in anyway. The "film" comes from the active imagination of writer/director Martin Guigui.
Check out the full photos after the jump.
"Raging Bull 2" will act as both a sequel and a prequel to the story told in "Raging Bull." The chronology begins with Mojean Aria playing Jake Lamotta as a young man, and then the story will shift to William Forsythe taking over the role.
Well, the first stills from "Raging Bull 2" are the opposite of that.
The sequel, which actually exists and is actually filming right now in Los Angeles, has no creative connection to Scorsese's original. Neither he nor De Niro is involved in anyway. The "film" comes from the active imagination of writer/director Martin Guigui.
Check out the full photos after the jump.
"Raging Bull 2" will act as both a sequel and a prequel to the story told in "Raging Bull." The chronology begins with Mojean Aria playing Jake Lamotta as a young man, and then the story will shift to William Forsythe taking over the role.
- 6/21/2012
- by Kevin P. Sullivan
- MTV Movies Blog
Sex-crazed business man? Gay icon? Drug addict or anti-imperialist cipher? The many faces of Don Giovanni
In the Don Giovanni that has just opened in Paris, the eponymous hero has become an irredeemable sex pest of a businessman. Too much power and sex has corroded his soul. Perhaps you work with him. Perhaps you are him. At the end, in his nocturnal office, Giovanni is stabbed through the heart by the co-worker he sexually assaulted in act one, thrown through a window by a crowd of downtrodden cleaners, at least one of whom he tried to grope, and then accompanied to hell by the rotting corpse of the CEO he murdered at the outset. Twenty-first century moral? Don't stay late at the office.
The desperate Don's comeuppance, though, strikes me as unfair. As Kierkegaard noted in Either/Or, Don Giovanni is the opera's erotically animating presence. "His passion resonates everywhere...
In the Don Giovanni that has just opened in Paris, the eponymous hero has become an irredeemable sex pest of a businessman. Too much power and sex has corroded his soul. Perhaps you work with him. Perhaps you are him. At the end, in his nocturnal office, Giovanni is stabbed through the heart by the co-worker he sexually assaulted in act one, thrown through a window by a crowd of downtrodden cleaners, at least one of whom he tried to grope, and then accompanied to hell by the rotting corpse of the CEO he murdered at the outset. Twenty-first century moral? Don't stay late at the office.
The desperate Don's comeuppance, though, strikes me as unfair. As Kierkegaard noted in Either/Or, Don Giovanni is the opera's erotically animating presence. "His passion resonates everywhere...
- 4/12/2012
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
In this week's Music in the Movies, we pick out ten of cinema's finest non-score soundtracks...
Having focused mainly on scores in this column, I thought I’d turn my attention to soundtracks that consist mainly of sourced material. I've chose some of my favourites, and also asked some Den of Geek 's writers to suggest a few choices of their own. And just to make the list a little more balanced, I've made sure to only choose one film per director...
A Life Less Ordinary
Nominated by N P Horton
I originally intended to include Trainspotting in this article, but I decided to ask my followers on Twitter (comprising largely of DoG writers) to nominate their favourite scores, and this was Mr Horton’s. So given that I wanted to include only one film per filmmaker, out went Trainspotting, and in came A Life Less Ordinary.
Ash’s titular...
Having focused mainly on scores in this column, I thought I’d turn my attention to soundtracks that consist mainly of sourced material. I've chose some of my favourites, and also asked some Den of Geek 's writers to suggest a few choices of their own. And just to make the list a little more balanced, I've made sure to only choose one film per director...
A Life Less Ordinary
Nominated by N P Horton
I originally intended to include Trainspotting in this article, but I decided to ask my followers on Twitter (comprising largely of DoG writers) to nominate their favourite scores, and this was Mr Horton’s. So given that I wanted to include only one film per filmmaker, out went Trainspotting, and in came A Life Less Ordinary.
Ash’s titular...
- 8/26/2011
- Den of Geek
A trip to the cinema to see Buried leaves James in a bewildered, philosophical mood, and left contemplating the meaning of life, death, and Raging Bull…
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This week's column contains a major spoiler for the film Buried if you haven't seen it yet.
In slow motion black-and-white, I see a lone man in a leopard skin robe dancing around a boxing ring clouded by smoke. The stirring strings of the intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana sweep over the scene and the opening titles appear on the right of the screen. That's a majestic way to open a motion picture.
Yes, let's collectively cast our minds back to Raging Bull. In fact, let's grab the Raging Bull by the horns, because that's what the clichéd metaphor demands.
Ignoring the fact that I've these small hands (what Jake Lamotta would call "little girl hands...
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
This week's column contains a major spoiler for the film Buried if you haven't seen it yet.
In slow motion black-and-white, I see a lone man in a leopard skin robe dancing around a boxing ring clouded by smoke. The stirring strings of the intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana sweep over the scene and the opening titles appear on the right of the screen. That's a majestic way to open a motion picture.
Yes, let's collectively cast our minds back to Raging Bull. In fact, let's grab the Raging Bull by the horns, because that's what the clichéd metaphor demands.
Ignoring the fact that I've these small hands (what Jake Lamotta would call "little girl hands...
- 10/14/2010
- Den of Geek
You can now watch live theatre, pop, opera and more online – but is it ever a match for the real thing? Leo Benedictus spends a week on his sofa in a bid to find out
To get the most from any show, apparently, you have to be there. No technology can transmit the sound of a real orchestra or the immediacy of theatre, can it? If you haven't shared a room with your favourite band, you can't really call yourself a fan. Even giant plasma screens and Blu-ray players cannot properly display those films that, everyone agrees, "you have to see in the cinema".
And everyone is probably right. But they overrate some aspects of the live experience, too. Having spent money going out, we all want to believe we had a good time, if only so we don't resent the journey home. A certain cachet attaches itself to the...
To get the most from any show, apparently, you have to be there. No technology can transmit the sound of a real orchestra or the immediacy of theatre, can it? If you haven't shared a room with your favourite band, you can't really call yourself a fan. Even giant plasma screens and Blu-ray players cannot properly display those films that, everyone agrees, "you have to see in the cinema".
And everyone is probably right. But they overrate some aspects of the live experience, too. Having spent money going out, we all want to believe we had a good time, if only so we don't resent the journey home. A certain cachet attaches itself to the...
- 7/26/2010
- by Leo Benedictus
- The Guardian - Film News
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