'Inferno' extinguished by 'Madea' At Week-End Box-Office, 'Doctor Strange' opens internationally with $86 Million.

According to Box Office Mojo, Last week's champion, "Boo! A Madea Halloween," took the top spot again at the weekend box-office. I actually decided to go watch Madea this past week-end and was so horrified by what I was seeing that I just had to walk out of the theater, never to go back again. Why the hell do these movies make money? They are horribly written, produced, directed and acted. Only a nitwit would conjure up any elation in watching the next Madea.

Tom Hanks starring "Inferno" took second top spot, nearly doubling the intake of Third place ("Jack Reacher: Never Go Back"). I wasn't too kind to "Inferno" in my review, another lackluster film in what is now a trilogy based on Dan Brown's books. This all goes to show that when a studio releases a sequel that nobody wants then audiences won't show up. It also doesn't help that "inferno" was up against the World Series. It did, however, earn more than $150M overseas. Variety‘s Seth Kelley claims that “this weekend’s overall slump could be attributed to any number of factors including sequel fatigue, the calm before the awards-season-contenders storm, the Presidential election, Halloween weekend or the World Series which sees the Chicago Cubs, a major market, in competition for the first time since 1945.” 

Expect Marvel's latest CGI Blockbuster fest, "Doctor Strange," to roar at the Box-Office next weekend. Tracking suggests the Benedict cumberbatch starring superhero flick will debut with between $70-75 Million on opening week-end. Not too shabby for a character not many mainstream audiences knew even existed until just recently.

1- Boo! A Madea Halloween $16,675,000
2- Inferno $15,000,000
3- Jack Reacher: Never Go Back $9,550,00
4- The Accountant $8,475,000
5- Ouija: Origin of Evil $7,070,000
6- The Girl on the Train $4,270,000
7- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children $3,975,000
8- Keeping Up with the Joneses $3,375,000
9- Storks $2,785,000
10- Ae Dil Hai Mushkil $2,135,000

'John Wick' stunt coordinator might be new 'Deadpool 2' director

I tried to refrain in talking again about the search for a "Deadpool 2" director, but I believe this is big news. They supposedly have a front runner for the job and it's the guy who was stunt coordinator for "John Wick."

I can seen why they'd want to hire David Leitch. "Wick" had quick, relentless stunt work ala "Deadpool." There's barely a cut in those action scenes, they almost feel like how a "Looney Tunes" episode would look like if it were rated R. 

I personally welcome a new director to "Deadpool 2," but mostly because the now fired Tim Miller was arguing over a bigger budgeted CGI fest. No, just no. That would completely take away the foundation of what "Deadpool" is all about. It's a pushback against the usual Blockbuster superhero movie. So really, forget about Tim Miller, he wanted to give us another CGI fest. What happened to creative ideas with whatever you have at your disposal? 

Deadpool had a budget of just $58M dollars.

A First Look at 'The Big Lebowski' Spinoff - Jesus Quintana movie 'Going Places'

This is actually the first I hear of this. A movie spinoff has been shot about The Jesus? You might remember Jesus Quintana from the Coen's "The Big Lebowski." He was such a highlight despite having, what, around 2 or 3 minutes of on-screen time? 'You don't mess with The Jesus.' The above image is the first still to get released from production.

"Going Places" Co-stars Bobby Cannavale, Audrey Tatou, and Susan Sarandon, and is inspired by an excellent French film entitled “Les valseuses,” which I caught on French TV many eons ago.  Turtorro is directing, writing and stars in the film, which is currently shooting in NYC. 

According to Variety "Turturro’s version follows a trio of misfits whose irreverent, sexually charged dynamic evolves into a love story as their spontaneous and flippant attitude backfires time and again. In the French film, Depardieu and Dewaere played young men who travel around France, committing petty crimes and running from the law. When they make enemies with a gun-toting hairdresser, their journey becomes one of constant escape."

Eight year olds dude.

Mel Gibson On Past Controversy: "I Was Loaded and Angry"

Mel Gibson has a very good movie out next week that he directed entitled "Hacksaw Ridge." By all means go watch that film which features some of the best war scenes I have seen since, quite possibly, "Saving Private Ryan." I have not been shy in my admiration for Gibson the director. Hell, he even had a fantastic performance this year in "Blood Father" a revenge tale that you should also catch. All in all it's been a pretty sweet year for Mel. Or as I like to call him "Bloody Mel." 

We had also reported a few weeks ago that Gibson is officially "Person Non Grata" in Hollywood, essentially meaning he's not blacklisted anymore. With that in mind, he has also been a little more open in discussing the controversy that started all of these problems. In 2006 he was arrested and then a tape of his arrest leaked featuring Gibson uttering anti-Semitic comments Speaking to Variety  Gibson just hopes that people have moved one because he sure has:

“It was an unfortunate incident,” he said. “I was loaded and angry and arrested. I was recorded illegally by an unscrupulous police officer who was never prosecuted for that crime. And then it was made public by him for profit, and by members of — we’ll call it the press. So, not fair. I guess as who I am, I’m not allowed to have a nervous breakdown, ever.”

“…for me it’s a dim thing in the past. But others bring it up, which kind of I find annoying, because I don’t understand why after 10 years it’s any kind of issue. Surely if I was really what they say I was, some kind of hater, there’d be evidence of actions somewhere. There never has been,” he added. “I’ve never discriminated against anyone or done anything that sort of supports that reputation. And for one episode in the back of a police car on eight double tequilas to sort of dictate all the work, life’s work and beliefs and everything else that I have and maintain for my life is really unfair.”

'Moonlight' is back to having a perfect 100 score on Metacritic

This obviously doesn't spell a Best Picture win, look at "Boyhood," but it is nevertheless an unprecedented accomplishment.

Here's what I had to say about the movie for Awards Daily, full article can be found HERE

"What can be said about Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” that hasn’t already been said? Set during three transformative periods in the life of an African-American  gay man, the film is not only a mesmerizing journey into the “African-American experience,” but it also shatters cinematic taboos that not many have dared touch before it. This was the first major film I can recall to feature two black men who kiss onscreen. Unheard of, but an incredibly important landmark moment and the very definition of a film that can change lives. Jenkins splits the film into three different time frames as he follows his protagonist Chiron’s struggle for self-identity in a society that refuses to acknowledge his sexual freedom. The three actors playing Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes) were all revelatory and Jenkins (a former Telluride Film Festival volunteer) makes good on the promise of his first feature “Medicine for Melancholy.” His “Moonlight” deserves to be called a milestone."

Ingmar Bergman's 'Persona' Celebrates 50 Years

persona n 1: an actor's portrayal of someone in a play; 2: Jungian psychology A personal facade one presents to the world, a public image is "as fragile as Humpty Dumpty"

It would be a good idea to know the above definition before going into Ingmar Bergman's "Persona." One of the most influential films in cinematic history that is celebrating its 50th birthday today. 

The film's opening is a kind of montage of cinema's earliest, most eeriest of work. It is meant as a statement for many things, which will be tackled soon, but let's first mention it as a proclamation of the tide changing. The cinema becoming something completely different, new and vital. Bergman shows us its history and how he is about to shatter the conventions are pave the way for a new language.

The two characters, Alma the Nurse (Andersson) and Elisabet Vogel (Ullmann), a stage actress, have very little in common. Their personas meld together in the most surreal kind of ways. This was "Mulholland Dr." before Betty and Rita

were even born.

Elizabeth is an actress that went mute halfway through a stage performance. Early on in the film we have a scene where her doctor presents the diagnosis of her condition. 

Returning to the psychological, we fairly early on are confronted with a scene where Elizabeth’s doctor, in very straightforward terms, presents the diagnosis of her condition as being of her own choosing. She claims her choice to stop speaking is "sincere" and that, eventually with time, she will return to communicating with the world around her.

There are clues as to why she chose to stop speaking. Throughout the film we see Elizabeth looking at the disgust of the outside world through Television:  Vietnam, the infamous Buddhist monk burning himself and images of the holocaust haunt her mind.

Based on the doctor's recommendation, Elizabeth is sent on a retreat and taken care of by Alma the nurse. The twist, and it's a complicated one that can't really be described thoroughly in just a line or two, is that their personalities merge and they become a sort of blend of each other. In the most iconic shot of the film both actresses faces merge with half of one face and half of the other blending to become one. 

The film contains elements that strongly suggest a comparison between both female protagonists, and the peculiar elements of “twinning.” Bergman has even acknowledged that the idea for the film came from a meeting he had with Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman and was triggered by how similar they were in appearance.

But the most important scene of the film might be one that is much less spoken of. Alma, at that point battling wits with the strong-headed Elizabeth, purposely leaves broken glass on the floor which cuts Elizabeth's foot. The moment cuts through the divide between the two women and reveals a weak person in Alma. The psychological battle both have been going through is revealed to be a victory for Elizabeth, despite the cut. 

Why is this scene important? Because after this "victory" the screen goes black and that's where the film becomes a whole other beast. We are confronted back to where the film started and the eerie opening montage of cinema's earliest, most shocking works. This sequence mirrors exactly how the film started. As Roger Ebert so finely described it:

"

In both cases, a projector lamp flares to life, and there is a montage from the earliest days of the cinema: jerky silent skeletons, images of coffins, a hand with a nail being driven into it. The middle "break" ends with the camera moving in toward an eye, and even into the veins in the eyeball, as if to penetrate the mind."

Why is it such a victory for Elizabeth? Because she has proven to be the stronger character. A person proud of her beliefs and self-identity. Alma is the tonal opposite, a weak-minded woman that never fully grasped who she was. My favorite scene in the film is also one of the most erotically charged in the history of cinema. Alma recounts a day at the beach she had many years ago where she encounteed two men that pleasured her to orgasm. The imagery is so forcefully real that it's images still linger in my head many years later. That orgasm is the greatest and most intense feeling Alma ever had, also the most "real" she's ever felt in her life, everything else has been laborious and fake. Her self-identity has never found. Keeping that in mind can help one go through "Persona" shift to the surreal in its second half.

"Persona," just like many of David Lynch's films, is a psychological exercise. 

Carl Jung’s concept of "Persona" was, in simple terms, the mask which we present to the world outside us, including others, which in turn represents a mix or in his words a compromise between the individual and society. In "Mulholland Drive" Betty and Rita switch identities, once the key enters the lock, in the last 45 minutes of the film and we enter Naomi Watts' mindset. The weak and the strong switching identities.

Although "Persona" has a similar technique once the foot is cut by glass and the screen goes black, the difference is that the identities don't switch. The psychological impact of "Persona" is that the strong invades the weak. We are thus in Alma's head for the remainder of the picture as she tries to fight her subconscious merging with Elizabeth's stronger identity. Heavy stuff, but some of the most fascinating and intriguing concepts ever put forth by a filmmaker.

50 years on "Persona" still seems to be ahead of its time, which is no small feat, and still seems to be the obsessions of many cinemagoers worldwide. There has never been anyone quite like Ingmar Bergman and there probably never will be. 

Garth Edwards: 'Rogue One' Doesn't Unfold The Way You Think It Does

Via USA Today's Winter Movie Preview:

“Events take place that just shatter her life and send her off to basically be raised as a soldier in the midst of a war. She ends up not the person she was supposed to be.” Her journey is also a very Star Wars-y one: to redeem the sins of the father. “Even though we’re not telling the story of Luke Skywalker, it was important to me that we capture the same themes and emotion. But the film doesn’t unfold how you think. It’s not the same path as Star Wars.”

“The thing every [filmmaker] typically struggles with is ‘How does it end?’” says director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla). “But we knew how our film was going to end. Our problem became ‘How do we reverse engineer from that and know where to start?’ You’ve got a finite number of options and you go through them all like a puzzle to find the one that’s going to lead to the strongest result.”

It still looks great from the trailer, but if you haven't read our scoop about the on-set and off-set problems the film, but more specifically Edwards, has had you can read all about that HERE. 

This Year's 'Best Picture' Contenders UPDATED

Obviously this gets adjusted on a weekly basis. Look at what happened to "Billy Lynn" when it premiered in NY? Two of the ten films listed below have not been seen  by myself or any other critics: "Fences" and "Silence." Those could easily underwhelm and get thrown out of the race. It's been a weak year for contenders, but that makes the race all the more interesting. I do think that we have a clear number one movie and it will likely stay like that until February 26th, 2017. When's the last time that happened this early in the race? 1998 with Saving Private Ryan? We all know what happened with that film come Oscar time ....



Best Picture

1) "La La Land"
Unless "Silence" turns out to be an audience-friendly masterpiece, this looks like the bona-fide Best Picture winner of the year. 

2) "Manchester By The Sea"
A great movie, but too depressing to win. It will be championed by critics circles. 

3) "Fences"
This could win, but I doubt it. Denzel is not a natural director, but audiences might eat it up. This has yet to be screened for critics, maybe in late November? 

4) "Silence"

No trailer. No poster. No problem. It seems like Scorsese can do no wrong for Oscar pundits. 

5) "Sully"

A Box-Office success with solid reviews and Tom Hanks best performance in years. Oh and did I mention Clint Eastwood directs? Saw it again last night and it holds up well.

6) "Lion"

A meh movie, but a crowd pleaser that almost won the audience award at TIFF. I just can't see manstream moviegoers not liking this movie. It manipulates enough to be this year's "Slumdog."

7) "Loving"

A, pardon the pun, "lovingly" rendered picture. Simple yet beautiful, but its simplicity will have some shrugging their heads and saying "that it?"

8) "Jackie"

It's a fascinating movie and Portman deserves an Oscar nod. Simply told yet precise. It's prestige done right, now will the Academy warm up to its artfulness?

9) "Hell or High Water"

A critical darling. I love this movie. Its only undoing might be that a) many more men love it than women and b) it came out in the summer, too early?

10) "Moonlight"

Barry Jenkins' triumph needs to be recognized, but I just can't see Academy fogies warming up to its subject matter. 

'Inferno' is another terrible movie in the Dan Brown trilogy, but at least Tom Hanks' hairdo has somewhat improved

Editor's Note: This is a reprint of an earlier review that was written on 10.10.16

I don't really have much to say about Ron Howard's third film in the Dan Brown trilogy, after "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons." I mean, there is an audience for these movies. The first two made a lot of money, but I just don't get it. These are, at their core, just really silly movies, with Tom Hanks donning absurd hair plugs, or is it a wig? Although in this new film he actually has a decent haircut. I will give you that moment for moment this might be the 'best' film of the trilogy, but what exactly does that mean? Not really a compliment. What really bothers me is that Ron Howard is a decent filmmaker that shouldn't be wasting his time with these, but, as they say, money talks and he seems to be fully invested in these films.


Howard didn't have much success with his last film, "In the Heart of the Sea" which kept getting delayed until the studio just decided to release the damn thing. He is a competent director and I do like a few of the film's he's released over the years, especially the underrated boxing movie "Cinderella Man," which Universal Pictures badly managed at the time. It is easily the best film of his career, but, then again, what does that really say? Even though he's been somewhat competent over the years ("Cinderella Man," "Apollo 13," "A Beautiful Mind," "Rush") he's also released a lot of junk as director ("The Dilemma," "The Grinch" "EdTV," "Far and Away")

"Inferno" is, in essence, a murder-mystery set up as a tour-hopping Euro-trip. Our hero Robert Langdon wakes up in Italy with a major case of Amnesia, he has a gash on his forehead and needs to retrace his steps. Cue in Dr. Sienna Brooks, a much welcomed Felicity Jones, who teams up with Langdon to uncover a global threat of some sort based on clues from Dante's Inferno. This threat could wipe out almost half of the world's population! Shock. Never for a moment are you on the edge of your seat here, but having Howard directing and Hanks acting does prove that even with top-notch talent you can't really do much with an overcooked screenplay and story. I do think the series is making considerable progress. The first film was 150 minutes, the second was 140 minutes and this one is just over 120. They are trying to tighten things up and making progress with Hanks' hair, what more could we expect at this point? [D+]

'Doctor Strange'

I didn't know quite what to expect with "Doctor Strange." I'm not really a comic book fan, although I've read my fair share of Batman and Superman comic books when I was a kid. Those endless reading nights have not followed me to adulthood, but I get it. I get the whole craze. I like much of the stuff that I see when it comes to Marvel movies, but maybe not enough.

Benedict Cumberbatch is well cast as Dr. Stephen Strange and, for a moment there, it looked like the film had a fighting chance. The comedic bits at the setup are freshly conceived and take advantage of Cumberbatch's personality. He and Rachel McAdams have chemistry to spare, she's his assistant at the emergency room, but they quickly get separated for the remainder of the film. 

"Doctor Strange" sets up an arrogant, but bright surgeon who loses function of his hands in a nasty car accident and attempts to gain it back by delving into spiritual mysticsm.  Oh Geez. Tilda Swindon is The Ancient One and teaches him to appreciate life past the fancy cars and womanizing. It feels all too familiar.

The movie's concept of magic is some kind of nonsense about the spiritual manipulation of quantum physics. There is banality in the way not just the filmmakers, but the actors as well buy the banality in their dialogue. The movie is meant to be a mindfuck, but it becomes such a disparaging barrage of nonsense that only a pre-pubescent boyed mindset could possibly salivate its "ideas."

Director Scott Derrickson had at his disposal a unique story to add to the Marvel Universe, but he seems to have had a blueprint to follow the same trajectory as the other Marvel films. 

Don't get me wrong, the visuals are stunning in "Doctor Strange" and deserving of, at the very least, an Oscar nomination, but the movie feels stale and unforgiving. The kaleidoscopic effects are great and work as a kind of tribute to original Dr. Strange concept artist Steve Ditko. The film's clear highlights are the visuals which astound and capture the spirit of the vision at hand. These are action scenes like you have never seen before. The climax, which has another end-of-the-world scenario, a Marvel specialty, unfolds with some much needed freshness by twisting the genre's cliches upside down. If only Derrickson could do more of that with the rest of the movie. 

The villains are also very weak, they don't engage or infuriate you. That's a major problem for a movie that tries to get you involved in tits story. What a waste of thetalents of actors like Mads Mikkelsen and Tilda Swinton, who feel like cliched caricatures. Mikkelsen is a great actor, but his character is severely underwritten. You just don't really hate him enough. The same can be said about the movie, there really is no genuine involvement, no emotional core to build upon for the audience member. 

Known for "Sinister," a underrated horror film, Derrickson shoots the fight sequences with punch-drunk allure, shattering dimension upon dimension and, at times, blowing our minds with staggering visuals of alternate universe after alternate universe. The film is obviously not a disaster, but given the hype and the marketing behind it I expected something much better [C+]

There Will Be 8 Superhero Movies in Total From Marvel and DC Coming Out In 2017

If you were already discouraged by the constant barrage of superhero movies invading multiplexes nationwide then then this a depressing fact. There will be 8, count 'em 8, major superhero released next year. Mind you, a few of these titles look intriguing, especially Patty Jenkins' feminist take on "Wonder Woman", so let's all calm down and see how these turn out. 


The Lego Batman Movie (2/20/17)
Logan (3/3/17)
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (5/5/17)
Wonder Woman (6/2/17)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (7/7/17)
Untitled Fox/Marvel movie (10/6/17)
Thor: Ragnarok (11/3/17)
Justice League (11/17/17)

What can possibly go wrong?

"There's going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen megabudget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that's going to change the paradigm" - Steven Spielberg

'The Incredibles 2' Moves to Summer 2018; 'Toy Story 4' is Now a 2019 Release

Good news if you're an "Incredibles" fan, like myself, the sequel to the brilliant 2004 Pixar film has been moved up to Summer of 2018. The bad news? Toy Story 4 has been bumped to 2019. "The Incredibles" is still considered one of the very best movies of the superhero genre and for good reason. Back in the day I wrote this about the film:

"While we get relentlessly pummeled by countless superhero movies every single year, it is a breath of fresh air to see the genre work so triumphantly well. Brad Bird has proven his worth in the past, most notably with the criminally underrated animated movie “The Iron Giant”. Bird gives us another visual treat by tackling the superhero genre and coming out with a classic that can stand alongside “The Dark Knight” and “Spider-Man 2″. The action scenes are breathtakingly staged, with Bird’s incredible eye for detail and pacing coming in handy. Unlike many superhero movies, this is one of the rare cases where a sequel would be welcome and well-deserved."

It also looks like another dreaded "Cars" movie is scheduled for next summer. I liked the original, but its sequel was, by FAR, the worst Pixar movie. "Coco," which sounds amazing and pictured below, will be released in November of next year.

M. Night Shyamalan's 'comeback vehicle' SPLIT

You can insult the guy all you want, but M. Night Shyamalan has given us "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" and the movie world is a better place because of the existence of those films. "The Village" and "Signs" weren't half-bad either. Of course we also got from him "Lady in the Water," "The Last Airbender," "The Happening" and "After Earth," four of the worst movies released in the last decade or so. Those films have greatly affected the latter part of his moviemaking career. They were big-budgeted hogwash machines that ended up putting a negative mark on Shyamalan's reputation. Why would a studio trust him with a big project ever again? They haven't since "After Earth" and it seems to have sparked a fresh new creative freedom in the director. 

He made his most "watchable" film in quite a bit of time last year with the low-budget horror movie "The Visit," a film that could creep you out and at the same time have you not take it too seriously, but the real comeback might come next year. "Split" starring James McAvoy had a secret screening at Fantastic Fest last month and the reviews were, shockingly, positive. Like his best movies the less you know the better, but what we do know is that James McAvoy plays a man with dissociative identity disorder, he has 23 personalities and his body chemistry can make him change at any moment to another voice. He ends up kidnapping two women and the plot unravels from there although I figure a major twist will happen by the end of this shindig. 

Co-starring with McAvoy are “The Witch” actress Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Jessica Sula, and Haley Lu Richardson. “Split” opens on January 20, 2017.

Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds fiasco was over 'Deadpool 2' budget

Matt Donnelly over at TheWarp has a source telling him that it was a budget issue that cause the whole ruckus between Director Tim Miller and star Ryan Reynolds.

We were sure this sequel would happen with Miller at the helm when it was announced at CinemaCom this past April:

"Shortly after then-20th Century Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos confirmed a second movie at CinemaCon in April, cracks began to form in the creative team that also includes screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (“Zombieland”)."

"In initial sequel talks, Reynolds, Reese and Wernick envisioned a “scrappy,” raunchy and inexpensive movie, the insider said — in the vein of the first, which earned over $780 million worldwide on a $58 million budget. It’s a stunning return on a film Reynolds lobbied 11 years to make."

"Miller, known more for his visual flair than for the brash antics that Reynolds and his writers embraced and that fans loved, wanted a more stylish take, one that would compete with mega-budget superhero movies, insiders said. But it would have cost three times as much as the original $58 million film, the first individual said."

“There were two totally different movies on the table, and one of them just wasn’t ‘Deadpool,” 

Full artIcle can be found HERE

"Mad Max: Fury Road: Black & Chrome edition" Now Streaming On Amazon

One does have to wonder about the actual colored version, the one that got released last year, and the eye-popping colors and landscapes that were perfectly captured by cinematographer John Seale. It will be hard to top that pop masterpiece. It is almost inconceivable to think of "Mad Max: Fury Road" as anything but a colored film. Its Western vibe fits perfectly with its sandy colors. To take a away color from such an eye-popping experience might to the film a major disservice.

Yes, maybe George Miller did intend for a "Black & Chrome" version at first, but it was such a perfect cinematic display that I wonder if he is actually hurting the original film instead of just letting it be and age like fine wine over time.  

Well now we can see it for ourselves and make up our minds about this troubling dilemma. The "Mad Max: Fury Road: Black & Chrome edition" is now streaming on Amazon. HD version is $6 or you can just buy it for $20.

Director George Miller has repeatedly said that the Black & Chrome cut is the "best version" of "Mad Max: Fury Road," it surely was the version he wanted to make all along, but the studio didn't want any of that.  

First Images of Tadanobu Asano and Yōsuke Kubozuka in Scorsese's 'Silence'

Dear Marty,

Give us a a trailer. Please.

Best Regards,
Jordan

'The Promise' has 86,553 reviews on IMDB with only 3 public screenings - 55,126 1-star ratings #ShameOnTurkey

The Turkish government is trying to stop "The Promise" from getting any sort of mainstream media attention. 86,553 votes have been cast on IMDB for the film, 55,126 of which are 1 star rating. The other 30,630 are 10 star ratings. Yikes. It is quite clear that some kind of power or force is trying to stop this film. 

There have been only three public screenings of the film, I was at the premiere and saw it at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this September and thought it wasn't very good, mostly due to the unnecessary love story added into the plot, but the Turkish Government's behavior here is atrocious. They are trying to silence the voice of ancestors and the pain they inflicted upon millions of people because of the genocide they created way back then. They have yet to recognize what happened, so a movie depiction is way out of their train of thought. 

Armenian communities have been campaigning for decades to get some kind of recognition of the genocide from world governments. "In 2010, a US congressional panel narrowly voted that the incident was indeed a genocide, a decision the Turkish government criticised, saying it had been accused of a crime it “had not committed.” The Independent

IMDB has a policy to not interfere with any film's ratings, but sometimes exceptions have to made. Case in point: "The Promise."

My review for The Film Stage can be found HERE

Andrew Garfield calls Scorsese's 'Silence' "meditative and brutal simultaneously"

The above image is a newly released still of Andrew Garfield in Martin Scorsese's "Silence." 

As we stand, there has been no trailer and no poster for the Scorsese epic. Nada. Panic mode? Of course not. Scorsese is still editing the damn thing. Let the master do his thing, but the hype is practically killing me. 

We do know that at least one person, safe for Marty, has seen the film. Andrew Garfield spoke to Fandango about it today and, to my knowledge, this is the first time he's been open to talking about it. His description only entices the intrigue even more. 

"It's meditative and brutal simultaneously, It's a very mysterious film and I can't quite put it into words. Every time me and Marty would try to get to the bottom of its themes and what the character is going through, we would wind up talking for two to three hours, and every time there would be five minutes of silence at the end because we had exhausted the conversation and had no answers, only more questions. Then he'd look at me and go, 'Okay kid, until next time...

"There is a lot of violence in it, but it's done in a very different way," he said. "It's a very specific type of brutality that was being done reluctantly, and yet with this Japanese eloquence -- it had a real seduction about it. It's really fascinating... but I don't want to say too much until you see it. You see it and then we'll talk about it."

Full Andrew Garfield interview with Fandango can be found HERE

"Patriot's Day" test-screened a few days ago

The Boston Marathon bombings as directed by Peter Berg. Word of mouth says this could be great, but we will have to wait and see. There are no festival showings as we speak. The news that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will be scoring it brings additional street cred to the film.


A reader has sent me his thoughts on Peter Berg's "Patriot's Day" which was test screened last Tuesday:

"Had the opportunity to attend the very first audience screening for the upcoming film "Patriots Day" last Tuesday. I know this film isn't on a lot of people's radars, but I really think it should be. Had to sign an NDA so I can't say much about it, but what I can say is that the film is absolutely fantastic and is also very respectful to the source material. Definitely going to be a contender for "Best Picture", which goes perfect with it's late December/early January release date. I might go as far to even say that it's the best film I've seen all year (until I see Moonlight lol)."

I do like the fact that this is being scored by Ross and Reznor, but the trailer left me with a lackluster impression, so much so that I took it off my Oscar predictions (HERE)

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will Score Patriot's Day
Patriot's Day Looks Like Another "America Rah Rah" Peter Berg film

New poster for Robert Zemeckis' "Allied" is a beauty

There aren't many films left for critics in 2016. I have seen everything that can been seen at the moment. There is now just a "shortlist" of what's left with potential. The following have NOT been screened for critics as of today: Martin Scorsese's "Silence," "Stephen Gaghan's "Gold," Ben Affleck's "Live By Night," Denzel Washington's "Fences" and  "Robert Zemeckis' "Allied." The latter just released a new poster and it looks like a beauty. I emailed a friend about it who responded "What are you TALKING about?  It's supposed to be a WWII espionage and assassins drama, and the poster makes it look like a glitzy, swoony scene from "High Society." I guess I'm a sucker for highly stylized posters that have nothing to do with the actual plot.

In case you don't know the 1956 Grace Kelly/Frank Sinatra musical "High Society," with one look at the image above he does raise a good point, but obviously there are darker tones to the "Allied" poster and I personally find there is real mystery and even some gloom lurking around its edges. The film comes out on November 23rd.