In and op-ed essay published by the Boston Globe, actress Eliza Dushku finally confirmed what the rumors were saying: She was written off the show “Bull” after she confronted actor Michael Weatherly about sexually charged comments he made on set.
Read more2019 Has Record-Breaking 9 Superhero Movies Set For Release
Fox has announced that both "Dark Phoenix" and "The New Mutants“ will be released next year, only adding to the staggering lineup of superhero films due for release in 2019. In fact, the WB was scared that their sequel to "Wonder Woman“ would be lost in this deluge of banality that they decided to delay its release by a year, it’s now slated for 2020. This influx of superhero releases is mainly due to the DCEU trying to reboot itself with 3 releases whilst Fox will be releasing most likely their last 2 films before they integrate with Disney. Meanwhile, Marvel has another 3 films and an additional two smaller R-Rated superhero flicks.
Read more‘Men In Black’ Reboot Trailer: We Already Miss Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones
This looks abhorrent and forced.
I like some of director F. Gary Gray's movies (“The Italian Job,” “Straight Outta Compton”), but did we really need this reboot of "Men in Black" starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson? It looks like Gray is taking it in a whole different direction, not exactly in buddy cop genre land like the last film. Thompson and Hemsworth, taking on the spirit of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith's roles in the original, will play secret government agents handling aliens on earth. Of course, they need to both be wearing those iconic black suits and sunglasses. But there's something missing in this trailer, that extra oomph needed to lure us to buy a ticket to this film.
Read moreFirst photo of Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ Horror Follow-Up, ‘Us’
After giving us the best movie of 2017 ("Get Out") we all were wondering what the next provocation from writer-director Jordan Peele would look like. Plot details for "Us" have been kept very hush-hush, but the plot synopsis was revealed last week and now we have an exclusive first look at the film [via EW], which reveals a cult-like, all-red costumed foursome. Are they the "shocking uninvited visitors" that the synopsis mentions? Quite possibly.
Read moreBelgian Film ‘Girl’ Accused of Being a “Danger to the Transgender Community”; Its Trans Star Responds
I thought Lukas Dhont's "Girl" was one of the surprises of Cannes' Un Certain Regard program back in May. I wrote in my review:
"From its very first moments, the beautifully controlled and artful “Girl” – the feature debut of young Belgian director Lukas Dhont – grips and takes hold. This deeply emphatic portrayal of a trans teen has an expressive camera that observes and listens, rather than forces you to succumb to emotions. The trajectory of the story’s protagonist, Lara, who is determined to become a ballet dancer despite feeling trapped in a body she doesn’t recognize, sounds a little exploitative on paper, but the end result is quite the opposite. Sensitively rendered cinema with a capital C, “Girl” features a lovely naturalism and an attention to detail so delicately constructed characters feel like full flesh and blood."
Read more‘The Dark Knight’ Cinematographer: “It’s kind of shocking that it ended up being PG-13”
Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is now 10 years old. I wrote about this important anniversary earlier this summer, but it seems like the op-eds just keep on coming.
Vulture has published an article on that now infamous pencil trick scene, which had Heath Ledger’s Joker making a pencil "disappear" by jamming it into a gangster’s head. The film's cinematographer Wally Pfister, speaking to Vulture, believes that that scene alone should have gotten the film an R-rating.
Read more‘Venom’ Creator Todd McFarlane Says Critics Just Didn’t Get the Movie; Believes ‘Spider-Man 3’ Got the Character Wrong
Despite terrible reviews (29% on Rotten Tomatoes), Sony’s“Venom” grossed more than $854 million worldwide. Now "Venom" creator Todd McFarlane is saying critics just didn't get it. Speaking to Yahoo, McFarlane, a world-re-known comic book creator responsible for Venom, and Spawn, believes that critics just needed to embrace their inner teenage fanboy.
Read more“The Image Book” Trailer: Another Bewildering Statement From Jean-Luc Godard
It’s been a long time since making traditional or even vaguely conventional “movies” has interested legendary French New-Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. If anything, the director’s movies over the last 20 or so years have been experiential audio/visual collages more interested in pictures, sounds, cuts, and de-saturation, a maddening barrage of dadaist statements. Even with all that being said, his latest, “The Image Book,” playing in competition at Cannes, should be considered as radical a Godard-ian statement as any.
Read moreFirst Look at Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ and Will Smith As The Genie
Robin Williams' take on the Genie in 1992's "Aladdin" is a legendary voice performance. So full of the rich humor and sardonic wit we came to expect from the late great Williams. We all knew it was going to be a frustrating process to find someone to play that role in the live-action Disney remake. However, Will Smith? Really? That’s the best you could come up with to replace what is the best voice acting performance in Disney animated history? I’m all open for Smith to wow me, but I would have probably gone with Eddie Murphy instead. This is a safe, cozy project for Director Guy Ritchie, the filmmaker behind the Tarantino-inspired films of the late ‘90s/early aughts, “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch."
Read moreWilliam Shatner: #MeToo Hysterical, Like French Revolution; Says He Can’t Tell a Woman She Has “Great legs” Anymore...
Last week Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, defended the Christmas song 'Baby It's Cold Outside' on Twitter after a radio station in his native Canada took it off the air. The actor tweeted that he enjoyed "the kick of getting somebody upset about something and playing with them verbally."
Read morePenny Marshall Passes Away; Trailblazing Female Director of “Big,” “Awakenings,” and “A League of Their Own” Was 75.
Bronx-born director and actress Penny Marshall has died at age 75.
According to TMZ, Marshall passed away in her Hollywood home on Monday night due to complications from diabetes. She had been battling various health issues over the years, including a 2009 bout with lung cancer which spread to her brain.
Read moreOscars 2019: Foreign-Language Feature Shortlist Includes ‘Roma,’ ‘Shoplifters‘ ‘Burning,’ ‘Cold War’ and More
I approve 8 of the 9 shortlisted film's vying for the foreign film Oscar. I don't particularly like the German entry, but the rest are well-deserved:
Pawel Pawlikowski‘s "Cold War" (Poland), Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra‘s "Birds of Passage" (Columbia), Gustav Moller‘s "The Guilty" (Denmark), Florian_Henckel von Donnersmarck "Never Look Away" (Germany), Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s "Shoplifters" (Japan), Nadine Labaki‘s "Capernaum" (Lebanon), Alfonso Cuaron‘s "Roma" (Mexico), Sergey Dvortsevoy‘s "Ayka" (Kazakhstan) and Lee Chang-dong‘s "Burning" (South Korea).
Read moreOscars: ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,’ ‘RBG,’ ‘Three Identical Strangers’ and Others Make Doc Shortlist
The shortlist for the Best Documentary Oscar has been revealed, there are 15 movies remaining and vying for the final five spots. The biggest snub is Michael Moore‘s “Fahrenheit 11/9” which clearly irked people on both the right and left end of the political spectrum. Moore's film left no person unscathed as it not only condemned Donald Trump's "erratic" behavior, but scolded the D.C. establishment composed of Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. Other films that are missing on this shortlist: Morgan Nevile‘s Orson Welles documentary for Netflix, “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead,” Rashida Jones' “Quincy,” Robert Greene's “Bisbee ’17,” and “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes” by Alexis Bloom. However, all in all, it seems as though the usual suspects have been kept for the final dance.
Read more“Where’d You Go, Bernadette” Trailer: Cate Blanchett Stars In Director Richard Linklater’s Latest Film
Don Shirley’s Family Says “Green Book” is a “Symphony of Lies,” and That He Was Never Friends With Tony
I've been covering the dark cloud of controversy that's been looming over Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book,” a film that, in all likelihood, will be nominated for Best Picture, and all this despite Viggo Mortensen uttering the N-word last month at a Q&A, and despite accusations implying that it goes against the current grain of progressive thought, with the term "white savior" having been uttered more than a few times by film journalists.
Read more‘Springsteen on Broadway’ is pure storytelling magic.
Bruce Springsteen's one-man Broadway show, an impactful and Tony-Award winning hybrid of storytelling and song, lasted for close to 18 months at New York City's legendary Walter Kerr Theater. Why all this hype for what was essentially a 69-year-old rock artist telling his life story on-stage with just the assistance of guitar and piano? Because, Springsteen is the epitome of a masterful storyteller, if there ever was one — he knows how to grab your attention with words alone. After all, he’s been doing it in song and on-stage for more than 50 years now. It’s almost become a caricature to think of him as anything but a songwriting troubadour, a man of the people, who could grab the attention of 80,000 fans in a stadium with soaring anthems. And sometimes he manages to tell a story about his life experiences to a captivated audience.
Read moreWoody Allen’s Former Teenage Girlfriend Defends Their ‘70s Relationship; He Was 41, She Was 17.
THR's Gary Baum posted an interview-profile about former Woody Allen girlfriend Christina Engelhardt, but more importantly her eight-year relationship with the director, which inspired him to write "Manhattan." Their affair started in 1976 and ended 8 years later in 1984. It was, by all accounts, a very sexual relationship which happened when she was 17 and he was 41. Eventually, Engelhardt would begin partaking in threesomes with Woody and Mia Farrow in the ’80. Baum writes about the menage-a-trois', “Despite the initial shock of jealousy, Engelhardt says she grew to like Farrow over the course of the ‘handful’ of three-way sex sessions that followed at Allen’s penthouse as they smoked joints and bonded over a shared fondness for animals.”
Read moreOscar Watch: “Green Book” Starting to Pick Up Steam at the Box-Office
In its fifth week of release Peter Farelly's "Green Book" is starting to have major legs at the Box-Office. It accumulated an additional $2,780,000 in 1,215 theaters (+34) this weekend for a Cumulative gross of $24,660,000, not too shabby for a film that has been shunned as being "racist" and a "white savior" flick. That it is not. The crowd-pleaser, and that the film surely is, has remained in the top ten since its release back in November. Expect another bump come Christmas, with a plan by the studio to expand it to as many theaters as possible in mid-January once Oscar nominations are announced.
Clint Eastwood’s ‘The Mule’ Surprises With $17M opening; 88-Year-Old Actor Now a Best Actor Contender
Clint Eastwood's "The Mule" had a 3-day box-office debut of $17.2M. This would rank as the writer-director-actor's third best opening ever (right behind 2000’s "Space Cowboys" ($18M) and 2008's "Gran Torino" ($29.4M). The film seems to also be loved by audiences who gave it an A- on CinemaScore and 4 stars on PostTrak. Audience reaction is much more impressive than its 62% RT fresh score, which no doubt has been bolstered by Eastwood's staunch Conservative stance these last few years.
Read moreCinema attendance is highest since 1970 in the UK
More people went to movie theaters in 2018 in the UK than at any time since 1970.
Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, claims that close to 176 million admissions were sold in 2018 - the highest number since 1970, "there has been a really strong film slate with a diversity of films performing well," Mr Clapp told Sky News. “Probably one of the reasons why admissions have been higher than they have been is because we’ve been pulling in audiences from a broad range of places.”
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Do you really think Ellison fired Gunn before he saw a rough cut of "Man of Tomorrow"? No chance. Clearly, whatever he saw didn't impress him.