Apologies for the lack of posts yesterday, I am currently staying in the Greek islands and the wifi is absolutely atrocious here at the airbnb or, really, just in the entire island of Milos in general.uffice to say, whenever I do find a signal I pounce and try to write something. Anyway, just like Spain, the best Greek movies I have ever seen. What I did notice was that, on the international scene, ever since the untimely death of Theo Angelopoulos, we haven’t really seen much Greek representation. Of course the exception is Yorgos Lanthimos who has just taken over the country’s film scene, but it seems like he may stay in the states, especially after the success of his 2018 masterclass “The Favourite."
Read moreHollywood's Summer of Bombs
Bloomberg's Anousha Sakoui has an important, but brief report on the disappointing summer movie season, Sakoui resumes it all by stating "more than a month into the summer movie season, one thing has become clear: Many of Hollywood’s sequels, reboots and reimaginings are falling flat."
Citing “Dark Phoenix” “The Secret Life of Pets 2” “Rocketman" and “Godzilla,” Sakoui goes on to add that moviegoers getting more picky with Hollywood studios having "force-fed movie moviegoers for years."
Basically, were all waiting for the big gunners to show up: “The Lion King,” “Toy Story 4," “Shaw and Hobbs" and “Spider-Man: Far From Home." I can't really see any of these big kahunas underperforming, but if a few of them do then, watch out, Hollywood will be hitting the panic button.
89-Year-Old Clint Eastwood Set to Direct ‘The Ballad of Richard Jewell'
Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule” amassed a domestic total of $103 million against a budget of just $50 million. Don't be surprised by that total, it's Clint Eastwood. That's right, it proved that the 88-year-old writer-director-actor-composer was still a major attraction for moviegoers nationwide. It also helped that the movie itself was fantastic, a straight-shooting drama that could only be made by an old-school veteran of the craft.
Read moreQuentin Tarantino Confirms ‘Star Trek' Script Is Written And Will Definitely Be Rated R
If you remember, in December of 2007 it was first revealed that Quentin Tarantino was working on a Star Trek movie and had pitched the idea to JJ Abrams and Paramount. Tarantino had met for hours with writers Mark L. Smith, Lindsey Beer, and Drew Pearce. The meeting was to mostly kick around ideas for this possible project. Rumors indicated that Smith, who wrote “The Revenant,” seemed to be the man for the job and that Tarantino had stipulated the film would require to be rated R — more surprisingly, Paramount and Abrams were okay with that.
Read more‘The Dead Don't Die' Review: Jim Jarmusch's Zombie Film Feels Unfinished
Review originally posted this past May at Cannes Film Festival
After going for depth and gravity with his last two triumphs, “Only Lovers Left Alive” and “Paterson,” writer-director Jim Jarmusch stumbles with his latest, the slight zombie comedy, “The Dead Don’t Die.”
Read more‘Rocketman’ Banned in Samoa Over Gay Scenes; Censors Claim Film “Not Suitable With Country’s Christian Values"
If worldwide distribution for the Elton John biopic “Rocketman” has proven anything it’s that there is still rampant homophobia all over the world. After most of its scenes depicting gay relations were censored in Russia just a week ago, the American-British produced musical has now been completely banned in the island nation of Samoa, all because of the tiny bit of homosexuality ‘Rocketman’ depicts onscreen.
Read more‘Gladiator 2’ Producer Confirms the Sequel Will Be Set 25 Years After the Original
Late last year, THR had reported that Ridley Scott was returning to the world of "Gladiator" for a planned sequel. It read like one of those kooky satirical writeups from The Onion, but it was actually true. The Oscar-winning director was indeed moving forward on a followup to his 2001 Best Picture winner. This one would follow Lucius (son of Lucilla and the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix's villainous Commodus). If you remember, Maximus saved the boy from his uncle in the 2000 film.
Read more‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix' Expected to Lose $100M
Deadline has released a report claiming that “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” is projected to lose upwards of $100M for Disney (Although, I do wonder how much of the production costs were already paid for by Fox). The report quotes sources and analysts, they predict “Dark Phoenix” will probably take in approximately $325 million worldwide at the box office, making it a major bomb if that’s the case. But a sub-$300 million intake is also not out of the question, which would render its losses at much higher than $100M. What a disaster.
Sex Disappearing From Big Screen?
Ann Hornaday's insightful piece on the lack of sex in today's movies felt like an oasis to me. I've been seeing the decline of eroticism and sexuality for a few years now at the movies. The mid-budget movie has all but transferred on to television, where sex is very much present. It’s not just that, the #MeToo movement has brought about a ton of pressure on directors, in terms of how to depict sex in a non-offensive ways.
Read moreRob Reiner Released Six Classics in 8 Years, Then He Became One of the Worst Directors in Hollywood
Was there a hotter studio director in the mid-80s to early 90s than Rob Reiner? His rise-and-fall is a mystery that many cinephiles have conversed about over the years, but why did this once celebrated director become so badly attuned to modern-day filmmaking?
Read moreTarantino Recently Binge-Watched the MCU Movies; Says ‘Thor: Ragnarok' His Favorite One
It’s very hard to find a person that doesn’t, at the very least, like Taika Waititi’s “Thor Ragnarok.” “The movie was a vast improvement upon the first two ‘Thor’ installments, much of it thanks to Waititi (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” and “What We Do in the Shadows”) who infused the proceedings with a healthy dose of his unique brand of wacky meta-humor. Much like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Deadpool,” and “Ant-Man,” ‘Ragnarok’ just didn’t take itself so damn seriously.
Read more‘Love, Antosha' Trailer: Well-Made Doc Tribute to Anton Yelchin
Watching Garret Price’s “Love, Anotsha,” the upcoming Sundance-premiered doc about Yelchin’s life, you start to realize how Yelchin was a universally loved individual with not a single bad bone in his system.
Read more‘3 From Hell' Trailer: Rob Zombie's ‘Devils' Rejects' Sequel Could Be Just What the Doctor Ordered
Writer-director-actor-musician Rob Zombie's best movie, and it's not even close, is "The Devil’s Rejects." Although it was a sequel to 2003’s subpar "House of 1000 Corpses," the film was a beast of its own and I haven't been shy here at WoR in my enthusiasm about a potential rumored sequel. Last January we were told that a ‘Devil’s Rejects’ sequel was in the works, and then we found a out Zombie was shooting it. So, not only is it happening, but its trailer has just been released, with the title "3 From Hell.
Read moreBest Movies From Spain
I am currently in Barcelona (for pleasure not business) but walking around this wonderfully vibrant city has made me question just how strong the Spain movie scene has been all these years. I walk by multiplexes and they don’t have any local films playing, but there are ads for Spanish-productions set to premiere on Netflix. With all that said, I was trying hard to come up with 10 Spain-financed films that would be deemed “classics,” except for all the Almodovars of course, but was struggling to come up with many. What gives? Has Spanish cinema just been ignored by the arthouse? Did Cannes’ decision to focus on Almodovar and nothing else for the better part of 3 decades hamper the rest of the talent in this country?
Read moreJohn Cena Replacing Dwayne Johnson in ‘Fast & The Furious' Series
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson isn’t expected to return to the Fast & The Furious series, I would believe it has something to do with the reported on-set feud with co-star Vin Diesel. And so, the series needed to replace muscle with more muscle, what a better way to add in John Cena! Deadline reports that Cena will be playing “a badass.” Doesn’t that say everything you need to know about this franchise?
X-Men Producer Disavows ‘Dark Phoenix,' ‘Apocalypse' & ‘New Mutants'
Lauren Shuler Donner, a producer and longtime mentor of Kevin Feige’s, has been part of the Fox’s X-men Franchise since the very beginning in 2000. However, don’t ask her about the last three films because, In a now since deleted tweet, she wants nothing to do with them.
Read moreMovies and Gaming - Similar Yet Distinct Medium
Movies and video games share many similarities and much effort is being made to investigate the interplay between these two different, yet similar forms of media. There is no doubt that since video games started to garner more attention in the mainstream, it established a strong bond between itself and its movie counterpart.
Read moreIt's Official: ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco' is the Most Overrated Movie So Far This Year
I initially saw and reviewed Joe Talbot’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” back at Sundance in January. It was met with uproarious applause at the famous Eccles theater but goddammit if it wasn’t the most overrated movie of the entire festival. Now my fears have been confirmed, the rest of American’s critics, that had yet to have seen the film, have joined the bandwagon for this “woke” movie (which open in theaters this past Friday). A 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 84 on MC. The vast amount of virtue signaling going on right now in film criticism is the reason why this minor work is being hailed and its director deemed to be the second-coming of Spike Lee.
Read moreA Date With Brian De Palma's ’Domino' Is Being Scheduled
If David Fincher has been channeling Hitchcock for the last two decades, Brian De Palma has been doing it for the last five decades. De Palma has referenced Hitch by constantly casting blondes as leading ladies, using Hitchcock regular Bernard Hermann’s scores and – more importantly – copying camera techniques of such classics as "Vertigo," "Rear Window" and "Psycho." Of course De Palma has still managed to infuse his own auteur voice into his films; he’s one of the very best filmmakers for the long take/tracking shot and his constant use of the split screen has been nothing short of revolutionary. His familiar obsessions still linger inside him as he continues making movies decade after decade, but there’s mistaking the fact that he’s been in an obvious funk these last 20 or so years.
Read more‘Dark Phoenix' Falters at the Box-Office; Worst Opening Ever For an X-Men Movie.
20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise is going out with a whimper. Early estimates are saying “Dark Phoenix” will open with a $35 million intake. That would make it the lowest opening for a live-action X-Men film, behind The Wolverine‘s $53 million take in 2013.
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.