“Doctor Sleep,” the sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” was projected to open with a $25-30 million tally this past weekend at the box-office. That didn’t happen. In fact, the Veterans Day box office became a bloody metaphor for the vast indifference many audiences have had with sequels this year.

I believe we are now living in a Post-Marvel/Scorsese age where now every notable director will have to give their two cents about Scorsese’s comments on Marvel not being cinema. And yet, I mentioned this just last week, an important individual who has yet to weigh in on this whole Marvel/Scorsese debate is the head of Hydra himself, MCU head honcho Kevin Feige.

Let’s see how Spike Lee does with his next few movies. The “BlacKkKlansman” director had a solid outing with the aforementioned movie last year, which was deemed a comeback of sorts after a rough 10-year stretch of films which included “Miracle at St. Anna,” “Red Hook Summer,” “Oldboy,” “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” and, to a lesser extent, “Chiraq.” Those were the five worst Lee movies of his career (as far as I’m concerned).

The 86-year-old director of “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby” has been a fugitive of the law in the United States for the better part of 40 years now. Back in 1978, he fled to France instead of facing his sentence on a charge of statutory rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer, charges which he had pleaded guilty to. Geimer has been fairly open about forgiving Polanski about what he’d done and has even pleaded to the press to stop harassing him and let him live his life.

“Ghostbusters” star Dan Aykroyd has confirmed to The Greg Hill Show that Bill Murray will be returning as Dr. Venkman for the upcoming “Ghostbusters 2020.”

The sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” failed to muster up enough excitement on its opening day, racking up only $6.6 million. The 2 and a half hour runtime may have also played a part in dissuading audiences to go see it, but word-of-mouth, which hasn’t been very good, no doubt played a crucial role in its failure to attract moviegoers. The R-rated movie, which has a budget of $50 million, was supposed to finish first at the box-office this weekend.

Tom Hooper’s “Cats,” a much-anticipated awards season juggernaut, is starting to provoke a lot of speculation about whether it can and will be finished on time for an awards-season launch.

I have been quite vocal about how Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” was ridiculously overpraised as some kind of second-coming back in the Spring of 2018. After giving Ryan Coogler’s film more than a fair chance with repeat viewing, my thoughts have still not changed.

No documentary feature ever has been nominated for the best picture Oscar. Think about that. There have, however, been nine foreign-language films and three animated movies nominated for the big prize. Not even Michael Moore’s Cannes-winning “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11” could muster up a nomination — what gives? The doc form has been shunned for too long, it’s time to reward it for its immaculate contribution to cinema over the years.

Oh, shut up Judd Apatow. I always count down the seconds before this wannabe SJW goes to Twitter to join in on the next witch hunt. The talented writer-director has been very vocally supportive of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements despite, hypocritically, not condemning his buddy James Franco (we’ll get to that a little later).

I already wrote about Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” [09.12.19 review] which, like many of Baumbach’s films, felt messy but adoringly passionate. That’s the thing about Baumbach, he infuses so much passion in his Woody Allen-inspired stories, trying to mix both comedy and drama, that the narrative can sometimes be all over the place.

If you’ve seen “The Irishman” then you would know that Scorsese’s longtime Oscar-winning editor has pulled off the best film editing job of the year. There’s no doubt about it. The film, which clocks in at a monstrous 209 minutes, speeds by like a bullet train. You don’t even have time to check your watch and, before you know it, the film has entered its final and slowly meditative epilogue.

The IMDb user rating system has been a source of ridicule in some film corners, especially due to the bro-like nature of the voter demographic. After all, Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan and most of the MCU movies can do no wrong when it comes to the IMDb user rating system. And yet, I have always looked to it for inspiration when it comes to my Oscar picks. Despite some of the flaws that come with the IMDb rating system, it also tends to show how mainstream America may regard a movie. You know, the non-elite film circles, where watching a movie is seen as a night out or as a way to unwind after a long week at work.

It’s very hard to actually form an opinion on the just-announced plan to cast a CGI James Dean in the upcoming film “Finding Jack.” This will be considered, in some circles, as the fourth movie James Dean has starred in his career after “Rebel Without A Cause,” “East of Eden,” and “Giant.”).