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roseisread · 6 years ago

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My Year in Movies: Favorite Non-2018 Feature Films (Part 1)

I watched a LOT of movies this year. At last count, I had logged 229 features and 126 shorts; and that doesn’t count rewatches--only movies that were new to me.

I set a few challenges for myself as well this year. The first one was to watch at least one non-English language/US release per week--this exposed me to so much world cinema and some really amazing filmmakers. Anyone who avoids foreign films because “I don’t like subtitles” is really missing out, and I found myself craving these narratives from voices I don’t ordinarily get exposed to in my everyday life.

Other personal challenges: Watching as many horror movies as possible in October (with horror defined pretty loosely so I could include entries from silent era and onward, as well as some comedy cult classics that have horror/thriller elements); participating in Noirvember (in addition to attending Noir City in Chicago); crossing off some major blindspots from my list (such as Bicycle Thieves, The Producers, Lethal Weapon, A Few Good Men, Grease, Home Alone 2, Brazil, and Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom); and trying to watch movies and short films from every decade that motion pictures have existed.

In 2019, I hope to do similar personal challenges with a focus on movies made by women, LGBTQ+, and people of color, in addition to filling in the gaps of my classical/canonical movie knowledge.

OK, so that’s enough preamble. Let’s get to the list! For this list, I’m excluding movies that were released in 2018--that’s coming but this is for movies released before that.

50. Linda Linda Linda (2005, directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, country of origin: Japan)

High school girls recruit the Korean exchange student (Doona Bae, of Cloud Atlas and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) to join their rock band a few days before the school talent show. This is just a feel good film, recommended if you enjoyed the likes of Sing Street, We Are The Best!, and The Runaways. Unfortunately, it’s out of print in physical form; but last I checked someone had uploaded it to YouTube so you might want to get on that before it’s removed. You can watch the trailer here.

49. The Blue Dahlia (1946, directed by George Marshall, country of origin: US)

This film noir stars Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, and like any good noir, it deals with dark subjects including murder, blackmail, political corruption, and PTSD. It’s been on my watchlist for a long time, and thanks to Noir City Chicago, I got to see it on the big screen at the Music Box Theatre. For small screen viewing, you can catch up with it via rental on Vudu, Amazon, iTunes... the usual suspects.

48. Siren of the Tropics (1927, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Etievant, country of origin: France)

My dearly departed Filmstruck had a spotlight on the films of Josephine Baker, and this was among them. I fell in love instantly with the lively, beautiful Baker, here playing a woman named Papitou who deals with some super scummy dudes but manages to be herself in the face of all that nonsense. Silent films can sometimes be tougher to engage with for modern audiences, but this one flies by and contains some unexpectedly racy sequences for the time. Its racial politics don’t meet today’s cultural standards, but considering Baker’s parents were former slaves and their daughter went on to become the first woman of color to star in a major motion picture, this is still a landmark film worthy of our consideration. She broke down many barriers and contributed a great deal to both the entertainment world and the Civil Rights movement, and this serves as a nice entry point into her career. It’s available on DVD through Kino Lorber, and hopefully one day soon it’ll pop up on another streaming service that carries on the Filmstruck legacy.

47. I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore (2017, directed by Macon Blair, country of origin: US)

Here’s a film that goes to some unexpected places. I had no idea what to expect from Macon Blair, who frequently appears in the movies of Jeremy Saulnier; but in his debut feature for Netflix, he pulled out all the stops. Hilarious, violent, and intense, with memorable performances from stars Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood, this is a movie about getting in over your head and just going for it anyway. I don’t want to tell you about the plot because it’s best discovered through watching--just go to your nearest device and add it to your Netflix queue.

46. Song of the Sea (2014, directed by Tomm Moore, country of origin: Ireland)

Absolutely gorgeous animation from the team that previously brought us The Secret of Kells, and a touching story that combines family and mythology. I adored this one. Watch it on Netflix or rent on the usual streaming sources--for a preview, click here.

45. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, directed by Michael Curtiz, country of origin: US)

I always watch Independence Day on the Fourth of July; but in 2018, I decided to mix it up and cross this patriotic musical off the watchlist. I’d seen James Cagney’s gangster movies like White Heat and The Public Enemy, but seeing him sing and dance was a whole new joyous discovery. This movie is entertaining, funny, touching, and full of iconic sequences that other films would go on to borrow from. I absolutely loved it. Pretty sure I saw this on Filmstruck originally, but since that’s no longer possible you should be able to find it at your local public library or you can rent it for a couple bucks on Amazon, YouTube, iTunes, and the like.

44. The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950, directed by Felix Feist, country of origin: US)

This tightly wound noir thriller pits brother against brother against the backdrop of 1950s San Francisco. Lee Cobb plays an aging bachelor and an accomplished police detective who falls for the wrong dame. His younger brother, played by John Dall (Gun Crazy, Rope), has just joined the police force and idolizes his older brother. Trouble strikes when the dame murders her no good husband and needs help from Cobb to cover it up. Naturally, Dall gets assigned to the case and as he begins to piece together the clues, he doesn’t like where they’re leading him. The climactic sequence is one of my favorite endings to a noir film, and I’ve seen a lot of them. Watch it for free if you have Amazon Prime; otherwise, there are a few versions uploaded to YouTube of varying quality or you could wait for it to pop up on TCM.

43. Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003, directed by Thom Andersen, country of origin: US)

This documentary edits together clips from movies of every era that were filmed or set in Los Angeles, and explains through voiceover narration the significance of each location and the history of the motion pictures in LA. That’s it--very simple concept but also fascinating. I split this up over a couple nights because it’s pretty long, but if you’re a film fan or a Los Angeles native, this is well worth your time. The voiceover is kind of hilariously flat in its delivery--kind of a Steven Wright sound actually--but that sort of adds to the charm for me. Get a taste by watching the trailer, and then you can rent it on YouTube for $1.99.

42. A Simple Plan (1998, directed by Sam Raimi, country of origin: US)

It’s been almost two years since we lost Bill Paxton; I don’t know about you but I don’t think any other actor can really fill those shoes. This year I caught up with three films that showcased his talent: A Simple Plan, One False Move, and Frailty. He plays very different characters in each one but in many ways they all start off with a similar premise: Ordinary guy dreams of becoming more. What that “more” is for each character is what sets each film and performance apart, but Paxton provided a great canvas to paint these unique characters onto. He inhabited the ordinary man better than just about anyone.

In this film, which I watched during Noirvember, Paxton plays Hank, a college-educated guy working a blue collar job in a small town, trying to make a better life for himself and his family. He’d like to get away from those small town roots, but his socially awkward brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) relies on him. Unfortunately, Jacob is often accompanied by the hard-drinking loose canon Lou (Brent Briscoe). When the unlikely trio discover a crashed plane in the woods containing a suitcase full of cash, they each have ideas for how to handle the situation. Of course things escalate from there, and the way the movie explores human nature and family ties set this story apart. Available for online rental on the usual platforms.

41. The Iron Giant (1999, directed by Brad Bird, country of origin: US)

Given my obsession with Vin Diesel in the early 2000s, it’s pretty shocking I never saw this movie til now--sure, he and his glorious muscles don’t appear on screen, but he does provide the voice of the title character after all. When the Iron Giant made a controversial cameo in this year’s film adaptation of Ready Player One, I decided it was time I saw the source material for myself.

This gorgeously animated fable unfolds during the Cold War era, and features an ET-inspired story arc of a young boy befriending an unlikely being that the government is looking for. If you’ve never seen it, this is definitely a must-watch. Currently available on Netflix, but rentable on other platforms too.

40. The Unsuspected (1947, directed by Michael Curtiz, country of origin: US)

I adore Claude Rains, star of this film and supporting actor in Curtiz’s more famous work, Casablanca. Here, he plays the host and narrator of a popular radio show that revolves around tales of murder--basically the Law and Order: SVU of its day. We learn early on that he sometimes draws inspiration for his broadcasts from real life criminals. When people in his own life start dropping dead, the plot thickens and he finds himself at the center of the action. A very suspenseful and well-plotted film noir, which is available from the Warner Archive collection on DVD. I got to see it at Noir City Chicago, and loved every second of it.

That’s all for this entry--stay tuned for part two of this list, posting soon!

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grigori77 · 6 years ago

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2018 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 1)

30. MANDY – easily the weirdest shit I saw in 2018, this 2-hour-plus fever dream fantasy horror is essentially an extended prog-rock video with added “plot” from Beyond the Black Rainbow director Panos Cosmatos. Saying that by the end of it I was left feeling exhausted, brain-fried and more than a little weirded-out might not seem like much of a recommendation, but this is, in fact, a truly transformative viewing experience, a film destined for MASSIVE future cult status. Playing like the twisted love-child of David Lynch and Don Coscarelli, it (sort of) tells the story of lumberjack Red Miller (Nicolas Cage) and his illustrator girlfriend Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough), who have an idyllic life in the fantastically fictional Shadow Mountains circa 1983 … at least until Mandy catches the eye of Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), the thoroughly insane leader of twisted doomsday cult the Children of the New Dawn, who employs nefarious, supernatural means to acquire her. But Mandy spurns his advances, leading to a horrific retribution that spurs Red, a traumatised war veteran, to embark on a genuine roaring rampage of revenge. Largely abandoning plot and motivation for mood, emotion and some seriously trippy visuals, this is an elemental, transcendental film, a series of deeply weird encounters and nightmarish set-pieces that fuel a harrowing descent into a particularly alien, Lovecraftian kind of hell, Cosmatos shepherding in one breathtaking sequence after another with the aid of skilled cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, a deeply inventive design team (clearly drawing inspiration from the artwork of late-70s/early 80s heavy metal albums) and a thoroughly tricked-out epic tone-poem of a score from the late Jôhan Jôhannsson (Sicario, Arrival, Mother!), as well as one seriously game cast. Cage is definitely on crazy-mode here, initially playing things cool and internalised until the savage beast within is set loose by tragedy, chewing scenery to shreds like there’s no tomorrow, while Riseborough is sweet, gentle and inescapably DOOMED; Roach, meanwhile, is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, an entitled, delusional narcissist thoroughly convinced of his own massive cosmic importance, and there’s interesting support from a raft of talented character actors such as Richard Brake, Ned Dennehy and Bill Duke. This is some brave, ambitious filmmaking, and a stunning breakthrough for one of the weirdest and most unique talents I’ve stumbled across a good while. Cosmatos is definitely one to watch.

29. THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB – back in 2011, David Fincher’s adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s runaway bestseller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo became one of my very favourite screen thrillers EVER, a stone-cold masterpiece and, in my opinion, the superior version of the story even though a very impression Swedish version had broken out in a major way the year before. My love for the film was coloured, however, by frustration at its cinematic underperformance, which meant that Fincher’s planned continuation of the series with Millennium Trilogy sequels The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest would likely never see the light of day. Even so, the fan in me held out hope, however fragile, that we might just get lucky. Seven years later, we have FINALLY been rewarded for our patience, but not exactly in the fashion we’ve been hoping for … Fincher’s out, Evil Dead-remake and Don’t Breathe writer-director Fede Alvarez is in, and instead of continuing the saga in the logical place the makers of this new film chose the baffling route of a “soft reboot” via adapting the FOURTH Millennium book, notable for being the one released AFTER Larsson’s death, penned by David Lagercrantz, which is set AFTER the original Trilogy. Thing is, the actually end result, contrary to many opinions, is actually pretty impressive – this is a leaner, more fast-paced affair than its predecessor, a breathless suspense thriller that rattles along at quite a clip as we’re drawn deeper into Larsson’s dark, dangerous and deeply duplicitous world and treating fans to some top-notch action sequences, from a knuckle-whitening tech-savvy car chase to a desperate, bone-crunching fight in a gas-filled room. Frustratingly, the “original” Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara, is absent (despite remaining VERY enthusiastic about returning to the role), but The Crown’s Claire Foy is almost as good – the spiky, acerbic and FIERCELY independent prodigious super-hacker remains as brooding, socially-awkward, emotionally complex and undeniably compelling as ever, the same queen of screen badasses I fell in love with nearly a decade ago. Her investigative journalist friend/occasional lover Mikael Blomkvist is, annoyingly, less well served – Borg Vs McEnroe star Sverrir Gudnasson is charismatic and certainly easy on the eyes, but he’s FAR too young for the role (seriously, he’s only a week older than I am) and at times winds up getting relegated to passive observer status when he’s not there simply to guide the plot forward; we’re better served by the supporting cast, from Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out, Sorry to Bother You) as a mysterious NSA security expert (I know!) to another surprisingly serious turn (after Logan) from The Office’s Stephen Merchant as the reclusive software designer who created the world-changing computer program that spearheads the film’s convoluted plot, and there’s a fantastically icy performance from Blade Runner 2049’s Sylvia Hoeks as Camilla Salander, Lisbeth’s estranged twin sister and psychopathic head of the Spiders, the powerful criminal network once controlled by their monstrous father (The Hobbit’s Mikael Persbrandt). The film is far from perfect – the plot kind runs away with the story at times, while several supposedly key characters are given frustratingly little development or screen-time – but Alvarez keeps things moving along with typical skill and precision and maintains a tense, unsettling atmosphere throughout, while there are frequently moments of pure genius on display in the script by Alvarez, his regular collaborator Jay Basu and acclaimed screenwriter Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Locke) – the original novel wasn’t really all that great, but by just taking the bare bones of the plot and crafting something new and original they’ve improved things considerably. The finished product thrills and rewards far more than it frustrates, and leaves the series in good shape for continuation. With a bit of luck this time it might do well enough that we’ll finally get those other two movies to plug the gap between this and Fincher’s “original” …

28. ISLE OF DOGS – I am a MASSIVE fan of the films of Wes Anderson. Three share placement in my all-time favourite screen comedies list – Grand Budapest Hotel, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and, of course, The Royal Tenebaums (which perches high up in my TOP TEN) – and it’s always a pleasure when a new one comes out. 2009’s singular stop-motion gem Fantastic Mr Fox showed just how much fun his uniquely quirky sense of humour and pleasingly skewed world-view could be when transferred into an animated family film setting, so it’s interesting that it took him nearly a decade to repeat the exercise, but the labour of love is writ large upon this dark and delicious fable of dystopian future Japanese city Megasaki, where an epidemic of “dog flu” prompts totalitarian Mayor Kobayashi (voiced by Kunichi Nomura) to issue an edict banishing all of the city’s canine residents to nearby Trash Island. Six months later, Kobayashi’s nephew Atari (newcomer Koyu Rankin) steals a ridiculously tiny plane and crash-lands on Trash Island, intent on rescuing his exiled bodyguard-dog Spots (Liev Schreiber); needless to say this is easier said than done, unforeseen circumstances leading a wounded Atari to enlist the help of a pack of badass “alpha dogs” voiced by Anderson regulars – Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Boss (Bill Murray) and Duke (Jeff Goldblum) – and nominally led by crabby, unrepentantly bitey stray Chief (Bryan Cranston), to help him find his lost dog in the dangerous wilds of the island. Needless to say this is as brilliantly odd as we’ve come to expect from Anderson, a perfectly pitched, richly flavoured concoction of razor sharp wit, meticulously crafted characters and immersive beauty. The cast are, as always, excellent, from additional regulars such as Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel and F. Murray Abraham to new voices like Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, Ken Watanabe and Courtney B. Vance, but the film’s true driving force is Cranston and Rankin, the reluctant but honest relationship that forms between Chief and Atari providing the story with a deep, resonant emotional core. The first rate animation really helps – the exemplary stop-motion makes the already impressive art of Mr Fox seem clunky and rudimentary (think the first Wallace & Gromit short A Grand Day Out compared to their movie Curse of the Were-Rabbit), each character rendered with such skill they seem to be breathing on their own, and Anderson’s characteristic visual flair is on full display, the Japanese setting lending a rich, exotic tang to the compositions, especially in the deeply inventive environs of Trash Island. Funny, evocative, heartfelt and fiendishly clever, this is one of those rare screen gems that deserves to be returned to again and again, and it’s definitely another masterpiece from one of the most unique filmmakers working today.

27. VENOM – when Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man saga came to a rather clunky end back in 2007, it felt like a case of too many villains spoiling the rumble, and it was pretty clear that the inclusion of bad-boy reporter Eddie Brock and his dark alter ego was the straw that broke that particular camel’s back. Venom didn’t even show up proper until almost three quarters of the way through the movie, by which time it was very much a case of too-little-too-late, and many fans (myself included) resented the decidedly Darth Maul-esque treatment of one of the most iconic members of Marvel’s rogues’ gallery. It’s taken more than a decade for Marvel to redress the balance, even longer than with Deadpool, and, like with the Merc With a Mouth, they decided the only way was a no-holds-barred, R-rated take that could really let the beast loose. Has it worked? Well … SORT OF. In truth, the finished article feels like a bit of a throwback, recalling the pre-MCU days when superhero movies were more about pure entertainment without making us think too much, just good old-fashioned popcorn fodder, but in this case that’s not a bad thing. It’s big, loud, dumb fun, hardly a masterpiece but it does its job admirably well, and it has one hell of a secret weapon at its disposal – Tom Hardy. PERFECTLY cast as morally ambiguous underdog investigative journalist Eddie Brock, he deploys the kind of endearingly sleazy, shit-eating charm that makes you root for him even when he acts like a monumental prick, while really letting rip with some seriously twitchy, sometimes downright FEROCIOUS unhinged craziness once he becomes the unwilling host for a sentient parasitic alien symbiote with a hunger for living flesh and a seriously bad attitude. This is EASILY one of the best performances Hardy’s ever delivered, and he entrances us in every scene, whether understated or explosive, making even the most outlandish moments of Brock’s unconventional relationship with Venom seem, if not perfectly acceptable, then at least believable. He’s ably supported by Michelle Williams as San Francisco district attorney Anne Weying, his increasingly exasperated ex-fiancée, Rogue One’s Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake, the seemingly idealistic space-exploration-funding philanthropist whose darker ambitions have brought a lethal alien threat to Earth, and Parks & Recreation’s Jenny Slate as Drake’s conflicted head scientist Nora Skirth, while there’s a very fun cameo from a particularly famous face in the now ubiquitous mid-credits sting that promises great things in the future. Director Ruben Fleischer brought us Zombieland and 30 Minutes Or Less, so he certainly knows how to deliver plenty of blackly comic belly laughs, and he brings plenty of seriously dark humour to the fore, the rating meaning the comedy can get particularly edgy once Venom starts to tear up the town; it also fulfils the Marvel prerequisite of taking its action quota seriously, delivering a series of robust set-pieces (the standout being a spectacular bike chase through the streets of San Fran, made even more memorable by the symbiote’s handy powers). Best of all, the film isn’t afraid to get genuinely scary with some seriously nasty alien-induced moments of icky body horror, captured by some strangely beautiful effects works that brings Venom and his ilk to vivid, terrifying life. Flawed as it is, this is still HUGE fun, definitely one of the year’s biggest cinematic guilty pleasures, and I for one can’t wait to see more from the character in the near future, which, given what a massive success the film has already proven at the box office, seems an ironclad certainty.

26. SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY – the second of Disney’s new phase of Star Wars movies to feature in the non-trilogy-based spinoff series had a rough time after its release – despite easily recouping its production budget, it still lost the $100-million+ it spent on advertising, while it was met with extremely mixed reviews and shunned by many hardcore fans. I’ll admit that I too was initially disappointed with this second quasi prequel to A New Hope (after the MUCH more impressive Rogue One), but a second, more open-minded viewing after a few months to ruminate mellowed my experience considerably, the film significantly growing on me. An origin story for the Galaxy’s most lovable rogue was always going to be a hard sell – Han Solo is an enjoyable enigma in The Original Trilogy, someone who lives very much in the present, his origins best revealed in the little details we glean about him in passing – but while it’s a flawed creation, this interstellar heist adventure mostly pulls off what was intended. Like many fans of The Lego Movie, I remain deeply curious about what original director duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller could have achieved with the material, but I wholeheartedly approved Disney’s replacement choice when he was announced – Ron Howard is one of my favourite “hit-and-miss” directors, someone who’s made some clunkers in his time (The Da Vinci Code, we’re looking at you) but can, on a good day, be relied on to deliver something truly special (Willow is one of my VERY FAVOURITE movies from my childhood, one that’s stood up well to the test of time, and a strong comparison point for this; Apollo 13 and Rush, meanwhile, are undeniable MASTERPIECES), and in spite of its shortcomings I’m ultimately willing to consider this one of his successes. Another big step in the right direction was casting Hail, Caesar! star Alden Ehrenreich in the title role – Harrison Ford’s are seriously huge shoes to fill, but this talented young man has largely succeeded. He may not quite capture that wonderful growling drawl but he definitely got Han’s cocky go-getter swagger right, he’s particularly strong in the film’s more humorous moments, and he has charisma to burn, so he sure makes entertaining viewing. It also helps that the film has such a strong supporting cast – with original Chewbacca Peter Mayhew getting too old for all this derring-do nonsense, former pro basketball-player Joonas Suotamo gets a little more comfortable in his second gig (after The Last Jedi) in the “walking carpet” suit, while Woody Harrelson adds major star power as Tobias Beckett, Han’s likeably slippery mentor in all things criminal in the Star Wars Universe, and Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke is typically excellent as Han’s first love Qi’ra, a fellow Corellian street orphan who’s grown up into a sophisticated thief of MUCH higher calibre than her compatriots. The film is dominated, however, by two particularly potent scene-stealing turns which make you wonder if it’s really focused on the right rogue’s story – Community star Donald Glover exceeds all expectations as Han’s old “friend” Lando Calrissian, every bit the laconic smoothie he was when he was played by Billy Dee Williams back in the day, while his droid companion L3-37 (voiced with flawless comic skill by British stage and sitcom actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge) frequently walks away with the film entirely, a weirdly flirty and lovably militant campaigner for droid rights whose antics cause a whole heap of trouble. The main thing the film REALLY lacks is a decent villain – Paul Bettany’s oily kingpin Dryden Voss is distinctive enough to linger in the memory, but has criminally short screen-time and adds little real impact or threat to the main story, only emphasising the film’s gaping, Empire-shaped hole. Even so, it’s still a ripping yarn, a breathlessly exciting and frequently VERY funny space-hopping crime caper that relishes that wonderful gritty, battered old tech vibe we’ve come to love throughout the series as a whole and certainly delivers on the action stakes – the vertigo-inducing train heist sequence is easily the film’s standout set-piece, but the opening chase and the long-touted Kessel Run impress too – it only flags in the frustrating and surprisingly sombre final act. The end result still has the MAKINGS of a classic, and there’s no denying it’s also more enjoyable and deep-down SATISFYING than the first two films in George Lucas’ far more clunky Prequel Trilogy. Rogue One remains the best of the new Star Wars movies so far, but this is nothing like the disappointment it’s been made out to be.

25. AQUAMAN – the fortunes of the DC Extended Universe cinematic franchise continue to fluctuate – these films may be consistently successful at the box office, but they’re a decidedly mixed bag when it comes to their quality and critical opinion, and the misses still outweigh the hits. Still, you can’t deny that when they DO do things right, they do them VERY right – 2017’s acclaimed Wonder Woman was a long-overdue validation for the studio, and they’ve got another winner on their hands with this bold, brash, VERY ballsy solo vehicle for one of the things that genuinely WORKED in the so-so Justice League movie. Jason Momoa isn’t just muscular in the physical sense, once again proving seriously ripped in the performance capacity as he delivers rough, grizzled charm and earthy charisma as half-Atlantean Arthur Curry, called upon to try and win back the royal birthright he once gave up when his half-brother Prince Orm (Watchmen’s Patrick Wilson), ruler of Atlantis, embarks on a brutal quest to unite the seven underwater kingdoms under his command in order to wage war on the surface world. Aquaman has long been something of an embarrassment for DC Comics, an unintentional “gay joke” endlessly derided by geeks (particularly cuttingly in the likes of The Big Bang Theory), but in Momoa’s capable hands that opinion has already started to shift, and the transition should be complete after this – Arthur Curry is now a swarthy, hard-drinking alpha male tempered with a compellingly relatable edge of deep-seeded vulnerability derived from the inherent tragedy of his origins and separation from the source of his immense superhuman strength, and he’s the perfect flawed action hero for this most epic of superhero blockbusters. Amber Heard is frequently as domineering a presence as Atlantean princess Mera, a powerful warrior in her own right and fully capable of heading her own standalone adventure someday, and Wilson makes for a very solid and decidedly sympathetic villain whose own motivations can frequently be surprisingly seductive, even if his methods are a good deal more nefarious, while The Get Down’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is more down-and-dirty BAD as David Kane, aka the Black Manta, a lethally tech-savvy pirate who has a major score to settle with the Aquaman; there’s also strong support from the likes of Willem Dafoe as Curry’s sage-like mentor Vulko, Dolph Lundgren as Mera’s father, King Nereus, the ever-reliable Temuera Morrison as Arthur’s father Thomas, and Nicole Kidman as his ill-fated mother Atlanna. Director James Wan is best known for establishing horror franchises (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring), but he showed he could do blockbuster action cinema with Fast & Furious 7, and he’s improved significantly with this, delivering one gigantic action sequence after another with consummate skill and flair as well as performing some magnificent and extremely elegant world-building, unveiling dazzling, opulent and exotic undersea civilizations that are the equal to the forests of Pandora in Avatar, but he also gets to let some of his darker impulses show here and there, particularly in a genuinely scary visit to the hellish world of the Trench and its monstrous denizens. It may not be QUITE as impressive as Wonder Woman, and it still suffers (albeit only a little bit) from the seemingly inherent flaws of the DCEU franchise as a whole (particularly in yet another overblown CGI-cluttered climax), but this is still another big step back in the right direction, one which, once again, we can only hope they’ll continue to repeat. I’ll admit that the next offering, Shazam, doesn’t fill me with much confidence, but you never know, it could surprise us. And there’s still Flashpoint, The Batman and Birds of Prey to come …

24. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI – filmmaker brothers Martin and John Michael McDonagh have carved an impressive niche in cinematic comedy this past decade, from decidedly Irish breakout early works (In Bruges from Martin and The Guard and Calvary from John) to enjoyable outsider-looking-in American crim-coms (Martin’s Seven Psychopaths and John’s War On Everyone), and so far they’ve all had one thing in common – they’re all BRILLIANT. But Martin looks set to be the first brother to be truly accepted into Hollywood Proper, with his latest feature garnering universal acclaim, massive box office and heavyweight Awards recognition, snagging an impressive SEVEN Oscar nominations and taking home two, as well as landing a Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Picture. It’s also the most thoroughly AMERICAN McDonagh film to date, and this is no bad thing, Martin shedding his decidedly Celtic flavours for an edgier Redneck charm that perfectly suits the material … but most important of all, from a purely critical point of view this could be the very BEST film either of the brothers has made to date. It’s as blackly comic and dark-of-soul as we’d expect from the creator of In Bruges, but there’s real heart and tenderness hidden amongst the expletive-riddled, barbed razor wit and mercilessly observed, frequently lamentable character beats. Frances McDormand thoroughly deserved her Oscar win for her magnificent performance as Mildred Hayes, a take-no-shit shopkeeper in the titular town whose unbridled grief over the brutal rape and murder of her daughter Angela (Kathryn Newton) has been exacerbated by the seeming inability of the local police force to solve the crime, leading her to hire the ongoing use of a trio of billboards laying the blame squarely at the feet of popular, long-standing local police Chief Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). Needless to say this kicks up quite the shitstorm in the town, but Mildred stands resolute in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, refusing to back down. McDormand has never been better – Mildred is a foul-mouthed, opinionated harpy who tells it like it is, no matter who she’s talking to, but there’s understandable pain driving her actions, and a surprisingly tender heart beating under all that thorniness; Harrelson, meanwhile, is by turns a gruff shit-kicker and a gentle, doting family man, silently suffering over his own helplessness with the dead end the case seems to have turned into. The film’s other Oscar-winner, Sam Rockwell, also delivers his finest performance to date as Officer Jason Dixon, a true disgrace of a cop whose permanent drunkenness has marred a career which, it turns out, began with some promise; he’s a thuggish force-of-nature, Mildred’s decidedly ineffectual nemesis whose own equally foul-mouthed honesty is set to dump him in trouble big time, but again there’s a deeply buried vein of well-meaning ambition under all the bigotry and pigheadedness we can’t help rooting for once it reveals itself. There’s strong support from some serious heavyweights, particularly John Hawkes, Caleb Landry Jones, Peter Dinklage, Abbie Cornish and Manchester By the Sea’s breakout star Lucas Hedges, while McDonagh deserves every lick of acclaim and recognition he’s received for his precision-engineered screenplay, peerless direction and crisp, biting dialogue, crafting a jet black comedy nonetheless packed with so much emotional heft that it’ll have you laughing your arse off but crying your eyes out just as hard. An honest, unapologetic winner, then.

23. RED SPARROW – just when you thought we’d seen the last of the powerhouse blockbuster team of director Francis Lawrence and star Jennifer Lawrence with the end of The Hunger Games, they reunite for this far more adult literary feature, bringing Jason Matthews’ labyrinthine spy novel to bloody life. Adapted by Revolutionary Road screenwriter Justin Haythe, it follows the journey of Russian star ballerina Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) into the shadowy world of post-Glasnost Russian Intelligence after an on-stage accident ruins her career. Trained to use her body and mind to seduce her targets, Dominika becomes a “Sparrow”, dispatched to Budapest to entrap disgraced CIA operative Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) and discover the identity of the deep cover double agent in Moscow he was forced to burn his own cover to protect. But Dominika never wanted any of this, and she begins to plot her escape, no matter the risks … as we’ve come to expect, Jennifer Lawrence is magnificent, her glacial beauty concealing a fierce intelligence and deeply guarded desperation to get out, her innate sensuality rendered clinical by the raw, unflinching gratuity of her training and seduction scenes – this is a woman who uses ALL the weapons at her disposal to get what she needs, and it’s an icy professionalism that informs and somewhat forgives Lawrence’s relative lack of chemistry with Edgerton. Not that it’s his fault – Nate is nearly as compelling a protagonist as Dominika, a roguish chancer whose impulsiveness could prove his undoing, but also makes him likeable and charming enough for us to root for him too. Bullhead’s Matthias Schoenarts is on top form as the film’s nominal villain, Dominika’s uncle Ivan, the man who trapped her in this hell in the first place, Charlotte Rampling is beyond cold as the “Matron”, the cruel headmistress of the Sparrow School, Joely Richardson is probably the gentlest, purest ray of light in the film as Dominika’s ailing mother Nina, and Jeremy Irons radiates stately gravitas as high-ranking intelligence officer General Vladimir Andreievich Korchnoi. This is a tightly-paced, piano wire-taut thriller with a suitably twisty plot that constantly wrong-foots the viewer, Lawrence the director again showing consummate skill at weaving flawlessly effective narrative with scenes of such unbearable tension you’ll find yourself perched on the edge of your seat throughout. It’s a much less explosive film than we’re used to from him – most of the fireworks are of the acting variety – but there are moments when the tension snaps, always with bloody consequences, especially in the film’s standout sequence featuring a garrotte-driven interrogation that turns particularly messy. The end result is a dark thriller of almost unbearable potency that you can’t take your eyes off. Here’s hoping this isn’t the last time Lawrence & Lawrence work together …

22. WIDOWS – Steve McQueen is one of the most challenging writer-directors working in Hollywood today, having exploded onto the scene with hard-hitting IRA-prison-biopic Hunger and subsequently adding to his solid cache of acclaimed works with Shame and 12 Years a Slave, but there’s a strong argument to be made that THIS is his best film to date. Co-adapted from a cult TV-series from British thriller queen Lynda La Plante by Gone Girl and Sharp Objects-author Gillian Flynn, it follows a group of women forced to band together to plan and execute a robbery in order to pay off the perceived debt incurred by their late husbands, who died trying to steal $2 million from Jamal Manning (If Beale Street Could Talk’s Brian Tyree Henry), a Chicago crime boss with ambitions to go legit as alderman of the city’s South Side Precinct. Viola Davis dominates the film as Veronica Rawlings, the educated and fiercely independent wife of accomplished professional thief Harry (a small but potent turn from Liam Neeson), setting the screen alight with a barely restrained and searing portrayal of devastating grief and righteous anger, and is ably supported by a trio of equally overwhelming performances from Michelle Rodriguez as hard-pressed mother and small-businesswoman Linda Perelli, The Man From UNCLE’s Elizabeth Debicki as Alice Gunner, an abused widow struggling to find her place in the world now she’s been cut off from her only support-mechanism, and Bad Times At the El Royale’s Cynthia Eriyo as Belle, the tough, gutsy beautician/babysitter the trio enlist to help them once they realise they need a fourth member. Henry is a deceptively subtle, thoroughly threatening presence throughout the film as Manning, as is Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya as his thuggish brother/lieutenant Jatemme, and Colin Farrell is seemingly decent but ultimately fatally flawed as his direct political rival, reigning alderman Jack Mulligan, while there are uniformly excellent supporting turns from the likes of Robert Duvall, Carrie Coon, Lukas Haas, Jon Bernthal and Kevin J. O’Connor. McQueen once again delivers an emotionally exhausting and effortlessly powerful tour-de-force, wringing out the maximum amount of feels from the loaded and deeply personal human interactions on display throughout, and once again proves just as effective at delivering on the emotional fireworks as he is in stirring our blood in some brutal set-pieces, while Flynn help to deliver another perfectly pitched, intricately crafted script packed with exquisite dialogue and shrewdly observed character work which is sure to net her some major wins come Awards season. Unflinching and devastating but thoroughly exhilarating, this is an extraordinary film (and if this was a purely critical list it would surely have placed A LOT higher), thoroughly deserving of every bit of praise, attention and success it has and will go on to garner. An absolute must-see.

21. JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM – Colin Trevorrow’s long-awaited 2015 Jurassic Park sequel was a major shot in the arm for a killer blockbuster franchise that had been somewhat flagging since Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs back to life for the second time, but (edgier tone aside) it was not quite the full-on game-changer some thought it would be. The fifth film, directed by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, A Monster Calls) and written by Trevorrow and his regular script-partner Derek Connolly (Safety Not Guaranteed and JW, as well as Warner Bros’ recent “Monsterverse” landmark Kong: Skull Island), redresses the balance – while the first act of the film once again returns to the Costa Rican island of Isla Nublar, it’s become a very different environment from the one we’ve so far experienced, and a fiendish plot-twist means the film then takes a major swerve into MUCH darker territory than we’ve seen so far. Giving away anything more does a disservice to the series’ most interesting story to date, needless to say this is EASILY the franchise’s strongest feature since the first, and definitely the scariest. Hollywood’s most unusual everyman action hero, Chris Pratt, returns as raptor wrangler Owen Brady, enlisted to help rescue as many dinosaurs as possible from an impending, cataclysmic volcanic eruption, but in particular his deeply impressive trained raptor Blue, now the last of her kind; Bryce Dallas Howard is also back as former Jurassic World operations manager turned eco-campaigner Claire Dearing, and her His Girl Friday-style dynamic with Pratt’s Brady is brought to life with far greater success here, their chemistry far more convincing because Claire has become a much more well-rounded and believably tough lady, now pretty much his respective equal. There are also strong supporting turns from the likes of Rafe Spall, The Get Down’s Justice Smith, The Vampire Diaries/The Originals’ breakout star Daniella Pineda, the incomparable Ted Levine (particularly memorable as scummy mercenary Ken Wheatley) and genuine screen legend James Cromwell, but as usual the film’s true stars are the dinosaurs themselves – it’s a real pleasure seeing Blue return because the last velociraptor was an absolute treat in Jurassic World, but she’s clearly met her match in this film’s new Big Bad, the Indoraptor, a lethally monstrous hybrid cooked up in Ingen’s labs as a living weapon. Bayona cut his teeth on breakout feature The Orphanage, so he’s got major cred as an accomplished horror director, and he uses that impressive talent to great effect here, weaving an increasingly potent atmosphere of wire-taut dread and delivering some nerve-shredding set-pieces, particularly the intense and moody extended stalk-and-kill stretch that brings the final act to its knuckle-whitening climax. It’s not just scary, though – there’s still plenty of that good old fashioned wonder and savage beauty we’ve come to expect from the series, and another hefty dose of that characteristic Spielbergian humour (Pratt in particular shines in another goofy, self-deprecating turn, while Smith steals many of the film’s biggest laughs as twitchy, out-of-his-comfort-zone tech wizard Franklin). Throw in another stirring and epic John Williams-channelling score from Michael Giacchino and this is an all-round treat for the franchise faithful and blockbuster fans in general – EASILY the best shape the series has been in for some time, it shows HUGE promise for the future.

#mandy #the girl in the spider's web #isle of dogs #venom #solo a star wars story #aquaman #three billboards movie #red sparrow #widows #jurassic world fallen kingdom #2018 in movies

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greatghuleh · 2 years ago

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Which is sadly why I think I failed to have a great time. The only Sam Raimi movie I know to my knowledge were his Spider Man movies. Like...I knew of the Evil Dead Series, and though I enjoy the paranormal, horror isn't exactly my fave genre. Because of this, to me the final end credit didn't have the same effect as Deadpool's fourth wall breaking 'go home already' thing, and felt like they were calling me a loser nerd with strong 90's/early 00 when it was a more serious insult for waiting for the second credit seen that has now been established as a Marvel thing. Like yeah, they really did make me feel like I wasted my time there and got shamed for it rather than it being a treat. Maybe Sam Ax fans liked it, I didn't. Add that the retcon/ignoring of WV.... This movie was just a lesson to me to temper back my expectations of MCU movies by a LOT going forward.

Do you buy your comics physically or do you read them online? I've been trying to get more into comics but with there being a lot of them, I never know where or how to start.

Yeah. Honestly, I'm seeing this fairly often when it comes to this movie actually. I've seen exactly what you're saying from quite a few people. I think the age/genre gaps of what Raimi does missed the mark with a fair amount of people. Sam Raimi has a style and a "brand" at this point. and if you aren't old enough to know it i guess or don't follow him outside of things like his Spider-Man movies then you kind of "miss" some of what makes a Raimi movie a Raimi movie.

I will say.... While Evil Dead movies are "horror" genre.... they are very COMEDY too. and Campy. So, you might enjoy them more than you think??? as I am NOT a horror genre fan either and I like them a lot. (tho i also grew up on them a bit and love Bruce Campbell) Campbell's cameo was FUN for me.

but I've also admitted I left the theater before the second credits scene, where you said you felt basically insulted, because I was so excited about Clea's introduction I like... just couldn't comprehend anything else after and took off. I did not give ONE shit about what came after that and LEFT. I didn't get the "are you dumb? the movie's over" experience from Campbell's character. I'm sure with the director and actor it was meant as a fun little moment...... but you are NOT alone in feeling a bit let down by it... even insulted. And that is definitely not what you want to feel as an audience member. I'm sorry it left that mark on you. I wish a Doctor Strange movie had given something more fulfilling.

Yeah, and on top of it not really being a true Doctor Strange movie. it still kind of just skimmed past or seemed to kind of ignore some WandaVision stuff, so I get you there. If we were gonna focus on Wanda like..... then.... let's go all in then!! let's GO! but they still just... skimmed it a bit. and then we ended up with this movie that was this kind of limbo between Wanda and Strange and left me, personally, feeling a bit wanting for more from either or both of the characters. We didn't even get a true parallel story for them, given how they skimmed Supreme!Strange's story and over the "hypocrisy" of Stephen using the Darkhold (which could be and might be revisited in future movies) but. it just didn't feel... like... a complete... or whole story. because it just danced around between Wanda and Strange and didn't complete any of their interconnecting threads, imo.

I would definitely temper legit expectations of MCU movies. Like, just try to understand... these are not actually long long term thought out arcs, they're actually very much like comic book story arcs/events.... ignore how much interviews with Feige will try to sell you that they've thought all this through years and years in advance. They're also here to put butts in seats, so even if planned out they WILL adjust just to get more butts in seats.

On the Comics themselves. Let me make a separate post for that right after this that I hope you see because this post is already long, as I get longwinded about Doctor Strange

#anonymous

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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Could Spider-Man: No Way Home Redeem The Lizard?

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Admit it, the moment you heard Willem Dafoe’s familiar Green Goblin cackle in the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer you smiled. The legendary character actor isn’t even seen on screen, yet the sight of his pumpkin bomb from 2002’s Spider-Man and the sound of his laugh were a blast of sweet, sweet nostalgia. So much so that fans immediately began speculating just how different his costume might look this time out—hoping the green plastic get-up from 20 years ago never again sees the light of day.

And while that instinct is understandable, it comes mostly from a place of love, as well as comfort in the knowledge that no matter what, Dafoe’s Green Goblin will once again be spectacular. Perhaps that’s why I can’t help but wonder about the other Spider-Man villains who were teased; the ones who despite great comic book legacies left something to be desired the last time we saw them at the cinema. I’m thinking about the Lizard.

First appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #6, the Lizard was only one in a long line of immediate home runs for Stan Lee and Steve Ditko during the early ‘60s. Genuinely, the bulk of the web-head’s rogues gallery (which is only rivaled by Batman) was created in a handful of months during those early days, with Lizard’s origin story being sandwiched in between our first introductions to Doctor Octopus and Sandman on one side, and Electro, the the Green Goblin, Mysterio, and Kraven the Hunter on the other.

Yet even in that first appearance, the Lizard was a special creation. Like many of Peter Parker’s greatest foes, Lee and Ditko’s scaly variation on Jekyll and Hyde was yet another authority figure whom the wall-crawler needed to defeat in generational combat. As the first youthful superhero created in the decade of youth, Spidey was originally presented as a kid sticking it to the man, and unhip authority figures like Doc Ock. But the Lizard? Unlike the others, he was a tragic figure with a tragic backstory: a war hero surgeon who lost his arm in combat and in an attempt to regrow it for his family turned into a six-foot dinosaur. It’s ridiculous, yet at its heart it was the archetypal horror we’ve seen in every great werewolf story, complete with the emotional stakes of Dr. Curt Connors’ wife and son being left behind as collateral damage if Spidey couldn’t save the Lizard from himself.

All of those elements were there from the jump with the Lizard, which makes their absence in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man all the more baffling. Despite the studio apparently championing the villain as being the next foe in their fourth Spider-Man movie—to the point where it became apparently one of many disagreements with director Sam Raimi who was fixated on doing a Vulture movie back in the late 2000s—the finished product showed a genuine lack of comprehension about what made the character one of Spider-Man’s great foes.

Through no fault of actor Rhys Ifans, who plays Dr. Curt Connors as serviceably as possible from the thin screenplay he was provided, that film robs the Lizard of the character’s tragedy or even a hint of pathos: gone are Connors’ wife and son, as well as his tragic war backstory. In fact, Connors is a fairly shady individual in the film with vague connections to the deaths of Peter Parker’s parents. In other words, he’s a stock mad scientist, who neither Peter or the audience has much reason to sympathize with.

Additionally, the design of the character was nearly every bit as atrocious as the Power Rangers costume Dafoe got stuck with a decade earlier as the Green Goblin. While The Amazing Spider-Man filmmakers apparently chose to honor the flatter facial design of Ditko’s initial concept of the Lizard, they nonetheless removed other key elements of Ditko’s design which made the character so visually appealing: aspects like the shredded lab coat which belied the character’s lost humanity, and created a striking visual contrast to the green scaly look. Which is to say, without the white cloak, he looks a bit like a shrunken Godzilla running around town, with the ugly face of those misbegotten Goomba designs from the Super Mario Bros. movie.

As with the unwise choice of redesigning Spider-Man’s costume to better resemble a basketball in that movie, these poor choices made the Lizard look visually goofy and poorly thought out. When one contrasts this with how the character has been more or less drawn since the 1970s, including famously by Venom co-creator Todd McFarlane, who made the Lizard look like a demonic viper in human clothing, the ineptness of the cinematic Lizard becomes a failure on every level.

Admittedly, it’s unlikely Curt Connors’ motivations can be saved in Spider-Man: No Way Home. With One More Day fallout left to be resolved from Spider-Man: Far From Home’s cliffhanger ending, the multiverse needing to be set-up for audiences who don’t watch every Disney+ series, Doctor Strange fan service to squeeze in, and, oh yeah, the rest of the Sinister Six to reintroduce—including cinematic high points like Dafoe’s Goblin and especially Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock—there probably isn’t a lot of room for the cinematic also-rans of Lizard, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, and Thomas Hayden Church’s Sandman.

However, at least two of those became “also-rans” because of poor choices made by other filmmakers. Marvel Studios has had much better luck in interpreting Spidey villains to the screen than The Amazing Spider-Man duology, if still not on the level of Molina or Dafoe’s contributions. In the same way they turned a questionable concept like old man Adrian Toomes into a Michael Keaton showcase in Spider-Man: Homecoming, they could also reimagine the Lizard, and even Electro, into cooler characters that younger fans who never read the comics might actually care about this time. At the very least, they can give Lizzy his coat. And maybe just make him Dylan Baker’s Dr. Connors, who despite only appearing as a supporting character in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy, already had more gravitas and sympathy than whatever the hell The Amazing Spider-Man was up to.

If the Green Goblin can get a new look, so will hopefully the ones who are not remembered quite so fondly.

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thedeaditeslayer · 7 years ago

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Interview with Ash vs. Evil Dead writer Bryan Edward Hill.

I wrote my first article on NAQB with pain in my heart. After spending years hoping for a fourth installment of Evil Dead, three years ago the announcement of the Ash vs Evil Dead pilot directed by Sam Raimi, (that Sam Raimi) and written by Sam, Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy… the same authors of the Evil Dead Trilogy was made.

After I watched the trailer with my closest friend we thanked God, hoping that it was not a farce, or a revival made only for money. Then we saw the pilot, in silence, with our eyes wide open. At the end of it, we looked at each other and we both thought the same thing: Evil Dead is back in the best way possible.

During that episode we got so excited by the absurdness of it, the intense thrilling sequences, the over the top humor and that pure horror that kept us glued to the screen since we were kids.

Raimi’s direction explains the Evil Dead world so well in a particular scene featuring the character of Amanda Fisher. She faces off against the demon who possesses the girl Ash had a one night stand with.

At one point, this creature gets up when her brain is decimated and looks Amanda in the eyes telling her, “We know who you are.”

After that point, the rules are clear: Deadites are not decaying Zombies, every deadite requires attention and details. Deadites are not the result of a virus.

When evil shows up again, Ash Williams tries to run away from it because he’s tired of facing it. His neighbor Vivian delivers a message to him when she is possessed, “It is time to test the mettle of man.”

Yeah… These three years were a test for Ash to prove his mettle. The Dictionary defines mettle as the “courage to carry on.” If someone wants to “test your mettle,” they want to see if you have the heart to follow through when the going gets tough.

It is no coincidence that The Mettle of man is also the title of the last episode of Ash Vs Evil Dead.

Ash vs Evil Dead has been canceled. What leaves me bitter about this turn of events is the fact that this series was created to make the fans happy. Now, these same fans have also contributed to the end of the series.

The Mettle of Ash, The Mettle of Bruce Campbell, a man who in order to please his fans, decided to take the risk of revisiting his iconic character 30 plus years later.

If I meet Bruce Campbell one day, I hope I never mention anything about Ash’s universe, I’d rather go in the woods to talk about nature than to mention Evil Dead to him. As a fan, I feel guilty about asking him anything about Sam Raimi and the Necronomicon, because in the end he gave us what we wanted and we failed to respond in kind.

The following is an interview conducted a couple of days before the announcement of the cancellation of the series.

The interviewee is Bryan Edward Hill, screenwriter of the episode Rifting Apart, the eighth episode of the series directed by Mark Beesley (the director of 2×07: Delusion).

I consider this episode to be one of the best in the series, so I decided to contact Bryan on Twitter who was kind enough to answer my questions. There are no questions about the cancellation.

This interview was made in collaboration with Emanuele Crivello of Evil Dead Italia (I will never stop thanking him for the last three years we spent talking about this series and doing everything we could to get it renewed. Also, thank you to the #bringbackboomstick movement designed by Susan Leighton) and the comics portal Lo Spazio Bianco (which dedicated an article to Bryan Hill and his career in the world of comics) and you can read the second part on the blog at the end of the interview.

NAQB: We interviewed the Meza Brothers, and we have discovered that they are hardcore fans of Evil Dead. How much and how did you know the Evil Dead franchise before starting to work on this episode?

Bryan E. Hill: Quite a bit, actually. When I was a kid, EVIL DEAD was that hard to find, completely insane horror movie that only the local, family-owned video store had. Watching it felt like I was watching something that was impossible. It had so much energy and creativity. Instantly, I was a fan of the franchise. I even wore a blue shirt for a little while. Had to be like Ash.

NAQB: AVED has always had a respectable soundtrack, was the music chosen during the script writing process or later in production? And how were The Drifters, MC5s and AC / DCs chosen for Rifting Apart?

Bryan E. Hill: That’s all show-runner Mark Verheiden. He’s got great taste in music, and he knew what he wanted to highlight the moments in that story.

NAQB: The scene in which Pablo fights in the hardware store alone gave me a shiver down my spine making me think of the S-mart Ending of Army of Darkness. Is it possible to read a piece of the script, with your comment?

Bryan E. Hill: I’d love to, but we have to keep the scripts under wraps. I will say that part of the fun with ASH vs EVIL DEAD is figuring out how to slay deadites in the coolest ways. It’s impossible to go into a store with a paint shaker and not think about putting a deadite’s head in it. At least it is for me, hahaha.

NAQB: Rifting Apart is one of the very few episodes in which Ash’s chainsaw does not appear … and it works so well! Is it important not to repeat too much in writing an episode of the series?

Bryan E. Hill: In general, you don’t want the audience too far ahead of you. You want to do new things and sometimes that means not using all the old things, all the time. Ash is such a great character that he doesn’t need a weapon to make a story work. With this episode, we wanted to dig a little deeper into his character and show the heroism he has underneath all that personality. Bruce did such a great job in those moments. He’s incredible.

NAQB: Seeing the complete episode on screen, what is your favorite scene in Rifting Apart?

Bryan E. Hill: I’m a fan of Kelly. Dana is just an awesome person so seeing her refusing to buckle to the evil in the rift was a joy.

NAQB: And what is your favorite episode of Ash Vs Evil Dead?

Bryan E. Hill: Mine! Ha ha ha. Not too proud to say it.

NAQB: Working with Ivan Raimi must be exciting. How was the script of the episode written? And what are the indications provided to you in order to work?

Bryan E. Hill: Ivan created a LOT of the work that inspired me as a kid. Having him in the room was an amazing experience. For everything we were doing, he would tell us what was “Evil Dead” and what may have missed the mark. Having him there was invaluable. He’s just a humble, brilliant and great guy.

PART 2:

Between the writing of the episode and the actual realization, how many changes have occurred? Can you tell us some behind the scenes?

Not too many, and all of the changes made the episode better. In television, the show-runner guides everything after the other writers finish their scripts and Mark did the great work of refining every script, making them as effective as possible.

What changes between writing a comics story and writing an episode of a TV series that involves many more people in the making?

Any time you adapt a written work you have to make changes, just to fit the format of live action. Every choice you see in a film or a television show represents the work of at least 100 people, all trying to make it the best thing possible. You try to keep the spirit of the original work, but you have to adapt it to fit the new format.

You have very respectable career, which were the authors who made you understand that in life you wanted to become a screenwriter?

George Lucas and STAR WARS were huge influences on me. As far as straight authors go, I was inspired to be a writer from reading Hemingway. There’s an honest in his work that struck me like lightening.

Which educational path must we follow to become a screenwriter? Is it enough just the school or do you have to do something outside the box?

Well, in addition to studying English, History and those disciplines, you need to read and re-read screenplays. Analyze them and learn from their execution. For me, the work of Joseph Campbell and Stephen King helped form my approach to storytelling.

Where does a good idea for a subject come from?

It can come from anywhere. Dreams. Moments in life. Anything. The key is to follow that inspiration when it hits. If you think there’s a story inside of something, there likely is.

I read the first volumes of Postal. I was really impressed by the protagonist Mark with his Asperger syndrome and his “Everything it’s in the right place” (I can not stop thinking about the song of Radiohead every time that sentence is pronounced). In Italy there are many positive reviews of the volume (published in Italy by Panini Comics). How was working on the plot and what are the satisfactions that came with this publication?

That was really challenging because it’s a story about people, not superheroes. It pushed me to consider people from different perspectives and experiences and learn to write them with authenticity.

I also know that it was bought for a TV adaptation! (We also write a news of it months ago) Can you give us some updates (if you can)?

Nothing yet, but if people follow me on twitter @bryanedwardhill you’ll get updates as soon as I can share them!

If you had not been a screenwriter, what would you have done with your life now?

Batman. I would have been Batman.

What are your future projects? Where do we have to wait? TV or comics?

Currently I’m writing TITANS for DCTV, my DETECTIVE COMICS story starts with the first issue in June. I’m writing MICHAEL CRAY for DC as well, and a few other projects that I can’t announce at the moment. Should have a feature film announcement soon. Follow me on social media!

#Ash vs Evil Dead #Ash vs. Evil Dead #Starz #Bryan Edward Hill #Lionsgate

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years ago

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THE WEEKEND WARRIOR 4/2/21: GODZILLA VS. KONG, THE UNHOLY, OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL

I’m really not sure how I feel about doing the Weekend Warrior at quite the level I was doing last year. Even though the box office is slowly coming back, it’s still very frustrating to write about, and honestly, the Disney announcement last week about all the movies being delayed or dumped to Disney+ kinda brought me down. It just tells me that many studios are giving up on theatrical just as people have gotten so used to watching stuff at home, they don’t care about going out and being in rooms with other people, especially strangers. I guess I can understand that, but all the negativity that pervaded the narrative in 2020 is finally doing its damage as theaters reopen and some may have trouble even filling 25% capacity for some movies.

Then again, I’ve just come back from a weekend at the Oxford Film Festival, which became one of the first American film festivals to go in-person, although it is doing a bit of a hybrid in-person with virtual, so locals and a few out-of-of-towners (mainly me) were able to see all of this year’s great programming at one of the outdoor (and then indoor due to weather) venues. I was on the feature doc jury and got to see 11 terrific documentaries, some of which hopefully will get distribution and get out there, but why wait? While most of the movies are geoblocked to the United States (and some to Mississippi), there’s so much great programming to check out over the next month, and you can do so via OxFilm’s virtual cinema, which includes many great features and shorts. As far as the juries, I can highly recommend the Jury Prize winners, In a DIfferent Key, a fantastic film about autism directed by Caren Zucker & John Donvan, and the runner-up, Patrick O’Connor’s Look Away, Look Away, an amazing bi-partisan look at the fight to keep the Confederate-created flag of MIssissippi or change it, depending on your side of the fight. It’s a doc that really needs to be seen in other parts of the country. (Unfortunately, those are both geoblocked to Mississippi, as is Chelsea Christie’s Bleeding Audio, which tells the tragic story of the rise and fall of San Francisco’s The Matches and won for Music Documentary.) There are movies available everywhere in the United States though, and you can check out the full line-up of movies here.

Anyway, OxFilm gives me hope that there’s a future for theatrical moviegoing and as far as the box office, that hope comes in the form of the first holiday weekend since NYC and L.A. reopened as the Good Friday day off for most schools and Easter Monday that continues the vacation for others might persuade people to check out what’s happening in theaters, and fortunately, it’s a movie that’s so easy to market based on the fact that it has two of the biggest movie monsters facing off for the first time since 1963.

That’s right -- opening on Wednesday is the anticipated GODZILLA VS. KING KONG, starring… well, does it really matter who it stars other than Zilla and Kong? Probably not. The fourth movie in the Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Monsterverse takes the star of 2017’s Kong: Skull Island ($168 million at domestic box office) and pits him against the title character of 2014’s Godzilla ($200 million) and 2019’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters ($110.5 million). MInd you, I just include those domestic grosses for reference, because even if we take into account that scary dip from Godzilla and its direct sequel, it won’t really matter when you take into consideration a little thing called…. COVID! We’ve already seen movies gross more than $50 million since everything shutdown

I already reviewed this over at Below the Line, so I don’t have much more to say in that regard. It’s good if you like giant monster fights but isn’t much beyond its amazing monster battles, which is why I won’t even mention the actors that appear in it or any of the characters.

Godzilla vs. Kong is probably going to be the widest release since COVID hit with 2,600 theaters on Wednesday and then expanded to 3,000 on Friday when Regal reopens many (but not all) of its theaters. While I expect it to do fine on Weds and Thursday, making probably $4 or 5 million, it should really explode on Good Friday, which should allow it to make somewhere between $18 and 20 million over the three-day holiday weekend, so let’s say $25 to 26 million before Monday.

Also opening theatrically, this one on Friday is the Screen Gems horror movie THE UNHOLY from Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, the directorial debut by Evan Spiliotopoulos (writer of Disney’s mega-blockbuster Beauty and the Beast live action movie and the Rock’s Hercules ), who adapted the story from James Herbert’s novel “Shrine.” The movie stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan as disgrace journalist Gerry Fenn who is trying to get stories for a supernatural tabloid when he comes upon a deaf teenager named Alice (Cricket Brown) seemingly praying at an oak tree in a rural community in Massachusetts. When she seemingly gets her hearing back and is able to talk, word quickly spreads that she’s able to communicate with a benevolent Virgin Mary-like spirit that gives her the powers to heal. Since this is a horror movie, you can probably guess that things quickly get ugly and scary. THe movie also stars the wonderful Katie Aselton as a local doctor, who doesn’t do very many doctor-y things.

Before we get to my review -- and I’ll blame the review embargo on it for this week’s column being so late -- let’s talk about the movie’s box office potential, because religious horror-thrillers have quite a significant draw over a certain audience going straight back to the ‘70s with movies like The Exorcist and The Omen (the latter one of my all-time favorites) and The Unholy does dip into the toe of both of those. It’s been a long since there’s been one of those which might make this a draw for audiences into theaters, especially over Easter weekend -- that may be meant as irony -- but there’s also a little movie called Godzilla vs. Kong, which is just way more of a draw even with it being on HBO Max, but also because it’s likely to get better reviews. I’m not sure how many theaters Sony is getting this into, but I expect it’s somewhere around 2,000 or so, and that might be enough for the movie to make around $4 to 5 million this weekend, but probably VERY frontloaded to Friday.

Now let’s get to that review…

The Unholy begins with a flashback scene to “February 31, 1845” with a scene right out of the Salem Witch Trials of a woman being mutilated and strung up to a tree. This plays a very important role in a story that involves a fairly ludicrous premise that mostly involves Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character finding something called a Kern Baby, essentially a porcelain doll wrapped in chains that he decides to smash in order to create a fake supernatural story about how smashing the doll causes crops to fail. In fact, smashing it releases the spirit of the woman we saw in that opening scene possessing a deaf teen girl named Alice who starts to heal everyone in her rural community, while also releasing the evil that had that woman’s spirit bound into the doll in the first place.

There isn’t that much more to say about the plot to a stupid horror premise so full of religious hokum as more characters get involved with trying to figure out if Alice is actually healing people or not. This includes the benevolent local priest Father Hagan, played by William Sadler, and a Bishop (really) played by Cary Elwes, who is using such a bizarre accent, kind of like a cross between the Bronx and a heavy Irish brogue, that it’s impossible to take his character very seriously.

Just knowing what studio garbage Spiliotopoulos has written did not make me very hopeful for his directorial debut, which is just all over the place in terms of tone and pacing, dragging at times and then throwing the type of cheap jump scares and schlocky CG horror creatures at the viewer with very little of it actually being very scary. " (The creature version of "Mary" just looks silly.) Besides being highly derivative, ripping off almost every religious horror movie, both bad and good, some aspects of the movie are so laughably bad that it’s hard to take much of it seriously. Worst of all, it ends with just a really horrible climax that reverses any good will the movie might have created with the casual young horror fans that usually like this thing. Honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s another one of those unrare “F” CinemaScores we see whenever a studio horror film doesn’t bother matching up to the quality of something like The Witch or Hereditary. Horror fans definitely want more than the usual these days, and The Unholy just seems like a lazy waste of time.

A movie that I’ve been looking forward to seeing and just haven't had time to watch is Emma Seligman’s SHIVA BABY (Utopia) that stars Rachel Sennott as 20-something Danielle who runs into her sugar daddy (Danny Deferrari) at a shiva with his wife (Dianna Agron) and their baby, as well as her parents (Fred Melamed and Pollyw Draper) and Molly Gordon as Danielle’s ex-girlfriend. It’s actually playing at the newly reopened Quad Cinema, so who knows? Actually I did watch Shiva Baby and was kind of disappointed. It seemed very twee and precious, and Sennott's character seems like the type of spoiled Millennial white girl that I hate in indie movies like this. I also just didn't find it particularly funny. Oh, well.

Streaming Friday on Netflix is Ricky Staub’s CONCRETE COWBOY, starring Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin and Lorraine Toussiant with McLaughlin being a teenager who moves in with his estranged father (Elba) in North Philadelphia where he learns about his passion for urban horseback riding.

Opening in New York (at the Angelika and Village East) on Friday and in L.A.and other cities on April 9 is the Oscar-nominated International Feature THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN (Samuel Goldwyn Films), written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, and starring Yahya Mahyni, Dea Liane, Koen De Bouw and Monica Bellucci. Tunisia’s submission is the story of Sam Ali, a Syrian who leaves his country for Lebanon to escape the war with hopes of travelling to Europe to be with the love of his life. To fulfill that dream, he allows his back to be tattooed by a contemporary artist that actually brings more trouble to the poor young man.

Hulu will debut the doc WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (Hulu), which I still haven’t gotten around to watching but seems like an interesting subject for a doc.

A little closer to home at the still-closed Metrograph, they’re playing Claire Dennis’ 2004 film L’Intrus through April 8, and on Friday will open Sky Hopinka’s experimental debut maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Grasshopper Films) which follows Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier as they wander around the Pacific Northwest, mostly speaking in the Chinuk Wawa language. The latter is free to digital members ($5/month, $50 a year!) and $12 for non-members… pretty easy decision there, huh? Ms. Dennis’ film is also available to members.

Not only that, but New York’s Film Forum is also reopening this Friday with the double feature of Almodovar’s remastered Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and his new short The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton; the fantastic doc The Truffle Hunters; as well as his Fellini’s masterful Oscar winner La Strada (Janus Films, 1954), starring Anthony Queen and the wonderful Giulietta Masina! (That’s what I’ll be seeing this Sunday!) On top of that, Film Forum will continue its fantastic Virtual Cinema programming, which will launch Eric Roehmer’s A Tale of Winter (1992) this Friday with Roehmer’s A Tale of Summer (1996) joining the Virtual Cinema starting Friday April 9.

Got exciting news that Film at Lincoln Center will be reopening on April 16, but this week, they’ll be launching the latest edition of Neighboring Scenes, its annual series of Latin American films done in conjunction with Cinema Tropical. It’s 10 films that you can watch with an all-access pass for the low price of $80, and it usually has some good movies in the program.

A couple others out this week, including Funny Face and Every Breath You Take (Vertical), which I don’t even have time to look up what they’re about. Sorry!

That’s it for this week. Next week, Neil Burger’s sci-fi coming-of-age thriller, VOYAGERS, will hit theaters.

#the weekend warrior #godzillavskong #theunholy #movies #reviews #streaming #shivababy

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 7 years ago

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Spider-Man: Homecoming review

Spider-Man has not had the best luck in the past ten years. First came Spider-Man 3, which is a messy, corny, but still watchable movie. Then came The Amazing Spider-Man, which was a bland reboot that had a few good points but wasn’t too impressive. Then that movie was followed up by easily one of the worst superhero films ever made, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a trainwreck of a film that repeated and enhanced every flaw of the third Raimi film. As you can guess, people were concerned Homecoming would fuck up, even though this was a joint effort between Sony and Marvel. Considering some of Sony’s recent films, it’s understandable one might be worried their shitty decisions might affect this movie, especially when they handled Spidey poorly three films in a row.

So how did they do? REALLY FUCKING WELL. This is, hands down, the best Spider-Man movie yet made; sorry Spider-Man 2, you’ve been dethroned, if only by a slim margin. This movie manages to do almost everything right in rebooting someone who has already been rebooted once, and though it does have some issues here and there, for the most part this is one of the most enjoyable and fun superhero films in a while.

The story concerns Peter and his obsessive desire to be seen as worthy to Tony Stark, so that he can achieve his dream of being an Avenger. Things get complicated since he has to juggle school and superheroics, and now he’s finding out that street thugs are getting powerful alien weapons somehow, this ‘somehow’ coming in the form of a group of former city contractors displaced by Stark’s Damage Control business lead by the disgruntled Adrian Toomes, or as comic fans may know him, the Vulture. The big question is: can Peter balance his superhero and school life, defeat Vulture, and impress Stark all at once? Or is this one challenge not even Spider-Man can handle?

So first of all, let me just say Tom Holland is fantastic as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. He has the awkward adolescent dorkiness down pat, from his interactions with friends to how he asks out a girl. He’s not a full-on snarker as Spider-Man yet, but he does clearly have a sense of humor and does crack a few jokes, showing that given enough time and allowing to settle into his new role as a superhero, he’ll get to be the Spidey we all know and love. He really does better at combining the best of both worlds than Garfield or Maguire ever did, and he’s even closer to being the right age! The fact they explored his character in a different way than usual, by showing off his desire to be a better hero and wanting to be an Avenger, helps make this reboot feel better. While it does kind of suck Uncle Ben is only vaguely alluded to and his impact on Peter isn’t really made apparent by anything here, it’s honestly kind of nice to not see Uncle Ben capped for the fourth fucking time. It’s bad enough I’ve seen that happen to the Waynes three times, I don’t need to see a senior citizen get shot again. Hopefully Uncle Ben comes up in the sequel and maybe Peter can deal with that stuff at that point when he’s even more experienced as a hero, so for now, I can say what he’s dealing with in this film is a solid starting point.

The supporting cast is also, for the most part, enjoyable. A big stink was raised over Flash’s race lift and his being turned into a nerd, but you need to understand that Flash Thompson’s status as a jock bully is very much a product of the time the original comics came out; the whole “Jocks vs. Nerds” thing is so overplayed, and the idea a nerd would be bullied for being a nerd in this day and age where being a nerd is pretty socially acceptable is just kinda… weird. Their updating of him is fine, and he’s still shown to be the most athletic guy in his class. I guess the fact that Flash was never a character I really cared about is what made me so unbothered by this. Peter’s buddy Ned is hilarious, enjoyable, and a good pal, and is one of the better comedic well-meaning sidekicks in the MCU. I’d say he’s a few steps behind Luis from Ant-Man in terms of likability and hilarity, but he’s still high up there. The fact he tends to be more of a help than a hindrance is a plus, though there is the whole incident with the Chitauri grenade (though that wasn’t entirely his fault).

Really, the only flaw in the enjoyable cast of side characters is Zendaya’s Michelle, who is revealed at the end of the movie in a spoiler that was predicted months before the movie ever came out to go by “MJ.” It needs to be pointed out Kevin Feige has announced that she is NOT the MCU Mary Jane… though Michelle may fulfill the same role Mary Jane does eventually. I really, REALLY hope not, because in this movie Michelle only exists to appear in scenes and be incredibly rude and condescending to every single person around her. She’s as much a bully as Flash is, to be quite honest, and the thought of this condescending, overly-snarky bitch being the stand-in for one of comic’s greatest leading ladies is just… blech. Hopefully we get the REAL MJ down the line, but as it stands right now, Michelle is a fucking awful, rude, mean-spirited jackass.

While we’re on the subject of side characters though, let’s talk about Tony Stark, who many were concerned was going to hog screentime in the film due to his presence in all the trailers and him hogging space on posters. Well, let me say… all his scenes were basically shown in the trailers. He’s in the movie for maybe ten minutes of the two hours and ten minutes that this movie goes in. He’s responsible for the film’s villain (as is always the case with high-tech villains in the MCU) and he does contribute majorly to the plot, but his actual onscreen presence is minimal.

And now we get into the villains! Let’s talk about the more minor villains first, all of whom are a blast. First up, we have the two Shockers. That’s right, there are two; you see, the first is a dumbass who thinks it’s a good idea to start firing off alien weapons in public places to try and make sales, attracting unwanted attention, and then when he gets fired by Toomes decides it’s a good idea to threaten the man who regularly flies about in an alien jetpack contraption. He is promptly disintegrated by Toomes and replaced by Shocker #2, who is much smarter and manages to make this widely mocked supervillain somewhat cool, even giving him a solid fight scene. There’s also the Tinkerer, the Vulture’s scientist sidekick who makes all sorts of gear and gadgets; he’s not a huge presence in the film but he’s pretty good. Then we have Donald Glover in a few scenes as Aaron Davis, AKA the Prowler, who is not only legitimately funny and likable despite being a low level crook, but also alludes to Miles Morales existing in the MCU. Finally, we have Mac Gargan, who appears in two scenes but quickly cements his status as a psychopath and shows off just enough personality to hype you up for when he inevitably becomes Scorpion.

And now, the big one, the reason I went to see this, and the very best part of the movie: Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes. There’s gonna be some SPOILERS HERE, so you may want to tread carefully. Michael Keaton took one of the dorkiest, least impressive villains in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery and turned him into what can only be described as “high tech Walter White.” Toomes is relatively complex; he has a very good reason for turning to crime, not one that excuses his immoral actions but one that isn’t exactly unrelatable. He also has a very good personality, acting as a very good boss to all his men (aside from the one idiot Shocker), and even more impressively, he’s actually a wonderful husband and father… father to the girl Peter is crushing on, unbeknownst to Peter until he goes to take her to the titular homecoming dance. Yes, this is quite a twist, and it leads in to one of the best scenes in the movie, and in superhero cinema as a whole. As Toomes drives Peter and his daughter to homecoming, his daughter’s words mentioning how Peter never seems to be around when Spider-Man shows up combined with his own suspicions leads to him realizing JUST who Peter is. And the way they show this gives us a look at Keaton’s incredible talent; we see nothing but Keaton’s face as he comes to the realization, the knowledge of who the boy in the backseat is dawning in his eyes, and making a scene that was already beyond tense go beyond even that. It’s so incredible and intense, and easily the best scene in the movie. Keaton is an absolute stunning powerhouse… but can you really expect anything less from Batman himself? I knew going in he’d be my favorite part of the film, and he absolutely did not disappoint.

This movie is fantastic. It’s everything a superhero movie should be; it has a fantastic supporting cast, a kickass villain, and a likable lead. There’s still stuff that can improve, but this is leagues better than both other Spider-Man startup films, and has me excited where this series can go. The fact Toomes is alive at the end is especially exciting, as it means that Vulture may be turning up again, potentially as a member of the Sinister Six if they decide to go that route. This is easily one of the better films in the MCU, and a highly recommend it to anyone who likes superheroes or the MCU.

There’s gonna be a bit of a wait before another Spider-Main main series film, especially since he’s gonna have to help out in Infinity War first, but honestly, I’m not too worried. This gives them a good amount of time to work on making sure that Sony keeps their shitty handling of the character far away from the story. Speaking of which, I forgot to mention: that timeline snarl in the opening is fucking ridiculous. Come on, was it really that hard to just delete the eight? It would have solved every goddamn problem. I want to blame Sony for that, really, because that’s the kind of boneheaded shit they do. I wanted to end this on a more positive note, but just… fuck Sony. Seriously. Sony sucks.

Homecoming sure doesn’t, though.

#Review #Movie review #Spider-Man: Homecoming #Spider-Man #Homecoming #Spidey #MCU #Marvel #Sony #Marvel Cinematic Universe #Michael Keaton #Vulture #Tony Stark #Iron Man #superhero movie

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thelonesomequeen · 7 years ago

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Hamm at the Movies: Spider-Man: Homecoming

Greetings folks!! Hamm here with a review for “Spider-Man: Homecoming!” I will do my best to remain spoiler free, so if you’re ready, let’s do this!!

“Spider-Man: Homecoming”- It’s been 15 years since the first official “Spider-Man” film. Let that sink in. Let’s remember 2002 for a second: “Friends” and “ER” were still on NBC, although Anthony Edwards’ Dr. Greene I think had died by that point, so who was still watching “ER” after that anyway? “American Idol” finished its first season that year, which gave the world Kelly Clarkson…..but also gave us “From Justin to Kelly”, so the you take the good with the bad on that one I guess. “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones” were also released theatrically (if memory serves, Spider-Man beat them BOTH). Britney and Justin broke up (RIP), Christina Aguilera got “Dirrty” (and apparently didn’t spellcheck things), and folks were jamming out to Avril Lavigne, Creed, and Nickelback. Come to think it………….don’t dwell on 2002. You’ll regret a lot of it. But it did see the release of the Sam Raimi directed, Toby Maguire starring “Spider-Man.” The film was a critical and box office success, oozing fun, heartbreak, and the idea to keep on truckin’ in a time where it was sorely needed. Two sequels followed: “Spider-Man 2”, which was hailed as one of the best superhero films ever, and “Spider-Man 3,” which…………is a movie that exists. The less we say about it, the better. A fourth flick was planned, but quickly scrapped when Raimi was fired after he demanded more time to make the film he wanted after dealing with too much backlash after the much maligned SM3. A new series of films were planned and eventually released, with the “Amazing Spider-Man” films. Both were decent in their own right, riding on the chemistry between Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, but they both had a slight “meh” feeling to them in retrospect. They were trying to bank on the whole Chris Nolan inspired “ALL SUPERHERO FILMS MUST BE DARK, BROODING, AND SAD” thing (thanks Nolan….) and they didn’t work as well as we hoped. But, out of the ashes, a phoenix must rise, and with the failure of those films, Sony (who had purchased the film rights from Marvel AGES ago), with its tail between its legs, spoke with Marvel, about bringing the Webhead into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Marvel welcomed Spider-Man back with his inclusion in “Captain America: Civil War” (I don’t buy the “Iron Man 2” easter egg nonsense that was released last week, so this to me is his first MCU cameo). So, how does the Wallcrawler fare in his first actual MCU film? Well, I can delightfully report that his first outing into the MCU (in his own film) is nothing short of glorious and the perfect intro he needed into the universe.

Tom Holland stars at Peter Parker, the spunky 15 year old who has recently been bitten by a radioactive spider and gained superpowers. And while he would love to concentrate on crime fighting and impressing Tony Stark (RDJ) after his battle we saw in “Civil War,” Peter has to worry about other things like, say, high school. Joining him is his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), along with his classmates Michelle (Zendaya) and Liz (Laura Harrier). When it comes to this part of the cast, I LOVED IT. I believed their journey as they play off each other really well. Ned and Peter are hilarious together and that makes for many of the films humorous moments. I believed their friendship, just as I believed the interactions with Liz and Michelle as well. It was authentic and works in favor for the film. Things get rough for Spidey when he crosses paths with Adrian Toomes (a delightful Michael Keaton), otherwise known as the Vulture, a criminal with his own agenda that spidey naturally interferes with. He also has to keep things simple for Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), as she is prone to worry about her darling nephew. Tomei is a welcome surprise here, not that I doubted her, I was just curious what they’d do with May. She’s a good character and her looks are the handle for a few funny moments in the film. I really liked how this flick kept Parker in high school because, newsflash: Peter Parker is a KID. I think folks forget that since Toby and Andrew were much older (or at least looked it) and the films themselves couldn’t wait to get them into adulthood and into the real world. Peter’s journey into adulthood is a far off thought in the comics and wisely, in the film too. One of the key elements of Peter’s struggling is balancing his young adult world with his superhero abilities and we see that reflected here. We also get a really good villian with Adrian Toomes. He’s not a mad scientist, billionaire, genius, God, or out for revenge kind of guy that we have seen; he’s a blue collar worker, trying to support his family and having to resort to any means necessary to survive. He’s relatable and sympathetic to an extent that we haven’t seen in the MCU. I felt for him at times, but also had that feeling of how wrong he was too with what he was doing (think of Walter White in “Breaking Bad”). Keaton does a great job with it, bringing humanity to the character, but also anger and danger as well. Holland is pretty much the best version of Spider-Man we’ve had. He’s small, awkward, geeky, and a giant loser, just like Peter Parker. He’s invisible in a world where he’s also incredibly visible and he has to balance those worlds. Holland brings that charm to the role, being the resident wiseass as he’s taking out criminals and holding his own against the world. That was one thing I hated about the Raimi films: Spider-Man was fairly humorless. The “Amazing…” films had some of that in there, but here, Holland just nails it. He IS Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Also, we get Uncle Ben, who is played by……………actually, psyche!! No Uncle Ben. No “With Great Power” speech. No spider-bite scene. Nothing. It’s gone because WE DON’T NEED TO SEE/HEAR IT. WE KNOW IT ALREADY. We get an off handed comment that to me alluded to Uncle Ben, but we never see him. Although, I was SO hoping that we’d get a scan over a family photo of Peter, Ben, and May, and we’d see Joe Pesci as Uncle Ben cos that would be the best thing that Marvel could ever do, but sadly, no dice. But Marvel, if you’re reading this MAKE. IT. HAPPEN. You could even use a promo shot from “My Cousin Vinny” and have Peter make an off handed comment about how at least Ben blended in because of his cowboy boots. I will take it!!! But I digress.

The action scenes are fun and well executed. We’ve seen what he can do in other films and there isn’t much change to that in this film. The larger set pieces are enjoyable with Spider-Man facing off against various criminals, including a handful of exciting encounters with the Vulture. These are highlights of the film as Parker is still finding his legs and isn’t always successful in his attempts to thwart crime. But what carried the film for me is how the story itself is executed. It has its large set pieces, of course, but it feels personal. As much as I enjoy the Marvel movies, they do get bigger and bigger and sometimes you can lose yourself in there, but here with SM:H, it never feels out of reach and you are constantly with Parker every step of the way. It really is in that “Neighborhood” where that Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has to fight crime. I definitely feel like this is Marvel’s doing as they KNOW HOW TO HANDLE THE CHARACTER, unlike Sony who wanted to spent 48% of ASM2 laying easter eggs, dealing with too many subplots, and building up the universe. No. Create a strong narrative and people will see the film and THEN worry about the future. Marvel understands what makes the character reasonate and that’s why this film works. As I mentioned above, we don’t have the “Great power” speech here, which works because Peter learns very quickly and his actions, whether good/bad/accidental, have consequences, that being a hero means using your brawn, but also your brains and learning from your mistakes. In fact, let me get really nerdy here. The Ultimate Spider-Man comic series (which is the best incarnation of the character to me- seriously, it’s 160 issues or so of pure Spidey heaven), released the second trade paperback in 2002. It encompassed issues 8-13 and it was titled “Learning Curve.” And I can’t specifically put my finger on it, but I feel like those issues (and probably that entire run) were studied for this flick as it shows how Peter has to adapt and work within the confines of his world and the powers he possesses. It’s a smart way to bring him into the MCU, to give him his own story, and to have Peter try to show his worth and hold his own against Tony Stark, Hulk, Cap, and the rest of the Avengers.

Overall, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is a enjoyable film that serves as the perfect intro for Spidey into the MCU world. It’s fun, fresh, delivers the action, and has great performances to boot. Also, be sure to stay for two credit scenes, the last one being nothing short of hilarious. Welcome back to Marvel, Webhead. It’s been far too long…but quit being a menace! HE’S A MENACE! Rating- ***½ out of ****

#hamm at the movies #hamm #tom Holland #zen data

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thezachrogers · 7 years ago

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SUMMER MOVIE RECAP

I know, I know; It’s been over two months since I have written anything and I am sorry! There are PLENTY OF MOVIES to go over. Half of this will be a rent list and half will be a theater list. This will be a different kind of post, it will be a “See or not to see” list. So, here we go.

IN THEATERS NOW:

Spider-Man: Homecoming PG-13 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, 8.1/10 on IMDB

SEE THIS MOVIE IN IMAX!!!

Holy cow guys, what a great movie. Rotten Tomatoes is ranking it in the top 5 comic book film list ever. Tying with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, Fellow MCUer and the film that started the MCU 2008′s Iron Man, and Logan. This has definitely been the year of comic book films with five already released and one more on the way.

My wife and I saw this movie in IMAX and it did not disappoint. This is the first Spider-Man film I’ve actually liked in 13 years since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. The prologue of this film picks up following the events of 2012′s Avengers with a New York clean up crew led by Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) cleaning up the mess the Chitauri Army, Loki, and the Avengers left. Another time jump to Peter Parker filming on a go pro the events that took place during Captain America: Civil War in 2020. Then another time jump two months later to where this story takes place.

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is a sophomore in High School and is considered a loser nerd. Nope there is no Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborne, or J, Jonah Jameson in this version folks. This takes us back to the basics. Peter is just trying to navigate how to be a teenager and have powers. Interestingly enough, this is the first cinematic Spider-Man without an origin story, AND IT WORKED!

Yes, Hot Aunt May is the best part of the movie. Marisa Tomei stole the whole movie. I think she should get her own spinoff. She is a great mother figure to Peter. And Tony Stark (RDJ) cannot get over how unbelievably attractive she is.

The entire cast top to bottom, Holland, Tomei, Michael freaking Keaton, WOW WOW WOW; Jon Favreau, Zendaya, everyone is fantastic in this new take on Spider-Man.

Go see this movie in theaters. Excited for what we are going to see from the new Spider-Man, Mr. Tom Holland!

Wonder Woman PG-13 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.9/10 on IMDB

More babes.

Gal Gadot is the fox of all foxiness. She is also incredibly elegant, witty, and stands for unity and love in DCEU’s take on Wonder Woman.

She didn’t come to a fresh start in Batman v Superman. One of the worst comic book films of all time, the script was so bad they only gave her three lines of dialogue. She was the only thing that makes the film watchable because she stole the entire movie. With Zack Snyder at the helm of the DCEU, the Wonder Woman film was not so promising with three out of three bad movies already on the slate.

This film was shockingly good. All the characters were great. Chris Pine was amazing, Danny Huston was a great villain, and the reveal plot/twist of the main villain was also great. This movie was full of action, great visuals, stunts, and humor!

This movie was not full PC (politically correct) and try to push feminist agendas which I liked. It portrayed women as loving, caring, smart, and charming, but can be badasses and not over sexualized.

GO SEE THIS MOVIE BEFORE IT LEAVES THEATERS!!!

Despicable Me 3 PG 61% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.4/10 on Rotten Tomatoes

Universal looooooves milking their franchises. Mummy, Fast and Furious, Despicable Me, Jurassic...the list keeps on going.

Gru and the Minions are back for the 4th time in seven years to take on another evil villain who thinks he is badder than Gru, IMAGINE THAT!

Yes, it has its humor, yes its a great movie for kids, but unless you have kids, there is no reason to go to the theater to see this. Save your money for Dunkirk or Planet of the Apes.

If you love these movies, wait for rental, it will be out in September.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales PG-13, 29% on Rotten, 7.0 on IMDB.

Unfortunately in today’s cinema culture, if you do not have a good score on Rotten Tomatoes 24 hours prior to release, you’re not going to do well in the box office. Sad day for the swashbuckler franchise.

I honestly thought it was one of the stronger movies in the franchise. It was a whole lot better than the third and fourth installments. Unfortunately it did not do well enough to include a sixth installment, so it is looking like this is the final adventure for Captain Jack Sparrow.

I liked it, but didn't love it. What this film did was make my love for the first two films grow and appreciate the characters a lot more. I don’t care what anyone says, Geoffrey Rush is part of the heart and soul of this franchise, His character in this final installment makes him one of the most lovable anti-heroes (or villains) ever. Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann make their return and they get the ending we were all hoping for. Javier Bardem is 100x better than Bill Nighy’s awful CGI filled Davy Jones character. Due to the technology, this is the best film of the franchise as far as visuals go. With the new characters they could have easily renamed the film Pirates: The New Generation.

This movie honestly needed a lot less Johnny Depp. It was overacted and too much. I like him less and less every film.

This will be a great movie for rentals, probably your best renter this year. It is still in limited theaters, but don’t go out of your way to find it. It will be out on digital 9/19.

The Fate of the Furious PG-13 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.9/10 on IMDB

Guilty pleasure.

I hate to love these movies, but I do. We watched on Exodus KODI on digital and I was surprised at how good it was and how they can keep the plot going. I would rank it as third best in the franchise next to the original film and Dwayne Johnson’s debut in the franchise: Fast Five.

Following this film there will be a F9 and F10, as well as Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham getting their own spinoff from the franchise after studio altercations between Johnson and Diesel. Vin, we know you are Dom Toretto, but clearly you cannot smell what the Rock is cooking...step off.

Great renter, I wish we would have seen in theaters, but it will not disappoint in your living room.

Gold 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.7/10 on IMDB

It’s strange. Matthew McConaughey is one of my all time favorite actors, but since Interstellar in 2014, all he has done is crap movies. Makes me hesitant to go see The Dark Tower next month. I honestly think he believes changing his appearance and weight will win him Oscars and Emmys. I mean he did it for Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective, it will work again right?

No Matthew, it won’t.

If you want to completely waste your time, watch this movie. One of his worst films to date. Now on DVD and Digital.

Saban’s (Mighty Morphin reboot) Power Rangers 45% RT, 6.2 IMDB

It just keeps getting worse and worse people.

If you’re a 90s kid, you loved the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, if you go back and watch the nostalgic 3 season series on Netflix its so campy for its time. Its as bad as the 60s Batman series, but yes I understand it was made for kids, as this film probably was too. Its not made for grown ups who watched the series as a child, if that was their goal, they did a terrible job. Its such a campy 2017 movie. The CGI is not even that good and you can tell it was done a tight budget. Looked like a TV movie.

Sorry 22-30 year olds, but let the nostalgia on this one stay nostalgia and don’t see this movie. (Don’t worry the sequel wasn’t greenlit). Now on DVD and digital.

A Dog’s Purpose 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.7/10 on IMDB

All dogs don’t go to Heaven apparently. Nope, they get reincarnated into other dogs’ bodies. Yes people, yes that is the plot of this film, told from a reincarnated dog’s perspective who remembers all of his lives. What a retarded concept for a movie. My wife was watching at home and I caught the last hour.

It might be the stupidest movie I have ever wasted precious life on. No one should see this movie, I am not even going to let you know of it’s availability for rental because I would do a disservice to you.

Well that’s a rap peeps! Next review will be on Nolan’s Dunkirk dropping next weekend!

Thanks for reading!

#spiderman #spider-man: homecoming #iron man #marvel #wonder woman #f8 #fast 8 #the fate of the furious #pirates of the caribbean #pirates 5 #potc #dead men tell no tales #despicable me 3 #minions #aunt may

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago

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Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: February 21, 2019

4 NEW TO NETFLIX

"The 40-Year-Old Virgin" "Little Women" "We the Animals" "Zodiac"

8 NEW TO BLU-RAY/DVD

"Audition"

There's a moment in Takashi Miike's masterful "Audition" that is forever burned in my mind. I remember it so vividly for two reasons. One, what it reveals is so stunningly terrifying that it's a jump scare that honestly earns its jump. Two, it's a beautiful example of Miike's visual ability, framing Asami in the center and what will then steal our focus in the background. "Audition" is one of Miike's best films, a movie that almost seems ahead of its time now in its dissection of the way in which a widower underestimates a young woman that he meets. Arrow, who have two in this week's column, opening and closing it, have restored Miike's great film and included a new commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes, and a brand-new interview with film's hardest-working director.

Buy it here

Special Features Brand new 2K restoration of original vault elements Original 5.1 Dolby Surround Audio Optional English subtitles Audio commentary with director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan Brand new commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes examining the film and its source novel Introduction by Miike Ties that Bind – A brand new interview with Takashi Miike Interviews with stars Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi Damaged Romance: An appreciation by Japanese cinema historian Tony Rayns Trailers Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin

"Berlin Alexanderplatz" (Criterion)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder made more films than he had years on this Earth. One can only imagine what he would have produced if he hadn't died so young, especially when one considers the breadth of genres and cinematic styles in the films he did produce. Fassbinder is an interesting filmmaker in that he's still relatively unknown to a lot of young movie lovers, especially in comparison to other German New Wave masters like Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders, but he's absolutely beloved by those who do know his work. His monumental achievement, the 15-hour mini-series based on the world-famous 1929 novel of the same name, has now been given the Criterion Blu-ray treatment. It may not get the same attention as their Ingmar Bergman set, but this is an essential release, the most ambitious work by one of film's most ambitious filmmakers.

Buy it here

Special Features High-definition digital restoration by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation and Bavaria Media, supervised and approved by director of photography Xaver Schwarzenberger, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack Two documentaries by Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation president Juliane Lorenz: one from 2007 featuring interviews with the cast and crew, the other from 2006 on the restoration Hans-Dieter Hartl’s 1980 documentary Notes on the Making of “Berlin Alexanderplatz” Phil Jutzi’s 1931 feature-length film of Alfred Döblin’s novel, from a screenplay cowritten by Döblin himself Interview from 2007 with Peter Jelavich, author of “Berlin Alexanderplatz”: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture PLUS: A book featuring an essay by filmmaker Tom Tykwer, reflections on the novel by Fassbinder and author Thomas Steinfeld, and an interview with Schwarzenberger

"Bohemian Rhapsody"

What more is there to say about the massively successful and critically controversial film that was kind of directed by Bryan Singer and will almost certainly win Rami Malek an Oscar on Sunday? The divide between critics and audiences on this one has been fascinating to watch. Most critics agree this is superficial, paint-by-numbers filmmaking. Most fans of Queen don't seem to care. For them, their love of the music transcends any sort of filmmaking flaws. It's fascinating to consider how this movie works that way. It can revise history and superficially consider Freddie Mercury, but it gets at what people like about Queen: The Music. My concern is that the massive success of "Bohemian Rhapsody" will almost certainly lead to more music movies like it: films that know that as long as they present an artist's greatest hits, then viewers won't care if they don't learn a single thing about the actual artist.

Buy it here

Special Features The Complete Live Aid Movie Performance Not Seen in Theaters Rami Malek: Becoming Freddie The Look and Sound of Queen Recreating Live Aid

"Death in Venice" (Criterion)

Luchino Visconti's most personal film is the fourth of the Italian filmmaker's inducted into the Criterion collection (after "Senso," "Le notti bianche," and "The Leopard"). When classic films are released by Criterion, it can be interesting to go back and look at a young Roger Ebert's writing about the film being released. In 1971, Ebert, then in his late twenties, was disappointed in "Death in Venice," and I have to say my response to the film now on Criterion is somewhat similar. Ebert's disappointment comes from how he felt Visconti altered the source material, a Thomas Mann novel that Ebert clearly loved. He argued that Visconti lost the "philosophical content" of the film, buried in "heavy-handed flashbacks." Interestingly, he still admires Visconti's work enough to give it 2.5 stars.

Buy it here

Special Features New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Luchino Visconti: Life as in a Novel, a 2008 documentary about the director, featuring Visconti; actors Burt Lancaster, Silvana Mangano, and Marcello Mastroianni; filmmakers Francesco Rosi and Franco Zeffirelli; and others Alla ricerca di Tadzio, a 1970 short film by Visconti about his efforts to cast the role of Tadzio New program featuring literature and cinema scholar Stefano Albertini Interview from 2006 with costume designer Piero Tosi Excerpt from a 1990 program about the music in Visconti’s films, featuring Bogarde and actor Marisa Berenson Interview with Visconti from 1971 Visconti’s Venice, a short 1970 behind-the-scenes documentary featuring Visconti and Bogarde Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Dennis Lim

"La Verite" (Criterion)

I absolutely adore Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Diabolique" and "The Wages of Fear," and so I was eager to watch a courtroom thriller from the masterful filmmaker for the first time. And starring Brigitte Bardot? Sign me up. The truth is that "La Verite" is minor for both Clouzot and Bardot, a sometimes-fascinating but often dramatically flat story of a woman named Dominique who has basically been misunderstood by everyone around her. Dominique is gorgeous, and Clouzot certainly knew how to use Bardot's sexuality, but most people in her life refuse to look below the beauty and judge her morally for just being herself. Despite my issues with some of the pacing of the film, it's undeniably well-constructed and an interesting chapter in Bardot's career, especially with the controversy surrounding its release when Bardot attempted suicide.

Buy it here

Special Features New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Le scandale Clouzot, a sixty-minute documentary from 2017 on director Henri-Georges Clouzot Interview from 1960 with Clouzot Interview with actor Brigitte Bardot from the 1982 documentary Brigitte Bardot telle qu’elle New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau

"Overlord"

Gritty and gory, "Overlord" may be the most video game-esque movie of 2018, a title that reminded this gamer of the "Resident Evil" and "Wolfenstein" franchises. So why isn't it more fun? I moderately enjoyed "Overlord" enough to include it in this week's column, especially if you need a break from Oscar bait and Criterion titles, but I'd be lying if I didn't wish it was a little more goofy. I wanted more early Peter Jackson or Sam Raimi, filmmakers who leaned into the ridiculousness of their concepts and elevated their films with ingenuity and wit. Those elements are lacking in "Overlord," a film that takes itself too seriously for a movie about Nazi zombies. Having said that, the best thing about "Overlord" may be how much I expect and hope that Wyatt Russell and Jovan Adepo are going to be stars. I also have to say that the sound mix on this Blu-ray is INSANE. All of the effects are turned up to 11, leading to the first movie in recent memory that my wife had to ask me to turn down. Of course, movies about Nazi zombies should be loud.

Buy it here

Special Features The Horrors of War - Featurettes Creation Death Above Death on the Ground Death Below Death No More Brothers in Arms

"A Star is Born"

Remember when it looked like "A Star is Born" was going to race through awards season like a wildfire? It didn't quite happen although one has to wonder if that's not a good thing for the movie's legacy. Bradley Cooper's very entertaining directorial debut still has legions of loyal fans who don't care if it ever won any awards. To be as cheesy as this movie can be, it won their hearts. The most disappointing thing is actually that this is such a lackluster Blu-ray in terms of special features, including some extended musical numbers and music videos, but not much else. Maybe there will be a special edition after it wins Best Picture. Yes, it's still possible.

Buy it here

Special Features Jam Sessions and Rarities "Baby What You Want Me To Do" "Midnight Special" "Is That Alright" The Road to Stardom: Making A Star is Born Music Videos "Shallow" "Always Remember Us This Way" "Look What I Found" "I'll Never Love Again" Optional English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles for the main feature

"Waterworld"

God bless Arrow. God bless any company willing to devote so much time and effort to really provide something special to their customers, which is exactly what Arrow does with special editions like this insane, 3-disc package for a movie that time has generally forgotten. I'm old enough to remember when "Waterworld" was going to be the next big thing, the new franchise to end all franchises. It cost a fortune, starred an Oscar-winning household name, and featured a brave new vision. And then it came out. But this isn't about the actual movie "Waterworld" as much as this phenomenal release, which includes the theatrical cut, a 40-minute longer cut that aired on TV, and then an even-longer "Ulysses" cut which basically blends the first two so you get the longer version without the TV edits. And all of them look incredible, remastered in HD that makes the blue water pop. Not enough? There's also a feature-length documentary about the movie. God bless Arrow.

Buy it here

Special Features Three cuts of the film newly restored from original film elements by Arrow Films Original 5.1 DTSHD Master Audio and 2.0 stereo audio options Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Six collector’s postcards Double-sided fold-out poster Limited edition 60-page perfect bound book featuring new writing on the film by David J. Moore and Daniel Griffith, and archival articles Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper Maelstrom: The Odyssey of Waterworld, an all-new, feature-length making-of documentary including extensive cast and crew interviews and behind the scenes footage Dances With Waves, an original archival featurette capturing the film’s production Global Warnings, film critic Glenn Kenny explores the subgenre of ecologically themed end-of-the-world films Production and promotional stills gallery Visual effects stills gallery Original trailers and TV spots

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myhahnestopinion · 7 years ago

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Marvel Ranked: Part 4 (11-1)

This is it! Following Thursday preview showings, Spider-Man: Homecoming officially swings into theaters today. So, it is also time for my good friend Jacob Lacy and I to reveal the fourth and final installment of our collaborative blog series ranking all of Marvel’s big-screen adaptations.

Over the course of this series, we have looked at a lot of films, from some hellish, incoherent messes, to some flawed-but-charming films, to some good, but not quite great movies. You can read our thoughts on those here:

Part 1 (44-34): https://tmblr.co/Zfi-mh2NRL3Hr

Part 2 (33-23): https://tmblr.co/ZAYA9k2NU0mWw

Part 3 (22-12): https://tmblr.co/Zfi-mh2NWISwH

Today, our ranking comes to an end, as we look at the absolute best films Marvel has to offer:

11. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

“Charles, we need you to hope again.”

Aaron: Deftly adapting one of their most iconic comic book storylines, X-Men: Days of Future Past is a wonderful celebration of the team’s venerable history, both in print and on the big screen. Both the original and prequel films were brimming with talented actors, so bringing these two casts together is like cinematic bliss. Between the time-travel shenanigans, the first on-screen appearance of classic comic book villains The Sentinels, and loads of visually arresting super-powered action, the film offers plenty of fan-service to compliment the continued character development from the last entry. Best of all, the film engages in one of the most ubiquitous elements of comics: the retcon, allowing us to finally forget all about the disastrous franchise entries found near the bottom of this list.

Jacob: Before Logan came along, this was definitely my favorite entry into the X-Men franchise, and this was mostly due to it involving one of my favorite pieces of sci-fi: time travel. As everyone probably already knows by this point, they handle this sometimes quite tricky piece of storytelling with grace. And by grace I mean wielding it wildly like Wolverine’s claws to slice away any trace of everything that sucked from past entries, and surprisingly it worked. Nearly everything works here, from the great performances (sometimes from two different people playing the same character), to the intensely thrilling action set pieces both from the past and future. And I honestly can’t believe we haven’t mentioned it yet, but the “Time In A Bottle” scene is so good I could watch it on repeat for days.

10. SPIDER-MAN

“Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.”

Jacob: We’ve finally broken the top ten, and what better way is there to do that than with one of the films that helped the superhero genre break into the mainstream consciousness? It’s a tough call between this and Spider-Man 2, but I think this might personally be my favorite outing for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Though Holland takes the cake on being the best Peter Parker, you can’t deny how natural Toby Maguire seems in the role. Raimi’s direction here is also a huge plus, and who isn’t still a little haunted by Willem Dafoe’s take on the classic Green Goblin…I know I am.

Aaron: I think the reasons a lot of people dismiss the Toby Maguire films are the same reasons I love them so much: they’re unapologetically campy and good-natured. Raimi and Maguire’s interpretation of the character truly is a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, the closest any modern superhero has come to evoking the spirit of Adam West’s Batman. There’s just so much heart and soul in this film, differentiating it from a lot of other superhero movies. The presentation of the origin story feels ripped right from the original comic book pages, and the cast is phenomenal (Yes, I too am still a little haunted by Willem Dafoe in this film…). While I loved Holland in Civil War, it is going to be tough to top this version of the character for me.

9. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

“Mutant and proud.”

Aaron: While Bryan Singer deserves a lot of credit for proving the X-Men could work on the big screen, director Matthew Vaughn provided the best handle on character balance, comic-book aesthetic, and representing the enduring appeal of the X-Men franchise that the film series has ever had. While it was hard to imagine more perfect casting for Professor X and Magneto than the original films offered, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are two acting powerhouses, crafting an involving, nuanced, and emotionally resonant dynamic between the characters. While their relationship is the highlight of the film, the supporting cast is all given time to shine as well, including a fun training montage that fully captures the spirit of the original teen-centric comics. There is a bit of wonky prequel nonsense to deal with, but it gives rise to a delightful revisionist history of the Cuban Missile Crisis that imbues the film with some groovy spy thrills, making First Class a highlight of the lengthy franchise.

Jacob: As far as wonky prequel stuff goes; this is by far the easiest film to forgive that I can think of (especially because Xavier doesn’t mention something about hating sand while on the Cuban beach). Much like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, First Class focuses a lot on smaller character moments, whether they be between Xavier, Erik, and Raven, or any other number of X-Men in this movie. Everyone here feels like they have a purpose, and unlike in Apocalypse, they are all given something to do that only they could do. It should be a no-brainer, but too few X-Men movies ever really reach the pinnacle of enjoyable teamwork action that this one does. And of course I can’t neglect to mention that Fassbender and McAvoy fill the shoes of their characters nearly perfectly. If only all X-Men movies could be this stylish and great.

8. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

“I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from.”

Jacob: Believe it or not, this was the first MCU movie that got me interested in the universe Marvel was building. I didn’t know much going into this film, and I think that’s what has kept it so high in my mind to this day. I had no frame of reference for the story of Steve Rogers, so his trials and tribulations throughout the film were all surprises to me. This is no more obvious than when Steve loses Bucky (although now I wish we could just lose the character for good). Chris Evans’ performance is so on point for this character and he elevates this movie higher than it could ever reach on its own. Besides, I don’t think anyone could ever forget the scene where Cap’n emerges in the present. So freaking good.

Aaron: I definitely came at this film from a completely different perspective, considering that Captain America has long been my favorite superhero of all time. This made me very nervous in the lead-up to the film’s release, worried that they wouldn’t do the hero justice, but luckily the film was everything I ever wanted. Chris Evans really embodies the spirit of the hero, bolstered by the excellent screenplay that understands the selfless, kind-hearted, truly heroic nature of the character. It also features Marvel’s most convincing and involving romance with Cap and Haley Atwell’s Peggy Carter, who would go on to receive a fantastic television show all her own. This thrilling, inspiring film, which started the MCU’s best franchise, was all the affirmation I needed that Captain America is Marvel’s greatest hero.

7. LOGAN

“Logan, you still have time.”

Aaron: Like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Logan is a very recent entry for this list, but the significance of its revolutionary approach to comic book adaptations can already be observed. Evoking classic Western films, such as 1953’s Shane, far more than its special-effects driven counterparts, Logan presents a thematically rich and emotionally poignant send-off for Hugh Jackman’s career-defining role as Wolverine. Despite being more character focused that typical superhero films though, the movie doesn’t skimp on action, instead finally delivering on the gleefully gory R-rated Wolverine action that fans have been longing for. Logan exhibits passion, completeness, and risk-taking that is not often seen in superhero movies, making it a clearly superior entry of the genre. Its impact will surely resonate for years to come.

Jacob: The thing that really sets Logan apart for me is the obvious love the entire cast and crew has for the character and the world they have built around him. It’s evident in the superb writing, the eye-catchingly gorgeous cinematography (this is probably the best looking superhero film yet), and it’s especially evident in the Oscar-worthy (yeah, I said it) performance from its lead. There was so much care put into this film and you can feel it seeping out of every frame. With a lack of obligation to nearly any other X-Men outing, Logan is able to take risks and be bold, loud, and violent without losing the tenderness that lies underneath. It’s hard to deny that Logan will be considered one of the most influential comic book films of all time, and all it takes is one viewing to see why that is.

6. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

“Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?”

Jacob: This is without a doubt the film that I have struggled the most with on this list. There is so much I love in it, but no matter what I always feel like something is missing. Evans delivers yet another great turn as the star-spangled shield thrower, and the action here is some of the best that the MCU has to offer. The elevator scene is one of the most intensely thrilling things to come out of a Marvel movie yet, and while I might dislike Bucky more than the general movie goer, I can’t deny the power that lies in he and Steve’s friendship. While I can’t personally see this as the greatest Marvel film yet, there is no denying that it deserves a place among the greats.

Aaron: Even at number 6, this film is far too low! This is personally my favorite Marvel movie, so Lacy’s indifference to it irks me more than any of our other film disagreements. Again, though, we’re coming from very different perspectives, as Captain America is my favorite hero. Winter Soldier’s tightly-plotted, political-thriller influenced tale, rounded-out by lots of impressively choreographed, refreshingly grounded action scenes, is the MCU’s most captivating movie to me. Unlike many MCU sequels, it also does an excellent job of continuing the plot threads and character developments of its predecessor, resulting in a rousing emotional finale. There’s Anthony Mackie’s Falcon, timely political material, and once again a truly inspiring portrayal of the hero, all adding up to make Winter Soldier an absolute masterpiece. Man, how can anyone not fully love this movie?

5. CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

“He’s my friend.”

“So was I”

Aaron: Back when the Civil War comics came out in 2007, it seemed impossible that their massive scale could ever be properly adapted in movie form, and yet, after 8 years of unbridled success for the MCU, Marvel finally managed it. While, true, it features far less characters than the line-wide comic, it does unite almost all of the all-star cast that the Universe has amassed thus far, including fantastic newcomers Black Panther and Spider-Man, into an imposing airport brawl set-piece, probably the most exhilarating superhero action scene ever put on film. Among all the large-scale action though, the film keeps its focus on the character dynamics that have been building throughout all the MCU films thus far, resulting in a riveting, emotional finale. Between the dynamic action, talented cast, deft exploration of timely themes, and embrace of the scale now afforded to the MCU, I guess it’s okay that Captain America himself gets a bit lost in the shuffle.

Jacob: Captain America: Civil War? More like Avengers: Civil War, am I right? In all seriousness though, this movie continues the tradition started in Ant-Man and makes this entire MCU feel like a living, breathing, world. On top of just being an exhilarating scene, the airport brawl is perhaps the most ambitious superhero action yet. Everyone gets a little something amazing to do, even if Rudd’s Ant-Man steals the show in the end. As a whole though, this film works so well because it acknowledges that we all know no one will die in this war, so it places its stakes on relationships between its characters instead. Bridges are burned here and relationships are broken, and the picture acknowledges that sometimes that can hurt more than death. It’s realizations like this that make the final fight so heartbreaking to watch…even if it is awesome.

4. SPIDER-MAN 2

“Intelligence is not a privilege, it’s a gift. And you use it for the good of mankind.”

Jacob: Alfred Molina’s Dr. Octavius is by far the best villain we’ve seen in a superhero film. His performance is nuanced and his character conflicted. It is absurd how good he is in this role. I just wanted to get that out of the way first, because it’s pretty much irrefutable and all the while baffling that no other Marvel film has come close to matching this level of writing even thirteen years later. Other than that though, I find this movie rests in just the “it’s good” segment of Marvel films. We get more Maguire and Franco, but I just never felt that the film as a whole ever outpaced the original. And what was the deal with that “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” scene? Not as bad as emo-glam Peter Parker…but close.

Aaron: Once again, I had to fight to get this masterpiece a higher place on this list, and, yes, personally I’d place it higher still. Spider-Man 2 is everything a sequel should be, building on the character dynamics and themes of the first film, featuring bigger and bolder action scenes, and not losing sight of being a satisfying, emotionally-involving film in its own right. Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock truly is the best villain of any superhero film ever, and that train fight still ranks as one of the best superhero action scenes. Once again, what I really love about the Raimi film is their campy, good-hearted nature, from that endearing pizza delivery scene, to the Bruce Campbell theater scene, to, yes, even the “Raindrops Keep Falling” scene. Especially that scene! To me, this film surpasses the already great original in every way, and still stands as the best cinematic version of the web-slinger yet.

3. IRON MAN

“It's got a nice ring to it. I mean it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold titanium alloy.”

Aaron: Half this list wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the all-out success of the original Iron Man film. Transforming a B-list superhero into a multi-billion dollar franchise all his own, thanks mostly to Robert Downey Jr.’s perfectly charismatic, lovably loathable performance as Tony Stark, Iron Man is a funny, exciting, and brisk superhero origin story. Bolstered by a solid supporting cast (His villain may be underdeveloped, but I love Jeff Bridges in this movie), a stimulating score by Ramin Djawadi, and high-octane action featuring a just plain visually-awesome suit, the film is an absolute joy ride. While it can feel a bit quaint now considering all the things that would follow, Iron Man’s standalone superhero thrills and significance as the foundation of the MCU still mark it as one of the best superhero films ever made.

Jacob: While I often claim that something isn’t better just because it was the first, it’s easy to make an exception for Iron Man. I wasn’t expecting much at all from this movie when I had first seen it, so imagine my surprise when I was thrilled by it. It really did start the MCU out on the right foot, due to everything in this movie being so much fun. Robert Downey Jr. steps into his role as Tony Stark and becomes him in his excellent performance. The chemistry between RDJ and Gwyneth Paltrow is some of the most believable in a comic book movie, and its introductory material into the larger world of the MCU is handled so well that it actually has some subtlety to it. Sure, Iron Man isn’t any better because it was the first, but you can’t deny the impact it has had, not only on comic book films, but on film as a whole.

2. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

“Happy? We're all standing now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle.”

Jacob: Guardians of the Galaxy is far and away my favorite Marvel film of all time. It really was the perfect storm of filmmaking. Chris Pratt emerges as the fantastic leading man we all knew he could be, James Gunn wrote one of the funniest and most compelling screenplays Marvel has had yet, and the soundtrack is one of the best to ever be put to film. I’ve often stated that the world and characters of Guardians of the Galaxy have begun to feel like home to me and it’s obvious why when you look at how real all of the characters feel here (even if one of them is a talking raccoon). Every development personally and in the group feels earned, and every character is lovable in their own way. I’ve gushed enough about this film for one post, but I leave naysayers with this: just try and tell me you weren’t smiling ear to ear when Star-Lord emerges blaring “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”. You can’t. Because you were.

Aaron: Man, I was smiling during that scene. Lacy was one of the few people I knew who was as excited for the release of this film as I was. I mean, combining space, Marvel, and a killer soundtrack of 70s tunes? How could this not end up amazing?! And, thanks to James Gunn’s vision and cheeky script, it did. The film not only marks Chris Pratt’s star-making role, but also introduced us all to the fantastic comedic talents of Dave Bautista as Drax. The film’s whirlwind tour of Marvel’s cosmic world and creatures is chock full of colorful visual splendor, painting it as an irreverent, Marvel-ized version of Star Wars. It does fall into forgettable MCU villain problems, even if Ronan is played by the magnificent Lee Pace, but the films mix of rockin’ music, endearing and well-developed characters, and flippant humor is more than enough to make this one of the finest Marvel films ever made.

AND THE NUMBER ONE MARVEL MOVIE IS....

1. THE AVENGERS

“You're missing the point! There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it!”

Aaron: While Lacy and I both have our own personal preferences, which have shone through here and there in this ranking, The Avengers was the natural pick for the number one entry. Finally seeing all of these colorful iconic heroes unite in live-action is enough to make any comic fan absolutely giddy, and the film takes full advantage of this by exploring a breadth of unique pairings and quipy interactions possible within these group dynamic, fueled by Joss Whedon’s snappy script. Every time, from my first viewing, to my encore viewing when I accompanied Lacy as he saw it for the first time, through my countless rewatches, the film never fails to make me laugh out loud and thrill me with its expansive climatic NYC battle, backed by a rousing score from Alan Silvestri. I have a few gripes with the movie, particularly the dismissive handling of the Thor movie’s emotional ending, but considering how successful this film was at handling such an unprecedented scale for movies, these gripes matter little. The Avengers remains one of the most endlessly enjoyable superhero films ever made, and, as seen through the still unresolved Thanos cliffhanger, an excellent platform for the MCU to continue to expand its marvelous cinematic world.

Jacob: Oh man, how am I supposed to follow up after that marvelous pun? It was on that encore viewing with you that something inside me clicked. It had never even occurred to me that a movie of that scale and that quality could actually exist. I still remember turning to you and just mouthing “What?!” because of how blown my mind was. I know you often cite The Dark Knight as the film that was your gateway to cinema (see what I did there?), and if that is the vernacular we’re using, then The Avengers was mine. Without that movie there wouldn’t be a Reboot Already Underway, there wouldn’t be any reviews written by me, there wouldn’t be this very post, and my passion for cinema might never have been sparked. Much like what I said about The Amazing Spider-Man, while this isn’t any statement on the film’s quality per se, it is does help to show why I still hold this film in high regard. The dialogue is lightning fast, the action is extremely well shot (that tracking shot though), and the world it created has held my fascination ever since that day five years ago. I love this movie to pieces, and, to me, it still remains the most rewatchable entry on this list. I can’t help but marvel at it every time.

That’s it, everyone! This has been our definitive ranking of all 44 Marvel films. It remains to be seen where Spider-Man: Homecoming will land on this quality spectrum, but be sure to stay tuned for a review of that movie soon!

Be sure to follow https://jakelace.tumblr.com/ for more film reviews from Jacob. And if you want to hear more of our thoughts, as well as the thoughts of our good friend David, on various films, from new releases, to old favorites, to some of the worst films we have ever seen, be sure to check out our podcast Reboot Already Underway on Soundcloud or iTunes.

#film #ranked #marvel #marvelranked #mcu #avengers #spider-man #x-men #captainamerica #guardiansofthegalaxy #logan

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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15 Superhero Games That Should Never Have Been Canceled

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We’ve been blessed with a surprising number of great superhero video games over the years. From Batman for the NES to The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Marvel’s Spider-Man, developers have often shown superheroes the love it took them years to consistently receive in other mediums.

Yet, I understand why it’s so easy to focus on the superhero games we almost got rather than the ones that we did get. There’s an entire section of gaming’s digital graveyard devoted to canceled superhero games, and it’s filled with projects that could have been contenders or, at the very least, would have given comic book fans everywhere the chance to spend time with characters that still haven’t gotten a proper video game adaptation to this day.

So brace yourself for disappointment as we look at what could have been and 15 of the most notable superhero games that should never have been canceled.

15. X-Women: The Sinister Virus

As the name suggests, X-Women was based on the idea that all the male X-Men team members have been incapacitated by the Genesis Virus. It’s not only an interesting concept that would have put characters like Storm and Jean Grey in the spotlight, but the project was even being developed by Clockwork Tortoise: the studio behind the excellent Sega Genesis version of The Adventures of Batman & Robin. This game seemingly had a lot going for it.

So why was it canceled? Well, according to those who worked on the project in the late ‘90s, X-Women got off to a rough start that it never really recovered from. A combination of technical shortcomings, studio drama, and Sega’s desire to start moving away from the 16-bit era pretty much doomed this game before it ever had a chance to become more than some vague ideas.

14. Spider-Man 4

Well, the name of this game should probably give you a hint as to why it was eventually canceled. It is, after all, hard to make a game based on Sam Raimi’s fourth Spider-Man movie when Sam Raimi’s fourth Spider-Man movie was, itself, eventually canceled.

Interestingly, though, a working version of the Spider-Man 4 prototype was discovered on an old Nintendo Wii devkit in 2019. While it’s obviously not fair to judge a half-finished prototype too harshly, everything we’ve seen of this game suggests it would have been…pretty much just ok. It’s doubtful we missed out on anything better than a pretty good rental when this one was eventually canceled.

13. Marvel Chaos

I’ve actually heard conflicting reports about this game over the years, but most accounts of its development suggest Marvel Chaos was supposed to be a Marvel fighting game modeled after the Def Jam series. Needless to say, that idea had a lot of potential.

That makes it all the more depressing that nearly every report about this game’s development agrees that it was canceled simply because it wasn’t very good. EA decided to cancel this project rather than invest more money in it, which ultimately led to EA Chicago’s closure and the end of EA and Marvel’s partnership (at least for a time).

12. Superman 64 (PS1)

Apologies for the confusing title, but it’s pretty hard to talk about this game without eventually getting around to the fact that it was essentially supposed to be the PS1 port of the infamously bad Superman 64. However, because the PS1 couldn’t quite handle some of the free-roaming mechanics featured in the N64 game, this port was essentially redesigned by developer BlueSky Software to be its own thing.

Do you know what’s really funny? A recently leaked prototype of this canceled game suggests that it actually might have been kind of fun. At the very least, this port’s emphasis on linear combat looks a lot more enjoyable than…whatever Superman 64 was going for. In a world where most Superman games are bad, it’s a shame this one didn’t get the chance to at least be decent.

11. Marvel Universe Online

An MMORPG set in the Marvel universe made by the City of Heroes team? How did this game ever get canceled when it’s seemingly a license to print money that might actually be more valuable today than ever before?

Well, some reports suggest this game simply wasn’t coming along as quickly as some hoped it would, but according to Microsoft, the game was ultimately canceled largely because they looked at how every non-WoW MMO on the market at that time was performing and felt that Marvel Universe Online had a slim chance of making enough money to justify everyone’s investments.

10. The Flash

The rise of the open-world genre has also meant the rise of superhero fans wondering why more game developers just don’t put their favorite characters in an open-world playground. That formula has certainly worked numerous times in the past, and it could have also worked for this Flash game that developer Brash Entertainment worked on starting in the mid-2000s.

While Brash went under in 2008, they took this potentially amazing project with them. Reports about this game’s development, as well as some early test footage, suggest it was an appropriately fast-paced open-world epic that dove deep into the Flash’s lore and even featured a kind of Sunset Overdrive-style navigation system that would have let The Flash pull off elaborate tricks. Someone really needs to mine this project for its best ideas and revive them in some form.

9. The Dark Knight

We’ve talked about this game extensively in the past, but what you really need to know is that there was supposed to be a game based on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight film and that game was shaping up to be pretty ambitious for a licensed title intended to debut alongside the film.

Unfortunately, The Dark Knight’s ambition may have gotten the best of it. The game missed its initial release windows and was ultimately determined to be more trouble than it was worth. While I’d still love to play this game, I don’t know if it would have been nearly as brilliant as Rocksteady’s Arkham series.

8. Green Lantern (SNES)

Aside from cameos in DC fighting titles and the so-so Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, the Green Lantern hasn’t exactly gotten a lot of video game love over the years. That makes it that much more of a shame that the Green Lantern almost starred in a SNES action game that was not only almost finished at the time that it was canceled but actually looked pretty good.

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Actually, the game’s cancellation seemingly had nothing to do with the quality of the game itself. Reports suggest that the game was ultimately canceled due to the rise of the Sony PlayStation (and the start of next-gen gaming) as well as conflicts between DC and developer Ocean Software regarding how this game should handle ongoing aspects of the Hal Jordan storyline.

7. 100 Bullets

Well, “comic” is probably more appropriate than “superhero” in this instance, but it’s hard to have this conversation without mentioning the 100 Bullets game we never got to play. Not only was this game based on a hot (at the time) comic property but everything we’ve ever heard about it suggests that it could have been a worthwhile entry into the post-Max Payne era of third-person action titles.

Sadly, the decision to cancel this game ultimately came down to money. Publisher Acclaim Entertainment’s rapidly deteriorating financial situation spelled the end for 100 Bullets and most other projects the company planned to publish at that time. There was brief chatter about a possible revival, but nothing ever came of it.

6. Ghost Rider (PS1)

In the late ‘90s, Neversoft Entertainment (developers of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) started working on a Ghost Rider action/adventure game that combined elements of 2D and 3D design. It was basically a Castlevania-style action game from the studio that eventually brought us that amazing PS1 Spider-Man title. The only known footage of this title is pretty rough, but it certainly looked promising.

In fact, this is another one of those instances where the game’s eventual cancellation has nothing to do with how good it was. Ghost Rider was supposed to be published by Crystal Dynamics, but reports indicate that Crystal Dynamics decided to get out of publishing before the game could be completed. Neversoft apparently tried to approach them to work out a new deal, but rumors suggest the company just wasn’t interested in funding a 2D action game at that time.

5. Justice League: Mortal

Remember that Justice League movie George Miller was supposed to direct that was ultimately canceled due to budget concerns? Well, it turns out that developer Double Helix once worked on a loose video game adaptation of/tie-in to that film. It was going to be a third-person action game with a DMC-like combo system that, you guessed it, was canceled around the same time as the George Miller Justice League movie.

What’s really interesting about this one, though, is that elements of this project were eventually spun off into the Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters game we mentioned earlier. While that title offers a rough look at what this one could have been, reports suggest Justice League: Mortal was a much larger and more ambitious game.

4. Daredevil

It’s hardly a surprise that Daredevil is arguably the most talked about canceled superhero game of all time. After all, an open-world Daredevil game that properly utilizes the character’s abilities while diving deep into his comic book lore is something a lot of fans would probably still play today.

With this one, though, the story isn’t so much that it was canceled but rather that the project made it as far as it did. Reports about this game’s development suggest that it wasn’t only an overly ambitious technical nightmare, but that the stress of working on this title led to a sharp decline in morale at developer 5000ft Inc’s offices and may have even resulted in a rise in substance abuse issues among the studio’s employees. Marvel eventually decided to pull their support for this one due to a litany of problems and disagreements.

3. Gotham By Gaslight

Yes, there was a time when someone was bold enough to pitch a steampunk Batman action game based on the famous Batman story of the same name. Early footage of the prototype for that concept even suggests that its gameplay would have fallen somewhere between the Arkham titles and Bloodborne.

“Pitch” and “prototype” are ultimately the keywords to keep in mind here, though, as it sounds like Gotham by Gaslight never made it further than those very early stages. This feels like the kind of game that would be easier to find funding for today, but at this point, it sounds like it will forever be a “what could have been” situation.

2. Superman: Blue Steel

Throughout the…dodgy history of Superman video games, most fans of the character have cried out for an open-world Superman title that captures the awesome potential of the character’s abilities without reducing Superman to a wrecking ball. Well, developer Factor 5’s Superman: Blue Steel was supposed to be that game.

In fact, Blue Steel lead designer Salvatrix recently shared new details about the game via Twitter that all confirm reports people had been hearing for years regarding this project’s potential. Unfortunately, she also confirmed that this game’s cancellation ultimately came down to the market crash that hit at the time and how it left the team without the resources and support they needed to complete their vision.

1. Spider-Man Classic

What you really need to know about Spider-Man Classic is that it was supposed to be the follow-up to the largely underrated 2009 game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. The basic idea is that it would have seen Spider-Man and Wolverine team-up to battle new and old foes as Spider-Man relieved some of his most memorable moments from the comics throughout the years. Yes, it probably would have been amazing.

Spider-Man Classic was unfortunately canceled when developer Shaba Games was shuttered in 2009. While we ultimately ended up getting the incredible Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions as a result of this cancellation, I chose to believe there’s enough room in this world for both.

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior Jan. 17, 2020 - WEATHERING WITH YOU, BAD BOYS FOR LIFE, DOLITTLE

Only the second column of the year, and I’m already questioning how long I’m going to keep writing this. In case you haven’t heard, I’m no longer writing for The Beat. I don’t really want to talk about it, but it was generally a horrible experience that I put up with since I needed the work/money. It turns out that someone I thought I knew, someone I respected and considered a friend for almost a quarter of a century, turned out to be a truly awful person. That’s really all I’m going to say... for now. (The Beat decided not to run my final Box Office Preview, so that’s incorporated within, as well.)

The good news is that Makoto Shinkai’s latest animated film, WEATHERING WITH YOU (GKIDS), will hit U.S. theaters this Friday after a few “fan previews” on Weds and Thursday night. If you don’t know the name of that Japanese animation filmmaker then you clearly didn’t see the fantastic sci-fi film Your Name, which was an absolutely enormous hit, grossing $354 million worldwide, most of that in Japan, China and South Korea in 2016. That movie eventually opened in North America in 2017 and made another $5 million, but it’s probably one of my favorite animated films. (Your Name will be playing again at the Metrograph starting February 7 if you haven’t seen it.)

But back to Weathering with You, which is another wonderful film from Makoto-san, this one about a high school senior named Hodaka who runs off to Tokyo and runs into financial problems in the gloomy city (boy, can I relate) until he meets Hina, an optimistic girl who has the ability to stop the rain and clear the clouds, something that they turn into a thriving business. It’s a simpler premise than Your Name for sure, but it’s still steeped in magic and fantasy that really makes it a very special film.

You can get tickets for Weathering with You here.

BAD BOYS FOR LIFE (Sony)

Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Alexander Ludwig, Joe Pantoliano, Paola Nuñez, Kate Del Castilo, DJ Khaled Directed By: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Black, Gangsta, Image) MPAA Rating: R

Oddly, it took three whole weeks to get our first sequel of 2020 – that is, if you don’t count The Grudge, which actually is a sequel. I guess that would make Bad Boys for Life the first sequel that people actually may want to see, because it reunites Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, the stars of two very popular buddy cop movies a nd two of the biggest stars of the ‘90s.

The first Bad Boys came out in 1995 when both guys were pretty big TV stars, Lawrence on Fox show Martin and Smith from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Oddly, Lawrence already had quite a bit of film success from the “House Party” movies and Eddie Murphy’s Boomerang when he was paired with Smith.When the original Bad Boys opened with $15.5 million and grossed $65.6 million, that was considered pretty good for the time, especially for first-time director Michael Bay. That’s right. Bad Boyswas also Bay’s debut.

Ever since then, things have gotten crazy, especially for Smith, who starred in Roland Emmerich’s blockbuster Independence Day just one year later, the first Men in Black the year after that, and the rest is history. Lawrence went on to a couple big movies of his own, including the copycat Blue Streak, but other than 2000’s Big Momma’s Houseand its sequel six years later, he just didn’t have much draw when he tried other things. 2011’s Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son made about half what its predecessor made (about $38) million and then Lawrence vanished for a while.

Smith and Lawrence reunited for 2003’s Bad Boys II, again with Bay, who was also a much bigger director by then (and that was even before the “Transformers” movies) and that opened with $46.6 million and grossed $138.5 million domestically, showing how much bigger both stars had become.

That brings us to Bad Boys for Life, the third movie that may or may not have quite the same audience as the last movie. Little-known Belgian directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah take over from Michael Bay for this threequel, and oddly, it’s Smith’s fourth movie in the past year after the disappointing showing for Ang Lee’s Gemini Man and the animated Spies in Disguise over the holidays. On the other hand, Smith also had a huge hit last summer with Disney’s Aladdin,and that seemed to be enough to appease his fans who had gotten used to him doing one movie a year.

In some ways, Bad Boys for Life might feel a little like Men in Black 3, which Sony Pictures released in the summer of 2012, just nine years after the previous movie’s $190 million. While it didn’t seem like a necessary sequel, the third Men in Blackstill made only a little bit less. Obviously, nine years wasn’t enough to sour anyone on Smith’s character, although that movie also was now eight years ago, and we’re coming off a year of a ton of disappointing sequels.

Oddly, the MLK Jr. weekend has become a prime weekend for buddy cop movies, two of them seemingly inspired by the “Bad Boys” movies, as Ice Cube and Kevin Hart teamed up for Ride Along and its sequel. Both of them opened this weekend, the original six years ago to $48.6 million over the four-day weekend, and its sequel two years later made $41 million over the extended weekend.

That would seem like a pretty good barometer for Bad Boys for Life, if not for the fact that it’s a sequel to a movie that came out 16 years ago with a much hotter blockbuster director. Will audiences who were 18, 19, 20 when Bad Boys 2come out be anywhere near as interested in Smith and Lawrence’s shenanigans now that they’re well into their 30s?

Reportedly, Bad Boys for Life cost $90 million, although it’s doubtful that Sony expects the movie to make all of that money domestically. Bad Boys II made almost the exact same amount overseas than in North America, although the international market has exploded in the 15 years since then.

Reviews will probably hit around the same time that this column goes live or maybe slightly earlier, so it might be hard to tell if there’s a consensus either for or (more likely) against it. (It’s a sequel being released in January. Do you REALLY think that critics are gonna give it a fair shake?)

That just leaves the question of how well Bad Boys for Life might do, considering that Bay isn’t involved and Lawrence hasn’t been in the public eye very much. I think Smith’s ongoing popularity and the number fans of the previous movies should help the movie make close to $40 million over the four-day weekend, give or take. It certainly will offer something new for the key 20-to-40 year old males that already saw 1917.

DOLITTLE (Universal)

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Ralph Ineson, Michael Sheen, Antonio Banderas, Carmel Laniado, Jim Broadbent, Jessie Buckley with the voices of Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Craig Robinson, Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez and more Directed By: Stephen Gaghan (Syriana, Gold) MPAA Rating: PG

Next, we have a slightly oddball of a first new family film for the year, as well as Robert Downey Jr’s first non-Marvel movie in a very long time, playing the classic kids book hero Doctor Dolittle, a doctor who can talk to animals. The children’s books by Hugh Lofting originated all the way back in 1920, and it was only eight years later before it was adapted into a silent animated short film. Probably the most famous movie (at least for 30 years) was the 1967 version of the movie starring Rex Harrison, but Eddie Murphy took on the role in 1998 for two hit movies released by 20th Century Fox (so maybe we’ll see them on Disney+ soon?).

Which might make you wonder how Universal got its hands on the property and why the studio isn’t making it a bigger deal about 2020 being the 100thanniversary of the character? Well, kids, it’s something called “public domain,” which allows anyone who wants to make a movie based on the character to do so. In this case, it’s Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stephen Gaghan, best known for his political thriller, Syriana, which got George Clooney his first Oscar. Obviously, a family-friendly fantasy adventure seems like an odd choice, but obviously, this is a real movie.

The story involves Dolittle being called to save Queen Victoria (played by the wonderful Jessie Buckley, star of Wild Rose) who is dying. Dolittle brings along a young lad named Stubbins (Harry Collett from Dunkirk) as well as a slew of animals voiced by a menagerie of actors. We’ll get back to them in a bit.

Obviously, Downey’s presence will probably play a larger part in anyone’s interest in the movie, since I’m not sure Doctor Dolittle has been able to maintain any sort of place in the pantheon of popular children’s book characters among younger readers. (I could be wrong.) This movie is co-produced by Joe Roth, who helped pave the way for big stars to take on popular fantasy characters, putting Johnny Depp in one of Disney’s bigger pre-Marvel/Lucasfilm hits, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, James Franco in Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful, and Angelina Jolie in Maleficent. Universal (who previously teamed with Roth for Snow White and the Huntsmanin 2012 and its less successful sequel) are hoping that Downey can bring a similar starpower to Dolittleto get people into theaters.

The last time Downey took on a non-Marvel literary character was his eponymous turn as Sherlock Holmes in the movie directed by Guy Ritchie just over ten years ago. That made a half a billion worldwide, and its sequel two years later did similar business. Other than a starring role in Todd Phillips’ Due Date and the passion project The Judge with Robert Duvall, Downey hasn’t done much outside the MCU. But why should he? Apparently, he is getting somewhere around $50 million to make each of those movies, and for most people, that’s early retirement money, especially after wrapping up the role inAvengers: Endgame, the highest-grossing blockbuster of all time (globally). And yet, we’ll supposedly be seeing Downey’s Tony Stark in this year’s Black Widow, probably in flashback, so he’s clearly not putting the rest of his career in the hands of playing Doctor Dolittle.

The rest of the cast might not be as important but the movie does star the popular actor Michael Sheen (Good Omens), Antonio Banderas (who just received his first Oscar nomination earlier this week) and then the voices include a strange mix of British and American actors, includingEmma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Craig Robinson,Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez and more. It’s kind of a shame they couldn’t find a role for Kevin Bacon, as it would make that “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game so much easier.

Family movies have generally been tough to predict, especially ones that may or may not interest teen and/or older audiences, which is certainly the case here. Opening Dolittle on a weekend with no school on Monday is a wise move by Universal, as well as doing so in January where there isn’t as much competition for eyes. More than anything, Dolittle will be a very good (and possibly sobering) test on whether Downey is a box office star when not playing Tony Stark… or Sherlock Holmes.

The movie has not caught the attention or interest of the ever-outraged #FilmTwitter, except to make fun of it, but that doesn’t mean younger kids won’t want to see a fun adventure with talking animals, and the latter should help Dolittle make somewhere between $25 and $28 million over the four-day weekend.

This Week’s Box Office Predictions:

Despite the impressive opening for Sam Mendes’ 1917 last weekend and its ten Oscar nominations, it’s very likely that either Bad Boys for Life or Dolittle (or both) will knock it out of first place this weekend. It definitely could be a close race for second place, depending on how well the latest movies from superstars Will Smith and Robert Downey are received. Expect Greta Gerwig’s Little Women to also get a nice bump from its own Best Picture nomination this weekend.

(Note: All the numbers below are for the four-day holiday weekend.)

Bad Boys for Life (Sony) - $42.5 million N/A (up $4 million)*

1917 (Universal) - $29.5 million -20%

Dolittle (Universal) - $23.5 million N/A (down $3.5 million)*

Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony) - $12 million -15%

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Lucasfilm/Disney) - $9.5 million -38%

Just Mercy (Warner Bros.) - $9 million -7%

Like a Boss (Paramount) - $7.5 -25%

Little Women (Sony) - $6.6 million -15%

Knives Out (Lionsgate) - $4.6 million -18%

Frozen II (Disney) - $4.5 million -24%

*UPDATE: Okay, my earlier predictions may have been a little unrealistic and it’s pretty clear that Bad Boys for Life, which has gotten decent reviews, will do significantly better than Dolittle, despite there not being much family competition. I’m adjusting accordingly.

LIMITED RELEASES

Besides Weathering with You, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon’s kid (well, he’s 30) Jack Henry Robbins’ movie VHYES (Oscilloscope) will be out in select theaters and presumably VOD sometime soon. It’s a fairly odd movie made up of bits recorded on a VHS camera meant to look like it was recorded off various television stations by a teen, which includes bits of “late night adult television.” It’s pretty amusing more for appearances by the likes of Kerri Kenney and Thomas Lennon from “Reno 911,” Mark Proksh from “What We Do in the Shadows,” Charlyne Yi and more. It will open in select theaters Friday, including the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn. It has some funny moments but it’s a little disjointed; I’m sure it would be great in an environment that involves drinking.

Also on the genre side of things is Gille Klabin’s directorial debut The Wave (Epic Pictures), starring Justin Long and Donald Faison, a weird movie in which Long plays an insurance lawyer who goes out on the town with his co-worker (Faison) but then gets dosed with a hallucinogen. It will open in select cities and On Demand Friday.

Alex (Taxi to the Dark Side) Gibney’s latest doc Citizen K (Greenwich) will open at the Film Forum on Wednesday, this one looking at Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the wealthiest man in Russia who was valued at $15 billion from his Siberian oil before being thrown into jail by Putin. I haven’t seen the movie, but it recently received a nomination from the Writers Guild (WGA).

A couple mostly VOD horror films out on Friday are Pedro C. Alonso’s horror/thriller Feedback (Blue Fox Entertainment), starring Eddie Marsan, Paul Anderson and Ivana Baquero (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Andy Newberry’s The Host (Vertical Entertainment), starring Maryam Hassouni, Mike Beckingham, and Dougie Poynter.

REPERTORY

Before we get to the regular stuff, if you happen to have some free time on Saturday, like the whole day, you should get down to the Anthology Film Archives for Subway Cinema’s latest all-day marathon, “It’s the Nineties, Stupid!” a collection of six rare and probably very weird films from the ‘90s shown on 35mm. These events are always a lot of fun, and there may still be some tickets left if you act quickly.

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Welcome To Metrograph: Reduxcontinues this weekend with Seizun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill (1967) and Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day (1991). I personally haven’t seen either but might give one or more a try.This weekend’s Late Nites at Metrograph is Paul Schrader’s 1985 movie Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, a movie I’m not really familiar but apparently, it stars Ken Ogata as Japanese artist Yukio Mishima, who committed seppuku. This weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinees is the classic sci-fi film Them!(1954).

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Next Monday’s “Fist City” screening is Wesley Snipe’s Passenger 57 (1992), the “Terror Tuesday” is Adam Wingard’s 2014 movie The Guest, starring Dan Stevens, with Wingard in person for a QnA, and then next week’s “Weird Wednesday,” January 22, is the 1990 film Brain Dead, starring Bills Paxton and Pullman, hosted by YOURS TRULY!! Yes, I’m making my Alamo debut with a movie from the ‘90s I absolutely loved.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Today’s “Afternoon Classics” matinee is John Huston’s The African Queen (1951), while Friday’s “Freaky Fridays” is the 1985 horror film, Silver Bullet. Friday night’s midnight offering is Tarantino’s Django Unchained while Saturday’s midnight movie is Scorsese’s Raging Bull, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The weekend “Kiddee Matinee” is Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

The West Village theater begins an expansive new series called “Black Women: Trailblazing African American Actresses 1920-2001” on Friday, and it’s fairly self-explanatory except that there are a lot of films that have rarely been seen in recent years, such as Otto Preminger’s 1954 film Carmen Jones, starring Dorothy Dandridge; Vincente Minelli’s 1943 film Cabin in the Sky with Ethel Waters and Lena Horne, and even Pam Grier as Coffy in Jack Hill’s 1973 film. This is going to be a very special series, one unlike anything else that’s been done on the New York rep scene, and I wish I could afford to check some of these movies out. As part of the series, “Film Forum Jr.” will play the 1972 movie Sounder, for which Cicely Tyson received an Oscar nomination.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

On Friday, Beyond Fest presents a 35mm print of the 1993 movie Freaked with directors Alex Winter and Tom Stern and most of the cast and many of the crew in attendance. Hosted by my pal, Drew McWeeney! On Saturday, there’s a matinee of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and then that night is a double feature of Marlon Brando’s One Eyed Jacks (1961) and Peter Fonda’s The Hired Hand (1971). Sunday Print Edition is a matinee of 1945’s Hangover Square, then later on Sunday is the first Sean Connery Bond film, Doctor No (1962). Sunday night is a screening of Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).

AERO (LA):

On Weds. night, Greg Proops is presenting the hilarious Barbara Streisand-Ryan O’Neal comedy What’s Up, Doc? (1972) as part of his monthly film club. On Thursday the 16th, the Aero is showing Raging Bull in a matinee as part of its “Films of Marty and Bob,” then Friday is the 15thannual Focus on Female Directors, a mix of older and newer movies including the recently nominated short, Kitbull. Saturday begins “A Tribute to Noah Baumbach” with a double feature on Saturday night of Frances Haand Mistress America, his two collaborations with Greta Gerwig. Sunday is a double feature of his earlier films The Squid and the Whale and Kicking and Screaming. Tuesday’s offering in “The Films of Marty and Bob” is the classic King of Comedy, one of my favorite collaborations between the duo.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

On Friday, the Quad begins the series “Origin Stories: Bertrand Bonello’s Footnotes to Zombi Child” aka Bonello’s new movie, which opens next Friday. This series will include lots of genre films that influenced the film,including Carpenter’s The Serpent and the Rainbow, De Palma’s Carrie, The Exorcist: Extended Director’s Cut, I Walked with a Zombie and the Aussie classic, Picnic at Hanging Rock (also a director’s cut).

MOMA (NYC):

This week’s Modern Matinees: Jack Lemmonare Billy Wilder’s Oscar-winning The Apartment (1960) with Shirley MacLaine, the 1955 film Mister Roberts Thursday, and Costa-Gravas’ 1982 film Missing on Friday. Also, the International Teen Cinema series Show Me Love continues through Sunday. (You can click on the link to see what’s playing.) Another series, To Save and Project, the 17thMOMA International Festival of Film Preservation will run through the weekend and next week with some interesting choices like Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and Mystery of the Wax Museum from 1933.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

Although most of the screens here will be taken up by the 2020 New York Jewish Film Festival (see below), but FilmLinc is also getting a head start on its annual “Film Comment Selects” with the New York premiere of Jeffrey Peixoto’s Over the Rainbow and a 35mm screening of Darren Aronofksy’s controversial 2017 film mother!, starring Jennifer Lawrence. Okay, neither are that old but still sort of repertory.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

“The Films of Studio Ghibli” ends on Thursday, so it might be your last chance to see many of these films theatrically before they move to HBO Max later this year. Otherwise, it’s most of the same movies screening at midnight: David Lynch’s Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, as well as James Cameron’s The Terminator. Ah! Looks like the IFC Center added its new winter repertory series after I wrote this week’s column. Weekend Classics: Luis Buñuel will screen the filmmaker’s 1972 film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise, The Terminator (1984) is screening as part of Waverly Midnights: Hindsight is 2020s, and Late Night Favorites: Winter 2020 is Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) but ALSO Prince’s 1984 classic, Purple Rain.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

As part of the exhibition “Envisioning 2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odysey,” MOMI will have a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s film on Saturday afternoon with actor Dan Richter appearing in person. (For $25, you can get access to the exhibition after the screening.)

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

The love for Nicolas Cage continues as the Roxy will screen Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes (1998) on Wednesday and Saturday, and Joel Schumacher’s 1999 film 8mm on Thursday.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

This Friday’s midnight offering is Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982) by filmmaker Alan Parker.

FILM FESTIVALS

Going back to Film at Lincoln Center’s 29thAnnual New York Jewish Film Festival – which I oddly have NEVER attended (mainly since I don’t have an outlet to write about it) – it begins on Wednesday with the New York premiere of the doc Picture of his Life, about underwater photographer Amos Nachoum. It will run through the end of the month, closing on Jan. 28 with the New York premiere of Dror Zahavi’s Crescendo about a world-famous conductor, and the Centerpiece selection is Marceline Loridan-Ivens’ 2003 film The Birch Tree Meadow. I’m not really sure why I haven’t gotten to more of the films in this festival, but it’s mainly because it offers so much, and I never know what’s good or bad and what’s worth my time, which is kind of a shame.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Okay, it’s a little funny that media mogul Tyler Perry is making his transition to Netflix with a film called TYLER PERRY’S A FALL FROM GRACE on Friday, and unlike most of Perry’s movies, I was invited to a press screening, which I sadly couldn’t make since I have to see Bad Boys for Life. It’s about a young woman named Grace (Crystal Fox) who confesses to killing her husband so her lawyer needs to learn the truth.

I also haven’t been able to watch the Viola Davis-McKenna Grace dramedy Troop Zero from filmmakers named “Bert & Bertie” but it will premiere on Amazon Prime this Friday. It also stars Oscar-winner Allison Janney and Jim Gaffigan, but it takes place in 1977 Georgia where a young girl (Grace) dreams of going to space by being recorded on NASA’s Golden Record.

Next week, we get The Gentlemen (STXfilms), the latest ensemble crime movie from Guy Ritchie, which I’m really excited about, and the horror/thriller The Turning (Universal). Again, I’m not really sure if I’m going to be writing anything more after this.

#TheWeekendWarrior Movies WeatheringWithYou #BadBoysForLife Dolittle RobertDowneyJr WillSmith

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The Weekend Warrior Movie Preview November 27, 2019 – KNIVES OUT, QUEEN AND SLIM, THE TWO POPES, 63 UP

You might notice that this column is no longer called “What to Watch This Weekend.” There are reasons for that I will not go into in much detail right at this time. I’ve always considered myself an original and when I recently learned the title had already been used long before “I came up with it,” I had to change gears and go back to a more familiar title. I have a feeling that few people read this column each week to even notice the difference.

Of course, Disney’s Frozen 2 will win the weekend, but the big new release has to be Rian Johnson’s KNIVES OUT (Lionsgate), which has such a to-die-for cast, including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield and many more. You can read my review of that here, and obviously I’m very bullish on recommending this to people since it’s such a fun whodunit, much better than last year’s Murder on the Orient Express. I really hope this does well since it will allow Johnson to keep making cool and original movies like this.

The other movie opening this weekend is Lena Waithe’s QUEEN AND SLIM (Universal), directed by Melina Matsoukas (who directed that long-form Beyoncé music video), and starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith.

I wasn’t going to review this, but I might as well use this space to talk about the problems I had with the movie. I feel I might be mainly on my own with this one, but it reminded me so much of Moonlight, a movie I was pretty non-plussed by, yet that not only went to the Oscars but won Best Picture that year. Huh.

I feel like Queen and Slim is another example of a movie that will be pushed for its SJW message even if the story has so many issues that I’m shocked so many people are overlooking them. The essential premise has Kaluuya and Turner-Smith as a couple who meet on a Tinder date, she a defense lawyer whose client has just been sentenced to death. After an awkward meet-cute at a diner, they drive off but are stopped by a police officer. One thing leads to another, the officer ends up dead, and the defense lawyer decides, “We should make a run for it,” and that’s exactly what they do.

That’s one of the big problems I had with the movie and it continued throughout, which is why I think this movie should have been called “Bad Decisions: The Movie,” because these are clearly two smart individuals, yet they are constantly doing really stupid things, which makes it really hard to root for them. On top of that, I wasn’t too impressed by Matsoukas/Waithe as a filmmaking team, as the movie had a lot of beautiful shots but really didn’t have much of a flow, making Matsoukas’ music video background far too obvious. It’s very typical of a new filmmaker wanting to create this beautiful-looking movie and losing sight of the actual narrative storytelling, which isn’t great. And then there’s the message Waithe is trying to drive home, clearly inspired by #BlackLivesMatter, but it just goes completely overboard at times, and no one in this movie acts like normal people might act in order to resolve their issues.

In other words, Queen and Slim is trying to be an arty film in what is a business where movies that cost a lot of money need to make that money back, and I see this as a pretty big risk on Universal’s part for a movie that just isn’t that great.

You can read about how the above movies might fare at the Thanksgiving box office over at The Beat.

LIMITED RELEASES

There are, thankfully, a fewer number of limited releases this weekend, the big one being Netflix’s THE TWO POPES, starring Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, which is absolutely fantastic. Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles from a screenplay from Anthony McCarten (Darkest Hour). Basically, it’s about the relationship between Popes Francis (Pryce) and Benedict (Hopkins) as the latter is being criticized for allowing Catholic priests to get away with repeated sexual abuses against young parishioners. I saw this movie quite some time ago, and I really need to see it again before writing any sort of review, but it will probably be in my top 25 mainly for the amazing script and the performances by the two leads. This will open in select cities on Wednesday and be on Netflix December 20, and maybe I’ll have a chance to rewatch so I can write more about it at that point. Regardless, it’s another movie opening this weekend I recommend seeking out.

Opening at the Film Forum on Wednesday is Michael Apted’s excellent doc 63 Up (Britbox), the culmination of the 56 years he has spent following the lives of a number of British kids from different classes over the course of their lives. I’ve loved this series since I first discovered it, probably around the 21-Upyears, but it’s amazing how every seven years, you can revisit these people and learn more about them. There are a few of the subjects that you’ve begun to really care about, but at a time when class struggles play such an important part in the conversation and films like Parasite and Knives Out (see above) and M. Night Shyamalan’s new series Servant, it’s amazing to watch this venerable doc series in that context. I’m not sure if Apted will make it seven more years to make 70 Up, but if not, this is a fine conclusion to his masterful masters thesis. 63 Up will open at the Landmark Nuart in Los Angeles on Dec. 6 before hitting Britbox.

Getting a week-long run in New York and Los Angeles starting Friday is Ladj Ly’s intense police thriller LES MISERABLES (Amazon), which is France’s selection for the Oscar’s “International Film” category, and it’s an amazing film that follows a group of cops trying to cover up the shooting of a kid from the projects. Like many police dramas, it involves a rookie who is thrust into this world of crime, and I’ll definitely have more to say about this before its official theatrical release in January.

Also getting a qualifying run in New York and L.A. this week is Emily Taguchi and Jake Lefferman’s documentary After Parkland (ABC Documentaries/Kino Lorber), which I somehow have missed so far, but I’ll probably have a chance to see it in 2020 when it’s getting its official release. As one can gather from the title, it’s about a number of families from the Marjory Stoneman Dougle High School trying to get through the Parkland shootings that left 17 dead.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Before we get to this section, I want to give a quick shout-out to VitalThrills.com who have an absolutely amazing Streaming section that you should be using as a resource, since it’s quite complete, maybe the best one on the internet?

If you’ve been putting off seeing Martin Scorsese’s 3-1/2 hour THE IRISHMAN, because you feel that’s too long to be sitting in a movie theater, it’s now on Netflix so you can watch it over and over, stopping and starting whenever you want. Happy?

While I’ve mostly been using this section for Netflix stuff (because it’s the only streaming/cable company that sends me regular PR), I’m excited that M. Night Shyamalan’s SERVANT will be debuting on Apple TV+ on Wednesday (today!), and that will be another darkly funny thing to watch with the family after Knives Out. You can watch the first three episodes, but I wrote a review of the first half of the season, which you can read here.

French filmmaker’s animated I Lost My Body will hit Netflix this Friday with its amazing story of the romance between a pizza delivery guy and a librarian, based on Guillaume Laurant’s novel “Happy Hand.” Also, Mati Diop’s Cannes-winning film Atlantics, which I STILL HAVEN’T WATCHED!!! Will hit the streaming network on the same day, so I’ll stop having excuses for not having seen it. Also hitting Netflix Thursday is the holiday comedy HOLIDAY RUSH, starring Romany Malco, La La Anthony, Sonequa Martin-Green and the legendary Darlene Love.

Also, Disney+ will be adding The Wonderful World of Disney Presents the Little Mermaid Live! to its library on Wednesday as well as Pixar’s Cocoon Friday, along with the fourth chapter of its ongoing series including one you might have heard of called The Mandalorian.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

The Metrograph once again wins the Repertory Wars this weekend. Its Noah Baumbach Residency continues this weekend with the filmmaker’s 2010 film Greenberg and 2017’s The Meyerowitz Stories, both starring Ben Stiller, as well as screenings of Working Girl (1988), Pauline at the Beach (1983) and Five Easy Pieces (1970). (I don’t think Baumbach will be at any of these.) The annual Holidays at Metrograph series begins this week with 1934’s The Thin Man, Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and the 1940 film Remember the Night this Friday and Saturday. Filmmaker Whit Stilman will be back at the Metrograph, once again showing his 1990 film Metropolitan (another Metrograph holiday mainstay) on Sunday, and he’ll also introduce a screening of 1998′s The Last Days of Disco. Welcome To Metrograph: Redux will screen George Cukor’s 1950 film Born Yesterday, Clint Eastwood’s 1995 film The Bridges of Madison County (with screenwriter Richard LaGravanese introducing the screening Saturday night) and David Lean’s 1945 film Brief Encounter. Late Nites at Metrograph screens Terry Zwigoff’s 2001 film Ghost World, starring a VERY young Scarlett Johansson, while Playtime: Family Matinees will screen the appropriate Miracle on 34thStreet, the one from 1947.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Next week’s Terror Tuesday is Charles B Pierce’s The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) in a new 4k restoration with a QnA with Pierce’s daughter moderated by Mohawk director Ted Geoghegan, then the Weird Wednesday is Liam Neeson in Sam Raimi’s Darkman (1990) in 35mm. (The latter is a fantastic film if you haven’t seen it yet.)

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Today’s Weds. Afternoon Classics matinee is Samuel Fuller’s 1959 film The Crimson Kimono and Friday’s “Freaky Fridays” offering is David Cronenberg’s Existenz (1999). The weekend’s “Kiddee Matinee” is Jon Favreau’s Elf(2003), starring Will Ferrell, and Saturday’s midnight is a repeat of David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. Otherwise, it’s mostly screenings of Once Upon a Time … in Hollywoodthis weekend.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Opening this week is a 70thAnniversary 4k restoration of Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring the great Sir Alec Guinness in 8 roles! Also this week, you can see a 4k restoration of the 1951 comedy The Man in the White Suit (on Weds and Sunday), as well as the 1955 film The Ladykillers, both directed by Alexander Mackendrick and also starring Guinness. Another repertory film getting a few screenings this weekend is the 1951 film The Lavender Hill Mob (another Guinness film!) and Carol Reed’s The Third Man from 1949 will get a full-week 70th anniversary presentation. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is To Kill a Mockinbird… ookay. On Sunday, you can see the 1975 Hal Ashby classic Shampoo in a single screening, and then on Monday night, there’s a single 35mm screening of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1964 film Kwaidan, based on four ghost stories by Lafcadio Hearn, introduced by Monique Truong, who has written a book about Hearn. Oh, it’s also over 3 hours long.

AERO (LA):

The AERO’s “Happy Thanksgiving 2019” movies include Planes, Trains and Automobiles on Wednesday, Singin’ in the Rain on Friday, and Saturday is a triple feature of “Satirical Cinema: Using Comedy to Underminte Hate” of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940), Mel Brooks’ The Producers(1968) and Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit… yeah, one of these movies doesn’t match up to the others, and also isn’t really repertory. Sunday is a Charlie Chaplin double feature of City Lights(1931) and The Circus (1928). Tuesday’s “Christmas Noir: A Hardboiled Holiday” matinee is Blast of Silence from 1961.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Friday is a “Black Friday Double Feature” of mall-related horror films with Chopping Mall (1986) and Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge (1989), and then Saturday is an all-day The Lord of the Rings trilogy starting at 1pm.

MOMA (NYC):

The newly renovated museum continues it’s “The Contenders 2019” series, but Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Filmwill continue through the week, as well. Vision Statement: Early Directorial Workswill return on Monday with Julie Dash’s 1991 film Daughters of the Dust, then Darren Aronofskiy’s Pi(1998) and Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali(1955) on Tuesday.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

If you want to find me this weekend, I’ll be spending a lot of time up on the Upper West Side (MTA-permitting) for the continuing “Relentless Invention: New Korean Cinema 1996-2003” for a bunch of movies, including Bong Joon Ho’s 2000 debut Barking Dogs Never Bite. You should also check out Varda by Agnès while you’re up there.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

“The Collected Terrence Malick” continues this weekend with screenings of some of Malick’s more recent films: Voyage of Time: Ultra Widescreen Version, The New World: Theatrical Version (Friday) andLimited Release Version (Sat.), as well as Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey on Saturday, and then the “Brad Pitt version” of Voyage of Time on Sunday. Also, Malick’s classic The Tree of Life will screen Friday and Sunday.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Weekend Classics: May All Your Christmases be Noirwill screen The Night of the Hunter (1955), Waverly Midnights: Spy Games screens Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) in a 4k restoration, while Late Night Favorites: Autumn 2019 will screen… I can’t even. It’s movies they’ve shown a dozen times or more… Matt Zoller Seitz’s “Movies with MZS” continues next Tuesday with a screening of Moonstruck with screenwriter John Patrick Shanley.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Thursday/Thanksgiving is your last chance to see Buster Keaton’s Battling Butler (1926) and The Navigator (1924) from out of the Cohen Films vault.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

Continuing its Nicolas Cage series by screening 1989’s Vampire’s Kiss in 35mm on Weds, Friday and Saturday nights, plus another screening of Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) on Sunday.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

This week’s Friday midnight is the uncut version of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1990 film Santa Sangre.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

On Sunday, you can take the family to a matinee of Muppet Christmas Carol.

That’s it for this week. I’ll be taking a week off from the Box Office Preview over at The Beat, but the Weekend Warrior (sigh) will be back here with all the limited releases kicking off December.

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