English dude-bro Guy Ritchie, having made his mark on the Sherlock Holmes mythos, turns his attention now to a famous Brit who probably actually existed. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which Ritchie co-wrote with Joby Harold and Lionel Wigram, applies the same kind of whirling, modern, masculine energy to Arthur and Excalibur that he […]
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After Eddie Murphy(‘s social media team) tweeted then deleted a tease about it, Paramount Pictures confirmed the implausible: a sequel to 1988’s Coming to America is currently in development. The announcement raised the expected questions. Will Arsenio Hall return? Does McDonald’s-knockoff McDowell’s serve breakfast all day now? Will the Jheri curl subplot continue? And above […]
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How do we measure the importance of an artist? One way is to look at how often their influence is identified in the work of other artists. But an even better yardstick might be to gauge how often their influence is misidentified. By this standard, there may be no more important artist in cinema today […]
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Everyone knows how filmmaker-driven the Alien franchise has been. Yes, even your Aunt Beth knows this. The series started the careers of Hollywood mainstays Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher, besides giving French wunderkind Jean-Pierre Jeunet a shot at a big-budget blockbuster. Most astonishing of all is the fact that the genius Paul Anderson […]
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In this week’s episode of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, entitled Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the ragtag group of space-rogues led by self-described “Star-Lord” Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) meets a new friend: Peter’s father, played by Special Guest Star Kurt Russell! Peter never knew anything about his dad, only that he was not an […]
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If you know me in real life, first of all you’re welcome, but secondly, you also know that I’m someone who goes out of his way to avoid insulting another person’s beliefs. That overly considerate mentality combined with my vast movie knowledge means that when friends and strangers ask if they should watch certain films, […]
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A certain breed of movie fan knows immediately why something called The Overlook Film Festival would be held at a place called the Timberline Lodge. The Timberline Lodge? In Oregon? Why, that’s the place that stood in for the fictional Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s movie version of The Shining! What better place to hold […]
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This may be news to you, especially if you hate kids, don’t have kids, or work from home, but April 27 is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Founded by Gloria Steinem way back in 1993 with the goal of exposing young girls to the workplace, it was expanded beyond its clearly sexist […]
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Maybe it’s the fashion or the facial hair, but Hollywood’s got it bad for the ‘70s right now. From the world of television (Showtime’s upcoming comedy series I’m Dying Up Here or HBO’s The Deuce) to film (Sofia Coppola’s remake of 1971’s The Beguiled), there’s a marked uptick in returning to the world of the […]
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On more than one occasion, it has been my duty to inform some poor/lucky soul — poor in the sense that they have gone their whole life unaware of the blessing I am about to bestow upon them; lucky in that they are about to be receive The Good News — of the existence of […]
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We all know about 3-D movies by now. Some of us love ’em; most of us are indifferent to the gimmick. We just want a good movie. But why do 3-D movies actually exist? Well, take a look at the signs in your local box office. By now you’ve probably noticed that 3-D movie tickets […]
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Stipulated: The Armenian genocide, in which some 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by the Ottoman government (we call it Turkey now) between 1915 and 1922, is underrepresented in history books and in popular culture. Among 20th-century holocausts, it takes a backseat to the capital-H one in terms of size, scope, and worldwide societal impact. More […]
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