At face value, 1981’s Neighbors is The Blues Brothers Take Suburbia. The yellowed cover of my VHS copy calls it “A Comic Smash” and promises “Belushi and Aykroyd are at it again and the results are uproarious!” without a hint of attribution, making both statements about as legally binding as the GoodTimes Home Video slogan, […]
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Admittedly, Baby Driver employs a gimmick. Written and directed by the impossibly clever Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), the film’s main character is a getaway driver who times his crew’s bank robberies to be in sync with his iPod, which has an eclectic playlist of pop/rock songs that are heard not just […]
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Joe Dante knew he’d made it in Hollywood when a grip on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) pointed out which corner of the soundstage Errol Flynn once used as his own personal bathroom. His career has always walked that same line between profound and profane. Dante got his start as one half […]
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[Editor’s note: Craig J. Clark had somehow never seen a Michael Bay film until recently, when he watched all of them. He wrote about the experience here: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV. Given his expertise, it seemed fitting to have him review the new Transformers movie, too.] A few weeks back, film critics […]
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One of the most anticipated films in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled. The Civil War period piece — which centers on the drama caused by the appearance of a wounded Union soldier at a secluded girls’ school deep in Confederate territory — was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, […]
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The time of year has come when we dutiful Americans shove our families into tightly packed cars and head off to giant, overpriced amusement parks! Crying children in the back, sleeping spouse in the passenger seat, and a strong urge to drive headlong into an eighteen wheeler if only to save yourself from the agony […]
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As the world teeters on the brink of Transformers: The Last Knight, Craig J. Clark has finally reached the end of the road that led Michael Bay — and the rest of us — here. Craig called the tune. It’s time to pay the piper. Part IV: Gains and Losses (2013-2016) After directing three retina-searing […]
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Pixar’s first bad movie, Cars 2, erred in making Mater the tow truck the main character and in emphasizing a tired espionage caper over jokes. Pixar’s second bad movie, Cars 3, fixes those mistakes and replaces them with different ones. This time, the accursed Mater is hardly around at all (and the film seems apologetic […]
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This week marks the 30th anniversary of John McTiernan’s action/sci-fi blockbuster Predator. It was the first credited movie role for the actor who plays the dirty-joke-obsessed Hawkins, but his excitement about that may have been overshadowed by something else. His name is Shane Black, you see, and he also wrote a little buddy cop movie […]
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As the world edges closer and closer to the release of Transformers: The Last Knight, Craig J. Clark is mapping the road that led Michael Bay — and the rest of us — here. Here’s the rub: Before he embarked on this project, Craig had never seen a Michael Bay movie. And it’s too late […]
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Sometimes you see a movie and think, “How did this get made?” Fortunately, we have listening devices planted in the offices of every major Hollywood studio — a must for any serious entertainment journalist — and are able to bring you the behind-the-scenes story until the court order arrives. . The Pitch Meeting for The Mummy […]
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Fictional monsters have often been used to examine the “other” within ourselves. But the various incarnations of The Mummy — in 1932, 1999, and now 2017 — have touched on America’s interactions with foreign, exotic “others.” In a nutshell, each version follows the same narrative: stupid English-speaking people unearth an ancient mummy that brings bad […]
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