Taking the concept of “low-key” to new heights, Kelly Reichardt’s new film is not for my student who commented, after watching Jason Reitman’s Young Adult (which I consider rapidly paced), “It’s like the stuff they cut out of normal films”. Slow to the point of being provocative (“Can you take it? Can you sit still?”)…
DetailsWelcome to another week of important, world-altering stories form the film industry! These are sure to astound, Vex, and defy all logic! In this week’s “dissing Disney” story, Disney is aggressively seeking great talent to make their upcoming live-action version of Mulan. they’re looking for a director and asked Ang Lee to step in. Well,…
DetailsBen Affleck gets to play Will Hunting and Jason Bourne in this superhero origin story for adults. He’s Christian Wolff (doesn’t that sound like it’s been someone already?), a math savant on the spectrum who’s also, thanks to some brutal – but prettily sunlit – Asian training rather handy with his fists and other bits.…
DetailsGodzilla and I go way back. He/she/it was on the cover of my 1980 book The World of Fantasy Films. I also wrote about him/her/it extensively in my 1984 book S-F 2: The Great Science Fiction Films, and either moderated or served on panels about him/her/it at the San Diego Comic Con and The World…
DetailsIt’s already time for another reporting of insane film news update-y things! What is going on!?! In this week’s ‘AAAAH, STOP IT!” story, Numerous companies, including Frenesy Film and Mythology Entertainment, are producing yet another remake of a classic film. Yes, Chloe Grace Moretz has joined Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton and Mia Goth in a…
DetailsAs you may already know, I love animation, but even I have to admit that there are too many coming out right now — which can result is unworthy ones getting a shake, and worthy ones getting lost in the mix. Such is the case, I think, with Storks, whose uninspiring title and publicity campaign…
DetailsIt seemed like a match made in movie heaven. Take a beloved series of magical, best-selling, books about weird ‘n’ wondrous kids and hand off the movie version to the master of the weird ‘n’ wonderful, Tim Burton. What could possibly wrong? Well, based on the evidence of the finished film, pretty much everything except…
DetailsDespite great casting, there is so much potential for this to go horribly, horribly wrong. Already trying to do a remake of not only a great classic western, but the original film upon which even THAT was based, The Seven Samurai, by the legendary director, Akira Kurasawa. It’s one thing to take a Japanese film…
DetailsThe Girl On The Train is an effective, well-constructed and tightly wound adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ 2015 best-seller (which did not, contrary to the poster copy, “shock the world”, but which did give readers a juicy little post-Gone Girl misty mystery to read on, well, the train). Emily Blunt stars as an alcoholic divorcee who…
DetailsWelcome back to this week’s cavalcade of news stories form the world of film! We already start off with a doozy, so hold on tight! In this week’s “Most vexing remake” story, screenwriter Terence Winter has been hired to pen director Antoine Fuqua’s remake of Scarface. I know, that sentence gave me pause as well.…
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