Movies

Dracula. Fu Manchu. Saruman. Count Dooku.

Christopher Lee portrayed these and countless other notable characters in his decades spanning career, sending chills up our spines with creepfests like THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH. Those who've been around a while will always see him as Dracula, a role he portrayed in several of the classic Hammer horror films, or as the evil Chinese crime lord, Fu Manchu.  Millennials will more likely remember him for his role as Saruman in Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS films, or as Count Dooku in the later STAR WARS films.

The actor passed away last Sunday, according to The Guardian, of "respiratory problems and heart failure." He celebrated his 93rd birthday two months ago.

Okay, this is one of those things you admit when you're drunk with your friends and it's that point in the drinking where you admit embarrassing stuff you would never tell anyone else, but you're pretty sure that now is the right time to bare your soul. For me, it's this: I watched IN THE NAME OF THE KING and didn't hate it. It had a great cast, including Jason Statham, Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys-Davies, Ron Perlman, Matthew Lillard... and maybe because of that, it surpassed low expectations set by seeing that it was directed by Uwe Boll, whose claim to fame is making really bad movies out of moderately popular videogames.

KILLING JESUS is the film based on the book by Bill O'Reilly with Martin Dugard. I have not read this book, but if Christopher Menaul's vision of the movie is anything close to it, it's a very unique vision of Jesus, and one that I couldn't see sitting comfortably with most Christians.

The story covers the range of Jesus's life, but skips over some important aspects. It begins with King Herod (Kelsey Grammer) who has a vision of Isaiah telling him the true King of the Jews has been born. This precedes a visit from the magi who are following an astronomical sign, which prompts Herod to order all the male babies to be killed. But Jesus escapes, because Joseph feels that the adulation poured out on their child will arouse Herod's jealousy.

In case you're even an amateur Bible scholar, you may have noticed that we're skipping over that whole bit about a visitation from an angel and going with a gut feeling.

This contest is over. The winners are DAN L. of LOS ANGELES, CA and LYNNE D. of GANSEVOORT, NY.

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 opens today, June 5. In honor of that, we are giving away a full-sized, double-sided theatrical poster to TWO (2) randomly selected entrants from this contest.

The good news is that you don't have to make contact with any supernatural or disturbing beings (the appearance of our editorial staff notwithstanding). All you have to do is enter your information in the form below, and click on the submit button.

If you haven't already done so, be sure to reference our complete rules and regulations. CriticalBlast.com does not sell, lease, or psychically transfer your personal information to anyone, and all entries are destroyed upon confirmation of delivery to the winner(s) via USPS priority mail tracking.

Vinny Chase and the boys are back, and they’re just as entertaining as ever in ENTOURAGE the movie!  The award winning HBO series ran eight seasons from 2004 to 2011, and now they hit the silver screen to round out this beloved series that documents movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his loyal friends as they party their way through the Hollywood life.  ENTOURAGE takes place about six months after the series ended.

From Pixar Animation Studios, “The Good Dinosaur” opens Thanksgiving 2015.

"The Good Dinosaur" asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? Pixar Animation Studios takes you on an epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.  Cast includes: Lucas Neff, Frances McDormand, Bill Hader, John Lithgow and Neil Patrick Harris.

So just how much of Hollywood has Marvel taken over?

The folks at MorphCostumes have put together this handy-dandy infographic ranking Marvel Comic Book adaptations that have made it to the silver screen (including Disney's BIG HERO SIX and FOX's X-MEN movies, among others). While some of these won't surprise you, there's certainly fodder for conversation here to fuel a good fan rant about which movies deserved to make more money.

(Having trouble viewing? Click to enlarge)

I love a good con movie. From THE STING through LEVERAGE, if it's done well, I'm pulled in.

FOCUS starts off with great promise, and the fact that the filmmaker's brought in the master, Apollo Robbins, as a consultant, shows they at least had their hearts in the right place going into this. The film stars Will Smith and Margot Robbie (who will pair up again in the already overexposed SUICIDE SQUAD next year) as Nicky, a master con man, and Jess, a would-be pickpocket who crosses his path. He takes her in, mentors her in the finer points of the grift, and lets her take part in some of his current cons. And then, without notice, he cuts her loose. All that buildup, all those wonderfully filmed scenes just go poof as we realize this was just backstory to the film that's only just now getting started well into the movie.

There's a certain mathematical elegance to the Wachowski's JUPITER ASCENDING. Given infinite space and infinite time, someone will be born somewhere with the exact same genetic sequence as someone who already existed. Multiply those infinite chances out, and that previous person might have been the Queen of the universe, who owned the Earth and willed it back to herself should she ever be genetically reassembled.

Of course, if the Queen of the Universe had children who covet the Earth because they're getting ready to harvest the people there to make their special water of life (the daughter is over 14 millennia old), then you might want to watch your royal back.

It's been said that every comic book is somebody's first comic book. I guess a corollary to that is that every superhero is somebody's favorite superhero.

Case in point: The Human Torch. This hotheaded member of the Fantastic Four started out as a teenaged, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian, just like his timid sister. And he's been that way pretty much since the 1960s, save for some very minor adjustments to his age.

Elijah Wood’s career can best be described as…..mercurial. With credits ranging from the terrible The Bumblebee Flies Anyway all the way to the pinnacle of his career as the voice of Spyro in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, it can safely be said that the entertainment industry hasn’t typecast him. Doing the heavy lifting in television shows such as Adventures from the Book of Virtues, lending his voice to the part of Mumble in the video game “Happy Feet”, and of course, he is most well known for playing the title role in the coming-of-age movie North.

“Tomorrowland” is an interesting film for Disney Pictures. It’s based on the Tomorrowland theme parks found within the greater Disney World and Disneyland campuses, and is very exciting visually. It also a PG movie, which surprises me a little, as profanity is sometimes hinted at and there are occasional moments of unexpected violence that could leave the little ones in a bit of shock. In fact, the movie’s message itself probably would be lost on the kids that get excited for films like “Frozen” and “Despicable Me” (I know, not Disney, not the point).

Blast of the Week -  What do you think about Marvel and DC’s upcoming film projects?

Mike Maillaro: After all that talk about Avengers: Age of Ultron last week, I couldn’t help but think about all the movies Marvel and DC have already announced over the next five years.  These slates are pretty ambitious to say the least….21 movies already announced and scheduled.  

PITCH PERFECT 2 hit a high note with me.  I tried not to set my expectations too high—I just wanted a light-hearted comedy that I could take at face value, and PP2 delivered!  Elizabeth Banks, who apparently likes to announce for both a capalla competitions and Hunger Games, directs this fun and fancy free sequel.  The movie starts out with the Barden Bellas going back to school in their senior year of college.  They have already won three national a capella titles after PITCH PERFECT, and end up in a more exhilarating singing competition faced with formidable German opponents Das Sound Machine. 

It really shouldn't have worked. I mean, none of it fits: The Guardians of the Galaxy comic book has always been something of a mish-mash of incongruent characters that don't fit anywhere else. The cast of the film included an unlikely lead in Chris Pratt, a professional wrestler and MMA fighter in Dave Bautsta, and two of the sexiest actors around--so the lades tell me--in Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel doing voce-over work! Impossible? Not for James Gunn, the director who turned this crazy dea into yet another Marvel cinematic success. Mr. Gunn shouldn't bill himself as "director" anymore. His credit should read "Alchemist." Who else could turn this leaden concept into pure gold?

The votiing for this one wasn't even close, with Guardians pulling in a whopping 46% of all votes. The only one that came close was Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with 23%.

George Lucas gets a lot of Internet anger directed his way. In fact, I've made some choice criticisms about his work over the years.  Still, it's hard to argue that for many of us he created our favorite fictional world.  It doesn't just stop with STAR WARS either. My God, the Indiana Jones trilogy is amongst my most loved films, as well.

While most of the work he's created in the past twenty years doesn't stand up to those classics I mentioned above, he did release the wonderful RED TAILS a few years ago.  Like any creator, Lucas is hit or miss, but his highs are so far above most others, it boggles the mind.

Blast of the Week -  What did you think of Avengers: Age of Ultron?

For my generation, Christopher Reeve will always be the best Superman, and Michael Keaton will always be the best Batman. Taking on an iconic superhero role always runs the risk of stereotyping the actor, but Michael Keaton had already made a name for himself before donning the cape and cowl, with a string of comedies like JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY, MR. MOM, and BEETLEJUICE, contrasted with incredible dramatic performances in shows like CLEAN AND SOBER and, later, PACIFIC HEIGHTS.

As Riggan Thomson, the lead character of BIRDMAN (subtitled THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE), Keaton portrays a washed-up actor, best known for having played the titular superhero, Birdman. While Keaton may have had some experience to draw on for part of this, he's never been "washed up" and has kept busy his entire career. With BIRDMAN, Keaton delivers a disturbing performance of a man mocked by his past and taking incredible risks to redeem his status, even if it takes suicide.

Disney has finally started to release some information on their forthcoming Disney Infinity 3.0.   What we know so far is that the game will be very Star Wars heavy.  The new starter pack will come with Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano.   I am actually surprised they didn't got a little heavier on Rebels or The Force Awakens...but the variety of figures here is pretty cool. 

We also got a pretty cool trailer, which features a lot of vehicle action and lightsaber duels, which makes sense for Star Wars.  Hopefully they will have decent controls for the flying:
 

On the Marvel side, the only new character they have shown is Hulkbuster Ironman.

Sometimes you're lucky to review an item that simply put, you know going in you already love. I mean, what can I tell you about the film Goodfellas that hasn't already been said? It's up there with the first two Godfather films as one of the greatest achievements in gangster cinema. So glorious is this film that it transcends the genre and isn't JUST a gangster film. It's simply a masterful piece of storytelling. Beautifully written, masterfully directed, and featuring some of the best performances of the past quarter century. It's fingerprint is upon so many films that have come since. Goodfellas has created stereotypes and tropes of the genre, yet when it was released it was original and vibrant. The only question to be pondered: does it hold up twenty-five years later.