Movies

In a world where balance exists between the dark and light sides of the force, forshadowing casts a gray cloud over everything.

What does it all mean?

Hell if I know. THE LAST JEDI will be deconstructed until the next installment is released. This much I know for sure. The internet will be littered with articles that dissect the most miniscule moments. Have questions been answered? Yes. Do we have more questions now that we've seen it? Absolutely.

Rian Johnson delivers a movie that is both action packed, humorous, and full of depth. While some of the comedy is more over-the-top than we're used to for a Star Wars movie, it still meshes well and doesn't distract from the story that's being told around it.

Guillermo del Toro makes moves that no one else in Hollywood would ever even conceive of, and that should be considered high praise. The big blockbusters generally follow a pretty routine formula. Most films so. Very seldom does a director write and execute his own script with the clarity of vision and abundant originality of his latest film, The Shape of Water. It’s a love story, a monster movie, and a unique look at a creature that doesn’t belong in this world…and minor spoiler alert—only one of these three descriptions applies to the “monster.”

St. Louis -- Michelle Reeves

(This review contains material that may be considered by some as spoiler.)

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS was slow, as it introduced new characters, and ended with Rey facing the missing Luke Skywalker, thus building into STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI.

Without really knowing what to expect from TLJ, I went in with an open mind.  After a lengthy period of time, Rey finally convinces Luke Skywalker to assist the Resistance, after he initially refuses. He also reluctantly starts teaching Rey to be a Jedi. 

The film excellently portrayed the struggle between good and evil within us.  Rey converses with Kylo Ren, trying to learn about who he really is.  Using the Force, she sees and feels the conflict within Kylo--the same conflict we all face individually between right and wrong, good and evil, restraint and temptation. 

From Entertainment Weekly:

This Phoenix has risen… again. On Nov. 2, 2018, Dark Phoenix will arrive in theaters and finally deliver the storyline X-Men fans have wanted for years. Simon Kinberg previously attempted to tell the iconic Jean Grey tale — about the telepath’s battle with demons in her own mind — with his screenplay for 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, but studio pressure squeezed her story into a reductive subplot. Kinberg, making his directorial debut, felt in his gut that this was the story that he needed to tell once Bryan Singer, who directed the previous two sequels, stepped aside. “[The film] was so clear in my head, emotionally and visually, that it would have killed me to hand this to somebody else to direct,” Kinberg says.

A cabin. A handful of characters. An engaging conversation.

A pretty good way to spend an evening -- but would you believe that such a simple, prosaic and unchanging scene could make for a compelling film? That's the case with Director Richard Schenkman's vision of Jerome Bixby's THE MAN FROM EARTH.

CSI: MIAMI's DAVID LEE SMITH plays Dr. John Oldman, a college professor who is giving up tenure after ten years teaching to move on. He's ditched the goodbye party thrown by his friends, so they bring it to him, at his remote cabin, and press him for the reasons why he is leaving. And that's when these academics--leaders in their field--are given a story and a hypothesis that challenges everything they believe in: that John Oldman is a Cro-Magnon man who, for reasons he himself doesn't understand, has never died.

Hollywood has long had a fascination with movies about casinos, gambling and those where characters play bingo. There are almost endless examples of where gambling makes an appearance, but the ones below feature casino pastimes as being central to the plot and the action. If you haven’t seen some of these, be sure to check them out.

Casino Royale (2006) - Daniel Craig makes his debut as James Bond in this film which has been billed one of the top-grossing films in the series. In this scene, we see Agent 007 playing a hand of high stakes poker against Le Chiffre played by Mads Mikkelsen. The gambling scenes are well played and the tension coming off the big screen is downright palpable!

Where's the fun? Where's the 'hope'? Where are the superheroes that bring light and joy to the big screen?

The criticisms of the DCEU have been broadcast far and wide across the internet. From social media, to every Rotten Tomatoes score ever given out, Geoff Johns and Warner Bros. have heard the call for more fun.

Justice League delivered.

But it wasn't about to make you feel numb to emotion either. There's an overarching theme to JUSTICE LEAGUE about the absence of Superman. He's missed by those who admired him, those who loved him, those who fought by his side, and those who only heard of his legend.

From Entertainment Weekly:

James Franco likes to multiply himself. Back in March 2015, he interviewed himself for Four Two Nine magazine, splitting himself into a “Straight James” and a “Gay James.” More recently, in HBO’s The Deuce, he played two different characters, the identical twin brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino. But now the Franco clones are about to increase exponentially. EW has confirmed that the star of The Disaster Artist is in negotiations to play Multiple Man, a Marvel mutant from the X-Men universe with the ability to clone himself, in a new solo film of the same name. Deadline first reported the news.

Warner Bros. Pictures announces “FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD” as the title of the second of five all new adventures in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World™.  Opening exactly one year from today, November 16, 2018, the film features an ensemble cast led by Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, with Jude Law and Johnny Depp. 

At the end of the first film, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Depp) was captured by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), with the help of Newt Scamander (Redmayne).  But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings. 

Okay, deep breath…I can do this…in through the nose, out through the mouth…okay, I’m ready…

Justice League didn’t suck. There, I said it. Happy now? Oh, don’t get too excited, it’s far from perfect. It’s also got lots of Gal Gadot reprising her role as Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck returning as Batman, virtually no Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, and a pretty breezy pace, so that’s all good.  If the last Fantastic Four had not been released, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice would be the Ishtar of superhero movies, and this effort is nowhere near that bad. However it’s also rather derivative, at times, of Marvel’s The Avengers films, has a tacked on villain few outside of DC Comics’ most loyal fans will have even heard of, way too much of Zack Snyder’s signature visual overkill, and poorly integrated Joss Whedon humor.

From MSNBC:

21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co., leaving behind a media company tightly focused on news and sports, according to people familiar with the situation.

The talks have taken place over the last few weeks and there is no certainty they will lead to a deal. The two sides are not currently talking at this very moment, but given the on again, off again nature of the talks, they could be revisited.

Disney has been doing quite a few of their animated movies as live-action films the last few years.  Honestly, I tend to like the animated originals better, but the live-action versions have all been pretty good.   They will be releasing THE LION KING in Summer 2019.  Which is a bit strange, since it obviously have have to basically be entirely computer-generated (similar to THE JUNGLE BOOK). 

Disney announced the cast, and it is a hell of a line-up!

I saw this piece in the Wall Street Journal today (not my usual source for entertainment news):

Before exhibitors can begin screening "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" this December, they must first commit to a set of top-secret terms that numerous theater owners say are the most onerous they've ever seen. Disney will receive about 65% of ticket-sales revenue from the film, a new benchmark for a Hollywood studio. Disney is also requiring theaters to show the movie in their largest auditorium for at least four weeks.

Before I tell you about Marvel’s latest superhero epic, Thor: Ragnarok, let us all get on the same four-color page. There are four parties most interested in this epic culmination of what is at least a trilogy at this point for the God of Thunder:       

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Zachary Levi is going to be Earth's mightiest mortal.

The actor will star in the DC comic book adaptation Shazam!, which follows a boy named Billy Batson, who can transform into an adult superhero by uttering the magic word "Shazam!" 

...

According to NJ.com:

Regal Entertainment Group, the second largest chain in the U.S...is partnering with mobile ticketing app maker, Atom Tickets, to test out a "demand-based pricing for film tickets in several markets early next year," according to Variety.

The higher demand in a movie -- say "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" or "Justice League," to cite two upcoming titles expected to be hugely successful -- the higher the ticket price.

This morning we got a new trailer for BLACK PANTHER from Marvel Studios

You only need to get a hit 1 out of every 3 at bats to be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame. So it is with Stephen King, who holds what has to be the record for having the coolest story ideas turned into the worst movies ever -- or sometimes turned into really great movies that were nothing at all like the story from which they got their title. (THE RUNNING MAN, I'm looking at you!)

The folks over at Moneypod have actually given this more than some passing thought, as IT continues its theatrical run into Halloween, and have crunched the numbers into this handy-dandy not-so-little infographic, provided here for our readers. Thanks, Moneypod!

Woke up this morning to find that Fox posted a NEW MUTANTS trailer in the wee hours of the night.

During Monday Night Football, Disney posted up a brand new trailer for STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI along with this poster.  I think it's a wonderful tribute to Carrie FIsher to feature General Leia front and center on the poster.  The poster doesn't give us a lot of new info on the movie, but it does look damn cool.

The trailer itself is pretty cool. Not a lot of spoilers, thankfully, but definitely enough teases to get people hyped up for the movie.  Poor Luke seems to have lost his fricking mind since we last saw him...wonder if we will ever get the full back story there.