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Read MoreDAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Is Just Another Unwieldy Blockbuster
Reading the reviews that have come in for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, you would think that the sequel to the blockbuster surprise Rise of the Planet of the Apes was something special. Truth be told, there’s a special movie in it somewhere. But it’s the stuff that’s so desperately ordinary that keeps it from differentiating itself from any given summer blockbuster. What’s so ordinary here? I could say it’s shallow characters or standard sequel-itis, making a movie bigger than the first just to be bigger. That’s not it, though. Dawn of the Planets of the Apes is exactly the kind of blockbuster we’ve become accustomed to in the last decade or show: An unwieldy one. Dawn of the Planets of the...
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Read MoreWill We See THE BATMAN In 2019?
When the supposed Warner Bros./DC Comics film slate through 2018 hit the internet last week, there was one burning question: What about a stand-alone Batman movie? Wonder Woman will finally get her movie. We’re getting a sequel to Man of Steel. Plus, there’s a Green Lantern/Flash team-up in the mix. But noticeably absent from the list was the first Batfleck flick. Given the overly enthusiastic response to Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, it makes sense that WB/DC would let the new Batman take hold in a series of DCCU movies before launching a new Batman series. Still, it has to be in the works, right? Right. According to Latino Review, WB/DC are planning Batfleck’s stand-alone movie for 2019, with the current working title of The Batman. It’s just a...
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Read More22 JUMP STREET Exceeds All Comedy Expectations
I loved 21 Jump Street. I thought it was smart, funny and best of all, a surprise. It managed to successfully score with its target audience and further without having to follow the mindless, juvenile fart and sex joke tropes that films in the same genre now seem to contain all too often. I had very cautious high expectations for the sequel, 22 Jump Street. I was scared that the trailers had given the film away and that the all too familiar plot would detract from the enjoyment. That’s why I was disappointed with Neighbors (and I have heard some pretty dismal things about A Million Ways to Die in the West), so I was really hoping for a redeeming comedy this year. 22 Jump Street not only met my...
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Read MoreThe DC Cinematic Universe May Include 7 Films in 3 Years!
DC’s continued effort to create a cinematic universe that can rival Marvel‘s may have it’s problems, but apparently ambition isn’t one of them. According to Nikki Finke, formerly of Deadline infamy, Warner Bros. and DC are planning a major launch for the DCCU at next month’s Comic Con. That plan looks to include seven films in the next three years, including the long-speculated Justice League film, as well as Wonder Woman and a Flash/Green Lantern picture. Here’s what the schedule looks like: May 2016 – Batman v Superman July 2016 – Shazam Xmas 2016 – Sandman May 2017 – Justice League July 2017 – Wonder Woman Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2 If this turns out to be true, and knowing it’s coming...
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Read MoreIs Singer Out For X-MEN: APOCALYPSE?
Bryan Singer has always been a divisive director in the X-Men Universe. There are fans who hate the first two movies because Singer made Singer movies rather than simply making fun X-Men flicks. Then he left the franchise in order to make Superman Returns over at Warner Bros., causing the top brass at Fox to hate fuck rush X-Men: The Last Stand to release with a mediocre director just so they could beat Superman to theaters. But just as Singer returned to the franchise and crushed it with X-Men: Days of Future Past, the director faced sex abuse allegations that could now derail his return to the franchise. Radar Online is reporting that Singer and execs at Fox are squaring off over whether Singer can or should helm what could...
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Read MoreSpielberg Planning An ALL THE WAY Mini-Series For Bryan Cranston
Just a day after winning Best Play and Best Actor at the Tony’s, All the Way, which chronicles LBJ‘s attempt to get the 88th Congress to pass civil rights legislation, may already have a TV mini-series adaptation in the works… from none other than Steven Spielberg. According to Deadline, Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment is eyeing a production of the award-winning play complete with Bryan Cranston reprising his role as Landslide Lyndon. Since it is a mini-series and not a feature film, Deadline is also speculating that it may involve All the Way playwright Robert Schenkkan’s soon-to-premiere sequel The Great Society. It’s not yet known where the mini-series will find a home, but you can bet that HBO is at the top of the list given Spielberg’s history with the premium cabler. The...
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Read MorePeyton Reed Gets Marvel’s ANT-MAN Gig
Well, that’s disappointing. Just hours after the spectacular David Wain was name dropped as a possible Edgar Wright replacement on Marvel’s Ant-Man, director Peyton Reed, the man who has given us Bring It On (which I love), Yes Man (which I can take or leave) and The Break-Up (which I hate), was announced as the final choice. As a David Wain fan, this is doubly tough. Edgar Wright dropping out was sad, but I get it. David Wain, who could have actually brought something more than benign comedy to the mix, not getting the gig just salts the wound. Oh well, good luck to Mr. Reed. He’s going to need it. We may not get an interesting Ant-Man or an off-beat Ant-Man but at least we’ll get a harmlessly funny one. It’s worth...
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Read MoreMarvel’s DOCTOR STRANGE Gets A Director!
While Marvel searches for Edgar Wright’s replacement over on Ant-Man, they’ve locked in the helmer for the highly anticipated adaptation of Doctor Strange. According to Variety, director Scott Derrickson, whose filmography includes Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and the direct to video sequel Hellraiser: Inferno, is in final talks to take the reigns of a film that could be the next big Marvel superhero franchise. If you aren’t familiar with Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange, he’s a former neurosurgeon who protects the Earth from magical threats as its Sorcerer Supreme. Derrickson has a history of turning in solid (and profitable) horror pictures with mystical/religious themes, which very well could mean see Strange versus Daimon Hellstrom (a.k.a. Son of Satan). Ant-Man issues aside, a Doctor Strange film could be pretty epic. I’ve been excited for it...
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On Cleveland
I get frustrated when I read about Cleveland. It was my home for six years, three of which I spent living inside the city. It’s not just the jokes about a city that really is on the rise that bug me, though. It’s the way the Clevelanders defend it. I loved Cleveland for a lot of reasons, and had I not had the opportunity to move to Austin, Texas, a cinephile paradise, I would probably still live there today. But these are not reasons I would have stayed: If anyone else wants to make up a list about Cleveland, feel free to mention our world-renowned Cleveland Museum of Art, world-class Cleveland Orchestra and world-famous Cleveland Clinic. If you toss in University Hospitals Case Medical Center and MetroHealth, you’re in medical Mecca. That was Regina Brett’s defense in her article “Cleveland is a city on fire.” She wrote that article with good reason. Once again, Cleveland jokes became headlines when the RNC announced it was chose for the 2016 Republican National Convention and Lebron James said he was going home. But world-class this and old culture that don’t make Cleveland, Cleveland. Another reason I wouldn’t want to live in Cleveland? Affordable housing, colleges, diversity, young professionals or pretty much anything listed in this Thought Catalog post....
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TARGETS, Guns and the Violence Norm
I come from a gun family. There were more guns in my house than there were pieces of furniture. It wasn’t due to paranoia or even the idea of safety. No, my father simply like to hunt. And my first gun was a .30-06, which I used to shoot my first—and last—deer. I didn’t have the stomach for it. Still, guns have never put me off. The gun I used while hunting was the same type a spree-killing sniper uses in Peter Bogdanovich’s first movie Targets. It’s a film both modeled after and in response to the Charles Whitman massacre at the University of Texas, where, after killing his wife and mother, he climbed the UT Tower and killed another 16 people. He wounded 32 more. At the beginning of the film, there’s a message tacked on by the studio positioning the film as pro-gun control picture. It was, after all, released just months after the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But there’s something disingenuous about the message at the start of the film. It never really feels like a pro-gun control picture, but rather a reaction to what was at the time unimaginable violence, be it Vietnam or Charles Whitman or political assassinations. Even the horrors on screen...
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AFFLUENZA’s Strengths Outweigh Its Weaknesses
Redhead Review: Affluenza Affluenza, the newest feature from Holy Rollers (2010) director Kevin Asch, is a fairly predictable, formulaic glimpse into the lives of entitled teens and their absent, equally spoiled parents living in Great Neck, Long Island during the summer preceding the 2008 financial crisis. The film centers specifically on middle-class teen Fischer Miller (Ben Rosenfield) who spends the summer there with his rich cousin Kate (Nicola Peltz) and her friends, selling weed to them and expertly photographing...
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Rian Johnson Is The Latest Boring White Guy To Get A STAR WARS Gig
Because what Star Wars needed is another boring white guy in charge of franchise movies, Disney has hired Rian Johnson, director of two okay films like (Brick and Looper) and one bad one (The Brothers Bloom), to take the reigns of the sequel trilogy after J.J. Abrams finishes the relaunch with Star Wars VII. According to Deadline, Johnson is set take on the major task of writing and directing Star Wars VIII and IX, which will conclude the new trilogy. I’m happy for Rian. He’s worked hard for this...
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HOMEMAKERS Lacks Direction But Speaks To Lost Souls
Readhead Review: Homemakers Homemakers finds part-time Austin-based punk singer Irene McCabey, played by Rachel McKeon, off to claim her inheritance in Pittsburgh—after her grandfather passes away, she is left with an abandoned and dilapidated three-story house. She runs into a long-lost cousin (turned drinking partner) named Cam, and they attempt to restore the house together, or demolish it—it is, at least initially, troublingly unclear which, or what Irene really even wants. She says she wants to sell it, but she...
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