The box office is the place where the hermetically sealed wonderland of the movie theater connects with the world outside. Removing that—along with marquees on the theater itself and out on the road leading to the theater—shifts movie theaters into the “out of sight, out of mind” category,” which I think is ultimately bad for … Read more
Did the look of “Collateral” seem like a step down for Mann, and for movies? I worried about that. The actual movie, which came out 20 years ago this week and just came out on 4K Blu-ray for the first time, was a much richer experience. It didn’t look slick or solid like Mann’s shot-on-film projects. It … Read more
I thought, “Oh, I’ll skip reading that piece and save it until I see the movie this weekend.” My wife had already seen it and loved it. We had a young daughter and would take turns going to movies by ourselves while the other stayed home. But as I turned the page, purely by happenstance, my eye … Read more
Quill defines them all as “losers” at one point in the story. The description is not as self-flagellating as it initially might seem. He’s reclaiming the word by redefining a loser not as somebody who cannot or will not “win” but as somebody who’s lost something precious but keeps going anyway. No other character in the MCU franchise … Read more
So do the terms of the original contract mean you could make a “Repo Man” sequel but you couldn’t show it outside of the United States? We [could, but we] would have to sell it to Universal [first], because they own the foreign rights to a “Repo Man” sequel. In theory, could Universal do a … Read more
Ramsey and Hunter’s conflicting philosophies are put to the ultimate test under the direst possible circumstances. They’re already on high alert thanks to a Russian separatist group that has taken control of a nuclear missile battery. The Alabama is ordered to fire its nukes to stop the seemingly imminent attack. But this already-dire situation is … Read more
[LIGHTS DIM; VIDEO STARTS PLAYING] Many of my favorite films have endings that most people would consider unhappy. But I don’t. To me, the only ending that makes me unhappy is the wrong ending. “The Parallax View,” the 1974 paranoid thriller starring Warren Beatty as a renegade reporter investigating the murder of a United States senator, has … Read more
“Day One” takes its sweet time getting to the inciting incident (alien invasion) and instead sets up the plight of its heroine Sam, a terminal cancer patient spending her final days in a Brooklyn hospice that seems to be populated mainly by seniors. Sam is played by Lupita Nyong’o, an expert at reaction-driven horror performances, having played … Read more
A side note, but not really: In 1990, thanks to the release of Philip Kaufman’s Henry Miller-Anias Nin biopic “Henry and June,” another MPAA rating was added, the NC-17. This meant no children under 17 were admitted at all unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. This was mainly about sex, although violence was also taken into … Read more
We’re continuing on the theme of psychedelic Sean Connery movies; this one as empty-headed as “Zardoz” is bristling with philosophical intrigue but twice as beautiful. This is the singular work of Russell Mulcahy, the genius behind Razorback, Ricochet, and the creator of the modern music video. I love Russell Mulcahy with all my heart; I’m such … Read more