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By Rob Hunter/July 20, 2018 9:00 am EST Quick, what’s your favorite action franchise (two films or more) starring a black lead? Without knowing your exact pick, I’m going to do a little prognosticating and guess that you’ve gone with an action/comedy. If I’m wrong, it’s either because you’re old and have chosen something from the ’70s or you’ve picked Blade.This week’s biggest new release sees the return of Denzel Washington’s Robert McCall in The Equalizer 2, and not only is that good news for action fans – the movie’s a solid character piece punctuated with thrilling action beats – it’s also something of a milestone for black-led action franchises....

‘Blindspotting’ Producers Jess And Keith Calder On The 10-Year Journey To Bring This Film To Life [Interview] By Jack Giroux/Aug. 10, 2018 2:00 pm EST Blindspotting has been a labor of love for over a decade. It shows in the end result. Director Carlos López Estrada’s hard-hitting drama, which also has a lot of laughs, has been drawing strong reactions ever since it premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival....

‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ Review By Angie Han/July 21, 2011 12:00 pm EST In a summer crowded with superhero blockbusters, Captain America: The First Avenger ranks just below X-Men: First Class, and far ahead of Green Lantern and fellow Avengers lead-in Thor. It never quite reaches the highs of First Class or 2008’s Iron Man, but thanks largely to Joe Johnston’s direction and Chris Evans’ performance, it is a genuinely enjoyable film that gets right so much of what Thor and Green Lantern couldn’t....

‘Dexter’ Showrunner Explains That Ending; Former Showrunner Reveals Alternate Idea By Angie Han/Sept. 24, 2013 1:00 pm EST Series finales tend to be controversial even under the best of circumstances, but the reaction to Dexter’s “Remember the Monsters?” hasn’t been polarized so much as overwhelmingly negative. While a handful of critics had nice things to say, most fans howled at its many ludicrous twists and lack of closure, and basically wondered why the hell they’d spent eight seasons waiting for this....

/Film Exclusive: Tim Burton Discusses ‘Frankenweenie,’ Autobiography, And The Reliability Of Memory By Russ Fischer/Oct. 5, 2012 3:30 pm EST With Frankenweenie, Tim Burton goes back to a couple periods of his own history. One is his childhood, during which he was alienated from average school life, and found solace in monsters and movies. Another is his early career, when he created a short film for Disney that, creatively, was his first big success, and professionally his first major failure....

‘First Light’ Borrows The ‘Chronicle’ Template For A Satisfying Sci-Fi Romance [SXSW] By Matt Donato/March 16, 2018 2:00 pm EST As this generation’s filmmakers attempt to create their own superhero origin stories without going through Marvel or DC, Jason Stone’s First Light succeeds by blending Chronicle with YA romance. Hard sci-fi elements that limit themselves to rural country suburbs before breaking out like a conspiracy containment gone wrong. As illuminations flicker and cosmic mysteries unravel, a relationship between boy and girl remains thematically intrinsic – powers exist, but effects needn’t overshadow story....

‘Justice League’ Brings Back The “Classic” Superman, And Henry Cavill Couldn’t Be Happier About His Future By Ben Pearson/Nov. 26, 2017 2:00 pm EST While some hardcore DC movie fans insist that Warner Bros. should continue to make dark and gritty superhero movies, at least one of the franchise’s actors is embracing the opportunity to return to a more traditional depiction of his character. Henry Cavill, who has played Superman in Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League, explains how the change his character undergoes in the latter DC Comics movie gives him a huge opportunity to depict the classic version of Superman in possible Justice League or Man of Steel sequels....

‘Logan’ Spoiler Interview: Director James Mangold On The Scene He Can’t Believe He Got Away With By Angie Han/March 6, 2017 8:00 am EST For weeks, the critical buzz on Logan has been that it’s a fitting end to Hugh Jackman’s 17-year tenure as Wolverine. And now that the film’s actually been out for a few days, and most of you have had a chance to see it, it’s time to talk about how it sends off the iconic superhero character....

‘Star Wars Rebels’ Just Changed Everything We Know About ‘Star Wars’ By Rosie Knight/Feb. 27, 2018 2:30 pm EST As Star Wars Rebels moves closer to its final episode, the series has been pushing the boundaries of what we expect from an animated Star Wars show. Just like The Clone Wars before it, Rebels has become a vital part of series canon, expanding the landscape of the films, books, and comics that make up the main Star Wars universe....

‘Transformers: Age Of Extinction’ Writer Ehren Kruger: “Logical Sense Doesn’t Have To Be The Be-All, End-All” By Russ Fischer/June 27, 2014 11:30 am EST The Transformers films — or at least the three sequels to Michael Bay’s first film in the series — disregard story concepts left and right. Characters are secondary to spectacle; geography and time are subservient to the impact of a beauty shot; standard narrative building blocks regularly fall by the wayside....

11 Gothic Romances That Redefine “Valentine’s Day Movie” By Vanessa Bogart/Feb. 14, 2018 9:00 am EST Passion and anguish, true love lost and mourned over oceans of time, unrequited love felt so strongly that it drives one to darkness and despair…ah, the horror of love. These sentiments may not appear in the glittery pink and red Hallmark cards littering your local supermarket, but in a year where del Toro’s strange and unusual love story The Shape of Water swept the Oscar nominations, this Valentine’s Day deserves something a little different, a little darker, a little more…gothic....

Barry Sonnenfeld On ‘A Series Of Unfortunate Events’ Season 2 [Interview] By Hoai-Tran Bui/May 22, 2017 11:30 am EST But it’s rare that Netflix will take a chance on a moderately successful movie adaptation that was met with mixed reception, and outright disdain from fans of the books. But A Series of Unfortunate Events came to Netflix, where it was spearheaded by Barry Sonnenfeld, the director originally attached to the 2004 movie....

Because Of Course: ‘Divergent’ Sequel ‘Allegiant’ Split Into Two Films By Angie Han/April 11, 2014 8:59 am EST Harry Potter did it, Twilight did it, The Hunger Games is doing it, and now Divergent is, too. Lionsgate/Summit announced today they are splitting the final chapter of the Divergent series, Allegiant, into two films, to the surprise of absolutely no one. The decision brings the total number of installments in the series to four....

Best Stories Of The Week: Suicide Squad, Indiana Jones, Female Ocean’s Eleven And More By Ethan Anderton/Nov. 1, 2015 9:00 am EST Best Stories of the Week is a round-up of the week’s best and biggest stories, from news to editorials to trailers. This week we have stories on a new Monopoly movie, Ricky Gervais returning to host the Golden Globes, a female-led Ocean’s Eleven, a reboot of Amazing Stories, and some new photos from Suicide Squad....

Bo Burnham And Judd Apatow’s Anti-High School Musical Wants Your Help By Brendon Connelly/June 11, 2009 9:06 am EST A couple of weeks back I cried out for more info on Bo Burnham and Judd Apatow’s upcoming feature film collaboration, a high school musical that Burnham has pitched as an answer to… er… High School Musical. Last night, one of you answered my cry when @forceofelroy tweeted me the following:...

Dan Trachtenberg Explains The Origins Of ‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ By Peter Sciretta/March 10, 2016 4:00 pm EST When the trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane was unleashed, everyone was wondering how JJ Abrams somehow snuck a new Cloverfield movie into production without anyone noticing. Later the mega producer set the record straight confirming that the film was not a sequel, not Cloverfield 2, but a blood relative that shares some thematic and genre connections, but functions as an anthology film which isn part a larger idea (that may involve more Cloverfield movies)....

Fantastic Fest 2011 Preview: Our Most Anticipated Films, Films We’re Curious About And An Early Best Of List By Germain Lussier/Sept. 20, 2011 10:30 am EST There’s almost too much that’s good about Fantastic Fest: experiencing the Alamo Drafthouse for a week straight; the small, friendly, film fan atmosphere; the parties. Oh yeah, then there’s the insane films. Every year Fantastic Fest is filled with a ton of wild genre flicks that either you’ve never heard of yet or already have a lot of buzz surrounding them....

From Nightmare To Family: Bringing Skeletons To Life In ‘Coco’ By Hoai-Tran Bui/Aug. 28, 2017 11:30 am EST Skeletons are no stranger to animation — or reanimation. One of Disney’s earliest short films, Skeleton Dance, featured some surprisingly dexterous skeletons dancing in a graveyard, and animated films throughout the years have kept up the spooky tradition, from the 1993 classic Nightmare Before Christmas to 2005’s The Corpse Bride. It was not even the first time these bags of bones would be rendered in CGI animation, with 2014’s The Book of Life bringing skeletons into the modern age....

Gus Van Sant’s Milk Begins January By Peter Sciretta/Nov. 16, 2007 4:54 pm EST I have a feeling that Bryan Singer is really pissed. He’s been attached to a biopic of famous San Francisco politician and gay rights activist for I don’t even know how many years now. Gus Van Sant announced months back that he would also be making a Harvey Milk movie, but one of the Hairspray producers (who is also producing Singer’s Milk movie) told me that Van Sant’s film won’t happen any time soon, and that they aren’t sweating it....

Kino Lorber Will Release ‘Dogtooth’ Director’s New Film, ‘Alps;’ Watch A New Int’l Trailer By Russ Fischer/Oct. 18, 2011 12:00 pm EST Since the film debuted at Venice, I’ve been trying to avoid reviews of Alps, the new film by Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos. I’ve seen headlines and brief quotes that are generally positive; those, a couple trailers and the basic synopsis are all I’m willing to see before going into the film....