Posts

How To Disgruntle Loyal Viewers With Advertising: 30 Rock And SNL By Hunter Stephenson/Feb. 17, 2009 10:27 am EST “What is comedy? Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke.” – Steve Martin"It is a sad fact of life, but the truth is we all have to eat a little shit from time to time." – Bruce Willis, in the trailer for Fast Food Nation Last Thursday night, in keeping with new tradition, viewers of NBC’s 30 Rock took to Twitter to declare “St....

Jason Segel’s Big Dramatic Debut Is One Of Many Great Things In ‘The End Of The Tour’ [Sundance 2015] By Germain Lussier/Jan. 25, 2015 2:00 pm EST Tom Hanks had Philadelpha, Jim Carrey had The Truman Show and now Jason Segel has The End of the Tour. It’s a powerhouse movie announcing to the world that this comedic actor is a dramatic force too. But that’s just one of the many, many good things that can be said about director James Ponsoldt’s fourth feature film....

Latest Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Potentially Ties Into ‘Guardians’ And ‘Inhumans’ By Germain Lussier/Dec. 4, 2014 6:00 am EST Though I gave up on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D very early in season one, I hear from lots of people it gets better every single week. And this past week, it sounded like things took a potentially very significant step forward from even that. There were two specific references to upcoming and past Marvel Studios movies that may hint at what’s to come not only in Phase Two, but Phase Three....

New Photos From Netflix’s ‘Bright’ Tease The Fellowship Of The LAPD By Jacob Hall/March 6, 2017 12:00 pm EST I’ve always been fascinated by the world of Warhammer 40K, the tabletop miniatures game where space marines and orcs and dwarves and elves all do battle across the galaxy, hitting traditional fantasy tropes in a science fiction landscape. After all, what happens to that Tolkien-esque fantasy world as the centuries start to fly by?...

Official Star Wars Databank Update: What Secret Does Starkiller Base Hold? By Ethan Anderton/Sept. 7, 2015 7:00 am EST Coinciding with last week’s Force Friday festivities, the official Star Wars website made a few additions to their databank that should have fans of the galaxy far, far away raising one of their eyebrows inquisitively. Some of them we already new about while others have some vague new details that just have us asking more questions....

Page 2 By Peter Sciretta/Nov. 4, 2009 6:00 am EST Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 34 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness. If Mr. T and E.T. had sex and made a baby, he would look something like Mr....

Patton Oswalt And Johnny Knoxville Star In ‘Nature Calls,’ And It Stinks [SXSW 2012 Review] By Germain Lussier/March 12, 2012 10:30 am EST In the English language, the phrase Nature Calls has a few different connotations. The title of this film, which recently had its world premiere at SXSW 2012, refers to men going into the woods to become men. The woods, Earth, nature is calling them for something greater. However, the more appropriate connotation would be when the phrase refers to someone going to the bathroom....

Q&A: How Does A Pixar Short Film Get Made? By Peter Sciretta/Dec. 8, 2011 11:30 am EST While most people won’t get to see La Luna until its released in June 2012 attached to Brave, the short has been playing the film festival circuit and already short listed for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar. I was lucky enough to catch a screening of it at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival, and I loved it so much that they used my quote in their “For Your Consideration” advertisements....

Terry Gilliam Talks About The Constrained Space And Few Characters Of ‘The Zero Theorem’ By Russ Fischer/Aug. 21, 2012 1:57 pm EST After many delays trying to (re)make the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, financing for that project fell through and it seemed that Terry Gilliam was without a next feature project. So we were surprised not long ago when he announced that his next film, The Zero Theorem, is in pre-production and ready to shoot within weeks....

The Best, Scariest, And Wildest Movies Of The 2018 Fantasia Film Festival By Matt Donato/Aug. 14, 2018 10:00 am EST With 2018’s Fantasia Film Festival officially in the books – Montreal’s cologne of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy still wafting into my dreams – let us reflect on some highlights before time brings yet another genre celebration worth covering. Gangster crime-thrillers from South Korea, despicable exploitation slashers from America, magnificent pitch-black fairy tales from Mexico – Fantasia always does well to spice their program with varied flavors....

What’s Old Is New Because I was taught to look for common ground above all, let’s start with a point I know we’ll agree on. No matter how much you hate or love Prometheus, you can’t deny the beauty of its production design. Scott’s film is often breathtakingly beautiful: in David’s quiet journey around Prometheus as his shipmates stay in hibernation and in the holographic universe that explodes out from the Engineers’ control center, Ridley Scott demonstrates that it is possible to be an iconic filmmaker well into your seventies....

This Week In Trailers: Gennadiy, Smash & Grab: The Story Of The Pink Panthers, Call Girl, Game Loading: Rise Of The Indies By Christopher Stipp/Aug. 10, 2013 9:00 am EST Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising?...

Tiffany Haddish Has Energy And Confidence To Spare On ‘Saturday Night Live’ By Ethan Anderton/Nov. 12, 2017 10:00 am EST This weekend, Girls Trip star Tiffany Haddish became the first black female stand-up comedian to host Saturday Night Live (previously Maya Rudolph hosted, but she was an improvisational comic and not a stand-up act). Haddish brought ample energy tot he late night sketch program in her hosting debut, and she had was more confident than some of the most seasoned talents who have taken the stage in Studio 8H....

Untangling The Marvel Studios Phase 3 Timeline By Ben Pearson/Feb. 21, 2018 4:00 pm EST While the first batch of Marvel Studios films were relatively easy to track on a timeline, it’s become increasingly difficult to keep everything neatly aligned in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But do these little details even matter anymore? Join us as we attempt to untangle the Marvel Phase 3 timeline below. Marvel Phase 3 Timeline...

We’ll Never See The ‘Event Horizon’ Director’s Cut Because The Footage Is Just Plain Lost By Jacob Hall/May 19, 2017 2:00 pm EST Event Horizon is so good that it makes you want to reconsider the rest of Paul W.S. Anderson’s filmography. For those who haven’t seen the movie, it’s essentially Hellraiser in outer space – a spaceship goes to hell and back (literally), bringing all kinds of evil nastiness with it....

WonderCon Announced 2008 Programing Line-Up By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 8, 2008 1:06 pm EST WonderCon has announced their programing line-up, and this year it’s packed with great panels. Here is a look at this year’s movie and television related panels: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22 3:30-4:30 History of Superhero Movies- Comic books started out modestly 75 years ago, printed on pulp paper and appealing to a very young audience. Today, comics have become American mythology with a broad ranging readership, with legendary characters and stories that have transcended time and inspired generations of readers and artists in all different mediums....

Throw Your Audience Into the Deep End “We started at 100 miles an hour in the middle of a conversation [in The Social Network], and that makes the audience have to run to catch up. The worst crime you can commit with an audience is telling them something they already know. We were always running ahead.” The opening of The Social Network shows us everything we need to know about Mark through dialogue, while Moneyball accomplishes that through silence....

‘Bad Times At The El Royale’ Interview: Cynthia Erivo Is About To Be A Star By Ben Pearson/June 27, 2018 12:00 pm EST Cynthia Erivo is on the rise, and she’s about to have one hell of a Fall. The British actress/singer is set to appear opposite Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, and more in Steve McQueen’s gritty heist film Widows in November, but first, she’ll make her big screen debut in Bad Times at the El Royale, a 1960s-set crime drama written and directed by Drew Goddard that features a fantastic ensemble cast of its own....

‘Black Panther’ Trailer Breakdown: Welcome To Wakanda By Jacob Hall/June 14, 2017 8:00 am EST The Black Panther trailer feels like a breath of fresh air in an environment crowded with superhero movies – no comic book adaptation has ever looked like this. Heck, no movie has ever looked like this. Even with a few familiar Marvel Studios trappings on display, Ryan Coogler’s movie looks to blend superheroes and afrofuturism and all kinds of intrigue into something…well, new....

‘Castle Rock’ Review: ‘Severance’, ‘Habeas Corpus’, And ‘Local Color’ Welcome You To Stephen King Country By Chris Evangelista/July 25, 2018 9:00 am EST Welcome to our spoiler-filled Castle Rock reviews, in which we explore Hulu’s new Stephen King-inspired series. (If you’re looking for a spoiler free review of the show, click here). This week we kick things off with the first three episodes: “Severance”, “Habeas Corpus” and “Local Color.” Severance There’s one thing many filmmakers miss when adapting the work of Stephen King: character is key....