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06 Apr

Morbius Was Originally Supposed to Be in Blade II

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Sony Pictures’ latest antibody antihero movie, Morbius, which stars Jared Leto as the Living Vampire, has drawn first blood. Following in the footsteps of the split-personality, villain movie Venom, Morbius is an origin story with a nemesis at the waiting, and the promise of bloody battles to come. Yet the self-made vampire should have made his entrance years ago. Indeed, Morbius was initially set up to be the main villain in Blade II, after Blade (1998) starring Wesley Snipes opened the wound to modern superhero films. Writer David S. Goyer planned to feature Morbius as the main antagonist in the…

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04 Apr

Morbius Box Office Leaves Sequel in Scary Place

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This article contains some Morbius spoilers. In case you didn’t hear, Morbius was not quite the disaster Film Twitter and the critics (including this one) thought it might be going into the weekend. At least in terms of box office, the vampire and superhero movie mash-up did okay when it opened to not quite $40 million over the weekend. According to Sony Pictures, the film finished its three-day debut with $39.1 million, which while not the numbers posted by its shared universe stablemates, Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage—those opened at $80 million and $90 million, respectively—it’s also not…

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04 Apr

Hugh Jackman Dons Wolverine Claws on Broadway

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Hugh Jackman is living his dream on Broadway right now. Which is to say the veritable Tony and Drama Desk Award winner is finally getting to play Professor Harold Hill in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. It’s a part he’s dreamed of since he was 14. Although for a certain breed of fan, there is only one role they dream to see Jackman in again: X-Men’s the Wolverine. And the star obliged them recently when he donned Logan’s fabled adamantium claws on a Broadway stage. So to speak. In a moment that went viral over the weekend, especially after Jackman…

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04 Apr

Horror Channel Celebrates a Weekend of Classic Sci-Fi

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We are, it is easy to argue, living in a golden age of science fiction film making. Whether you’re talking about the latest cinematic universe blockbuster or glossy straight-to-streaming CGI extravaganzas. And yet, sometimes it’s possible to feel like something’s missing. Sometimes you’re in the mood for a proper sci-fi movie. Something with square-jawed scientists, no-nonsense military men, and bands of plucky teens who know what’s up even if the grown-ups won’t listen. Stories where the threat isn’t a bunch of carefully orchestrated pixels, but a guy in a carefully crafted costume, a model hanging from a piece of string…

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04 Apr

Apollo 10 1/2: Richard Linklater Recalls the Space Race’s Forgotten Culture Wars

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It’s been 16 years since Richard Linklater last made a film in the art style he helped popularize with movies like Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). At the time, he thought he’d taken the rotoscope technique—where animators draw artwork, frame by frame, atop live-action footage—as far as he personally could with a film that featured Keanu Reeves losing his grip and perception on reality. And yet, when thinking back to his own halcyon days as a child growing up in the Houston suburbs during a time of technological innovation and wonders—the time of the Apollo 11 mission…

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03 Apr

The Beauty of The Godfather’s Long Takes

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The Godfather, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, is a perfect film. Every scene is an individual work of art. Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel is never sloppy, but part of its olive oil charm lies in its blemishes. Some of the featured players were not professional actors, and uncomfortable scenes play out in lingering real time. The Godfather has been criticized for glorifying violence, and it certainly has its share. From the barrage of bullets at a toll booth to the brains all over Michael’s Ivy League suit, plus waking up with the severed head of a…

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02 Apr

Morbius Ending and What Is Happening with Martine Bancroft

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This article contains major Morbius spoilers. Sony has released Morbius in theaters, and we, as a society, have to live with it. Taking place in the same universe as the two Venom movies, Morbius is about Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) searching for a cure for his blood disease and accidentally turning himself into a “living” vampire. He’s a vampire in the sense that he thirsts for blood and has fangs, but sunlight and other weaknesses don’t appear to be part of his lore. Things start to pick up when his best friend Milo (Matt Smith), who also suffers from…

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02 Apr

Death on the Nile Ending Explained

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This article contains Death on the Nile spoilers. It’s something we’ve seen Hercule Poirot do a lot across Kenneth Branagh’s two big screen adaptations of Agatha Christie mysteries. In both Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and this spring’s Death on the Nile, he sits alone at a table, accompanied by no one except his thoughts. Minus an opening sequence flashback set during the First World War, this is even how we’re introduced to Hercule in the 1930s. A man with a party of one. Yet when we see that same solitary figure again at the end of Death on…

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01 Apr

Morbius: Does Spider-Man Exist in This Universe?

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This article contains Morbius and Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers. Given the vagueness of certain things about the Morbius and Venom movies, the post-credits scenes in this weekend’s superhero release are kind of funny. It was already pretty jarring in the first place that Michael Keaton’s Vulture, who was such a memorable villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming, would be teleported for no discernable reason into the universe where Jared Leto’s Morbius, the Living Vampire, exists. Stranger still is how unfazed Keaton’s Adrian Toomes is about never seeing his wife and daughter again. Instead he just wants to team up with a…

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01 Apr

Hulu New Releases: April 2022

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Though the confusingly named initiative “FX on Hulu” is on its way out, FX is still bringing premium television to Hulu in the meantime. Hulu’s list of new releases for April 2022 is highlighted by FX limited series Under the Banner of Heaven. This adaptation of the non-fiction book by John Krakauer stars Andrew Garfield as a Mormon police detective whose faith is shaken when investigating a murder involving the church. It’s not all just FX on the TV side of things for Hulu this month, however. The streamer is debuting second seasons of its series The Hardy Boys (April…

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01 Apr

Disney+ New Releases: April 2022

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After debuting moody Marvel hero Moon Knight at the tail end of March, Disney+ is taking a bit of a breather in April. On Disney+’s list of new releases this month, you won’t find any major Pixar, Star Wars, or Marvel (save for the continuing episodes of the aforementioned Moon Knight) releases. Instead, you’ll find something perhaps more valuable: BEARS. Earth Day falls on April 22 this year and Disney+ is celebrating with four major nature documentaries. Polar Bear is narrated by Catherine Keener and follows a family of nature’s most adorable killing machines. Bear Witness is a companion piece…

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01 Apr

HBO Max New Releases: April 2022

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April is about to be a good month for returning HBO and HBO Max properties. HBO Max’s list of releases for April 2022 features three hotly anticipated seasons of television. The Flight Attendant, which helped launch HBO Max as a viable spot for good dramedy in 2020, premieres its second season on April 21. That will be followed by another go-around for the sci-fi comedy Made for Love on April 28. Of course, the big ticket item this month is something that HBO Max inherited from its cable cousin. Barry season 3 will continue the story of hitman-turned-actor Barry Berkman…

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01 Apr

New on Netflix: April 2022 Releases

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A list of new streaming releases on Netflix, what a concept! Netflix’s list of new releases for April 2022 is highlighted by the return of one of the great sci-fi comedies ever. Natasha Lyonne is set to return as the temporally displaced Nadia on Russian Doll season 2 on April 20. The first season of the show premiered in 2019 and appeared to tell a rather complete story about one Brooklyn woman’s experiences of dying over and over again. But Lyonne and fellow producers Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler still have some story to tell. Netflix is undoubtedly very happy…

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01 Apr

Amazon Prime Video New Releases: April 2022

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Good news for all you Brolin-heads! Amazon Prime Video’s list of new releases for April 2022 is highlighted by one very intriguing TV project starring Thanos himself. The Josh Brolin-starring Outer Range premieres April 15 and looks like it could be a wild ride. The synopsis is terse and reads “A rancher fighting for his land and family stumbles upon an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness, forcing a confrontation with the Unknown in ways both intimate and cosmic in the untamable American West.” That, combined with an enigmatic first trailer, has our interest piqued. Also on the…

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01 Apr

The Bubble: Judd Apatow COVID Comedy Needs to Get Out More

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If and when the COVID-19 pandemic fully ceases, one of the relics from this bizarre time (beyond the face masks) will be the COVID movie. To keep the content flowing during the height of the pandemic, studios pushed smaller pictures that had a limited cast and limited locations into production. Movies like Locked Down, Malcom and Marie, The Guilty, and Kimi, whether explicitly about our current situation or not, made what they could of a bad situation and told smaller scale stories to various degrees of success. It’s become something of its own genre. Judd Apatow’s latest comedy for Netflix,…

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01 Apr

Morbius Post-Credits Scenes Explained

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This article contains Morbius spoilers. Ever since Marvel Studios began the tradition of including extra scenes during or after the end credits of its films–starting with the now legendary appearance of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man–such bonus content is considered mandatory. With Morbius, Sony’s extended Spider-Man Universe, which is a poor man’s version of the MCU, reached a new low via two bonus scenes that are ridiculous, pointless, and clearly the product of rushed, haphazard decision-making. These really are laughably bad. We want to stress that these scenes, just like the rest of…

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01 Apr

Finding Western Wanderlust in The Unknown Country

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Filmmaker Morissa Maltz has always loved road trips. Whether traveling with company or alone, there is something liberating about getting lost in the country; vanishing into hidden spaces and forgotten pockets. In many ways, it’s a kind of therapy. Yet in recent years, and as the tone and tenor of folks changed, Maltz became more aware of the world around her. She also saw, perhaps in the cracks of the highway, the seeds for a story bigger than any single journey. “I think that for me it was [after 2016] when I really started to be much more conscious of…

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31 Mar

Best Movies Coming to Netflix in April 2022

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April showers may indeed bring May flowers, but Netflix is showering us with some dazzling entertainments this April all from the comfort of our own homes. As indicated below, the most popular streaming service in the world is preparing to share a relatively wide variety of quality (Hollywood) films beginning on April 1. Be it superhero movies with an edge or a genuine classic of American cinema from Arthur Penn, or one of the all-time great war movies and the impetus for the J-horror phenomenon in the States, there appears to be a movie for everyone in the list below.…

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31 Mar

Morbius Review: Marvel Vampire Movie Is Lifeless

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About midway through Sony Pictures and Marvel’s Morbius—a monstrous union of bottom of the barrel intellectual property and fiscal year planning—Jared Leto’s title character is in the belly of the beast. Before this moment, Dr. Michael Morbius (Leto) has traded in his rare blood condition for a case of vampirism, a Faustian bargain that’s led the NYPD to finger him for murders throughout the five boroughs. Whether guilty or not, Michael reaches for Bill Bixby levels of grandeur as he broods and in a hushed whisper warns the coppers, “I’m getting hungry. Believe me, you wouldn’t like me when I’m…

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30 Mar

Pink Flamingos Is DIY Filmmaking at Its Best and Worst

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John Waters mixed do-it-yourself moviemaking with don’t-try-this-at-home mayhem to produce the ultimate and most fiercely independent film. Made for $12,000, Pink Flamingos premiered at the Baltimore Film Festival 50 years ago. The cult masterwork replaced Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo as the midnight movie in residence at Elgin Theater in Manhattan and set high and low standards for no-budget motion picture filmmaking. While the extremely low-budget Plan 9 from Outer Space is renowned as the worst film ever made, Pink Flamingos has a street rep as the raunchiest. Ed Wood’s sci-fi horror mashup cost $60,000 to make, which by 1956 standards…

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