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21 Feb

The Dark Knight: When Plot Holes Don’t Matter

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Movies have the ability to bend time–not just in a screenplay, but in real life itself. There’s a strange but accepted phenomenon that if a movie is working, it could be three and a half hours long but that time will fly by like a starship buzzing across the cosmos at Warp 7. Conversely, if a film doesn’t come together, it could be 80 minutes long (without credits) and that will feel like an eternity. We’ve all gone through that, and we’ve also experienced another curious, organic side effect of watching movies: if the film is generally firing on all…

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20 Feb

The Real History of The King’s Man

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This article contains The King’s Man spoilers. Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man is on streaming now. That’s a quick turnaround since its Christmastime release last year, but perhaps it’s for the best. With the largely underappreciated (and under-seen) Kingsman prequel making its debut on HBO Max and Hulu, there’s a chance the strange action mash-up may finally find its audience. Indeed, the film’s pitch always seemed a bit niche, even for this franchise. By eschewing the modern class conflict of the first two Kingsman movies, which created a dynamic of “street” versus posh spy, the World War I-set The King’s…

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20 Feb

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Ending Is Unexplainable

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There are so many things wrong with the new Netflix movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a dull, pointless, mean-spirited, and cynical cash-grab so unimaginative that the filmmakers couldn’t even be bothered to come up with at least a variation of the title. But surely the film’s ending is one of the shabbiest and dumbest aspects of this entire fiasco. To recap: entrepreneurs Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Melody (Sarah Yarkin) have raised enough money from investors to buy an entire abandoned town in Texas with the goal of turning it into some sort of new hipster utopia–Williamsburg South, you might say. But…

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19 Feb

Uncharted: Best Easter Eggs and References in the Tom Holland Movie

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This article contains spoilers for Uncharted. Uncharted isn’t just a somewhat surprisingly fun movie that tries to capture the spirit of classic adventure films gone by, it’s a video game adaptation that generously cites its source material through a variety of easter eggs. Thos movie seriously pays tribute to the blockbuster PlayStation games (as well as a variety of other genre staples). While some video game adaptations are more than happy to ignore their source material entirely or just nod at it once in a while, Uncharted wears its heart on its sleeve when it comes to referencing the best-selling…

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18 Feb

Give James Gunn a Justice League Movie

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This article contains The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker and spoilers. Picking up right where James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad left off, Peacemaker was a profane, hilarious, and brutally violent exploration of the weirder side corners of the DCEU that fleshed out the world of ARGUS and Task Force X. It even brought some new depth to Amanda Waller as a bonus. Like Gunn’s DC movie, Peacemaker wasn’t afraid to revel in some obscure DC Comics references and by implication expand the boundaries of the DCEU (Green Arrow! Doll Man! Matter-Eater Lad!). But nobody really expected the Justice League to show…

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18 Feb

The Beatles and India Doc Captures More Than One Spiritual Journey

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In 1968, The Beatles, the biggest band in the material world, went searching for lesser-known alternatives in the spiritual one. Directed by Ajoy Bose and co-directed by Pete Compton, The Beatles and India is more than just a travelog of the band’s famous trip to Rishikesh, India to study transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The documentary shows how Indian music helped refine the group’s sound and how the country embraced the band as cultural ambassadors with deep roots which continue to this day. The Beatles impacted India almost as much as the country influenced them. The group was first…

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18 Feb

Robert Eggers and Anya Taylor-Joy Still Planning Nosferatu Remake

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Robert Eggers has been planning to remake Nosferatu for a long time. It was announced as an intended second feature after his first movie, The Witch, won the Directing Award at Sundance in 2015. Frequent collaborator Anya Taylor-Joy has been similarly attached to the reimagining for nearly as long. Yet seven years later, and after several other ambitious projects, the emerging auteur with a taste for Jungian horror is still waiting to sink his teeth into the classic vampire material. Hence when we sat down with the director to discuss his new film The Northman for Den of Geek magazine,…

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18 Feb

Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre Carves Out a Tasteless Mess

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What is it about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise that leaves Hollywood revival after revival in such a bloody state? Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chain Saw Massacre is certainly not a flawless movie. It doesn’t even spell “chainsaw” correctly! But what that motley crew of young, independent filmmakers achieved while fumbling around in the grueling summer sun of 1973 has been impossible to replicate. Numerous studios and desperate IP holders proved that when, every few years, they let the movie rights change hands and someone else sends more aspiring filmmakers down to Texas with a bigger budget… all but dooming…

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18 Feb

Who Is Peacemaker’s Chukwudi Iwuji Playing In Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3?

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This article contains Peacemaker spoilers. One of the strengths of James Gunn’s delightful HBO Max series Peacemaker has been its cast, and one of the breakout actors on the show has been Chukwudi Iwuji, who’s portrayed the original character Clemson Murn, leader of the black ops Project Butterfly team and, as it turns out, an alien butterfly himself. Iwuji is a veteran actor who has worked primarily on the British stage, with a number of forays into TV and film, but Peacemaker is perhaps his most high-profile mainstream project to date. Until his next one, that is. Coming off his…

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18 Feb

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Makes What If Essential Marvel Viewing

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Marvel’s What If…? comic was always good for a nice, fun one-off story, but just because they were self-contained takes on alternate realities doesn’t mean they never mattered to Marvel Comics’ main continuity. An issue about the Avengers forming in the 1950s created the concept of the superhero team Agents of Atlas. Situations like the Spider-Man Clone Saga and Jane Foster as Thor first originated in that comic series. Even Skaar, Son of Hulk showed up in a What If…? story a week or so before appearing in regular continuity. The animated What If…? show on Disney+ seemed like it…

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18 Feb

Best Sci-Fi Movies of the Last 15 Years

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Fifteen years is a long time. We at Den of Geek can certainly attest to that as we’ve seen the industry change and grow, embrace streaming, and pivot toward intellectual property. Yet even as our present stays in a constant state of flux, our fascination with the future remains unwavering. What dreams may come in 15 years? Or 30? Or a hundred as technology evolves and its relationship with humanity is renegotiated? If you told a room full of geeks in early 2007 that 2022 would be a world filled with smartphones and tablets, social media-shaped democracies, and something called…

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18 Feb

How Fistful of Vengeance Connects to Wu Assassins

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This article contains Fistful of Vengeance spoilers. “Like the Avengers…but Asian.”  When Tommy (Lawrence Kao) quips this line in a Fistful of Vengeance, it’s almost meta. Fistful of Vengeance is the feature film sequel to Netflix’s 2019 10-episode martial arts driven series Wu Assassins. It is produced in the same spirit as Fox’s Firefly and Serenity or Netflix’s own Sense8 by the Wachowskis (which also had a lot of martial arts.)  Beyond Tommy, two other Wu Assassins leads reappear in Fistful of Vengeance. Indonesian martial arts superstar Iko Uwais reprises his role as Kai Jin, the San Francisco Chinatown chef…

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17 Feb

Queen of the Damned: The Vampire Classic That Almost Was

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Michael Rymer’s Queen of the Damned (2002) celebrates its 20th anniversary next week. The film is notable for the breakthrough performance of Aaliyah as the title character Queen Akasha. The rising singer tragically died at age 22 during post-production, with the movie offering only a glimpse of her greater talent. But 20 years on, the movie is most remembered as a famously flawed fright flick follow-up to one of the best vampire movies ever made–a rush job which doomed a promising franchise. It earned its cinematic notoriety because it ignored its natural and unnatural resources. The late Anne Rice reinvented…

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17 Feb

Uncharted Review: Tom Holland Banter and Charm Saves the Day

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It may seem like a natural transition for Uncharted, one of the most cinematic game franchises in history, to be adapted to the big screen, but the games aren’t just movielike in their presentation; they’re every bit as well-made and entertaining as the Hollywood action movies they pay homage to, if not moreso. Even the games’ protagonist Nathan Drake, voiced by Nolan North, is as charismatic and likable as any movie action hero you could name. So, if the games essentially out-movie the movies they’re based on, why make an Uncharted movie in the first place? As it turns out,…

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17 Feb

Tom Holland, Uncharted, and Marvel Actors in Want of a Second Movie Franchise

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Tom Holland doesn’t want to play Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man forever. To put a finer point on it, Holland doesn’t want to be playing Spider-Man in as few as five years. He said as much while promoting the biggest Spider-Man movie of all-time, last year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. “Maybe it is time to move on,” Holland told GQ in November, ahead of the release of No Way Home and this month’s Uncharted. “Maybe what’s best for Spider-Man is that they do a Miles Morales film… [but] if I’m playing Spider-Man after I’m 30, I’ve done something wrong.” Holland turns 26…

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16 Feb

Batman Set Photos Give Best Look Yet at Michael Keaton’s New Batsuit

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There has never been a bigger year for the Dark Knight in movie theaters. Not only will we get a brand-new version of the character played by Robert Pattinson in director Matt Reeves‘ upcoming film, The Batman, but we’re also set to see the return of Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck to the role in The Flash. Yes, that’s three Batmen across two movies, and one of them is already shooting yet another movie as the Caped Crusader. Keaton has arrived in Glasgow to film his scenes for the Batgirl movie, which will hit HBO Max some time later this…

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16 Feb

Will a Knuckles Live-Action Series Team-up With Sonic?

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Get ready to cleanse yourself of the evil spirits that are in you because Knuckles the Echidna, the sometimes nemesis and sometimes pal of Sonic the Hedgehog, has his own live-action TV series in the works at Paramount+. Not only that but it appears to be a spin-off of the current Sonic the Hedgehog film series, with Idris Elba reprising the voice of Knuckles for the show. This is not only the first live-action Sonic TV series but also the first Sonic show in general that will be squarely focused on Knuckles. This begs the question of what the series…

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16 Feb

The Legacy of Marvel’s Ghost Rider Movie

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On Feb. 16, 2007, Mark Steven Johnson’s Ghost Rider movie hit theaters. Nicolas Cage starred as Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stuntman powered by the devil to slay the damned in the form of a man with a flaming skull. It was the perfect vehicle for Nicolas Cage, a comic fan known for his often eccentric screen presence. Cage playing a demonic bounty hunter who spits hellfire is one of those things where it feels more like a documentary that only happens to resemble a Marvel Comics character. It’s a fun movie on its own that hits just the right level…

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16 Feb

The Batman: How a Pivotal Robert Pattinson Scene Changed During Filming

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“I’m vengeance.” Those are the terrifying words delivered by The Batman star Robert Pattinson after beating a very brave gang leader’s face into mush during one of the movie’s most buzzed about scenes. Since its debut in the film’s very first trailer, the “I’m vengeance” scene has become the subject of countless social posts, memes, and gifs. For some fans, it’s also the moment that finally sold them on the idea that Pattinson could embody a character as dark as Batman. But in our The Batman cover story for the new issue of Den of Geek magazine, Pattinson reveals that…

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15 Feb

Marvel Movies Ranked: The Best and Worst MCU Films

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This article contains spoilers for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. We honestly don’t know what has taken us so long to actually do this, but it’s finally time. Den of Geek staff and readers have come together to vote in order to rank all 27 MCU movies so far! We figure that since we have an uncharacteristically long break between Marvel Cinematic Universe theatrical releases between December’s Spider-Man: No Way Home and May’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness now would be the opportune time to do an MCU ranking that wouldn’t be immediately invalidated by a new release.…

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