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26 Mar

The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Helped the Prequels Age Surprisingly Well

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“Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like fucking Shaft.” – Tim Bisley, Spaced, “Change” (2001). Reviews for The Phantom Menace were, it’s fair to say, mixed. Looking back on it, that’s understandable. It’s a mixed film. After a lot of excitement and hype for the return of the game-changing franchise, some anti-climax was inevitable. 133 minutes and countless midi-chlorians later, a sense of disappointment gave way to rage for some (which, given Anakin Skywalker’s whole thing, is bleakly fitting).  Attack of the Clones had an improved, if not stellar, critical reception and Revenge of the Sith continued this trend…

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26 Mar

The Thing: John Carpenter and Keith David on the Infamous Ending

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June 1982 saw the release of not one, but two movies about aliens bonding with humans. Both of them are remembered today as early masterpieces that confirm their directors’ skill and vision. One, of course, is Steven Spielberg‘s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which released on June 11, 1982. Two weeks later came The Thing, directed by John Carpenter. But in 1982, only E.T. earned praise. “In fact the film was an enormous failure,” Carpenter recently told The Guardian in his typically blunt manner in a feature that published Tuesday morning. But then that’s about as nostalgic as Carpenter often sounds, even…

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25 Mar

Forget Hereditary, Ari Aster’s Short Films Are His Most Disturbing Movies

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Beau should not sleep. Earlier in the day, when he tried to leave his apartment to see his mother, Beau left his door open with the keys still in the lock. When he returned to the door after turning back to retrieve a forgotten item, his keys were gone. Worse, when Beau asks a man in the hallway about the missing keys, the passerby shouts, “You’re fucked, pal!” Yes, the above scene does occur in Beau is Afraid, last year’s weirdo epic starring Joaquin Phoenix as the titular disturbed man. But before he made Beau is Afraid as his third…

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22 Mar

The Penguin Trailer Teases Major Retcon to The Batman

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“When I was a kid, there was a gangster, real old school type,” recalls Oswald Cobblepot at the start of the trailer for The Penguin. Anyone who has seen a gangster flick before recognizes that kind of talk. Henry Hill, Tony Soprano, Michael Corleone — wiseguys love to wax poetic about the past. It’s no secret that the classic Batman villain was a highlight of 2021’s The Batman, with director Matt Reeves taking a more grounded approach to the bird-themed character that removed the bright colors and gimmicks. The Penguin’s storyline in the movie focused on his rise through the…

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22 Mar

Furiosa Will Introduce a New Kind of Character to the Mad Max Movie Universe

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“There will always be war,” intones an authoritative voice at the end of the second trailer for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. “But to get home, Furiosa fought the world.” A narrator isn’t exactly something new to the world of Mad Max, as the 1981 sequel Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior opens and closes with voiceover, as does 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. But in those cases, the narration served a basic expositional purpose, providing basic information for those who have not seen the previous films — something particularly important for The Road Warrior, as few Americans had the…

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22 Mar

Before Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd Wrote a Bizarre Blues Brothers Script

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One day in 1979, the phone rang at producer Bob Weiss’ house. “Be on your property tonight,” said the voice on the other line. According to the book Wild and Crazy Guys: The Comedy Mavericks of the ’80s Changed Hollywood Forever by Nick de Semlyen, later that evening, an object came flying over the fence and onto Weiss’ backyard. It was the script for a Blues Brothers movie that Wiess commissioned from Dan Aykroyd, who created the musical comedy act with John Belushi for Saturday Night Live. If the way that Aykroyd delivered the manuscript was odd, the contents inside…

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21 Mar

Road House 2024 Is Exactly the Type of Movie That Belongs in Theaters

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The second act of the 2024 remake of Road House climaxes with a nasty knockdown fight between UFC fighter turned bouncer Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Knox (UFC fighter turned actor Conor McGregor). Squishy sounds of smacked meat mix with a thumping rock song, like a second rhythm track every time the two ruffians punch each other. Early in the fight, the camera switches to first-person view as Knox batters his opponent before swinging around as Dalton takes his turn. It’s all bathed in yellow light, with the sickly glow cut only by neon beer signs hanging on the walls. In…

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20 Mar

Alien: Romulus Timeline Explained by Fede Alvarez in Trailer Breakdown

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Alien is returning to the big screen, this time sans Ridley Scott in the director’s chair or Michael Fassbender’s android with a God complex. Shepherding the franchise forward into a new era is Fede Alvarez, the director behind the 2013 remake of Evil Dead and the 2016 slasher Don’t Breathe. As revealed in the first trailer for the film, Alien: Romulus looks like a return to the roots of the series: a space station and its crew, including star Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), run afoul of a swarm of facehuggers and all hell breaks loose. The situation is very reminiscent of…

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20 Mar

The 48 Hrs. Scene That Made Eddie Murphy a Movie Star

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Things were going badly on Saturday Night Live‘s 1980-1981 season, even before producer Jean Doumanian realized than the January 10, 1981 episode was headed towards disaster. The previous season had seen the departure of Lorne Michaels and the entire cast, including founders Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, and Laraine Newman, as well as Bill Murray and Harry Shearer. Doumanian had tried to pitch her incoming group of comedians as the next generation for the hit series, but the performers quickly gained reputations as also-rans. Charlie Rocket was a less funny Chevy Chase, Gail Matthius an off-brand Jane Curtin, and…

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19 Mar

Ghostbusters Was Best When It Was Just a Great Comedy and Not a Franchise

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Ghostbusters movies stretch credulity, but this is ridiculous. At the start of Ghostbusters II, Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) perform for bored kids at a birthday party. It’s only been five years since they blew up the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in downtown New York and destroyed Gozer’s portal atop a city high rise. And yet, no one remembers the work the boys did to save the city. In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Ghostbusters are completely unknown to Gen Z, even to the grandchildren of Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), even to a kid so into podcasts that he…

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19 Mar

James Bond: Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Past Roles Show That He Can Be a Fun 007

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“How can a short, blond actor with the rough face of a professional boxer and a penchant for playing villains, killers, cranks, and cads pull off the role of a tall, dark, handsome, and suave secret agent?” So asks the front page of the website Daniel Craig is Not Bond, one of many fan-sites launched in the wake of the actor getting cast as James Bond for Casino Royale back in 2005. Nearly two decades later, the question seems laughable, as Craig elevated the franchise into something rich and emotionally dense, touching on qualities the series rarely attempted. The 20/20…

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19 Mar

Our Favorite Movies and TV Shows at SXSW 2024

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Every year, SXSW seems to grow in size and breadth. The opportunities to glimpse the future and connect with its architects in an intersection of disciplines—music, technology, television, and cinema included—can be overwhelming. And in 2024 alone, there were more than 115 films and 80 short features at the fest. It is impossible to see everything, yet our team of critics and journalists made a concerted effort to give it the old college try. Of the more than 40 projects we did glean between us, here were the ones that stood out most and we think should probably be on…

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18 Mar

The Real-Life Detective Who Inspired Dirty Harry, Bullitt, and a Star Wars Location

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Inspector Dave Toschi needs a night off. After years of chasing the so-called Zodiac Killer, Toschi thought he had found his man, only for his captain to shoot him down, citing insufficient evidence to make an arrest. At the movie theater later on, the picture Toschi watches with his wife doesn’t make him feel any better. It’s Dirty Harry, the 1971 movie in which Clint Eastwood‘s Inspector Harry Callahan does battle with a killer called Scorpio. Frustrated by what he’s seeing, Toschi heads to the lobby for a smoke. As viewers shuffle out after him, one remarks, “Dave, that Harry…

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18 Mar

Star Trek: The Difference Between the Federation and Starfleet

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After a long wait, the U.S.S. Enterprise has received a response from the planet Eminiar VII. They had hoped to contact the planet and establish diplomatic relations with the inhabitants in the star cluster. But the message they receive in return is simple: stay away. When Kirk gets that reply, he intends to respects their wishes. But no sooner does he order the Enterprise to change course than a man arrives on the bridge and overrides Kirk. This moment must have shocked the first viewers of “A Taste of Armageddon” from the first season of The Original Series of Star…

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16 Mar

The Idea of You Director on Bringing the Book to the Big Screen With Anne Hathaway

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This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here. There are meet cutes, and there are meet cutes. And then there is the ballad of Solène Marchand and Hayes Campbell: the fortysomething single mother chaperoning her daughter at this year’s Coachella and the boy band superstar who’s headlining the show. Such are the twists and quirks of the heart, as well as The Idea of You, a beloved romance novel by Robinne Lee turned one of the buzziest new comedies at this year’s fest. Arriving with no less than Anne Hathaway…

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15 Mar

Civil War Review: Unforgettable Cinema If You Have the Guts to Watch

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There is something innate in the American character which inspires and deludes us of our place in history, past and present. Call it a devotion to American exceptionalism, cynicism, or opportunism, but even Senator Josh Hawley—the Missouri politician who spent months fermenting discontent and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, and who on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021 raised his fist in solidarity with a crowd of insurrectionists—seemed bewildered when the mob he played to actually stormed the barricades. There is footage of him fleeing for his life while Capitol Police officers like Brian Sicknick died defending the…

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15 Mar

Why The Prisoner Could Be a Perfect Next Film for Christopher Nolan

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As Christopher Nolan basks in the afterglow of Oppenheimer’s dominant performance at the 96th annual Academy Awards – including a best picture win for the film and a long-overdue best director nod for Nolan himself – speculation is growing about what the British filmmaker will tackle next for his 13th feature. Nolan is typically reticent to speak about future projects; with the director working on a more or less three-year cycle for his last several films, he might not even officially say anything about his new movie until later in 2024 or early in 2025. But according to rumors that…

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15 Mar

Shaun of the Dead Defined the Modern Nerd Movie for Better and Worse

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Shaun and his best mate Ed are in trouble. They’ve discovered two zombies in their garden, and the lumbering flesh-eaters show no signs of stopping. However, Shaun and Ed have found one way of slowing the approach: throwing records. And so, as the two zombies grow closer, Ed and Shaun rustle through the latter’s collection. “Sign o’ the Times … Purple Rain,” Ed suggests as projectiles, only to have Shaun tell him no. That is until Ed reaches a low point in Prince’s discography, the Batman soundtrack. “Throw it,” Shaun commands, striking a blow against the living dead. The above…

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14 Mar

The Crow Reboot Recalls ’90s Comic Book Adaptations, Not in a Good Way

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Everything about the first trailer for the reboot of The Crow looks familiar. Sure, some of that is to be expected, as the 2024 movie retells the story from the 1994 cut classic. And yes, The Crow 2024 does make some obvious choices, casting Bill Skarsgård as a weird tall skinny guy and Danny Huston as a bad guy. But besides the paint-by-numbers approach that director Rupert Sanders seems to be taking with the property, the really familiar part is The Crow‘s approach to comic book adaptations. Those young enough to have listened to the soundtrack to The Crow back…

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14 Mar

Why Sydney Sweeney Fought So Hard to Make Immaculate

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In the new horror movie Immaculate, Sydney Sweeney plays a devout nun named Cecilia, who, after learning that she is somehow with child, is pursued by both the manipulative clergy inside her convent in Italy and servants of darkness. But before she became the young blonde prey in this “nunsploitation” flick, Sweeney was the one doing the chasing. Sweeney first heard of Immaculate many years ago, when she was just 16 years old. “I auditioned for it, was obsessed with it, and didn’t get it,” she tells Den of Geek while promoting the film at SXSW 2024. “And then I…

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