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22 Jan

What Does The Boy and the Heron Mean? Exploring the Theories

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Warning: contains plot spoilers for The Boy and the Heron. The English-language title of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature at Studio Ghibli is misleadingly simple. The Boy and the Heron suggests an Aesop-like fable in the vein of The Ant and the Grasshopper or The Hare and the Fox. The film itself has nothing like the clarity of a fable. It’s crowded, at times to the point of narrative incoherence, with enchanting but mystifying episodes that elude a single reading. It’s the story of Mahito, a boy in 1940s Tokyo who loses his mother in a wartime fire. A year later,…

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22 Jan

Back to the Future Had a Different Ending When It Hit Theaters

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Back to the Future is considered to be one of the greatest time travel films ever made. Having become a hit in the mid-’80s, the sci–fi classic has been discovered by fresh eyes in the four decades since its release with each new wave of fans fascinated by its behind the scenes trivia.  Do you remember the first time you heard that Michael J. Fox wasn’t originally cast as Marty McFly? Do you recall how weird it was seeing footage of Mask star Eric Stolz as Marty, or finding out that the film would have been called Space Man from…

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22 Jan

New Deadpool 3 Set Photos Reveal a Surprise Marvel Twist for Ryan Reynolds

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This post contains spoilers for Deadpool 3. Although its hard to feel bad for noted movie star, mobile phone magnate, gin baron Ryan Reynolds, there is a bit of irony to the fact that the handsome actor’s breakout role forces him to play a man with a mangled body. Fortunately for Reynolds, the Merc With a Mouth’s first adventure in the MCU involves the hit franchise’s conceit de jour, the multiverse. So when he and Wolverine, played once again by Hugh Jackman, but in comics/cartoon accurate yellow spandex, come to the MCU in this summer’s Deadpool 3, they’ll be doing…

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22 Jan

The Biggest Animated Movies Coming in 2024

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Let’s get this out of the way right away. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is not on this list. Despite what was initially planned, the sequel to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will not be coming to theaters in March, or any time in the upcoming year. However, the loss of one exciting film does not mean 2024 will be short of great animated movies. In its place will be cartoons to meet the needs of every type of moviegoer, from franchise continuations to adaptations of beloved works to new entries. Given the complex nature of animated films, many of these don’t…

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22 Jan

Indiana Jones Movies Ranked from Worst to Best

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Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ summer in Hawaii circa 1977 might just be among the most fortuitous vacays in movie history. One of the Hollywood young gun directors was dejected during this holiday because he’d just been passed over to helm the next James Bond picture; the other was anxious about his new film opening that weekend—a little flick you might have heard of called Star Wars. Neither was entirely certain what he’d do next, but the pair got to talking about an idea Lucas had been kicking around for years. It would be inspired by all the B-serials they…

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20 Jan

How the Real Oppenheimer Ushered in Modern Sci-Fi Cinema

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When we recently compiled our list of science fiction movies based on true stories, one film that didn’t make the list was Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer. After all, the technology behind the nuclear bomb can no longer be said to be undiscovered, sadly. Nonetheless, Oppenheimer remains the archetypal science fiction story—one about a mad scientist who devises a new machine that changes the world through terrible unforeseen consequences. He is an an American Prometheus, yes, but also a regular Yankee Frankenstein. More than that though, by ushering in the nuclear age, Oppenheimer may have lit the fuse on the genre of…

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19 Jan

Poor Things Ending: Why Didn’t Bella Choose God?

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This article contains Poor Things spoilers. It would have been a perfect circle. Willem Dafoe’s scientist Godwin Baxter finds the recently deceased body of suicide victim Victoria Blessington (Emma Stone) after she’s leapt from a bridge. Victoria is very pregnant and her unborn baby is not dead, so God transplants the infant’s brain into Victoria’s body, which he reanimates. He renames his creation Bella Baxter and watches her develop as a child in an adult’s body. Through the course of the film she travels, learns, and grows into the happy woman we see at the end. Of course, the end…

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19 Jan

9 “Important” DCEU Post-Credit Scenes That Turned Out to Be Pointless

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In hindsight, Marvel’s Infinity Saga ended up serving as an incredibly solid framework for a shared cinematic universe. Say what you will about the aftermath, but Marvel Studios spent the first few years building up to a big crossover in The Avengers, used it to hint at a bigger threat in Thanos, then spent the next several years worldbuilding and setting up a massive two-part climax. Whatever vision went into it paid off. Part of that comes from the hype generated by mid and post-credits scenes. Starting with Nick Fury visiting Tony Stark to discuss “the Avengers Initiative” way back…

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19 Jan

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Title Change Signals Shifting Audience Tastes

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When the seventh Mission: Impossible film arrives on Paramount+ next week, its title will appear different from what moviegoers saw on the big screen. The notoriously long-winded Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is now simply Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. The title adjustment is occurring despite the fact that this film ends on a cliffhanger. After nearly three hours of adventuring, Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt must now find a sunken submarine without the aid of computers or A.I.-influenced technology—which is to say he’ll probably be using the old school maritime navigational method known as “dead reckoning.” It’s an…

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19 Jan

James Acaster’s Next Movie Role Gets a First Trailer

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This March, stand-up, actor and Off Menu podcaster James Acaster can be seen in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire alongside Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Coon, Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard, and Paul Rudd. In the sequel to the Ghostbusters revival, Acaster plays boffin Lars Pinfield, a scientist described by writer-producer Jason Reitman as an “Egon Spengler type”. One month later in April, Acaster fans will be chuffed to know that the mash king is back on the big screen in Andy Riley and Curtis Vowell’s historical comedy Seize Them! Seize Them! is a who’s-who of British comedy, with a cast including Derry Girls, Bridgerton…

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19 Jan

Every Marvel Movie and TV Show Coming in 2024

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In a year of reduced Marvel output, there are still a lot of interesting comic book adaptations emerging in 2024 from both Sony and Marvel Studios. As it stands, Deadpool 3 is the only MCU film releasing in theaters this year, but the Sony side of Marvel has three movies heading to multiplexes, including Kraven the Hunter, which was previously set to make its debut in 2023.  MCU series Echo has already hit Disney+ in January, but here’s what you can expect to arrive in the rest of 2024. Madame Web – February 14 The webs will be madaming extremely…

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18 Jan

The Kitchen Review: Daniel Kaluuya’s Directorial Debut Is a Big Sci-Fi Swing

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For more than a few years now, Daniel Kaluuya has been at the forefront of great and allegorical science fiction: Get Out, Nope, even Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. His collaborations with talents like Jordan Peele and Ryan Coogler have burrowed into the minds of audiences with all the clarity of a spoon smacking a teacup. However, in his own mind, there turns out to be an even more oppressive sci-fi vision. And it’s one with brutal timeliness, and no cathartic TSA in sight. The Kitchen, which marks the directorial feature debut of both Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares, is a project…

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18 Jan

New Indiana Jones Game Finally Reveals What Happened Between Raiders and Last Crusade

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Indy is back, this time in a new video game from MachineGames and Bethesda called Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Set within the same timeline as the movie, the game sees a young Indiana Jones (voiced by Troy Baker) begin a new adventure that will take him from his desk at Marshall College to the Vatican, the Forgotten Temples of the Sukhotai, the Himalayas, and back to Egypt for the first time since Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact, Great Circle takes place just a year after the events of the original movie, but before The Last Crusade.…

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18 Jan

Brendan Fraser’s Killers of the Flower Moon Scenes Are Better Than You Realize

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This article contains Killers of the Flower Moon spoilers. Silence greets Ernest Burkhart when he enters a meeting with the business leaders of Osage County, Oklahoma. This late into Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) has proven to be easily pliable, to the point that his uncle William “King” Hale (Robert De Niro) can convince him to poison his beloved wife Mollie (Lily Gladstone). But he can be pushed only so far. If the leaders do not want Ernest to testify against his uncle, they must be subtle.  Thus the quiet when Ernest enters the room,…

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18 Jan

What the Cast of 2004’s Mean Girls Did Next

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We all know what happened after 2004’s Mean Girls – Regina became a lacrosse champ, Karen used her psychic boobs to present the morning weather announcements, Gretchen co-opted the Cool Asians, and Cady floated in a newly repaired girl world… while keeping a beady eye on any emerging Young Plastics set to reinstate the old hierarchy. Now there’s a film of the musical of the film. But to the actors who played them in the original? Oscar nominations, pop careers, Hallmark Christmas movies, prestige streaming dramas, LGBT+ firsts, and much more.  Lindsay Lohan: Ex-Popstar Now in a Cosy Netflix Movie Niche…

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18 Jan

Blasphemous Movies Understand Jesus Christ Better Than Most

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This past week saw the release of The Book of Clarence, a movie about a down-on-his-luck guy who hits upon a get-rich-quick scheme that leads him into a heap of trouble. It’s a classic topic for a movie, but it is treading on more controversial ground than usual. Because in the case of this story about a hustler getting in over his head, the hustle happens to be set around Israel and Palestine during the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, that is Clarence’s whole scheme: He sees Jesus and decides to get into the messiah business.…

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17 Jan

Sharon Stone’s Unmade Barbie Movie Shows How Hollywood Has Changed Since the ’90s

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Barbie remains the biggest Hollywood success story of the past year.  A union between a beloved Mattel toy brand and the director of Little Women and Lady Bird, there’s a reason star and producer Margot Robbie pitched the combination as comparable to Steven Spielberg and dinosaurs. What you have here is a subject matter that generations of audiences grew up on and an auteur director bringing it to life in a fresh and exciting way. In 2019, Warner Bros. saw Robbie and Greta Gerwig’s vision, much to the studio’s reward four years later. However, there was a time when such…

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17 Jan

Studios Need to Stop Pretending Their Musicals Aren’t Musicals in Trailers

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The Mean Girls remake—this time with showtunes—was a big win for Paramount Pictures over a long holiday weekend in the States. A film originally pegged and budgeted for Paramount+ until someone realized folks still love the 2004 classic (shocker!), this economical redo of the Lindsay Lohan touchstone galloped to an impressive $33.2 million across its first four days. That matches practically all of its reported $36 million budget right out of the starting gate. So the movie studio has reasons to pop champagne this week (and maybe send a few bottles over to Reneé Rapp for her diva turn as…

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16 Jan

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Finally Does Right by a Classic Franchise Character

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This article contains light spoilers for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. We’ve got one! And by “one” I mean a female Ghostbuster that even jerks might like! Maybe! The last time we got women as Ghostbusters, sexist buffoons making bad-faith arguments about the apparent sanctity of boy Ghostbusters drowned out all discussion of the 2016 reboot Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, preventing both those who enjoyed the movie and those who disliked it for actual sane reasons from sharing their viewpoints. That extreme response drove Sony to return to the franchise’s roots for its follow-up Ghostbusters: Afterlife, directed by Jason Reitman, son of…

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16 Jan

Star Wars Rey Movie Confirms a New Plot Detail

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The state of the Star Wars franchise in cinemas remains a bit unclear. Earlier this month, Lucasfilm announced The Mandalorian & Grogu, a movie to be directed by Jon Favreau based on the popular Disney+ series and that will set our lovable father and son duo on a brand-new adventure. It’s being fast-tracked into production this year, which suggests it’ll be the first new Star Wars movie to come out since The Rise of Skywalker bowed in Dec. 2019. Interestingly, before that surprise announcement last week, it really seemed like the first movie on Lucasfilm’s docket was the untitled Rey…

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