Lumina, a film that follows the surreal journey of a group of friends trying to find one of their own who disappeared suddenly during a nighttime swim, takes its inspiration from many sources. Alien abductions, Area 51, government conspiracies — it’s all a part of the story of Patricia, Delilah, and George as they help Alex search for his beloved Tatiana who disappeared into the night sky. The latest promotional clip for Lumina features the supposed “real testimonies of alien abductees” like Tatiana, who often are taken multiple times. In the film, which releases on July 12, 2024, none of…

“You always attack a movie scene as late as you possibly can. You always come into the scene at the last possible moment.” This bit of advice from the great screenwriter William Goldman has guided most moviemakers. The overwhelming majority of films begin with trouble already brewing and end before everything can be settled. But sometimes, a filmmaker takes the opposite approach. These visionaries begin as early as possible, even after the opening of a different movie. Thus, the prequel was born. Seriously though, most prequels come less from the minds of creatives and more from studios trying to milk…

“You Imaginaries never learn,” sneers a character in the trailer of Netflix’s new animated movie The Imaginary. “There is one thing imagination can never defeat. And that is reality.” Snotty as he might be, the speaker has a point. 2024 has already seen the release of two movies about imaginary friends, and both of them met with a mixed response. The Blumhouse horror film Imaginary, about a pretend play pal turned evil, turned a profit but disappointed viewers. The John Krasinski movie If starring Ryan Reynolds has also made back its budget, but audiences seem largely down on it. Netflix…

Twenty years ago, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 made quite the splash when it reached theaters. Quentin Tarantino movies always do. Some folks basked in its trenchant, loquacious splendor, marveling at how the most grandiose and blood-soaked depiction of vengeance yet in a QT joint could ultimately boil down to a custody dispute between two parents sitting across a table. Others criticized its grittier, more intimate concerns as a letdown following the severed-head glory of Kill Bill: Vol 1… and, finally, there were even those who simply couldn’t get over that amusingly cynical thesis about Superman which the titular Bill drops…

Secret agents going rogue is such a common trope that sometimes we wish that people like Ethan Hunt or Jason Bourne would just follow their orders for change. When Daniel Craig started playing James Bond in 2006, it seemed like Bond went rogue on nearly every single mission, including most of Quantum of Solace, at least half of Skyfall, and basically, the first two-thirds of No Time To Die. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond went rogue in Die Another Day, too, with a full beard and no shirt, declaring “I’m checking out” from a hospital. And of course, Connery’s Bond was on…

Change can often be as painful as it is inevitable. This is a fact of life and a fact that haunts Inside Out 2. The long anticipated sequel arrives nearly a decade after one of Pixar’s finest and most sophisticated films, making good on what previously was left as a looming menace and dark joke for the emotions of Riley—a sensitive girl who ended the 2015 film on the precipice of adolescence and all those fearsome feelings which come with it. “Riley’s 12, what could happen?” her emotions absently muse among themselves. Yet the anxiety that so often accompanies change…

While both fans and detractors speak of superhero cinema like it began yesterday—or about a decade ago when the Marvel Cinematic Universe came into being—the truth is masked do-gooders are virtually as old as the movies themselves. One of the silver screen’s first great adventurers, Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro (1924), was a major influence on Bob Kane and Bill Finger when they created Batman. As long as there’s been source material with heroes doing daring deeds, there have been producers willing to take a gamble on putting them on the screen. For better or worse that process…

“Wax on, wax off.”  This classic line from The Karate Kid is ingrained in our minds as the epitome of cinematic martial arts lessons. It captures the elfin broken English of Mr. Miyagi in all his humble and quirky charm. Miyagi won our hearts as the kindly sensei, and the role earned Noriyuki “Pat” Morita (1932-2005) a nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. But did you know that Mr. Miyagi was based on a real person? Actually, he was based on three people, all famous karate masters. Here are their stories. The Legendary Grandmasters of Karate Mr. Miyagi gets…

To some, releasing a trailer for Venom: The Last Dance during Pride month might just be a happy coincidence. But for queer fans of the Tom Hardy-led film series, the timing of this release was everything. While the previous entries in this film series, Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, have been generally panned (including by some of our staff), there is a subset of fans who celebrate the films for the queer subtext lying beneath that flashy blockbuster facade. And a lot of this has to do with Tom Hardy’s portrayal of both Venom and Eddie Brock. venom…

“Nothing lasts forever.” There’s something deeply ironic about that line of dialogue being dropped by Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow in only the second Avengers movie from almost 10 years ago. While Johansson’s tenure in the superhero genre is apparently over, with the Oscar-nominated star more recently focusing on films like Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, the MCU is still going strong with the latest whispers about Avengers 5 getting the rumor mills spinning again. Hence one of the reasons Steve Carell and Illumination Entertainment’s new marketing for Despicable Me 4 is so biting. Carell—who, by the by, was also in Asteroid…

“Let’s face it, I had a bad script,” director Michael Bay said on the commentary track of his debut feature film, Bad Boys. Bay isn’t wrong. Bad Boys relies on buddy comedy tropes already established in 1974’s Freebie and the Bean and 1982’s 48 Hrs., complete with nonsense plot points. “But I had real comic talent in my two stars.” Bay of course means Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. Drawn from the popular sitcoms Martin and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Lawrence and Smith saved the movie from the clunky script (and, be honest, Bay’s incoherent direction) with their easy…

The movies are in trouble. Or so we’re told frequently and often in the trades, on social media, and simply among industry gossipers convinced the sky is falling. In terms of ticket sales for conventional blockbusters, this summer is indeed off to a sluggish start. But if you focus only on the nickels and dimes, you likely are missing why you fell in love with movies in the first place. And there’s been quite a bit to love, or at least respectfully admire, in the first half of 2024. While a few genuinely great blockbusters on this list have struggled,…

This article contains spoilers for Hit Man. “People are disappointed when they learn that hit men don’t really exist,” explains Gary Johnson. That might be a surprising statement given that it occurs early on in a movie called Hit Man. Throughout the film, Gary (Glen Powell) dons different disguises to meet with people who want to pay him money (or video games or boats) to kill people. But then again, it’s all a ruse, a police sting operation that mild-mannered teacher Gary does as a side gig. As Gary explains, his job is to become the type of hitman that…

This article contains multitudes of Hit Man spoilers. The words “true story” are always a curious thing to see at the beginning of a film. Sometimes the term is applied to sober-eyed dramas that seek to convince you they’re nearly documentaries. Think of your Spotlights and All the President’s Mens. More often than not though, the phrase is used as a marketing gimmick for stories where the word “truth” is an abstraction. Think Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Which is what makes another Texan director’s latest indie effort, the beguiling Hit Man now on Netflix, so amusingly slippery. Richard Linklater…

A cowardly governor hides under the covers, clutching his wives and hoarded riches. Outside the governor’s guard squabbles with warriors hired to provide extra protection. They all fear a secret defender of the people, a masked hero who has never failed to escape the grasp of oppressors. The warriors and the guards draw their weapons, ready and waiting. But when a sleekly masked figure all dressed in black lands within their midsts, they can do nothing to stop him. He floats above their heads, dives below their punches, and deflects all of their attacks. He leaps from their heads and…

There is a new Hunger Games movie in the works, and this time it will be a prequel about Haymitch Abernathy, the District 12 tribute and champion played by Woody Harrelson in the original cycle of films in the 2010s. The news came simultaneously Thursday with the announcement of the book upon which the film will be based: Suzanne Collins’ forthcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. According to the press release, the new Young Adult novel and film will follow the events of the 50th Hunger Games, aka the Second Quarter Quell, when Haymitch became an unwilling tribute…

Yaphet Kotto as Jean-Luc Picard? Wesley Snipes as Geordi? Jenny Agutter as Dr. Crusher? Gene Roddenberry considered all of these actors for Star Trek: The Next Generation before casting Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, and Gates McFadden. However, the most surprising alternate idea for a TNG character involved Tasha Yar, the ill-fated security chief aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. The Tale of Macha Hernandez The TNG series bible, released before the show premiered as a guide for writers and actors, describes Yar in terms similar, if not completely one-to-one, with the character we know from the series. “Born at a ‘failed’ Earth…

“When did our professor get hot?” This is a query posed by one enterprising student in a psychology 101 seminar to another. In that exact moment, they’re watching their part-time instructor, a previously nebbish Glen Powell, begin acting like… well, how you might expect Glen Powell to act if you’ve seen Top Gun: Maverick and Everybody Wants Some!! (although in those flicks he never was so cocksure while explaining the societal virtues in summary execution). And honestly, you cannot help but feel like those surprised coeds. Not in regard to realizing Powell is hot. There’s a reason or two a…

This article contains spoilers for The Acolyte episode 2. What we know about the Jedi in Star Wars can — and has — filled not only several films and TV shows but a ton of books and comics, too. And, tellingly, one seclusive Jedi practice while introduced on screen in the films, was only given a name in the comic books. We’re talking about “the Barash Vow,” a Jedi tradition first explicitly mentioned in 2017 in issue #2 of Marvel’s first Darth Vader comic book miniseries. But, at this point, the Barash Vow is a big deal in Star Wars…

Science fiction cinema came of age in the 1950s, beginning an ascent out of the drive-in schlock market that culminated in the boldly experimental yet still commercially viable efforts of the 1960s. That fed directly into the next decade, with sci-fi in the 1970s taking on (for the most part) the same subversive attitude as most other movies made during that era. But sci-fi movies also entered blockbuster territory in the ‘70s as demonstrated by the massive success of films like Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman: The Movie, Logan’s Run, and Alien. The studios realized that…