Nerdy
It was only a matter of time before we dived into the world of Italian film franchises. To kick things off, we’ll look at the storied La Casa film series, whose entries rarely had anything to do with each other many happened to be known as very different—and not always linked—films. Not one but two key U.S. horror film franchises contributed to the La Casa series. Here we go….
Read MoreThe only thing that could make a franchise trickier than sequels, reboots, and remakes is, well, time travel. So with that in mind, let’s look at apes, robots, and mutants, and try to sort through the continuity when time travel plays a part of the narrative.
Read MoreSequels, reboots, remakes… Where to begin? If you think keeping up with the Marvel movies is overwhelming, wait until you try sorting through these series. We’ve decided to make it simple (well, simpler) with handy series charts.
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Famed filmmaker Terry Gilliam statement on Black Panther made my blood boil. If Mr. Gilliam wanted to trash on the current era of superheroes films, by all means, he should go for it. But there was something targeted, spiteful, and ultimately ignorant about his focus on Black Panther and the choice of words for his criticism. I struggle to reconcile how the person who made accomplished works like Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas could be so far off the mark. Was it bigotry showing? Or just cranky old age? Both? A filmmaker like Ryan Coogler doesn’t need my defense, but I’m offering it anyway because I have a bone to pick with Gilliam.
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Brace yourself, True Believers. The Phoenix Force is coming to earth in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, slotted to hit theaters November 2, 2018. Sophie Turner returns as telepathic powerhouse Jean Grey and she’s in for the fight of her life in this big screen adaptation of the classic X-Men story, The Dark Phoenix Saga.
Jessica Chastain, long rumored to be playing Shi’ar Empress Lilandra Neramani, recently confirmed on Twitter she was not playing the intergalactic monarch, but an entirely different character altogether. So what gives? We know Chastain is playing the film’s big bad (cite her Instagram to fellow castmate James McAvoy) and if Lilandra isn’t the film’s villain then who is?
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No word could better describe Alejandro Jodorowsky than hyperbole. He’s the embodiment of enthusiastic and emphatic energy unfettered from the physical world. He dances on a plane of existence to which we should all strive.
Read MoreContinuity. It’s such a loaded word for comic book fans, both a prime reason for the medium’s longevity and a bane to many readers. When telling stories about characters over the course of sixty or seventy years, the stories have to change. There’s no room for innovation otherwise. Marvel Comics has operated on sliding timeline, attempting to keep the most of their characters’ histories intact while fudging the details that just won’t work anymore as the decades go on. Their distinguished competition DC Comics has favored reboots, relaunching their characters with new origins. This method is ingrained in DC’s DNA, dating back to when a rebooted version of The Flash heralded the birth of the Silver Age of comics in 1956.
Read MoreWe’re living in some perilous times with a great deal of uncertainty. As we all curl up into tight little balls and recite T.S. Elliot—“This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends.”—let’s take a look at some post-apocalyptic films with unique visions of what happens after everything goes to shit.
Read MoreSpeaking at the New York premiere of the newly restored Multiple Maniacs last month, John Waters touched on the state of his first feature length film, Mondo Trasho. He said it would probably never be re-released because the music licensing would cost $750,000, and it’s not the first time he has made a statement like this. And every time I hear it, it’s a bummer. There’s an entire generation of Waters fans who have only seen VHS rips on YouTube or via torrents, and that’s a shame. These mediums are not suitable for an acclaimed director’s first film, nor are they exactly legal. Let’s get the fan entitlement out of the way. We’re not owed an official, restored release of Mondo Trasho.
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The first live-action team-up of DC Comics icons Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman should have been a game-changer in the comic book movie genre. Instead, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (BvS), both a sequel to 2013’s Man of Steeland the stepping stone to ambitious slate of upcoming films from Warner Bros., was met with savage reviews (27% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and underwhelming box office numbers. $872 million worldwide is hardly a failure but given the production and marketing costs, anything less than a billion dollars would be seen as a disappointment. In the United States alone, it couldn’t outperform Fox’s Deadpool, which was an R-rated superhero equivalent of an episode of Family Guy. What went wrong?
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