Forty years ago this summer, a perfect storm of moviemaking elements came together with almost supernatural precision: SNL alums like Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray at the height of their popularity; director Ivan Reitman and co-writer Harold Ramis at the peak of their creativity; unexpectedly innovative and convincing VFX developed by Richard Edlund on a budget because ILM was too busy; and a weathered and weary New York City that, still a decade out from “urban renewal,” proved a perfect backdrop for a comedy about working stiffs going into business. All these elements and more seemed to capture lightning in…

David Lynch has been making movies since the 1960s, when he was an art student who wanted to see his paintings move. Since then, he’s become one of the most recognizable and beloved auteurs in cinema history, a filmmaker who enjoys remarkable success, given his idiosyncratic work. Because Lynch’s work is so personal, it has long been difficult for critics and fans to reach a consensus regarding which is his very best work. Every single one of his movies and TV series has value, and each one strikes different people in different ways. Indeed, even this writer finds himself changing…

The MCU is a star maker. Thor changed Chris Hemsworth from a guy with one outstanding scene at the start of Star Trek to an A-lister. Guardians of the Galaxy transformed Chris Pratt from the goofy guy on Parks & Recreation to an A-list action hero. All actors know that, so it’s no surprise that someone like Kit Harington would go from saying “I don’t want it” over and over in Game of Thrones to “I do want it” as Dane Whitman, looking at the Ebony Blade in the post-credit sequence of Eternals. In a career retrospective with British GQ,…

Although the next Star Wars movie has only just kicked off production, Lucasfilm wasted no time giving fans and journalists a first look at The Mandalorian & Grogu at this year’s D23. The first Star Wars film since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker is a continuation of the Disney+ series and picks up after the end of The Mandalorian season 3, which ended with Din and Grogu settling down on Nevarro. But from the looks of the teaser footage shown at D23, the vacation is over and our beloved bounty hunting duo is back on the road. Den of Geek…

The Fantastic Four: First Steps came to Disney’s D23 movie and TV preview at Anaheim’s cavernous Honda Center with just a little bit more than they showed at San Diego Comic-Con two weeks earlier. With the movie now two weeks into filming and the cast working in London, Marvel’s First Family—Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm)—delivered a video greeting to the 12,000 fans in the arena. The four were seated around what could have been the gang’s kitchen table, but what drew the most attention, of course, was that…

As part of a brand-new trailer for Captain America: Brave New World premiering at Disney’s D23 fan event in Anaheim, California this week, the thousands on hand at the Honda Center arena got their first full-on look at the movie’s Red Hulk (following an indirect glimpse in the first trailer), the anger-fueled alter ego of President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). Ross’s transformation into the big red guy comes at the end of the clip (shown exclusively to the D23 audience), as he is speaking to a gathering of some kind outside the White House. Ross is overcome with a…

At its D23 fan event in Anaheim, California on Friday night, Walt Disney Studios unveiled a first, exclusive look at footage from Tron: Ares, the third entry in what is now officially the Tron film franchise—which wasn’t a foregone conclusion after Tron: Legacy underperformed back in 2010. Following up on the ending of that film, in which the AI character Quorra (Olivia Wilde) escaped from the Grid into the real world with Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), Tron: Ares is leaning fully in that direction with the Grid itself invading our world through the machinations of the malevolent program known as…

This Deadpool & Wolverine article contains spoilers. Deadpool & Wolverine wastes no time connecting Wade Wilson to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as an early scene finds Deadpool interviewing for a Stark Industries job with Happy Hogan. It’s a funny moment, but screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick at one point wanted to assemble an even more impressive MCU veteran lineup for the scene. “[T]here was a version of that scene very, very early on that wasn’t written, but was conceived, that had all the Avengers in the room,” Wernick told IndieWire. “And Wade was rejected and then he dressed all…

Film historians agree that computer-generated imagery (CGI) was first used in a motion picture as far back as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), which utilized abstract computer animation under its opening credits. Of course that’s not immediately what comes to mind when we think of CGI (or just plain CG) today: the earliest, crude instances of the kind of CG that dominates modern filmmaking were first seen in Westworld (1973), Star Wars (aka A New Hope, 1977), Looker (1981), the groundbreaking Tron (1982), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), and The Last Starfighter (1984). But the first genuine leap…

“Whoever wins, we lose,” read the famous tagline for Alien vs. Predator. Ask most critics in 2004, and they would insist that we did indeed lose. “The title alone betrays an entire Hollywood mindset of rehash, reheat, recombine. Re-please,” wrote Jessica Winter of Time Out. “A movie based on a video game based on two entirely separate sci-fi horror series—so whatever was interesting in the originals has long been bred out, like double-jointedness,” lamented Ty Burr of the Boston Globe. These samples captured the general tenor of the critical response, which decried AvP as an unholy diluting of two venerable…

When asked to describe his take on one of the most well-known comic book characters ever, Hellboy: The Crooked Man star Jack Kesy has a simple answer: “I enjoy to smoke and Hellboy enjoys to smoke.” To some movie fans, Kesy’s statement may sound flippant. After all, Kesy is stepping into some big shoes. Ron Perlman knocked it out of the park in the two much-loved Hellboy movies directed by Guillermo del Toro. Neil Marshall’s 2019 Hellboy reboot has lots of problems, but none of them involve star David Harbour, who had his own likable energy. But to those who…

The 25th anniversary of Deep Blue Sea is generally not seen as a significant cultural event. In the grand context of a world spinning wildly off its axis, finding time to remember that movie where scientists use shark brains to cure Alzheimer’s can be difficult.  Yet Deep Blue Sea deserves to be remembered. Not for the events of the film itself—though it is, remarkably, still one of the best shark movies ever made—but rather for the incredible original rap song that plays over its end credits, “Deepest Bluest (Shark’s Fin).” In that rousing ballad, rapper and Deep Blue Sea co-star…

On what US TV quiz show, in which contestants are given answers and respond in the form of questions, did Rosie Perez’s character Gloria appear on in Spike Lee movie White Men Can’t Jump?JeopardyWho Wants to be a Millionaire?Cash CabFamily FeudWhich two future Marvel movie stars played Brian and Patrick in 2006 British comedy film Starter For Ten, themed around TV quiz show University Challenge?James McAvoy and Benedict CumberbatchTom Hiddleston and Idris ElbaAnthony Hopkins and Dominic CooperPaul Bettany and Martin FreemanWhich 1980s US movie family win fictional game show “Pig in a Poke” to go on a European vacation that…

When one thinks of the great sounds in M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout movie, The Sixth Sense, iconic lines probably leap to mind. And none stand out more than the confession scene, in which young Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) agrees to tell child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) his secret. “I see dead people,” Cole explains, laying out the rules of the afterlife for the audience and for Malcolm, who doesn’t realize that the boy’s describing him. It’s a powerful moment, one that deserves to stand the test of time. But it relies upon more than just the dialogue. The…

This M. Night Shyamalan article contains spoilers. You are currently in the middle of the Shyamalanaissance, which is not some kind of B-movie supernatural occurrence, but the return of M. Night Shyamalan to the forefront of filmmaking. After a few big budget flops, this cult-favorite director went back to his low-budget roots for the 2015 found-footage film The Visit, an excellent thriller with a twist that will undoubtedly remind movie viewers of his earlier thriller masterpieces, such as The Sixth Sense and Signs. Since then, Shyamalan has released the surprising slasher film Split and the Unbreakable superhero sequel, Glass, twisty…

“There should be things in the last 20 minutes of the movie that you never see coming,” teases Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez, in an exclusive interview with Den of Geek at SDCC 2024. That’s a very ambitious goal for someone helming the ninth movie in one of the most iconic and revered franchises in sci-fi horror history. But based on the trailers we’ve seen so far, Alien: Romulus‘ mission is two-fold: not only is it trying to bring something fresh to this heavily-explored universe but it also wants to recapture what made the franchise’s most beloved installments—Alien (1979) and…

Things that go bump in the night, fears of the dark, nights of things like The Demon, The Living Dead, The Hunter and… err… The Lepus (big rabbits), are mainstays in horror. Something half glimpsed in the gloom when everything is quiet and people are sleeping is innately creepy. So it can sometimes be extra special when a horror movie manages to scare the bejesus out of us despite being set in the cold light of day. Or indeed, as is the case with many of the following movies because they are set in broad daylight.  So let the sun…

This article contains light spoilers for Trap. It’s no spoiler to say that M. Night Shyamalan makes a cameo appearance in his latest movie Trap. After all, Shyamalan shows up in all of his movies, a tribute to his hero Alfred Hitchcock. But as much as he wants to follow in the footsteps of the master of suspense, Shyamalan has the heart of an ’80s schlockmeister. For evidence, look no further than Trap. Yes, the film has a Hitchcock-worthy premise, in which suburban dad Cooper (Josh Hartnett) finds the pop concert he’s attending with his pre-teen daughter interrupted by police…

Warning: contains spoilers for…well, loads of stuff. Before we start this article, we need to deliver possibly one of the most comprehensive spoiler warnings in the history of the site, as this article will contain spoilers for Doctor Who series 14, The Twilight Zone episodes “Five Characters in Search of an Exit”, “To Serve Man”, “Nothing in the Dark”, “Death Ship”, “Judgement Night”, “The Hitch Hiker”, “Eye of the Beholder”, the Black Mirror episodes “Playtest” and “Hang the DJ”, and the movies, Existenz, Vanilla Sky, The Thirteenth Floor, The Usual Suspects, Planet of the Apes, The Village, Citizen Kane, Memento,…

Star Trek is always about boldly going and exploring the final frontier. But who said that frontier had to exist in the present? Many times, the voyages of the USS Enterprise and its sister ships in Starfleet go back to the past and sometimes to the future, where they get new perspectives on what has been and what could be. With few exceptions (looking at you, Picard season two), Trek‘s time travel stories are often entertaining romps or thought-provoking adventures. But a few stand above the rest, outdoing even favorites like “Time’s Arrow” or “Trials and Tribble-ations.” This list ranks…