By the end of 1994, two filmmakers pointed to the future of cinema. One was Quentin Tarantino, whose sophomore feature Pulp Fiction made high-art out of lowbrow exploitation. The other was Kevin Smith, who famously funded his debut Clerks entirely on a credit card. With its vulgar dialogue and focus on the working class of the service industry, Clerks announced Smith as an exciting new talent, one who could capture the voice of a generation—Generation X, in particular. Decades later, both Tarantino and Smith continue to work in the industry. But while at least some critics and audiences greet each…

Midway through the latest trailer for Thunderbolts*, CIA chief Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (aka Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the civilians) welcomes the titular team into her headquarters. “The place wasn’t cheap, but it’s got good optics,” she quips. She’s not kidding. We first saw that place in 2012’s The Avengers, a movie that’s filled with hero shots. In the final one, which is set to Alan Silvestri’s rousing theme, we see Stark Tower, a monument to Tony’s hubris and individualism, rechristened Avengers Tower, a symbol of what can happen when different personalities come together for the greater good. And even though…

There’s a lot to be excited for with the return of Andor next year. This second and final season is set to bridge the gap between the Cassian (Diego Luna) we saw in season 1 and the Cassian we see in Rogue One. This means that the potential for familiar characters to appear is has increased, including fan-favorite K-2SO (Alan Tudyk). Thanks to a trailer shown to audience members at D23 in Anaheim, we already knew that our favorite sassy droid was going to show up this season, but that doesn’t make his appearance in a recent teaser any less…

This article contains spoilers for The Penguin and The Batman. Let’s consider two different ways of meeting the Batman. In 1989, Batman made his onscreen debut by first dropping as a shadow in the background, behind two crooks counting their ill-gotten booty. When he finally appears in full, the Caped Crusader grabs the cowardly and superstitious baddie and stares into his face. “I’m Batman,” he growls. In 2022, Batman makes a slower, more drawn-out appearance. Voiceover from Bruce Wayne assures us that Batman is present and watching, waiting to make his move. He chooses to intercede in a group of…

Mr. Blue is back in the latest trailer for Captain America: Brave New World, doing what he does best. What? You don’t remember Mr. Blue? One of the first antagonists in the MCU? You see him all over the Brave New World trailer, talking on the phone from a shadowy alleyway and chiding Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson for simply following orders as the new Captain America. Okay, maybe you recognize that guy as the great character actor Tim Blake Nelson, who plays Hulk villain the Leader in Brave New World. But you might also recall that Nelson first played Sterns…

The Terminator, which turns 40 years old this year, is one of the seminal science fiction/action films of the 1980s, spawning a franchise that has included five additional movies, two TV shows, and other associated media. Written and directed by James Cameron, it starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in his breakout performance as the T-800, a cyborg sent back to our time by the AI defense system controlling the Earth in the future, so as to exterminate the mother of a yet-to-be-born human resistance leader. Initially a sleeper hit with all the makings of a cult classic, The Terminator is now recognized…

If you thought the Colosseum sands could soak up blood, wait until you see them covered in water. Atop a glassy shimmer of blue, various slaves, gladiators, and would-be champions make splashes of vibrant crimson and muddy rouge every time a clipped arrow sends them tumbling into the deep. But calm waters, these are not. Silent leviathans lay in wait, ready to collect felled warriors in their mouths like so much chum in a Steven Spielberg movie. Albeit even that comparison is not quite right; whereas the aquatic eating habits of monsters was the centerpiece of Jaws, such carnage is…

This article contains spoilers for The Penguin episode 8 and The Batman. In the final moments of The Batman, the young Dark Knight turns his bike away from Catwoman and back toward Gotham City, burdened by the work yet to be done. Although Batman never appears in The Penguin, the series further developed the world created by director Matt Reeves by following the unlikely rise of one Oz Cobb, derisively known as the Penguin. With Carmine Falcone out of the way, exposed as a rat by the Riddler and then murdered, Oz saw a chance to claim power for himself.…

It sometimes feels like most of the 80 million copies of The Da Vinci Code that have reportedly been sold since the novel’s 2003 release ended up in second-hand bookshops or on the sidewalk next to a sign that says “Free Books.” One of the biggest literary sensations ever now feels like a photo of that haircut you had in high school. It’s the kind of thing that can trigger vague memories of a different era while making you ask “what was I thinking?”  Yet the acclaim for 2004’s National Treasure, one of the earliest notable works that emulated The…

Debating about the best and worst Star Trek moments is a geek pastime that will endure until our sun grows cold or to the point where human beings have simply entered into a parallel universe in which Star Trek is real. But the extremes of best and worst lists sometimes exclude the more interesting truth about Star Trek stories; the moments that are just fine. Neither overtly bad nor exceedingly good, the majority of Trek, when you include most of the films, is merely okay. And perhaps the most okay-est of the okay Star Trek movies is the 1994 film…

No matter how you feel about the prequel series, there’s no denying the impact they’ve had on the Star Wars universe at large. The story of Anakin Skywalker and his master Obi-Wan Kenobi that we only briefly hear about in the original trilogy is finally brought to life in the three George Lucas-penned films. But it turns out that how this story began in The Phantom Menace was almost entirely different. Pretty much all Star Wars fans are familiar with how that movie plays out. A young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) are…

This article contains Heretic spoilers. Hugh Grant is the ultimate pompous mansplainer in Heretic, an unusual philosophical horror from writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Young Mormon women Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) visit the home of Mr. Reed (Grant) who has expressed an interest in learning more about the religion. It’s a stormy day and Reed’s wife, he explains, is just inside the kitchen making a blueberry pie. So the women reluctantly enter the house to discuss the Book of Mormon. But all, of course, is not what it seems. Reed’s theological bullying intensifies and…

Somehow, the Skywalker saga returned – at least potentially. Despite the mixed reviews the sequel trilogy received, the unclear current plans for a standalone Rey movie, and Lucasfilm’s current track record for announcing movies only to end up shelving them months or years later, it seems as though yet another filmmaker is set to throw their hat in the ring with a fresh Star Wars trilogy. Deadline reports that Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) is set to write and produce a new Star Wars trilogy, rumored to be Episodes 10-12 of the Skywalker saga. This hasn’t been confirmed…

Things are tense these days. The world is not as we might have known it, and no matter what your thoughts on recent events, we imagine you’re a bit exhausted. So join us as we look to recommend some possible escapes, at least for a couple of smiling hours. Singin’ in the Rain (1952) More than 70 years later, Singin’ in the Rain remains the one musical that even folks who hate musicals cannot help but smile about. A chipper and beguiling fantasy that, like the song says, only wants to “Make ‘Em Laugh,” Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s technicolor…

2018’s Venom will go down as a bizarre footnote in the history of superhero movies. Coming out when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was at its strongest, and the DC Comics Extended Universe hit a major snag with Justice League, Venom became a surprise success. Equal parts stupid and fun, it inspired Sony to not only make sequels, but also mine other Spider-Man-related characters to create their own cinematic universe. While Disney almost has a monopoly on Marvel properties now, there remains off to the side this bizarre pocket of movies about Morbius and Madame Web. They’re not part of the…

There has never been a fully faithful adaptation of the book Frankenstein. While that seminal 1818 novel is often credited with being the birth of science fiction, as well as one of the greatest works of Gothic literature ever penned, generally cinema’s popularization of the story has more to do with Universal Pictures and Boris Karloff under mountains of makeup than it does Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Shelley). Conversely, the post-Enlightenment anxieties which she first dreamed up as a teenager on the shores of Lake Geneva have remained, as ever, on the page. Yet one cinematic offering, at least, made…

The character of Mr. Reed frightened Scott Beck and Bryan Woods years before they knew he looked like Hugh Grant. Dapper, erudite, and domineeringly cheerful in his condescension, their creation was meant to embody every suspicion, doubt, and perhaps ill thought that two lifelong friends from Iowa had about religion. And yet, when they got down to putting pen to paper, a realization occurred: How much about religion did they really know? When Beck and Woods began writing what became Heretic 12 or so years ago, they knew what their setup would be. Two young Mormon missionaries arrive on the…

Released at the apex of the first wave of Pokémania in 2000, the second Pokémon feature film put an exclamation point on a worldwide phenomenon. By the time Pokémon the Movie 2000 arrived to North American theaters in July of…well, 2000, Pokémon was already the biggest game in town. From the 1998 release of the video games Blue and Red to the ongoing run of the anime, to the successful launch of its trading card game, the Pokémon franchise didn’t need to sweeten the pot to get kids to show up en masse for the opening weekend of the second…

In 2012, they assembled to confront Loki and hordes of Chitauri aliens who were attacking New York City; in 2019 they assembled again to give Thanos and his extreme form of population control the spanking it deserved; and now in 2024, to many’s surprise—including perhaps the Disney executives who ran Scarlett Johansson’s name through the mud three years ago—the Avengers are back. And as they see it, they are confronting the gravest threat to America they’ve seen in their lifetimes: Donald J. Trump. That is at least one way to read the pointed, if light-footed and humor-leaning new political video…

Near the tailend of producer Walter Wanger’s Gabriel Over the White House, an American commander-in-chief sits side by side with the leader of an American gang. The visual and cultural cues of such a scenario might look unfamiliar to modern eyes, but the subtext being conveyed to audiences circa 1933 feels eerily familiar. The self-named Nick Diamond—who we learned earlier in the picture was born with the ethnic-sounding moniker of Antone Brilawski—presents himself as a man about town, a dapper gent with a smart suit and expensive cane. He even quotes the recently incarcerated Al Capone. And yet, the President…