It really is amazing how much the superhero genre has exploded over the last quarter of a century. Before 2000, the only cinematic releases under the Marvel banner were for C-list characters. Meanwhile, the more well-known names at most had direct-to-video or TV movies. Now, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to return from a year of (mostly) rest, we live in a world where there have been over 70 Marvel box office releases when you include all the other studio efforts. It’s a lot. The House of Ideas has so many comics, with so many heroes and villains,…

Midway through Captain America: Brave New World, Sam Wilson and Joaquin Torres break into the home base of Samuel Sterns, the gamma-irradiated baddie known as the Leader. After an impressive-looking establishing shot that features a pair of red-hued satellite dishes, a close-up catches the heroes charging the bunker door. The pair frantically pry the door open and slide inside. One last shot outside the door catches two guards passing by, suggesting that our heroes just evaded capture. The sequence will annoy anyone who thinks about it for more than two seconds. Where did the guards come from? Why didn’t we…

This article contains spoilers for Captain America: Brave New World. Captain America: Brave New World finds Sam Wilson on his heels. A vast conspiracy has entangled Sam’s mentor Isaiah Bradley, and Sam doesn’t know who to trust. He certainly can’t trust President Thaddeus Ross, nor can he trust Ross’s new aide Ruth Bat-Seraph. He can’t even trust most of his fellow members of the Armed Forces. Sam has one glimmer of hope on the inside, a boots on the ground soldier (William Mark McCullough) who worked with Sam on a mission to recover canister of adamantium and knows better than…

You can have too much of a good thing. If Titanic or Gone with the Wind are your romantic movie night picks, then you’d both better have eaten early, pre-planned your toilet breaks, and made some serious investment in the lumber support of your living room furniture. Cuddling up with a loved one to watch a film that extends over three hours? Prepare for discomfort. The romantic movies below are humble creatures that don’t overstay their welcome. By clocking in at 90 minutes or under, they can be watched pre- or post-dinner, and don’t have to be interrupted by attacks…

This article contains spoilers for Captain America: Brave New World. No one would argue that Captain America: Brave New World is a jam-packed movie. It’s stuffed with so many characters and subplots from The Incredible Hulk, Eternals, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that Sam Wilson doesn’t always feel like the main character in his own movie. But it could have been featured even more Marvel characters. It’s no secret that Brave New World went through reshoots that radically changed the finished film, including by cutting several characters who originally had scenes in the movie. It’s a testament to…

“Paddington tries to make toffee”, “Paddington makes a mess cleaning the chimney”, “Paddington investigates the disappearance of Mr Brown’s prize marrow”. Such are the types of adventure that Paddington creator Michael Bond wrote for his fuzzy creation. The Bond books are filled with stories of the bear as an unwitting agent of chaos in small, domestic English settings. In practically every instance of Bond’s stories, Paddington would enter an ordinary and often genteel situation – meeting a vacuum cleaner salesman, for instance, or attending a ballet – and despite his unfailing politeness, he’d get into a royal mess about which everyone…

Mr. Miyagi didn’t know Karate at all. Noriyuki ”Pat” Morita, who immortalized Mr. Miyagi into a cultural icon with his signature “wax on, wax off” lessons, had not studied the Japanese martial art prior to taking on the role. Neither did Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) or Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). The Karate Kid is the most prominent Karate film of all time, and yet none of the lead actors had any Karate skills.  Karate is a martial art that is rooted in Okinawa, although it’s worth noting that half of the Karate that the Cobra Kai TV series demonstrates is Korean. The…

This article contains spoilers for Captain America: Brave New World. Doomsday is coming. You know it. I know it. And now, thanks to the Leader, Captain America knows it too. In the lone post-credit scene for Captain America: Brave New World, villain Samuel Sterns offers a warning to Sam Wilson, one that points to the next Avengers movie and, potentially, the end of the MCU as we know it. Captain America 4’s Post-Credit Scene Explained As the marketing for Captain America: Brave New World loves to remind us, Sam Wilson is not Steve Rogers. And that’s a good thing. Brave…

This article contains spoilers for Captain America: Brave New World. Upon first viewing, some fans may leave Captain America: New World Order feeling a bit let down. The final confrontation between Sam Wilson’s Captain America and President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in Red Hulk form featured prominently in commercials and posters, pretty much spoiling the big reveal. Yet, New World Order‘s connections to little-discussed MCU entries of the past, especially The Incredible Hulk and Eternals, and its important setup for Wolverine of the X-Men, mean that the movie’s ending isn’t quite as simple as it seems. Worry not, True Believers! We’ve…

It is sometimes only a pleasantry when the winner of a major award says they “are so surprised to be here” while accepting the accolade. Yet that sentiment from Sean Baker seemed genuine Friday night when he accepted the Best Picture prize at the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards. Consider that just moments beforehand, his deceptively layered screwball comedy about a sex worker from Brooklyn, Anora, had been largely shut out by the critics. Up until this moment, Anora failed to pick up the CCAs’ Best Director award, nor did it get Best Actress for Mikey Madison. Even the one…

Nearly 15 years ago, DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon soared into theaters. At first, the film appeared to be another quirky idea from the animation studio that once played second fiddle to Disney, a la Bee Movie (2007) or Monsters vs. Aliens (2009). However, Hollywood quickly learned this wasn’t another middling entry into the DreamWorks catalog. In fact, How To Drain Your Dragon flew to new creative heights the animation studio hadn’t seen since Shrek (2001).  The film was an honest-to-goodness smash hit, spawning a trilogy of movies, an animated TV series spinoff, and a plethora of merchandise.…

Captain America was at the forefront of Marvel before it was even called Marvel. The character has stood the test for decades, with a recent resurgence thanks to his rise in prominence in the MCU. And even though Steve Rogers retired in Avengers: Endgame, he passed on his shield to Sam Wilson, a new iteration of the hero who gets his big screen debut in Captain America: Brave New World.  To celebrate the fourth Captain America picture, Den of Geek has compiled a list of the best Cap toys, new and old, starring both Captains Americas.  LEGO 76292: Captain America…

Andrzej Sapkowski, the Polish author who created The Witcher saga in his ‘90s book series, was known to repurpose fairytales for Geralt of Rivia’s adventures, particularly in the short story collection called Sword of Destiny. The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is based on a tale therein called “A Little Sacrifice,” a version of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.” So it is perhaps only fitting that the new Netflix animated film of the same name refashions it again to include even more nods to the original tale, its other adaptations… and an ending all Netflix’s own. It might not…

Harrison Ford has only been nominated for an Oscar once in his career. It’s a strange thing to remember when considering one of the most prolific and defining movie stars of his generation. This is the man who was Indiana Jones, Han Solo, and Rick Deckard, to name but a few. For many he also remains the best Jack Ryan, and emanates a world-weary grumpiness that is like a blast from the Humphrey Bogart past—a comparison that Steven Spielberg and Sydney Pollock both invited by casting Ford in Bogie-inspired roles. Yet unlike Bogart, who won an Oscar for The African…

This article contains details from Marvel comics that may be spoilers for Thunderbolts*. There have already been a lot of questions surrounding Marvel’s latest team movie Thunderbolts*. Are these guys the new Avengers? What’s with the asterisks? Who is Bob? The latest trailer for Thunderbolts* resolves one of the big questions, even if the answer isn’t obvious. Throughout the trailer, we see a dark caped figure flying in the sky, zapping people and leaving behind shadowy dust. That is the Void, arch-enemy to the Sentry a.k.a. Bob. Also, the Void is the Sentry a.k.a. Bob. They’re the same person. Created…

Four full minutes. That’s how much time Star Trek: The Motion Picture devotes to a sequence in which Scotty and Kirk take a shuttle to the new USS Enterprise. The Motion Picture gets a lot of guff for its slow pace and its indulgences, and rightfully so. But we forgive the flyby sequence because it’s not just our two Starfleet members admiring their ship. We get to admire it too, lavishing in every line and curve. The Motion Picture wouldn’t have even attempted the sequence were they working with anything other than the Enterprise. More than just the Starfleet flagship…

“Everything you were, everything you’ve done, comes down to this,” intones the mysterious voiceover in the latest Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning trailer. To underscore the finality of this eighth and last entry of the franchise, the promo features shots from previous films, namely Tom Cruise‘s Ethan Hunt plummeting to the floor during the break-in of the CIA computer room. That callback makes sense, given how much the break-in sequence permeated popular culture. However, more curious is a shot in the present of Ethan staring intently at a knife in his hands. That knife is in the style of…

Get ready, bub. Captain America: Brave New World might not really be about Sam Wilson dealing with a secret plot to turn the President into a Hulk. At the center of a battle with Captain America and the U.S. government on one side and the mercenary group the Serpent Society (led by Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder) on the other, with master manipulator the Leader in between, is a special metal directly connected to the X-Men’s most famous member, Wolverine. The trailers for the film have shown that Brave New World pits Cap and the various belligerents in a fight over the…

Vertical lines and black and white stripes. Sullen expressions and pallid skin tones. Disheveled hair and often handcrafted special effects. There are certain staples and motifs that recur in the works of Tim Burton. So much so that 40 years after his directorial career began, Burton’s films remain instantly recognizable and a good gateway to introducing younger audiences to the concept of auteur theory. The singularity of Burton’s work has also earned its share of critics and detractors; those who see the repetition of his muses and Gothic fixations as cause for caricature. And to be sure, the one-time Hollywood…

While we’re all wringing our hands about the identity of the next James Bond, a new video has resurfaced online showing a potential 007 of the past. The clip from 2006 shows Henry Cavill running through lines from GoldenEye as part of a screen test for Casino Royale. Cavill’s lines recreate the first meeting between Bond, then played by Pierce Brosnan, and the villain Xenia Onatopp, originally portrayed by Famke Janssen, with her lines delivered by an unidentified off-screen performer in the clip. Cavill puts a slightly different spin on each of his readings, sometimes hitting a line with more…