century

10 Sep

How James Wan Launched Three Horror Movements in the 21st Century

New DVD releasecentury, horror, james, launched, movements, three

The highly secretive new horror project from James Wan, Malignant, has arrived in cinemas and on HBO Max, and it’s quite rightly been met with much anticipation. Because while on paper this looks like another mid-tier chiller with a decent cast and a generic title, with James Wan… well, you just never know. Though Wan has proved he can play in the big leagues (Furious 7, Aquaman) he has also consistently returned to horror. And in doing so he has quietly – almost insidiously, you might say – managed to launch three distinct movements within the horror genre, and change…

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15 Apr

Link Tank: The Most Iconic Quotes from Movies of the 21st Century

New DVD releasecentury, iconic, movies, quotes

From Zoolander‘s “What is this? A center for ants?” to 300‘s iconic “This is Sparta” line, here are the best quotes from movies of the 21st century. “The history of cinema is littered with lines of dialogue that transcend context, but for the most part, what are considered the Great Movie Quotes are vintage in nature. AFI’s 100 Years…100 Quotes remains the bible, reminding us that, yes, ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’ is pretty significant.” Read more at Thrillist. Lin-Manuel Miranda explains why he cut a Trump reference from the movie adaptation of In the Heights. “Lin-Manuel…

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18 Mar

Aqualung at 50: Jethro Tull’s Half Concept Album Hits Half a Century

New DVD releasealbum, aqualung, century, concept, jethro

“In the beginning Man created God,” reads the back cover of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung. “And in the image of Man created he him.” The album came out 7 million days later, on March 19, 1971. We’d only recently been told God was “a concept by which we measure our pain,” by John Lennon. Aqualung is framed by two halves of a concept. The first songs on the first side tell the stories of the outcasts, those out of sight of the eyes of the man who created god. The B-side explains why organized religion blinds us. In between are songs…

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22 Feb

Godzilla vs. Kong: Inside the Monster Fight of the Century

New DVD releasecentury, fight, godzilla, inside, monster

By now you’ve probably seen the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer. You know, the one where a giant ape not only punches a giant lizard in the face (and does what almost looks like the Henry Cavill arm-cocking maneuver) suggesting there’s a new contender for the title of “King of the Monsters.” Audiences will find out who wins when the film drops on HBO Max and in theaters on Mar. 26, 2021, but in a 2019 visit to the Australian production, Den of Geek learned there is more to the movie than a mere clash of Titans. Instead, executive producer Alex…

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18 Nov

The Twentieth Century

Max SchindlerMovie reviewscentury, twentieth

Toronto, 1899. Aspiring young politician Mackenzie King (Dan Beirne) dreams of becoming the Prime Minister of Canada. But his romantic vacillation between a British soldier and a French nurse, exacerbated by a fetishistic obsession, may well bring about his downfall. In his quest for power, King must gratify the expectations of his imperious Mother, the hawkish fantasies of a war-mongering Governor-General, and the utopian idealism of a Québécois mystic before facing one, final test of leadership. Culminating in an epic battle between good and evil, King learns that disappointment may be the defining characteristic of the twentieth century!Rated: Not RatedRelease…

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03 Sep

Link Tank: Old Predictions About the 21st Century

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Just as we have predictions about the future, so did past people have about our present. Check out these old predictions people made about the 21st century. “Everyone from chocolate-making companies to some of history’s greatest minds (think Ben Franklin and Nikola Tesla) weighed in on what they thought life would be like in the 21st century. Check out what they got right and wrong (mostly wrong!) below, in this piece adapted from an episode of The List Show on YouTube.” Read more at Mental Floss. Disney’s live action Mulan is more than just a remake of its hit animated…

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12 Jun

Cleopatra and the First Time 20th Century Fox Almost Died

New DVD releasealmost, century, cleopatra, first

Spyros Skouras was a practical man with a dream. As a finance-minded studio executive who made his bones in the industry as a frugal theater owner during the Depression, Skouras was looking for a safe bet when he asked producer Walter Wanger to remake the story of Cleopatra on a budget of $2 million. It didn’t work out that way. Nearly 60 years after Elizabeth Taylor rode into Rome on a sphinx, the gaudy, extravagant, and moribund epic that is Hollywood’s most iconic Cleopatra remains the stuff of legend—and perhaps hellish nightmares for studio execs with greenlighting powers. What was…

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30 Apr

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Max SchindlerMovie reviewscapital, century, first, twenty

Based on the international bestseller by economist Thomas Piketty, this documentary is an eye-opening journey through wealth and power, a film that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, and shines a new light on today’s growing inequalities. Traveling through time, the film assembles accessible pop-culture references coupled with interviews of some of the world’s most influential experts delivering an insightful and empowering journey through the past and into our future. [Kino Lorber]Rated: Not RatedRelease Date: May 01, 2020

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14 Apr

Dune: Denis Villeneuve on Updating a Classic for the 21st Century

New DVD releasecentury, classic, denis, updating, villeneuve

Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve knows a thing or two about stepping into deep waters with even deeper legacies. A versatile filmmaker who as of late has been working in science fiction, his last movie Blade Runner 2049 was the decades-later sequel to a 1980s cult classic lionized for its genre-defining imagery. For most filmmakers such a prospect would be intimidating, but for Villeneuve it might only be pretext since his next film is a new big screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Dune has technically been brought to the screen before, but in such an unfortunate and incomprehensible way by director…

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15 Aug

End of the Century

Max SchindlerMovie reviewscentury

When Ocho (Juan Barberini), a 30-something Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi (Ramon Pujol), a Spaniard from Berlin, from the balcony of his Airbnb, the attraction is subtle but persistent. After a missed connection on the beach, a third chance encounter escalates to a seemingly random hookup. But are these two merely beautiful strangers in a foreign city or are they part of each other?s histories?and maybe even their destinies?Rated: Not RatedRelease Date: Aug 16, 2019

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