07
May
Scarface hadn’t been made when Pete Townshend’s 1974 song “The Punk and the Godfather” came out, but The Godfather certainly had. The Who’s anthem was a musical allegory about the rock scene, but the lyrics might as well be interpreted as a conversation between Michael Corleone and Tony Montana. Possibly right before they rumble. Al Pacino played both men in both movies, and in each film, he begins the story as a punk. But in The Godfather, at least, he grows into the establishment. Michael becomes don. Tony was a shooting star on the other hand, one on a collision…
07
May
DC Films’ long-gestating Flash movie is finally in production after years in development. While it’ll be nice to see the speedster headline his own blockbuster for the very first time, there’s no doubt the picture’s biggest draw is the return of Michael Keaton as an older, wiser Batman poised to become a mentor to young Barry Allen. Ever since the first reports of Keaton’s Gotham comeback dropped last June, fans have formed theories about what the actor’s return to the cape and cowl might entail as well as which Batman he’s playing. The answer might seem obvious but in a…
30
Apr
Creed III is happening. The third entry in what initially started life as a continuation of the Rocky boxing franchise is now moving forward as a series of its own… and without Rocky. The movie will follow up 2018’s Creed II, in which Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) faced off in the ring against Viktor Drago (Florian Monteanu) — son of the man who killed his father, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) — while also becoming a family man and continuing to come to terms with the legacy of his dad, Apollo Creed. Not nearly as fresh and urgent as 2015’s…
30
Apr
It has been such a pleasure watching Michael B. Jordan evolve onscreen. From his breakout as Wallace, the emotional center of the first season of The Wire, to Vince Howard, the anchor of the latter seasons of Friday Night Lights, on to film projects that showcased his true leading man ability like Creed and Fruitvale Station, Jordan has always projected both naturalism and star power. He’s been compared to Denzel Washington by The Hollywood Reporter, listed as a “rising young star” in just about every media trade publication, and has even been named People’s Sexiest Man Alive. Yet despite this,…
28
Apr
People like to say Tom Clancy’s politics never left the 1980s. That’s probably true, but movies based on his work are firmly planted in the ‘90s. Beginning with John McTiernan’s crackling (if even then historically dated) The Hunt for Red October (1990), the decade was a boom era for technocratic spy thrillers. And at heart, Clancy’s popular Jack Ryan character really works best as a technocrat. If the author ever wanted to indulge in action thrills, there was always John Clark, Clancy’s other recurring protagonist. Yet, strangely, Clark never got to star in his own movie. That changes in Without…
23
Jan
This Star Trek: Discovery feature contains spoilers for Season 3. Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 was surprising in many ways. The latest season literally went where no installment of the Star Trek franchise had gone before, flying into an unknown time period that exists so far outside established canon that the series was basically free to do whatever it wanted. And, for the most part, it did. Break up the Federation as we once understood it? Check. Show us a broken Starfleet that was essentially in hiding, hanging on to a dream of past glory? Also, check. Confirm the eventual…
05
Jan
Just who is under the Batman’s mask? It’s a question that’s bedeviled many a Gotham City villain, and it also appears poised to tax even the most loyal DC Extended Universe (DCEU) fan going forward, with a recent clarification on a New York Times report appearing to suggest Michael Keaton’s reprise of the Dark Knight in The Flash is more than a one-off. Indeed, Times reporter Brooks Barnes generated additional news over the weekend when he elaborated on a profile piece he filed last month. In the earlier report, DC Films head Walter Hamada revealed DC is embracing a full-throated…
09
Dec
This Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone analysis contains spoilers. The ending will be discussed at length. If you haven’t seen it, I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse. Find the film, watch it with fresh eyes, then come back and celebrate The Death of Michael Corleone. “The power to absolve debt is greater than the power of forgiveness,” Michael Corleone observes in the revelatory new opening of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. He may well be speaking for Francis Ford Coppola. The Godfather Part III concluded the family saga,…
01
Dec
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Godfather: Part III, director/screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola brings a definitive new edit and restoration of the final film in his epic Godfather trilogy—Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), now in his 60s, seeks to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia)... but he may also be the spark that turns Michael's hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence. The film’s meticulously restored picture and sound, under the supervision of…
18
Nov
“Friends, our business together is done,” Al Pacino’s mob family patriarch says in the official trailer for Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. And Francis Ford Coppola hopes the new conclusion to the mafia saga takes care of all family business. For the 30th anniversary of The Godfather: Part III, the director and screenwriter will release a new edit and restoration of the final film of The Godfather trilogy. The Godfather: Part III was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Goodfellas, released that same year, only got six nominations. Neither won…
17
Nov
Perhaps the best thing about Netflix’s Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is Keegan-Michael Key’s villain song. “We have to talk about something, and it’s the fact that I can’t get Keegan-Michael Key’s villain song from Netflix’s Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey out of my head. I didn’t expect this to happen to me, but, then again, we never expect these things, do we?” Read more at Thrillist. From Monty Python and the Holy Grail to Airplane!, here is an inconclusive list of the best comedy movies fo all time. “Comedy generates an immediate, undeniable audience response. If audiences are smiling…
02
Nov
“I’ll stand one day before the Queen, not kneel, mind you, but stand like an equal, and she’ll say ‘I’d like you to accept the Order of the Garter as a mark of my esteem, cousin,’” Sean Connery’s ex-British soldier Daniel Dravot proclaims in the 1975 period adventure film, The Man Who Would Be King. And with those words, and the epic death scene which followed, Connery completed the saga of a long-germinating work from one of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors. John Huston was Hollywood royalty. His father, Walter, was an acting icon, and his offspring have all gone on…
02
Nov
Director Michael Bay’s The Rock remains a quintessential summer movie season offering. Having been released in 1996—one of the best years for action blockbusters—Bay’s classic squared off the Top 4 box office earners, just behind classics like Independence Day, Twister and Mission: Impossible. Interestingly, while the onscreen grizzled gravitas of the recently passed Sean Connery complemented its interminable onslaught of pulse-pounding action, it appears that the late, great star also contributed to the film in an existential way. It turns out that Connery, who, of course, co-starred in The Rock alongside Nicolas Cage, played an instrumental role behind the scenes…
22
Oct
Michael Keaton appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this week to talk about his work in The Trial of the Chicago 7 as well as plans for him to reprise his role as Batman in Andy Muschietti’s in-development The Flash movie. While Keaton declined to say much about donning the cape and cowl once again to mentor Ezra Miller’s young Barry Allen in the DCEU film — beyond confirming that he’s “having discussions” with Warner Bros. — he did sound off on another very important topic. Since The Flash is set to feature not just one Batman from the franchise’s…
22
Oct
Up until the new millennium, cinematic crossovers were largely the preserve of Abbott and Costello or Godzilla. But that all changed in 2003 with the arrival of Freddy Vs. Jason. The Nightmare on Elm Street/Friday the 13th mashup had been 16 agonising years in the making. New Line Cinema shelled out a reported $6 million on script development alone with as many as 16 different writers taking a stab at the concept. Despite such inauspicious beginnings, however, Freddy Vs. Jason ended up being a massive hit, raking in $116.6m off the back of a modest $30m budget. All of a sudden, crossover movies were in…
14
Oct
A tired, sick, and hungry nation calls out for something…anything to distract from its miserable current state of affairs. Showtime steps up and responds with “Best we can do is another season of Dexter.” Yes, Showtime announced today that it has ordered one more season of its hallmark bloody drama Dexter for another run of episodes. The new Dexter will be a 10-episode limited series that will feature star Michael C. Hall in the title role and bring back showrunner Clyde Phillips, who guided the show through its first four seasons. Production is set to begin early next year with…
02
Jul
The announcement that Michael Keaton would be joining the upcoming Flash movie was met with great shock. Keaton walked away from Batman ahead of Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever (“[The film] just wasn’t any good, man,”), turning him into “The guy who used to be Batman” for years as he struggled to get away from his superhero shadow. That changed with Birdman, when his character seemed like a metacommentary on his own career, and with Spider-Man: Homecoming, when he returned to cape movies as the villainous Vulture, but by then, Keaton’s version was multiple Batmen in the past. And then he…
01
Jul
‘When somebody decides to call a character Brock Blennerhassett,’ says Michael Smiley, ‘you think, well, that hasn’t just come off the top of your head, there must be something going on there!’ What’s going on with Blennerhassett, his lead role in new darkly comic Victorian drama Dead Still, is strange, timely and layered, says Smiley. Dead Still, available in the UK now to stream on Acorn TV, is ‘a dark, funny, proper period drama set in Dublin in Victorian times’ Smiley explains. His character Blennerhassett is part of the Anglo-Irish landed gentry who’s broken away to work in the experimental…
22
Jun
He may never play Birdman again, but new reports from THR and The Wrap claim that Michael Keaton may be set to reprise his role as Batman. Both outlets report that Keaton is in early talks to return as an older version of the hero in Warner Bros’ upcoming Flash movie and that the deal could extend to other DC films. Keaton last donned the cape and cowl in 1993’s Batman Returns and has since appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Spider-Man villain The Vulture. According to THR, if all goes as planned, Keaton could be set to fill…
