It’s summertime at the movies, and you know what that means: time for all the biggest sequels, brand extensions, spin-offs, and nostalgic cash grabs. In other words: movie franchises! And with one of the all-time biggest franchises preparing to come to an end (till next time) with Jurassic World: Dominion on June 10, we thought it would be a great opportunity to take a look at some of our favorite […]
We’re in a funny spot, where “movies are back!”, so to speak (witness the mountain of money made in its first four days by the terrific big-screen spectacle Top Gun: Maverick), but the World Of Cinema still feels a bit scrawny and undernourished. In the month that has just started, for example, there are a grand total of six wide releases, one of them having only gotten promoted to that […]
Turning Red represents an auspicious moment for Pixar Animation Studios: its 25th feature-length film, 27 years after inventing the fully-rendered 3-D computer-animated feature with Toy Story. Many of those 25 features are medium-redefining masterpieces, like Toy Story itself, or WALL·E. An unfortunately large number of them, at this point, are thudding mediocrities, like, I am somewhat sorry to say, Turning Red. Though in its defense, out of three thudding mediocrities […]
Given the pandemic-related days to its release date, Raya and the Last Dragon, the 59th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animation Studios canon has by chance landed on exactly the same weekend, relatively speaking, as Pixar Animation Studios’ first release of 2020, Onward – the tenth weekend of their respective calendar years. And this makes it just irresistible to compare the two of them, though I suppose there’s at […]
Onward is the 22nd animated feature made by Pixar Animation Studios, and thus we arrive at a numerically exciting point. For 2010’s Toy Story 3, the last movie in that company’s virtually uninterrupted early string of medium-defining computer animated films, was their 11th feature, which means they have now been a company that makes generally unexceptional, mediocre filler (with something actively great popping up only very rarely) for exactly as […]
Jump to: Tim’s Predictions | Rob’s Predictions | Carrie’s Predictions TIM’S PREDICTIONS BEST PICTURE 1917 Ford v Ferrari The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women Marriage Story Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood Parasite Will win: 1917 Should win: Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood Should have been here: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood This category has been skewing more and more towards nice character stories in recent years, […]
If you’re into dark alternate origin stories, you might be pretty psyched to see Todd Phillips’ Joker with the most 2020 Oscar nominations at 11 nods including best picture, best director, and best actor. You’ll also see some love for a few of my favorites, Little Women and Jojo Rabbit, along with Marriage Story, The Irishman, Parasite, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and more. Scarlett Johansson in particular had […]
The Oscar nominations are upon us, and I would hate myself if I didn’t register my official predictions for what I expect to be nominated on the morning of Monday, 13 January. PICTURE 1917 The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women Marriage Story Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood Parasite I am formally predicting only the above eight films. If there is a ninth nominee, I expect it to be: […]
Once upon a time, when the Walt Disney Company released a massively successful animated feature and wanted to wring some sequel dollars out of it, they would have the decency to farm them out to the B- and C-team animators at Disneytoon Studios and bury them on home video. In 80 years covering 56 feature films starting in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney Feature Animation […]
Batman’s arch-enemy, the Joker, is getting his very own movie, and we’re celebrating by looking at our all-time favorite movie villains. From wicked witches to evil space cyborg wizards to petulant octopus women, it’s all about the colorful monsters who are the very best at being very bad. In Worth Mentioning we discus Abominable, Hustlers, Batman Ninja and Toy Story 4. ********** Please take a few seconds and fill out […]
Just in time for the new release Yesterday, director Danny Boyle and writer Richard Curtis’s celebration of the enduring music of The Beatles, we are joined by the fantastic singer/songwriter Kevin Andrew Prchal, for an episode-length conversation about what the movie tells us about performance, music stardom, and the legacy of the iconic rock band. Be sure to stick around to the end of the episode to hear Settling Cliches from the […]
I can admit when I’m a little bit wrong: June’s offerings weren’t quite as inspid as I feared they would be (both Toy Story 4 and Child’s Play outperformed my hopes – the latter wildly so). This maybe suggests that a bit of humility is in order: perhaps the films of July won’t be the complete fucking desert it looks like right now. But if there are to be nice […]
