When I was five-years-old my dad took me and my little brother to see “Jaws” on a Sunday afternoon in Port Washington, New York. It scared me beyond belief! That night I slept in a little ball because I was afraid if I put my legs out the shark would bite them off, and was certain the blue carpet in my room would turn to water while I slept and the shark would get me then. Little did I know that while I lied there in my bed terrified, a seed had been planted.
One would be hard pressed to find any fans of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the fourth Indiana Jones film that came out in 2008. After waiting for almost 20 years new great adventure audiences instead got a pile of garbage.
Stories featuring talking animals is hardly anything new, especially in cinema. Films like “Doctor Dolittle” to “Babe” have delighted family audiences for decades. However, after all this time there has never been an adult only version in this genre. They have always been G and PG rated affairs. There have been other family film concepts that have gone the adult only route, like foul talking puppets, but not pets like dogs. “Strays” now fills in that gap, if there ever was one to start.
Mention the Fast and Furious franchise to moviegoers and you’ll likely get an eye roll from a lot of them. Ridiculous as they may be at times, there is no arguing the box office success of the movies for the last 22 years. Those same people dismissing the films are still going to see them. “Fast X”, the tenth in the series is now here and it may rank as one of the best of them.
Ever since his brief appearances in both “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad” fans had been clamoring to see more of Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash. They loved what they saw when he finally got to shine in “Justice League” but after Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa got their solo adventures as Wonder Woman and Aquaman respectively, people were left wondering when the red speedster would finally get his. The wait is over
Of all the franchises in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Ant-Man has been the weakest. The problem has never been with Paul Rudd’s portrayal of the hero, nor with Evangeline Lilly who plays Hope Van Dyne aka “The Wasp”. The biggest issue with the first two films is they both had extremely lame villains.
Of all the characters in the world of fiction, none has been adapted more to the world of film than Dracula. The vampire subgenre in horror has always bene popular, but movie makers keep bringing Bram Stoker’s creation to the big screen again and again, often in new and creative directions. Earlier this year “Renfield” was released, but it was a great disappointment.
M. Night Shyamalan was once one of Hollywood’s hottest filmmakers. His name was a bigger draw than any actor who may be starring in one of his projects. One article even dubbed him, “The Next Steven Spielberg?” Perhaps that was the beginning of his downfall because as big M. Night was, he was just as suddenly not. A string of both commercially and critic flops will do that.
All movies start with a pitch. A writer will pitch an idea to a studio executive and then that exec will decide if the concept is worth pursuing. In the case of “Renfield”, Robert Kirkman, the creator of “The Walking Dead” came up with the idea of basing a movie around Dracula’s obsequious assistant. The character has been around Bram Stoker’s book but Renfield has never been the focus of a story.
One staple in biography films is the end title sequence. That’s where as the movie comes to a close some text appears that gives a little more detail on the subjects life and perhaps the impact they had on others or the world at large. Here is a very small spoiler for Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”, no such extra explanation on the man’s life is given.
Spider-Man. Captain America. Iron Man. The Incredible Hulk. Thor. These are all well established comic book superheroes that even those who do not read or watch their movie know of their existence. The Guardians of the Galaxy? Not so much. In fact, until they made their big screen debut in 2014 most people had not even heard of them.
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