The terror in "The Twilight Zone" always comes from "What if?" What if there was a little boy with way too much power for anyone to tell him "no"? What if what you thought of as Heaven turned out to be more like Hell? What if man-eating aliens arrived and made humans as docile as lambs to the slaughter?
These questions may be outrageous fantasy, but the terror of them is timeless. We still watch "The Twilight Zone" decades later, and the best episodes can still leave you chilled -- all thanks to the imagination of series creator Rod Serling.
Serling is synonymous with "The Twilight Zone" even for casual viewers; one could call him TV's first auteur. His reputation was as much thanks to his on-camera work as his writing. Serling was the narrator of "The Twilight Zone," introducing and closing out each episode. (He got the job after...
These questions may be outrageous fantasy, but the terror of them is timeless. We still watch "The Twilight Zone" decades later, and the best episodes can still leave you chilled -- all thanks to the imagination of series creator Rod Serling.
Serling is synonymous with "The Twilight Zone" even for casual viewers; one could call him TV's first auteur. His reputation was as much thanks to his on-camera work as his writing. Serling was the narrator of "The Twilight Zone," introducing and closing out each episode. (He got the job after...
- 5/12/2024
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
During a decade of American disillusionment, a series of films, from Seconds to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, represented a culture cracking up
In assembling a slate of films, a programming team or other curatorial body will often be made to answer the question of why now, what relevance old art has to the current moment. In the case of the Criterion Channel’s new series Hollywood Crack-Up: The Decade American Cinema Lost Its Mind, a sampling of arthouse hysteria from across the 60s, the argument all but makes itself. These bursts of celluloid madness come from a not-so-remote time when governmental credibility had hit an all-time low and the culture-war rift yawned wider than ever; when the disillusionment of a mistreated youth generation exploded into student protests against an overseas war colored by unsavory political imperatives; when ascendant minority groups demanded rights and dignity in the face of...
In assembling a slate of films, a programming team or other curatorial body will often be made to answer the question of why now, what relevance old art has to the current moment. In the case of the Criterion Channel’s new series Hollywood Crack-Up: The Decade American Cinema Lost Its Mind, a sampling of arthouse hysteria from across the 60s, the argument all but makes itself. These bursts of celluloid madness come from a not-so-remote time when governmental credibility had hit an all-time low and the culture-war rift yawned wider than ever; when the disillusionment of a mistreated youth generation exploded into student protests against an overseas war colored by unsavory political imperatives; when ascendant minority groups demanded rights and dignity in the face of...
- 5/6/2024
- by Charles Bramesco
- The Guardian - Film News
John Frankenheimer’s Ronin is coming to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in the UK for the first time, and a regular priced version has been added
Ah-ha! Now here’s just the kind of film that gives a modern home cinema setup a hell of a workout. The 1998 movie Ronin, starring Robert De Niro at the head of a terrific ensemble, is a really good film in its own right. What elevates it though is the work the late director John Frankenheimer did in shooting car chases around the streets of Paris.
The plot, for what it’s worth, involves a suitcase that lots of people are looking for. Frankenheimer – as we discussed in a podcast episode here – shot the film by putting cameras right down and dirty on the streets of the city. I remember watching the film in a cinema and nearly ripping the armrests off I was having so much fun.
Ah-ha! Now here’s just the kind of film that gives a modern home cinema setup a hell of a workout. The 1998 movie Ronin, starring Robert De Niro at the head of a terrific ensemble, is a really good film in its own right. What elevates it though is the work the late director John Frankenheimer did in shooting car chases around the streets of Paris.
The plot, for what it’s worth, involves a suitcase that lots of people are looking for. Frankenheimer – as we discussed in a podcast episode here – shot the film by putting cameras right down and dirty on the streets of the city. I remember watching the film in a cinema and nearly ripping the armrests off I was having so much fun.
- 4/29/2024
- by Simon Brew
- Film Stories
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Roxy Cinema
Our House of Tolerance 35mm presentation has its final showing on Friday; a print of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds plays this Saturday.
Film at Lincoln Center
A Ryusuke Hamaguchi retrospective has begun.
Paris Theater
A 1984 retrospective brings Spinal Tap, Starman, a 35mm print of Fanny and Alexander, and Now, Voyager.
Anthology Film Archives
“Essential Cinema” brings Pudovkin and Sharits, while “Ecocinema Behind the Iron Curtain” begins.
Film Forum
As Le Samouraï plays in a new 4K restoration, an Alain Delon retrospective and Ken Loach series are underway; Tootsie plays on Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
The Abyss screens on Saturday.
Metrograph
As a complete retrospective of Lee Chang-dong winds down, Liu Jian’s Have a Nice Day screens.
IFC Center
Dawn of the Dead plays through the weekend while Scooby-Doo (on 35mm) and John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs and Polyester show late.
Roxy Cinema
Our House of Tolerance 35mm presentation has its final showing on Friday; a print of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds plays this Saturday.
Film at Lincoln Center
A Ryusuke Hamaguchi retrospective has begun.
Paris Theater
A 1984 retrospective brings Spinal Tap, Starman, a 35mm print of Fanny and Alexander, and Now, Voyager.
Anthology Film Archives
“Essential Cinema” brings Pudovkin and Sharits, while “Ecocinema Behind the Iron Curtain” begins.
Film Forum
As Le Samouraï plays in a new 4K restoration, an Alain Delon retrospective and Ken Loach series are underway; Tootsie plays on Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
The Abyss screens on Saturday.
Metrograph
As a complete retrospective of Lee Chang-dong winds down, Liu Jian’s Have a Nice Day screens.
IFC Center
Dawn of the Dead plays through the weekend while Scooby-Doo (on 35mm) and John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs and Polyester show late.
- 4/26/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Stars: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Sean Bean | Written by J.D. Zeik, David Mamet | Directed by John Frankenheimer
Ronin, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Robert De Niro, presents a tense and exhilarating ride through the streets of Europe, blending elements of espionage, action, and betrayal into a gripping cinematic experience.
Set in the aftermath of the Cold War, the film follows a group of mercenaries, including the enigmatic Sam (played by De Niro), who are hired by a mysterious client for a covert mission to retrieve a valuable briefcase. As the team embarks on their dangerous assignment, alliances are tested, secrets are revealed, and loyalties are questioned, leading to a thrilling game of cat and mouse across the picturesque landscapes of France.
At the heart of Ronin lies Robert De Niro’s commanding performance as Sam, a seasoned operative with a haunted past and a steely resolve.
Ronin, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Robert De Niro, presents a tense and exhilarating ride through the streets of Europe, blending elements of espionage, action, and betrayal into a gripping cinematic experience.
Set in the aftermath of the Cold War, the film follows a group of mercenaries, including the enigmatic Sam (played by De Niro), who are hired by a mysterious client for a covert mission to retrieve a valuable briefcase. As the team embarks on their dangerous assignment, alliances are tested, secrets are revealed, and loyalties are questioned, leading to a thrilling game of cat and mouse across the picturesque landscapes of France.
At the heart of Ronin lies Robert De Niro’s commanding performance as Sam, a seasoned operative with a haunted past and a steely resolve.
- 4/4/2024
- by George P Thomas
- Nerdly
In 1982, Jonathan Demme directed a lovely TV movie called “Who Am I This Time?” about a shy actor (Christopher Walken) who can only reveal himself on stage in a variety of disparate roles. It’s an emblematic title and idea for Demme himself, a director whose fascination for the viewer lies in the fact that he’s paradoxically both an auteur with a clear signature and a director who tried on different artistic personalities throughout his career. There’s the exploitation guerrilla of the early ’70s; the humanist drama specialist who made “Melvin and Howard,” “Philadelphia,” and “Rachel Getting Married”; the off-beat hipster comedian; the sensitive documentarian; the live performance specialist; and the steward of well resourced, star-driven literary adaptations and remakes that became Demme’s specialty after his blockbuster success with “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1991.
While the subject matter and scale may vary, the point of view...
While the subject matter and scale may vary, the point of view...
- 3/20/2024
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
The 1996 version of The Island of Dr. Moreau, which was directed by John Frankenheimer (who replaced Richard Stanley after half a week of filming), is a well-known disaster, but that was just one of many cinematic adaptations H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel has received over the years. That novel has inspired the 1932 classic Island of Lost Souls, 1959’s Terror Is a Man, 1972’s The Twilight People, a 1977 film that actually kept the The Island of Dr. Moreau title, the Full Moon production Dr. Moreau’s House of Pain, and more. Now we can add another title to the list, as Deadline reports that Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins has signed on to star in the The Island of Dr. Moreau reimagining Eyes in the Trees.
Timothy Woodward Jr., who most recently directed the horror comedy Til Death Do Us Part, will be directing Eyes in the Trees from a screenplay by...
Timothy Woodward Jr., who most recently directed the horror comedy Til Death Do Us Part, will be directing Eyes in the Trees from a screenplay by...
- 3/6/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Italy’s Torino Film Festival will celebrate the centennial of Marlon Brando’s birth with a 24-title retrospective of films featuring the groundbreaking two-time Oscar winner, known for his naturalistic acting style and rebellious streak.
The Brando retro will be “the backbone” of the fest, according to its new artistic director, Italian actor/director Giulio Base. Accordingly, an image of Brando – photographed when he was shooting Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” – is featured on the poster for the fest’s upcoming 42nd edition, which will run Nov. 22-30.
Torino is Italy’s preeminent event for young directors and indie cinema, and is where Matteo Garrone and Paolo Sorrentino screened their first works. The festival’s lineup will be announced at a later date.
“As an actor, Brando has always been my guiding star and I had been wondering for a while – since way before being appointed at Torino...
The Brando retro will be “the backbone” of the fest, according to its new artistic director, Italian actor/director Giulio Base. Accordingly, an image of Brando – photographed when he was shooting Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” – is featured on the poster for the fest’s upcoming 42nd edition, which will run Nov. 22-30.
Torino is Italy’s preeminent event for young directors and indie cinema, and is where Matteo Garrone and Paolo Sorrentino screened their first works. The festival’s lineup will be announced at a later date.
“As an actor, Brando has always been my guiding star and I had been wondering for a while – since way before being appointed at Torino...
- 2/27/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Clockwise from bottom left: Burt Reynolds in The Longest Yard (Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images), Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Foxx in Any Given Sunday (Getty Images), Sean Astin in Rudy (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images), Billy Bob Thornton and Garrett Hedlund in Friday Night Lights (Universal Pictures)Graphic: The A.
- 2/9/2024
- by Phil Pirrello
- avclub.com
Frank Sinatra went through phases like he went through wives. The legendary crooner and movie star could exhibit impeccable taste for what people wanted to see and hear, and then, in a few year's time, completely lose his grasp of the zeitgeist.
Sinatra was threatening to enter one of his down periods in the mid-1960s. The popular music scene was in the throes of Beatlemania, while moviegoers were tiring of the Rat Pack's antics. Who wanted to see Sinatra and the gang saunter their way through Western and gangster pastiches like "4 for Texas" and "Robin and the 7 Hoods" when they could watch Elvis Presley set the screen ablaze with Ann-Margret in "Viva Las Vegas"?
To be fair, Sinatra was still Sinatra, but after giving one of his finest performances in John Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate," he started playing it way too safe. Bud Yorkin and...
Sinatra was threatening to enter one of his down periods in the mid-1960s. The popular music scene was in the throes of Beatlemania, while moviegoers were tiring of the Rat Pack's antics. Who wanted to see Sinatra and the gang saunter their way through Western and gangster pastiches like "4 for Texas" and "Robin and the 7 Hoods" when they could watch Elvis Presley set the screen ablaze with Ann-Margret in "Viva Las Vegas"?
To be fair, Sinatra was still Sinatra, but after giving one of his finest performances in John Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate," he started playing it way too safe. Bud Yorkin and...
- 2/1/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
When you talk about John Sayles, do you talk about America? Watching and examining his beautiful tapestry of films, this reveals itself an easy question to ask and an easy question to answer. There may be no single filmmaker who has better captured the agony and ecstasy of the American experiment than Sayles. Yet his pictures never feel like homework. They’re funny, heartbreaking, and full of characters that are well-rounded and sharply drawn.
The Film Stage got the opportunity to speak with Sayles about his 1996 masterpiece Lone Star (now available on 4K and Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection), as well lesser-seen gems like Limbo, Go for Sisters, and Amigo.
Listen to an audio version of the interview below followed by a written version, edited for length and clarity.
The Film Stage: The reason we’re talking is because Lone Star, your great film from the mid-90s, is...
The Film Stage got the opportunity to speak with Sayles about his 1996 masterpiece Lone Star (now available on 4K and Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection), as well lesser-seen gems like Limbo, Go for Sisters, and Amigo.
Listen to an audio version of the interview below followed by a written version, edited for length and clarity.
The Film Stage: The reason we’re talking is because Lone Star, your great film from the mid-90s, is...
- 1/25/2024
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.
Today we’re honored to chat with iconic director John Sayles, whose essential crime epic Lone Star is now available from The Criterion Collection in both 4K Uhd + Blu-ray.
Our B-Sides today include Limbo, Amigo, and Go For Sisters. We also discuss Sayles’ parallel careers as a screenwriter and a novelist. He talks about the work he did on the Toshirô Mifune/Scott Glenn actioner The Challenge (director John Frankenheimer asking him to write new draft over a weekend before an impending strike); he discusses what he learned working for Roger Corman early in his career; which genre he’s still itching to direct; his love of the recent Godzilla Minus One; and the slew of scripts that never got made.
Today we’re honored to chat with iconic director John Sayles, whose essential crime epic Lone Star is now available from The Criterion Collection in both 4K Uhd + Blu-ray.
Our B-Sides today include Limbo, Amigo, and Go For Sisters. We also discuss Sayles’ parallel careers as a screenwriter and a novelist. He talks about the work he did on the Toshirô Mifune/Scott Glenn actioner The Challenge (director John Frankenheimer asking him to write new draft over a weekend before an impending strike); he discusses what he learned working for Roger Corman early in his career; which genre he’s still itching to direct; his love of the recent Godzilla Minus One; and the slew of scripts that never got made.
- 1/18/2024
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
It’s that time of year again. The chestnuts are roasting, the eggnog is nogging, and some of us are getting ready for a house full of people that will turn this holiday season into a stressful one. So what do you do when you want to get into that merry spirit but also feel a slight bit of homicidal rage at your mother-in-law who just won’t shut up?
You put on some violent, blood-drenched action films that still capture that yuletide spirit. While others may embrace the holiday season with hilarious comedy, a hearty drama, a romantic rendezvous, or even Ernest, you can sit back and partake in one or all of the movies we here at JoBlo deem the top 10 best Christmas action movies.
10. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service:
Yes, a James Bond movie took place at Christmas, and it’s a doozy. Arguably the greatest James Bond film,...
You put on some violent, blood-drenched action films that still capture that yuletide spirit. While others may embrace the holiday season with hilarious comedy, a hearty drama, a romantic rendezvous, or even Ernest, you can sit back and partake in one or all of the movies we here at JoBlo deem the top 10 best Christmas action movies.
10. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service:
Yes, a James Bond movie took place at Christmas, and it’s a doozy. Arguably the greatest James Bond film,...
- 12/25/2023
- by Brad Hamerly
- JoBlo.com
Plot: On the verge of bankruptcy, Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) enters his racing team in the 1957 Mille Miglia.
Review: Ferrari is the only movie to come out this year that can say it sports a screenplay credit by a writer who’s been dead for fourteen years. Indeed, director Michael Mann has been trying to get his Ferrari movie off the ground for at least the last twenty years. He came close about eight years ago, with Christian Bale set to lead what would have been a big-budget version of the story. But, in the years since, the industry has changed, with Mann having to contend with a leaner budget to make his long-held passion project. Rather than compromise his vision, the potentially reduced scope helps make this one of his most intimate and involving films, harkening back to the days of The Insider.
Adam Driver is well-cast as Enzo Ferrari.
Review: Ferrari is the only movie to come out this year that can say it sports a screenplay credit by a writer who’s been dead for fourteen years. Indeed, director Michael Mann has been trying to get his Ferrari movie off the ground for at least the last twenty years. He came close about eight years ago, with Christian Bale set to lead what would have been a big-budget version of the story. But, in the years since, the industry has changed, with Mann having to contend with a leaner budget to make his long-held passion project. Rather than compromise his vision, the potentially reduced scope helps make this one of his most intimate and involving films, harkening back to the days of The Insider.
Adam Driver is well-cast as Enzo Ferrari.
- 12/25/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
On Dec. 4, 1997, Steven Spielberg unveiled historical drama Amistad at its premiere in Washington, D.C. The film went on to gross $44 million and nab four Oscar nominations at the 70th Academy Awards, including for cinematography, score, costume design and supporting actor for Anthony Hopkins’ role. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:
DreamWorks Skg’s Amistad is a holiday feast: Namely it is an ambitious story layout teeming with historical significance, packed with a sterling-set cast and dished up with the finest technical crockery. But like most holiday tables, after everything gets passed around for the first time, nothing much goes together.
Alas, this personal/legalistic story about 53 Africans who broke free of their shackles while aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad keeps afloat mainly on its kind-spirited intentions rather than the narrative craftsmanship of the vessel itself.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this DreamWorks presentation in association with...
DreamWorks Skg’s Amistad is a holiday feast: Namely it is an ambitious story layout teeming with historical significance, packed with a sterling-set cast and dished up with the finest technical crockery. But like most holiday tables, after everything gets passed around for the first time, nothing much goes together.
Alas, this personal/legalistic story about 53 Africans who broke free of their shackles while aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad keeps afloat mainly on its kind-spirited intentions rather than the narrative craftsmanship of the vessel itself.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this DreamWorks presentation in association with...
- 12/3/2023
- by Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Shudder is nothing if not a goldmine of content, with basically something to watch for everyone, and today we are making a list of the best 7 new movies on Shudder in December 2023 that you can watch right now. The movies included in this list are Shudder’s exclusives and resurrected. The titles are ranked according to their availability dates.
It’s A Wonderful Knife (December 1)
Synopsis: A year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers’ life is less than wonderful — but when she wishes she’d never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and get back to her own reality. It’S A Wonderful Life by way of Scream.
Black Christmas...
It’s A Wonderful Knife (December 1)
Synopsis: A year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers’ life is less than wonderful — but when she wishes she’d never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and get back to her own reality. It’S A Wonderful Life by way of Scream.
Black Christmas...
- 12/2/2023
- by Kulwant Singh
- Cinema Blind
Documentary casts the movie star as a painful figure who inspired a new dialogue about Aids, but doesn’t do much to examine his Republican politics
The title of this efficient documentary, patching together archive footage with off-camera interview material, is naturally taken from the 1955 romantic drama All That Heaven Allows, directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson opposite Jane Wyman; it is a movie – and a genre – long since rescued from critical condescension. Hudson did indeed seem to have all that heaven allowed: an almost preternatural handsomeness with something like Cary Grant’s looks and pure movie-star glow, overlaid with a granite masculinity, and a cool, insouciant style, which appeared to enclose an enigma long before his gay identity and his Aids diagnosis was confirmed at the very end of his life.
Even when he went out of style during the American new wave, as the scuffed-up authenticity of Pacino,...
The title of this efficient documentary, patching together archive footage with off-camera interview material, is naturally taken from the 1955 romantic drama All That Heaven Allows, directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson opposite Jane Wyman; it is a movie – and a genre – long since rescued from critical condescension. Hudson did indeed seem to have all that heaven allowed: an almost preternatural handsomeness with something like Cary Grant’s looks and pure movie-star glow, overlaid with a granite masculinity, and a cool, insouciant style, which appeared to enclose an enigma long before his gay identity and his Aids diagnosis was confirmed at the very end of his life.
Even when he went out of style during the American new wave, as the scuffed-up authenticity of Pacino,...
- 10/18/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
John Frankenheimer’s The Train opens with a heist of masterpieces of modern art from a Parisian museum. The operation, supervised by Wehrmacht colonel and aristocratic aesthete Franz Von Waldheim (Paul Scofield), is a desperate assertion of the Nazis’ supremacist ideologies during the final days of the German occupation of France. As such, it’s easy to perceive the museum curator’s (Suzanne Flon) appeals to the sense of national pride felt by the Résistance-Fer—a group of rail workers who were part of the French Resistance—as an attempt to fight fire with fire, specifically when she requests help from railway manager Labiche (Burt Lancaster). Which makes it all the more fitting that it’s not Labiche who jumpstarts the workers’ efforts to stop the train that’s moving the stolen paintings from leaving France, but tenacious train conductor Papa Boule, who’s played with curmudgeonly brio by one...
- 10/4/2023
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
The modest aims of director William Friedkin’s final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, are evident from the start. The film is an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s 1954 two-act play of the same name, which the author adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny. And both Wouk’s play and Friedkin’s film jettison the book’s maritime actions to focus solely on the military tribunal that results from it.
That means that nearly the entire film takes place within a small hearing room where military judges hear arguments for and against Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy), who faces both discharge and imprisonment for usurping the command of Lt. Commander Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland) during a storm. Maryk and a handful shipmates argue that Queeg lost control of his senses and had to be displaced, but the burden of proof for upending the military’s fiercely maintained chain...
That means that nearly the entire film takes place within a small hearing room where military judges hear arguments for and against Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy), who faces both discharge and imprisonment for usurping the command of Lt. Commander Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland) during a storm. Maryk and a handful shipmates argue that Queeg lost control of his senses and had to be displaced, but the burden of proof for upending the military’s fiercely maintained chain...
- 10/1/2023
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
Michael Gambon, a protégé of Laurence Olivier and giant of the British stage who portrayed Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, apparently with little effort, in the final six Harry Potter movies, has died. He was 82.
“The Great Gambon,” as Ralph Richardson once called him, died “peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia,” according to a family statement provided Thursday by a publicist.
Among the first group of actors recruited by Olivier for the National Theatre Company in the early 1960s, Gambon, a Dublin native, was nominated 13 times for an Olivier Award, winning in 1986 and ’90 for Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval and Man of the Moment, respectively, and in 1988 for Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge.
He received another one for his turn as a recently widowed businessman trying to reunite with his former mistress in Skylight,...
“The Great Gambon,” as Ralph Richardson once called him, died “peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia,” according to a family statement provided Thursday by a publicist.
Among the first group of actors recruited by Olivier for the National Theatre Company in the early 1960s, Gambon, a Dublin native, was nominated 13 times for an Olivier Award, winning in 1986 and ’90 for Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval and Man of the Moment, respectively, and in 1988 for Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge.
He received another one for his turn as a recently widowed businessman trying to reunite with his former mistress in Skylight,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Michael Gambon, the Irish-English actor best known for his role as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the “Harry Potter” movies, has died, Variety has confirmed. He was 82.
“We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon,” his family said in a statement. “Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia.”
While it is easier for a character actor, often working in supporting roles, to rack up a large number of credits than it is for lead actors, Gambon was enormously prolific, with over 150 TV or film credits in an era when half that number would be impressive and unusual — and this for a man whose body of stage work was also prodigious.
He played two real kings of England: King Edward VII in “The Lost Prince” (2003) and his son, King George V,...
“We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon,” his family said in a statement. “Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia.”
While it is easier for a character actor, often working in supporting roles, to rack up a large number of credits than it is for lead actors, Gambon was enormously prolific, with over 150 TV or film credits in an era when half that number would be impressive and unusual — and this for a man whose body of stage work was also prodigious.
He played two real kings of England: King Edward VII in “The Lost Prince” (2003) and his son, King George V,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Oh, the annals of movies that were made by one guy who is kind of cool that were almost made by another guy who is way cooler. Did you know John Frankenheimer almost directed "Breakfast at Tiffany's?" That would have been ... intense. What about the fact that Danny Boyle almost directed Joss Whedon's script for "Alien: Resurrection?" Or that David Lynch, on the heels of the movie he went on to hate having made, "Dune," almost made "Return of the Jedi" instead?
How we love to imagine singular, iconic visions through the looking glass, remade in vastly different, yet just as distinct styles. One of the banner entries in this almost-Hall of Fame is the "Blade" movie that David Fincher almost made. It was the early-to-mid-90s. Bill Clinton had just been elected President. Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" could be heard booming through every speaker...
How we love to imagine singular, iconic visions through the looking glass, remade in vastly different, yet just as distinct styles. One of the banner entries in this almost-Hall of Fame is the "Blade" movie that David Fincher almost made. It was the early-to-mid-90s. Bill Clinton had just been elected President. Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" could be heard booming through every speaker...
- 9/22/2023
- by Ryan Coleman
- Slash Film
Robert De Niro is 80 years old, and what better way to celebrate his birthday than with a look back at one of his most underrated classics: Ronin. John Frankenheimer’s career seemed to reach its nadir when he directed the ill-conceived remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau. Still, someone in Hollywood must have been impressed by how he held that tortured project together, as two years later, he would release 1998’s Ronin, boasting an all-star cast including Robert DeNiro, Sean Bean and Jean Reno. This action flick about a group of disavowed spies working as mercenaries wound up being a masterclass in action filmmaking from the director who helped invent the genre with The Train, Black Sunday, Grand Prix, and so many more.
While a modest box office hit, Ronin has become something of a classic, famed for its spectacular car chases through the streets of Paris. It’s...
While a modest box office hit, Ronin has become something of a classic, famed for its spectacular car chases through the streets of Paris. It’s...
- 8/17/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
Clockwise from top left: The Deer Hunter (Universal), De Niro after receiving the Best Actor Oscar for Raging Bull (ABC Photo Archives/Getty), The King Of Comedy (20th Century), Cape Fear (Universal), Taxi Driver (Columbia Pictures)Graphic: AVClub
Robert De Niro, who turns 80 on August 17, has spent nearly 60 of those years as a working actor,...
Robert De Niro, who turns 80 on August 17, has spent nearly 60 of those years as a working actor,...
- 8/17/2023
- by Matthew Jackson
- avclub.com
John Frankenheimer’s 52 Pick-Up is one of the better of the willfully decadent American thrillers from the 1980s that are preoccupied with drugs, guns, strippers, prostitutes, money, and the men who kill each other attempting to obtain them. Though this film isn’t generally mentioned in discussions of the adaptations of Elmore Leonard’s work, the crime master’s imprint is felt on the scenes that routinely threaten to elevate 52 Pick-Up from a sleazy, well-paced time-killer to an authentically good movie. Leonard’s sense of humor is under-emphasized, but his satirical notion of crime as a business beholden to the same petty political trivialities as more “legitimate” enterprises is explicitly accounted for.
When self-made industrialist Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) is blackmailed by a couple of vicious hoods, he remains unflappable while amusingly entering into negotiations with them over the terms of his exploitation. Though this is never fully acknowledged in Frankenheimer’s film,...
When self-made industrialist Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) is blackmailed by a couple of vicious hoods, he remains unflappable while amusingly entering into negotiations with them over the terms of his exploitation. Though this is never fully acknowledged in Frankenheimer’s film,...
- 8/1/2023
- by Chuck Bowen
- Slant Magazine
When Bo Goldman, the two-time Academy Award screenwriter of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Harold and Maude," passed away on July 25, 2023 at the age of 90, the world lost a master dramatist and a razor-sharp observer of human behavior. Hailed by his Hollywood peers as a "screenwriter's screenwriter," Goldman possessed an unerring ear for dialogue and a cliche-eschewing sense of narrative. Be it a wistful satire of the American dream or a bruisingly authentic depiction of divorce, his name on the poster guaranteed an honest, offbeat view of humanity.
And it almost never happened. Goldman was born in the midst of the Great Depression on September 10, 1932. His father owned a chain of department stores that had fallen on hard times, but that didn't stop the besieged patriarch from sending his son to the prestigious likes of Phillips Exeter and Princeton University. It was at the latter institution that Goldman discovered a love for theater,...
And it almost never happened. Goldman was born in the midst of the Great Depression on September 10, 1932. His father owned a chain of department stores that had fallen on hard times, but that didn't stop the besieged patriarch from sending his son to the prestigious likes of Phillips Exeter and Princeton University. It was at the latter institution that Goldman discovered a love for theater,...
- 7/27/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Ever since movies began, filmmakers have depicted the end of the world of the world on screen whether it be from floods, asteroids, comets, alien invasion and even Zombies. But cinema went nuclear after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. The arrival of the nuclear age heralded the introduction of a new sub-genre: destruction by atomic bomb. And with the release July 21 of Christopher Nolan’s lauded “Oppenheimer,” which domestically earned some $70 million in its opening weekend, let’s look at some of the vintage flicks of the genre.
Nuclear destruction of London is stopped at the last moment in the taut 1950 British film “Seven Days to Noon,” directed by John and Roy Boulting and winners of the original story Oscar, stars veteran character actor Barry Jones as a brilliant scientist working at an atomic research center in London who steals an A-bomb that...
Nuclear destruction of London is stopped at the last moment in the taut 1950 British film “Seven Days to Noon,” directed by John and Roy Boulting and winners of the original story Oscar, stars veteran character actor Barry Jones as a brilliant scientist working at an atomic research center in London who steals an A-bomb that...
- 7/25/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
When you think of 1980s action movies, visions of steroidal juggernauts like Schwarzenegger and Stallone are likely to spring to mind, but there was always another, if less numerous, stream running through their midst: gritty, downbeat, and cynical films typically helmed by New Hollywood stalwarts whose careers were in various stages of diminution. Among them were Hal Ashby’s strident, coke-fueled 8 Million Ways to Die, John Frankenheimer’s seamy extortion saga 52 Pickup, and William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A., a neon-hued noir reworking of the morally ambiguous cops-versus-criminals terrain he had staked out a decade earlier in The French Connection.
Like Friedkin’s earlier film, To Live and Die in L.A. cannily blends quasi-documentary procedural realism with an unpredictable modernist sensibility. The story is succinct in its pulpy purity: loose-cannon Secret Service agent Chance (William Petersen) vows to take down elusive counterfeiter Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), no matter the cost,...
Like Friedkin’s earlier film, To Live and Die in L.A. cannily blends quasi-documentary procedural realism with an unpredictable modernist sensibility. The story is succinct in its pulpy purity: loose-cannon Secret Service agent Chance (William Petersen) vows to take down elusive counterfeiter Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), no matter the cost,...
- 7/24/2023
- by Ed Gonzalez
- Slant Magazine
Rock Hudson was one of the biggest stars of the 1950’s and 60s: the most handsome leading man who romanced the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Jane Wyman, Barbara Rush, Julie Andrews and Gina Lollobrigida on the silver screen. But he was living a secret life off-screen — he was gay.
The new Max/HBO documentary “Rock Hudson All That Heaven Allowed” examines his double life and the lengths that were taken to ensure his LGBTQ+ identity wasn’t revealed It wasn’t until 1985 did the truth make the headlines when he became the first famous Hollywood star to die of AIDs.
Barbara Rush, who appeared in three films with Hudson including 1954’s “Magnificent Obsession,” told me in a 2019 L.A. Times interview that it was no secret in Tinseltown that he was gay. “His agent [Henry Willson] decided that there had been enough about the rumors about Rock being gay.
The new Max/HBO documentary “Rock Hudson All That Heaven Allowed” examines his double life and the lengths that were taken to ensure his LGBTQ+ identity wasn’t revealed It wasn’t until 1985 did the truth make the headlines when he became the first famous Hollywood star to die of AIDs.
Barbara Rush, who appeared in three films with Hudson including 1954’s “Magnificent Obsession,” told me in a 2019 L.A. Times interview that it was no secret in Tinseltown that he was gay. “His agent [Henry Willson] decided that there had been enough about the rumors about Rock being gay.
- 6/30/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Rob Young, a Canadian sound mixer whose 40-year career in the industry included an Oscar nomination for his work on the Clint Eastwood best picture winner Unforgiven, has died. He was 76.
Young died June 11 in Albi, France, of complications from a fall in Morocco while on a food tour, his wife, Yvonne Young, announced.
Young also was nominated for BAFTA awards for Unforgiven (1992) and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), for a Cinema Audio Society prize for Joe Johnston’s Jumanji (1995), for a Genie Award for Phillip Borsos’ The Grey Fox (1983) and for a Golden Reel Award for Bryan Singer’s X2 (2003).
The New Brunswick native mixed Roxanne (1987) and The Russia House (1990) for director Fred Schepisi, the first two First Blood films in 1982 and ’85 for Ted Kotcheff and George P. Cosmatos, respectively, and the first two Night at the Museum movies for Shawn Levy in 2006 and ’09 (not to mention The Pink Panther...
Young died June 11 in Albi, France, of complications from a fall in Morocco while on a food tour, his wife, Yvonne Young, announced.
Young also was nominated for BAFTA awards for Unforgiven (1992) and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), for a Cinema Audio Society prize for Joe Johnston’s Jumanji (1995), for a Genie Award for Phillip Borsos’ The Grey Fox (1983) and for a Golden Reel Award for Bryan Singer’s X2 (2003).
The New Brunswick native mixed Roxanne (1987) and The Russia House (1990) for director Fred Schepisi, the first two First Blood films in 1982 and ’85 for Ted Kotcheff and George P. Cosmatos, respectively, and the first two Night at the Museum movies for Shawn Levy in 2006 and ’09 (not to mention The Pink Panther...
- 6/29/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Frederic Forrest, who earned critical acclaim opposite Bette Midler in The Rose and collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola, has died. He was 86.
Other than earning both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for playing Huston Dwyer — the opposite end of a doomed relationship — in 1979’s The Rose, Frederic Forrest is perhaps best known for playing Jay “Chef” Hicks, who loses his head both mentally and literally, in Apocalypse Now the same year. For both performances Forrest was recognized by the National Society of Film Critics as that year’s Best Supporting Actor.
Bette Midler took to Twitter to pay tribute to her co-star, saying Frederic Forrest was a “remarkable actor” and “brilliant human being.”
The great and beloved Frederic Forrest has died. Thank you to all of his fans and friends for all their support these last few months. He was a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and...
Other than earning both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for playing Huston Dwyer — the opposite end of a doomed relationship — in 1979’s The Rose, Frederic Forrest is perhaps best known for playing Jay “Chef” Hicks, who loses his head both mentally and literally, in Apocalypse Now the same year. For both performances Forrest was recognized by the National Society of Film Critics as that year’s Best Supporting Actor.
Bette Midler took to Twitter to pay tribute to her co-star, saying Frederic Forrest was a “remarkable actor” and “brilliant human being.”
The great and beloved Frederic Forrest has died. Thank you to all of his fans and friends for all their support these last few months. He was a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and...
- 6/24/2023
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
Tom Cruise may be fine cruising off a cliff on a motorcycle for a film stunt, but the actor draws the line at physical contact with co-stars.
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” actress Pom Klementieff revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she begged co-star Cruise to kick her in the midsection during an action scene. Cruise, however, refused.
“I kept telling him to just kick me here,” Klementieff said. “I was squeezing abs. [I said], ‘You can just go for it.’ He was like ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ I was like, ‘But it’s going to help me!’ But he wouldn’t do it.“
The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star also spoke about the production as a whole, saying, “It was so special to be on location in Rome. We were shooting during Covid, so we were very lucky to be here. I was trying to not laugh too much because...
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” actress Pom Klementieff revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she begged co-star Cruise to kick her in the midsection during an action scene. Cruise, however, refused.
“I kept telling him to just kick me here,” Klementieff said. “I was squeezing abs. [I said], ‘You can just go for it.’ He was like ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ I was like, ‘But it’s going to help me!’ But he wouldn’t do it.“
The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star also spoke about the production as a whole, saying, “It was so special to be on location in Rome. We were shooting during Covid, so we were very lucky to be here. I was trying to not laugh too much because...
- 6/22/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
As the granddaddy of the political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate offers a précis on what sets the genre apart from other suspense films. Thrillers are generally defined by absence, withholding details so as to prevent audiences from getting ahead of plots that lean on an element of surprise. Yet John Frankenheimer’s film subverts such trends at nearly every turn. It provides the clues to a crime before the crime is even committed, leaving the viewer to parcel out which details are related and relevant and building tension from the mounting realization that they all are.
The film’s structure is at once straightforward and subtly dissonant, as when the opening scene, of the ambush and capture of a U.S. Army platoon in Korea, jumps abruptly to the men, minus two comrades, returning home safe and sound days later. The seeming ease of their escape clashes with the totality of their defeat,...
The film’s structure is at once straightforward and subtly dissonant, as when the opening scene, of the ambush and capture of a U.S. Army platoon in Korea, jumps abruptly to the men, minus two comrades, returning home safe and sound days later. The seeming ease of their escape clashes with the totality of their defeat,...
- 6/12/2023
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
I can’t think of many franchise movies which get shorter as they head to the finish line, and the latest Mission: Impossible movie will be no exception. IGN has revealed the official runtime for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and it stands as the longest of the franchise at two hours and 36 minutes without credits.
That’s somewhat less than the rumoured Dead Reckoning runtime, but it’s still the longest for the Mission: Impossible franchise. The first movie clocked in at 110 minutes, followed by Mission: Impossible 2 at 124 minutes, Mission: Impossible 3 at 126 minutes, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol at 133 minutes, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation at 131 minutes, and Mission: Impossible – Fallout at 147 minutes.
Related Trailer: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning promises insane Cruise stunts
Director Christopher McQuarrie, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Erik Jendresen, recently announced on Instagram that he had picture locked on...
That’s somewhat less than the rumoured Dead Reckoning runtime, but it’s still the longest for the Mission: Impossible franchise. The first movie clocked in at 110 minutes, followed by Mission: Impossible 2 at 124 minutes, Mission: Impossible 3 at 126 minutes, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol at 133 minutes, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation at 131 minutes, and Mission: Impossible – Fallout at 147 minutes.
Related Trailer: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning promises insane Cruise stunts
Director Christopher McQuarrie, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Erik Jendresen, recently announced on Instagram that he had picture locked on...
- 5/25/2023
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
Tom Cruise has done the impossible: resurrected theaters and completed mind-blowing stunts.
The certified movie star leads Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I,” kicking off the two-part finale to the decades-long franchise. Cruise reprises his role of undercover CIA agent Ethan Hunt in the seventh film, soon to be followed by “Mission: Impossible 8” in June 2024. Cruise has played Ethan for close to 30 years since the films began in 1996 with Brian De Palma’s feature.
Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby are back in their respective roles, while new cast members include Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff.
“Dead Reckoning” will exclusively have a theatrical release in part due to Cruise’s urging. Production for “Dead Reckoning Part I” was repeatedly halted by the Covid-19 pandemic but eventually wrapped in September of 2021 with the budget ballooning to upwards of $290 million. Test screenings began in March 2023.
Paramount...
The certified movie star leads Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I,” kicking off the two-part finale to the decades-long franchise. Cruise reprises his role of undercover CIA agent Ethan Hunt in the seventh film, soon to be followed by “Mission: Impossible 8” in June 2024. Cruise has played Ethan for close to 30 years since the films began in 1996 with Brian De Palma’s feature.
Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby are back in their respective roles, while new cast members include Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff.
“Dead Reckoning” will exclusively have a theatrical release in part due to Cruise’s urging. Production for “Dead Reckoning Part I” was repeatedly halted by the Covid-19 pandemic but eventually wrapped in September of 2021 with the budget ballooning to upwards of $290 million. Test screenings began in March 2023.
Paramount...
- 5/17/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The official trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has arrived, and if you weren’t hyped for Tom Cruise’s stunts before, you will be now.
Not only does the Dead Reckoning trailer introduce the conflicts that Ethan Hunt will face, but showcases a lot of the incredible stunt work that has made the Mission: Impossible franchise one of the best action series ever. Amid warning that “the world is changing, truth is vanishing, war is coming”, we see Hunt leaping a motorcycle from a cliff (considered “the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted”), battling on top of a speeding train and so much more. When confronted by Esai Morales’ main baddy, Hunt issues this: “If anything happens to them, there’s no place that I won’t go to kill you. That…is written.”
One of the most impressive moments in the Dead Reckoning trailer...
Not only does the Dead Reckoning trailer introduce the conflicts that Ethan Hunt will face, but showcases a lot of the incredible stunt work that has made the Mission: Impossible franchise one of the best action series ever. Amid warning that “the world is changing, truth is vanishing, war is coming”, we see Hunt leaping a motorcycle from a cliff (considered “the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted”), battling on top of a speeding train and so much more. When confronted by Esai Morales’ main baddy, Hunt issues this: “If anything happens to them, there’s no place that I won’t go to kill you. That…is written.”
One of the most impressive moments in the Dead Reckoning trailer...
- 5/17/2023
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
The dream team of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie can’t be stopped. They built a new legacy for the Mission: Impossible films by making them the most grandiose of spy-action spectacles. Cruise would even include McQuarrie as a writer on Top Gun: Maverick, which became one of the biggest blockbusters of last year. The duo have put their creative mad minds together to come up with ways to top themselves for the upcoming films — Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I and Part II.
EW reported on the brainstorming session between Cruise and McQuarrie for the action set pieces of the sequels. McQuarrie would recall, “At the start of this movie, I said to Tom, ‘What do you want to do?’ He said, ‘I want to drive a motorcycle off of a cliff. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to wreck a train.’ We’re enormous fans of Buster Keaton,...
EW reported on the brainstorming session between Cruise and McQuarrie for the action set pieces of the sequels. McQuarrie would recall, “At the start of this movie, I said to Tom, ‘What do you want to do?’ He said, ‘I want to drive a motorcycle off of a cliff. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to wreck a train.’ We’re enormous fans of Buster Keaton,...
- 5/11/2023
- by EJ Tangonan
- JoBlo.com
It’s become tradition for each “Mission: Impossible” to feature bigger, wilder stunts than the previous film, and the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” is pulling out all the stops in the stunt department.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, director Christopher McQuarrie opened up about some of the most challenging sequences in the film, which include star Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle off a giant ramp and over a cliff, and another in which a massive train plunges off a bridge.
“At the start of this movie, I said to Tom, ‘What do you want to do?'” recalled McQuarrie, who also directed “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” and “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”.
Read More: Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ Stunts, Ranked
“He said, ‘I want to drive a motorcycle off of a cliff. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to wreck a train.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, director Christopher McQuarrie opened up about some of the most challenging sequences in the film, which include star Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle off a giant ramp and over a cliff, and another in which a massive train plunges off a bridge.
“At the start of this movie, I said to Tom, ‘What do you want to do?'” recalled McQuarrie, who also directed “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” and “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”.
Read More: Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ Stunts, Ranked
“He said, ‘I want to drive a motorcycle off of a cliff. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to wreck a train.
- 5/10/2023
- by Brent Furdyk
- ET Canada
The cast and crew of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” wanted to take on more impossible stunts.
Director Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed 2015’s “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation: and 2018’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” recalled discussing the dream stunts with lead star Tom Cruise during a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“At the start of this movie, I said to Tom, ‘What do you want to do?'” McQuarrie shared. “He said, ‘I want to drive a motorcycle off of a cliff. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to wreck a train.’ We’re enormous fans of Buster Keaton, John Frankenheimer, David Lean, all of these filmmakers who at one time or another had a fabulous train wreck. I thought, ‘I’ve earned that, I want to wreck one too.'”
The production used a 70-ton train in the United Kingdom, with the...
Director Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed 2015’s “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation: and 2018’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” recalled discussing the dream stunts with lead star Tom Cruise during a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“At the start of this movie, I said to Tom, ‘What do you want to do?'” McQuarrie shared. “He said, ‘I want to drive a motorcycle off of a cliff. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to wreck a train.’ We’re enormous fans of Buster Keaton, John Frankenheimer, David Lean, all of these filmmakers who at one time or another had a fabulous train wreck. I thought, ‘I’ve earned that, I want to wreck one too.'”
The production used a 70-ton train in the United Kingdom, with the...
- 5/10/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Tom Cruise's 27-year run as Ethan Hunt is at long last drawing to a calamitous close with the undoubtedly action-packed "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning." This final installment has been broken up into two chapters, and judging from the almost-year-old trailer, the first part is going to bring the series back to its train-hopping, Henry Czerny-squirming roots.
Not much is known about the plot of the film, but "Mission: Impossible" movies are the equivalent of a Wallace Beery wrestling picture: Tom Cruise. Wildly dangerous practical stunts. Whaddya need, a roadmap?
As far as this movie is concerned, we've seen Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff, but it looks like Cruise's brawl atop a Britannia Class choo-choo is going to be the heart-stopping highlight of the movie. According to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, this sequence was a bear to film.
The Indestructible Mr. Cruise
In an interview with Empire Magazine...
Not much is known about the plot of the film, but "Mission: Impossible" movies are the equivalent of a Wallace Beery wrestling picture: Tom Cruise. Wildly dangerous practical stunts. Whaddya need, a roadmap?
As far as this movie is concerned, we've seen Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff, but it looks like Cruise's brawl atop a Britannia Class choo-choo is going to be the heart-stopping highlight of the movie. According to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, this sequence was a bear to film.
The Indestructible Mr. Cruise
In an interview with Empire Magazine...
- 5/5/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
There have been some phenomenal racing movies in Hollywood history that have tried to recreate what it feels like inside an actual racecar. Steve McQueen famously drove in the 12-hour Sebring race with a broken foot from a motorcycle accident in preparation for his 1971 film "Le Mans." Incredibly, McQueen nearly won the race, as told in the fascinating documentary "Steve McQueen: The Man and Le Mans." The late Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna was also featured in the tragic documentary "Senna" which featured some of the most exhilarating racing footage ever committed to celluloid. Sylvester Stallone's "Driven," Ron Howard's "Rush," and James Mangold's "Ford v Ferrari" have all been valiant attempts to bring audiences into the driver's seat.
Next up, Brad Pitt is set to star in a new Formula One movie directed by Joseph Kosinski who is just coming off the monumentally successful "Top Gun: Maverick.
Next up, Brad Pitt is set to star in a new Formula One movie directed by Joseph Kosinski who is just coming off the monumentally successful "Top Gun: Maverick.
- 5/5/2023
- by Drew Tinnin
- Slash Film
Brad Pitt will drive a real racecar alongside actual racers for his upcoming Formula One movie with “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski, the Kosinski said on Thursday.
The news emerged as part of the 2023 F1 Accelerate Summit, held Thursday in Miami, during a panel moderated by British television host Will Buxton. Alongside Kosinski, the panel also featured the film’s executive producer, Jerry Bruckheimer.
Buxton shared details from the panel on Twitter after it ended.
“Their F1 movie sounds incredible. They’re creating an 11th team and filming on track and on event from Silverstone to the end of the year,” Buxton said, referring to the racing circuit that’s home to the British Grand Prix.
“The car has been designed by Mercedes and is already testing,” he continued, adding that British racecar driver Lewis Hamilton is “in daily communication and is advising on storyline and script to ensure...
The news emerged as part of the 2023 F1 Accelerate Summit, held Thursday in Miami, during a panel moderated by British television host Will Buxton. Alongside Kosinski, the panel also featured the film’s executive producer, Jerry Bruckheimer.
Buxton shared details from the panel on Twitter after it ended.
“Their F1 movie sounds incredible. They’re creating an 11th team and filming on track and on event from Silverstone to the end of the year,” Buxton said, referring to the racing circuit that’s home to the British Grand Prix.
“The car has been designed by Mercedes and is already testing,” he continued, adding that British racecar driver Lewis Hamilton is “in daily communication and is advising on storyline and script to ensure...
- 5/5/2023
- by Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
Stars: Dan Southworth, Chris Pang, Teresa Ting, Mark Dacascos, Mike Moh, Anna Akana | Written by Aimee Garcia, A.J. Mendez, John Swetnam | Directed by Ron Yuan
Who would have thought we would be seeing a sequel to 47 Ronin among all of the Halloween goodies? But sure enough, Universal 1440 Entertainment, the company’s direct-to-video department, has come up with Blade of the 47 Ronin, a modern-day sequel to the Keanu Reeves samurai epic. And they said there’s no such thing as The Great Pumpkin.
Somewhere in Budapest Yurei kills Arai thought to be the last in the bloodline of those who wielded the Blade of the 47 Ronin. But as he kills him he senses the existence of another heir.
As the other clans argue over what to do about the sword and the prophecy attached to it, Onami one of Lord Shinshiro’s onna-bugeisha reaches out to Reo.
Who would have thought we would be seeing a sequel to 47 Ronin among all of the Halloween goodies? But sure enough, Universal 1440 Entertainment, the company’s direct-to-video department, has come up with Blade of the 47 Ronin, a modern-day sequel to the Keanu Reeves samurai epic. And they said there’s no such thing as The Great Pumpkin.
Somewhere in Budapest Yurei kills Arai thought to be the last in the bloodline of those who wielded the Blade of the 47 Ronin. But as he kills him he senses the existence of another heir.
As the other clans argue over what to do about the sword and the prophecy attached to it, Onami one of Lord Shinshiro’s onna-bugeisha reaches out to Reo.
- 4/20/2023
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
We took Gene Hackman for granted, and he's making us pay for it.
Between 1964 and 2004, there wasn't a more reliably excellent film actor in the industry. He'd knock out two or three (or more!) movies a year, and even when they were dire propositions — like the Kryptonite-ridden "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" or Bob Clark's laugh-free buddy-cop comedy "Loose Cannons" — you knew Hackman would be present and compelling. He also never went too long between watchable films, so the charge that he was phoning it in (which was also leveled at his prolific contemporary Michael Caine) never made sense.
Hackman was — and, oh, how I hate to refer to this still-very-alive master's career in the past tense — a true working actor. He was grateful for the gigs and took them eagerly. He knew what it was to not only struggle but to be told there is no future...
Between 1964 and 2004, there wasn't a more reliably excellent film actor in the industry. He'd knock out two or three (or more!) movies a year, and even when they were dire propositions — like the Kryptonite-ridden "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" or Bob Clark's laugh-free buddy-cop comedy "Loose Cannons" — you knew Hackman would be present and compelling. He also never went too long between watchable films, so the charge that he was phoning it in (which was also leveled at his prolific contemporary Michael Caine) never made sense.
Hackman was — and, oh, how I hate to refer to this still-very-alive master's career in the past tense — a true working actor. He was grateful for the gigs and took them eagerly. He knew what it was to not only struggle but to be told there is no future...
- 4/14/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Marlon Brando is one of the most iconic actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Known for his intense acting style and tendency to take on roles that allowed him to play rebellious characters, he first rose to fame in the ’50s, following his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in the movie A Streetcar Named Desire. Later on in his career, Brando developed a reputation for eccentricity, which carried over to the sets of the movie projects he worked on. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the stories relating to his 1996 film, The Island of Dr. Moreau, where Brando is said to have behaved in a truly outrageous fashion on set, including wearing all-white face paint and having an ice bucket strapped to the top of his head.
Marlon Brando was an infamous Hollywood bad boy Marlon Brando (1924-2004), American actor and director, on March 16, 1965. | Jean-Regis Rouston/Roger Viollet via...
Marlon Brando was an infamous Hollywood bad boy Marlon Brando (1924-2004), American actor and director, on March 16, 1965. | Jean-Regis Rouston/Roger Viollet via...
- 4/2/2023
- by Christina Nunn
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
In a 2020 interview with the New York Times Magazine, actor Val Kilmer acknowledged his unfortunate reputation for being "difficult." Although possessed of movie star good looks, handily backed up by a great deal of talent and devotion to his craft, Kilmer often found himself butting heads with executives and studio honchos over his perceived ego. He admitted that had "alienated the head of every major studio," but only out of an attempt to empower actors and directors over studios, and, in his words, "attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments." He further confessed as much in Ting Poo's and Leo Scott's 2021 biographical documentary "Val," when he admitted to behaving poorly. He then amended that more accurate adverbs might be "bizarrely" and "brazenly."
But for years, Kilmer couldn't shake his rep. Many stories of Kilmer's bad behavior notoriously came from the utter clusterf*** that was John Frankenheimer...
But for years, Kilmer couldn't shake his rep. Many stories of Kilmer's bad behavior notoriously came from the utter clusterf*** that was John Frankenheimer...
- 3/24/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
John Williams began his film composing career in 1958, working on Lou Place's J.D. film "Daddy-o." He was credited as "Johnny Williams," and he was only 26. From there, Williams -- a Juilliard graduate -- began a prolific, decades-long life of music that included writing hundreds of film scores and TV themes, as well as conducting concerts and making some of the most memorable music in the history of filmed media. He has worked for Don Siegel, Frank Sinatra, Irwin Allen, Gene Kelly, Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, John Frankenheimer, Richard Donner, George Miller, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, John Singleton ... and dozens of other notable filmmakers besides. Indeed, introducing Williams at all seems a churlish exercise, as some his scores and themes have become hummable, eternally recognizable elements of the pop consciousness.
Williams is responsible for the main theme for George Lucas' 1977 film "Star Wars," handily one of the most popular films of all time.
Williams is responsible for the main theme for George Lucas' 1977 film "Star Wars," handily one of the most popular films of all time.
- 3/10/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Don Johnson is a personal hero of mine. One of my prized possessions is a framed, autographed copy of his 1987 album, “Heartbeat”, which I have hanging on my living room wall. Being a child of the eighties, I always thought he was the coolest of the cool. As a youngster, I got into Miami Vice in a big way through re-runs, and I loved him in action flicks like 1989’s Dead-Bang, and 1991’s Best Movie You Never Saw fave Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. Plus, there was Nash Bridges!
This week, Johnson, who’s been carving out a terrific niche for himself as a character actor in recent years, stars alongside Michael Shannon and Kate Hudson in the comedy-drama A Little White Lie. In it, Johnson plays a famous writer whose big personality hides a certain degree of insecurity. I was lucky enough to sit with Johnson for a great interview where,...
This week, Johnson, who’s been carving out a terrific niche for himself as a character actor in recent years, stars alongside Michael Shannon and Kate Hudson in the comedy-drama A Little White Lie. In it, Johnson plays a famous writer whose big personality hides a certain degree of insecurity. I was lucky enough to sit with Johnson for a great interview where,...
- 2/28/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
Picture this: you're deep in the woods, alone save for your family, enjoying the silent majesty of a secluded night in nature while all manner of creatures great and small slumber peacefully around you. Most importantly, you're snug inside a yellow sleeping bag, looking for all the world like a giant banana.
Then, suddenly and without warning, a mutant killer bear emerges from the woods, its gaping maw looking like it's melting as it bellows an unholy roar and attacks. Trapped in your banana bag, you helplessly try to run away like you're in the world's worst potato sack race. It's all for nought, as the bear reaches out with one measly swipe of its paw, and you fly through the air only to hit a rock and shatter into a million feathery pieces.
If this scene sounds gloriously horrifying and/or exciting to you, then you need to see...
Then, suddenly and without warning, a mutant killer bear emerges from the woods, its gaping maw looking like it's melting as it bellows an unholy roar and attacks. Trapped in your banana bag, you helplessly try to run away like you're in the world's worst potato sack race. It's all for nought, as the bear reaches out with one measly swipe of its paw, and you fly through the air only to hit a rock and shatter into a million feathery pieces.
If this scene sounds gloriously horrifying and/or exciting to you, then you need to see...
- 2/23/2023
- by Bill Bria
- Slash Film
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