Matthew Monagle
Watch the New Cast of ‘MST3K’ Riff on ‘Stranger Things’
Alright, a gold friggin’ star to the person who thought of this one. With the new season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 hitting Netflix today, most of the conversation has been dominated by lifelong fans of the show — fans like myself — who are some combination of excited and apprehensive about the return of their favorite television series. But what about the next generation of MST3K fans? How does Netflix introduce them to their service? Why, by riffing on another Netflix property that everyone already knows and loves, of course!
Dave Bautista Goes Full Dothraki in the First ‘Enter the Warriors Gate’ Trailer
It must be nice to be Luc Besson. The French filmmaker has been pretty successful by whipping together a half-baked story idea and giving someone else a little bit of money to turn it into a movie. Sometimes, these result in delightfully goofy pieces of pulp; lawsuit or no, I dare anyone to deny that Lockout is anything other than the perfect blend of camp and B-grade action. More often, though, Besson’s efforts are the cinematic equivalent of candy corn, something that always sounds good in theory but often makes you sick as you go along.
Dwayne Johnson Promises a ‘Far Dirtier’ ‘Baywatch’ Movie Than You’d Expect
What came first, the raunchy beach comedy or the Baywatch movie adaptation? Hollywood seems to have discovered in recent years that it can take an existing license — typically one associated with a semi-popular television series — and give it new life as a profane comedy for adults. Sure, there are probably a handful of Baywatch purists out there who have watched the sophomoric humor in the trailers with horror, but for everyone else? A vague recollection of the Baywatch brand and an appetite for 21 Jump Street-esque humor is all they need to be enticed.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Boss Baby’ Just Cannot Be Stopped
Welcome to the calm before the storm. With a handful of blockbuster movies already released, and more on the way, the second weekend in April was a relatively quiet affair, with a few old favorites dominating the weekend yet again and a few new releases grabbing whatever box office they could before things get fast and furious at your local multiplex. Let’s take a look at the projected grosses through Sunday afternoon.
Production on ‘Mission: Impossible 6’ Is Officially Underway
Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie seems to have developed a pretty strong working relationship with Tom Cruise. In addition to working with the actor on the highly regarded Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation movie, McQuarrie had previously directed Cruise in Jack Reacher while also serving as either a producer or screenwriter on Jack Reacher 2 and Cruise’s upcoming Universal Monsters movie The Mummy. When it comes to actor-director pairings, there’s no denying McQuarrie and Cruise are one of the more impressive duos at work these days.
The ‘Chuck’ Trailer Promises the True Story of the ‘Rocky’ Inspiration
While nobody would argue that Hollywood needs to make more movies about Hollywood, there does seem to be an opening for Hollywood to make more movies about the impact of movies in general. We spend hundreds (even thousands) of hours each year watching films, and yet, many of these movies don’t really explore the impact that movies themselves have on our lives and our culture. At the risk of getting a little too meta, a smart screenwriter might tackle the notion of how the movies affect the life of someone on the outside of the industry.
Weekend Box Office Report: The ‘Boss Baby’ Takes Care of Business
In a parallel universe where Paramount Pictures doesn’t alienate its fanbase, we might be talking about Ghost in the Shell as the big winner of this weekend and the de facto start of a new wave of Japanese Hollywood adaptations. Instead, DreamWorks Animation and The Boss Baby blew up the box office, no doubt delighting a handful of DreamWorks executives who watched the Ghost in the Shell controversy unfold with glasses of champagne in hand. After all, nobody’s going to boycott a movie about a baby who wears a suit.
Tom Cruise Is Still Screaming Weird in the Second ‘The Mummy’ Trailer
To understand why I’m more excited than most for The Mummy, it’s important to make a list of all the things that I’m a sucker for. Tom Cruise movies? Check. Trailers or commercials that use the Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint it Black’ as a musical cue? Check-check. Movies where soldiers fight monsters? Check-check-check. In fact, if you do the math, the only thing on my Hollywood wishlist that the second The Mummy trailer doesn’t deliver is a John Wick-style gunfight, and there’s still time. One of those might still find its way into the final movie.
Warner Bros. Reportedly Has Two Directors on Its ‘Akira’ Shortlist
Whether you choose to overlook the accusations of whitewashing levied against Paramount’s upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie is entirely up to you, but there are certainly some who are rooting for the film to open doors for other anime projects. Studios aren’t exactly hot-spots for innovative thinking; if Ghost in the Shell bombs next weekend, there will no-doubt be executives at Paramount who claim the only real lesson is that American audiences don’t like Anime. That would be a real blow to fans of the long-gestating adaptation of Akira, the seminal 1988 animated movie by Katsuhiro Otomo that has been an inspiration to countless science fiction movies and television shows that follow.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Power Rangers’ Is No Match for Beauties or Beasts
After several weeks of limited movement, a handful of new releases prompted a pretty thorough shakeup of the Box Office Top 10. While Beauty and the Beast continued its unstoppable assault on the domestic box office, we also said hello this weekend to three new movies and goodbye to a handful of old favorites from the first few months of the year. Let’s start with the estimated numbers as of Sunday afternoon.