Posts

Barack Obama: former United States president, Emmy Award winner. The Creative Arts Emmy Award winners were announced on Saturday night, and among those nominated was Obama for narrating the Netflix docuseries Our Great National Parks. Obama managed to pick up the win, marking his first Emmy win following his transition from politics into developing content for Netflix. Obama had some strong competition in the Outstanding Narrator category. The other nominees were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for History’s Black Patriots: Heroes of the Civil War; David Attenborough for Discovery+’s The Mating Game: ‘In Plain Sight’; W....

The Kremlin has released a new list of personal sanctions banning 25 Americans from entering Russia, Bloomberg reports. The list, released today, includes Sean Penn and Ben Stiller, who have both been vocal in their support for Ukraine during the ongoing conflict. Penn is an activist who heads his own non-profit while Stiller serves as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees; both have recently visited Ukraine amidst the ongoing conflict....

The ’80s were a memorable decade. With its Walkmans, Cabbage Patch Kid dolls, Scratch & Sniff Stickers, leg warmers, colorful clothing, big hairstyles, bodysuits, and spandex, the ’80s simply screamed for attention. From this decade, we also had popular bands and artists emerge like Guns N’ Roses, Tears for Fears, R.E.M., and Bon Jovi. Besides music, the 80s also brought a collection of masterpiece films like Labyrinth, and Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, as well as cult classics like Gremlins, The Goonies, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off....

Music can immerse its listeners, evoke powerful emotions, and change the mood of any room. Given music’s power for expression, its no wonder the medium is so integral to film. Movies about bands bring music to the forefront of the film. Band movies remind viewers of the importance of music as well as the sacrifices and effort that go into every note. Such films about music and musicians often follow a social outcast on their journey to becoming a loved star....

With a globally recognized product like Star Wars, anyone and everyone can get in on making references and get some easy points. So instantly iconic, every generation has their own version of their Star Wars, and many have successfully parodied it too. Sharing the same Jim Henson DNA, it could be argued that Star Wars first became something to laugh at via Luke, Leia, and the gang making guest appearances with The Muppets, and by the time George Lucas’ prequel series came about, there was a whole host of duff lines and weak performances that were more than easy to mock....

The Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul has done a tremendous job with filling in many of the blanks in the backstory of Saul Goodman, aka Jimmy McGill, but there are still some questions that fans want answered. When Odenkirk first debuted as the character in the second season of Breaking Bad, the creators had no idea at the time that this would be the person to eventually get his own spinoff series....

Paramount+ announced on February 16th that Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thornton has been tapped to lead the upcoming drama series Land Man from creator Taylor Sheridan, and produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios. The series will star Thornton as a crisis manager for an oil company. Land Man is set to begin production in 2023, per the official press release. Based on the chart-topping 11-part podcast “Boomtown” from Texas Monthly and Imperative Entertainment, Land Man is set in the rugged West Texas boomtowns where billionaires are seeking a fortune in the world of oil rigs....

The week of August 4th through August 10th, 2007 I don’t usually comment before I jump into (what is slowly becoming known as) “The Whoop-Doo Nation”. But I have to make a small note about one of last week’s “whoop-doos”. Superbad director Greg Mottola reads this column. And he wants me to point at that the kid who spit in Richard Pryor’s face gets, in the immortal words of Chris Tucker, “Knocked the f*ck out!...

Weekend Box Office Knowing $24.8 million I Love You, Man $18 million Duplicity $14.4 million Race to Witch Mountain $13 million Watchmen $6 million The Last House on the Left $5.9 million Taken $4.1 million Slumdog Millionaire $2.7 million Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail $2.5 million Coraline $2.1 million Nicolas Cage knows a thing or two about dominating the box office. Despite going up against heavyweights like Julia Roberts and the Apatow All-Stars, his latest thriller Knowing managed to open number one this weekend, pulling in an estimated $24....

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE There were some big surprises at the box office last week as Zack Snyder’s Legend of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole fell short of its predicted number one debut and was upset by the return of Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. But with three new movies entering the box office race this week including the Oscar-worthy film The Social Network and the highly anticipated horror flicks Let Me In and Case 39, Mr....

Weekend Box Office: Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? $21.5 million The Game Plan $11.5 million Michael Clayton $11 million We Own the Night $11 million The Heartbreak Kid $7.4 million Elizabeth: The Golden Age $6.1 million The Kingdom $4.5 million Across the Universe $4 million Resident Evil: Extinction $2.6 million The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising $2.1 million Tyler Perry has once again proven himself a very viable commodity at the box office....

PREDICTED WEEKEND BOX OFFICE As predicted, director Christopher Nolan’s Inception defeated Angelina Jolie’s Salt last weekend to take the number one spot at the box office for a second week in a row. But will the buzz-worthy movie, which is already earning Oscar consideration, be able to defend its position against the new Steve Carell comedy Dinner for Schmucks or the family film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore?...

Despite the fact the Breaking Bad went off the air four years ago, fans of the series are rabid and want to get as close to Walter White in real life as they possibly can. As such, the house that Bryan Cranston and his fictional family lived in has become a popular destination for fans. The only problem is, someone actually lives there and the fans are getting in the way of them being able to live peacefully....

Deadline reports that an influx of talent, including Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton, are in talks for Moonrise Kingdom. Wes Anderson is directing this latest project from a script he co-wrote with Roman Coppola. The story centers on a young couple in the 1960s who run away from their small New England town. The town’s leaders are convinced the kids are missing and form a search party to find them....

It has been almost two decades since the hit comedy series Malcolm in the Middle came to an end, but Bryan Cranston would love to reprise his role as Hal Wilkerson in a reunion. In fact, the Breaking Bad star was previously reported to be trying to instigate a revival of the show in the form of a movie, and now the actor himself has addressed his desire to return to Malcolm’s world along with his onscreen wife Jane Kaczmarek and Frankie Muniz as the titular character....

Castle Rock season 2 is going to be a prequel to Stephen King’s Misery. The highly acclaimed Hulu series added Masters of Sex actress Lizzy Caplan to the cast as King’s original nurse from hell at the beginning of this year. In addition to the new theme announcement, the streaming platform also released a brief teaser to get fans ready for the upcoming second season, which is sure to dive heavily into the author’s source material and beyond....

Award-winning children’s author Karen Cushman’s 1994 novel Catherine, Called Birdy is getting the big screen treatment, though it might not be precisely what fans of the original expect. Long a pet project of Girls creator Lena Dunham, filming on Catherine Called Birdy wrapped last year. With the Newbury Honor-winning book offering promising source material, the finished product looks to be a major draw for kids and teens at cinemas this fall....

Jurassic World Dominion is being called the epic conclusion to the Jurassic Saga. The film notably features the characters from the original trilogy that started with Jurassic Park (1993), bringing the old storylines full circle as it nears its end. The film takes the threat posed by the genetically manipulated dinosaur species, right amid human civilization, as Fallen Kingdom saw the animals escaping captivity and finally infiltrating the mainland. Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World Trilogy was earlier marketed as a revitalization of the original series, with the story continuing more than a decade ahead in time....

James Gunn has explained why he isn’t interested in the Joker and won’t be including the character in his movies anytime soon. After he got fired by Disney for offensive tweets, Warner Bros. recruited Gunn and gave him a free hand to make any DC movie he wanted to. Surprisingly, Gunn decided to take a crack at a Suicide Squad movie even after the widely panned 2016 adaptation. With a huge budget and an R-rating, Gunn tried his luck at bringing Task Force X to the big screen again....

Death is the scariest event that a person can possibly face. It is this fear of death, the potential for the non-existent, the irrevocable, and the irreversible that lies in the shadows behind the frailty of human existence, piercing into both the psyche and the human condition as an intrinsic part of the human experience. But while death is a reality for all, it is also something that has been examined by storytellers since the coming of time as a way to unravel and unlock its mystery, that by somehow facing death down, looking at it through a mirrored reflection of narrative, the power that it has over humanity would either lose its luster or at least be understood....