Category: Special Features

Opinion Pieces that aren’t necessarily reviews or ‘Marvelous Monday,’ ‘Dagobah Day,’ or Awards posts.

Casting Ideas | James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy

James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 has been released, Gunn has finished his trilogy, and his time at Marvel is seemingly in the rearview mirror whether we like it or not. Warner Bros. and DC made a good decision to allow him to guide the direction of a shared universe of films based on DC Comics, which was something I advocated for in my review of his excellent The Suicide Squad film. Although his first DC film as a director, Superman Legacy, is still a couple of years away, now is as good a time as any to have a look at what actors would be good fits for the most iconic characters in Clark Kent’s corner of the DC Universe. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at some casting ideas for the upcoming Superman: Legacy film.

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‘The Nurse’ is a Solid Danish True Crime Series with a Great Final Hour | Netflix in the State of Denmark

(L-R) Josephine Park and Fanny Louise Bernth in THE NURSE — PHOTO: NETFLIX / Tommy Wildner.

As Netflix tries to churn out local content, we get to see several Danish Netflix originals. For example, a couple of months ago, Nicolas Winding Refn got to show off his style with his Danish series Copenhagen Cowboy, which I admittedly have yet to see, and, a while back, I recommended The Chestnut Man and called it the best Danish Netflix release at that time. Today I want to talk about the latest major Danish Netflix original, which I think is mostly solid. But it must be said that in moments it is genuinely tense and gripping.

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The 95th Oscars Ceremony was safe and relatively predictable (and that’s okay)

Host Jimmy Kimmel is danced off the stage by dancers performing the ‘Naatu Naatu’ dance from RRR — PHOTO: Carlos Barria/Reuters.

We’ve now all had some time to sleep on and sit with the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, and, so, now feels like a good time to look back and assess what is supposed to be the biggest night in Hollywood. Jimmy Kimmel was back to be the host, all of the categories were back, and it never got physical like last year did. It was therefore meant to be a normal Oscars ceremony, but what does a normal Oscars ceremony look like in 2023, and how should we feel about this year’s list of winners? Well, I have thoughts. 

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Top Ten TV-Shows of 2022

It’s time. I’ve seen everything that I feel like I need to see before I can publish my best TV/streaming shows list for 2022. Today, I’ll list ten shows that I think were absolutely fantastic last year. You’ll find a lot of different shows on this list. Some of them are big franchise entries, but there are also new favorites and an experimental show that I was obsessed with last year. So, without further ado, let’s get to it. Counting down from ten to one, these are the best television shows of 2022.

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My Thoughts on the Sight & Sound 2022 Film Poll

Delphine Seyrig in Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles — PHOTO: Janus Films / Akerman, 1975.

Every ten years since 1952, Sight & Sound has polled film professionals (critics and filmmakers alike) on what the greatest films of all time are. In 1992, they split up the filmmakers and critics into separate lists, which has allowed for a great number of films to be celebrated every ten years. The 2022 lists have just been released. Prior to the new lists, only the following films had been placed at number one: Bicycle Thieves, Citizen Kane, Vertigo, and Tokyo Story. Well, for 2022, none of those films landed at no. 1 in either the directors’ or the critics’ polls. Here are my thoughts.

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REVIEW: Halloween Ends (2022)

Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode eventually goes toe-to-toe with Michael Myers one last time in David Gordon Green’s HALLOWEEN ENDS — PHOTO: Universal Pictures.

Directed by David Gordon Green — Screenplay by Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green.

Do bankable film franchises really end? These days it really doesn’t feel like it. Horror franchises, like other genre franchises, can be brought back to life again and again and again. Heck, these days reboots can just ignore several films that came before and chose to only acknowledge one or two films in the franchise, and audiences will still accept it. So, well, regardless of what happens in this film, does anyone truly believe that Halloween will really end? This skepticism is coming from a guy who thought this franchise probably should’ve ended with Steve Miner’s Halloween H20, which I liked. Honestly, I would’ve been fine with them ending it after the 2018 reboot.

Because let’s be honest, this — 2018, Halloween Kills, and this film — shouldn’t have been a trilogy. It should’ve just been that one ‘Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode a la Sarah Connor’ film to end the franchise with a bad-ass one-on-one confrontation. But then some higher-up probably wanted more, and so we got a pretty awful and aimless middle part, in Halloween Kills, and now, with Halloween Ends, a really messy conclusion that both wants to live up to the promise of the 2018 film and try something new. It doesn’t completely work, but I admire the attempt.

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REVIEW: Halloween Kills (2021)

Jamie Lee Curtis in HALLOWEEN KILLS — PHOTO: Universal Pictures.

Directed by David Gordon Green — Screenplay by Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green.

On October 31st, 2022, people all around the world will be celebrating Halloween, the favorite holiday for all horror fans, but if you choose to believe the marketing for the latest film in the franchise named after the aforementioned spooky holiday, Halloween ended last weekend when David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends (which I have yet to see), the last film in his Michael Myers-focused trilogy, was released. I certainly have my doubts about whether or not they’ll actually let the dust settle on John Carpenter’s stories horror franchise.

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First ‘Batgirl’ then ‘scripted content’: Warner Bros. Discovery’s recent decision-making is worrying

Photo: Chris Yarzab / Flickr

In recent days, it was revealed that the Warner Bros. Discovery merger had already had a huge impact on upcoming releases and the extremely popular streaming service HBO Max, arguably the service with the best content library. First, it was revealed that the upcoming Batgirl film, which had finished production, had been canceled. It was no longer to be released in theaters or on HBO Max. Then, we found out that the Scoob! sequel, an animated film due to be released later this year, had also been thrown away entirely.

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The 94th Oscars Ceremony was already problematic before Will Smith struck Chris Rock

A visibly-emotional Will Smith sits down after having slapped Chris Rock on stage at the Dolby Theatre – PHOTO: AMPAS, 2022.

Others may disagree but the Academy Awards ceremony — arguably Hollywood’s biggest night — is never boring to me. Some cinephiles think of it like their Super Bowl, their WrestleMania, but I don’t think anyone expected the ceremony to devolve into a contact sport as it briefly did in the Dolby Theatre at the 94th Academy Awards, when one of Hollywood’s last name-brand movie stars, the almost-always cool Will Smith, lost his temper. It was certainly one of the uglier moments in Oscar history, and it also topped what was previously the craziest moment in Oscar history.

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Top Ten Films of 2021

This is a list of the best films of 2021. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is a little late, but pay it no mind. The film industry in 2021, like 2020, was still impacted somewhat by the COVID-19 Pandemic, though obviously not as much as 2020 was. It was a year that, to me, showed a lot of problems for the theater industry, as it was starting to look like film fans had become comfortable waiting for films to hit streaming services rather than to see them in theaters. Because exactly what films became hits last year? Like others have noted, they were pretty much all franchise films. In a way, it feels like HBO Max may have made it easy for American audiences to let go of the moviegoing experience, but, hopefully, the movie theaters will thrive again soon.

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