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The set up Paramount Pictures/Buena Vista International “Face/Off” opens with a prologue where prolific international terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), sporting a villainous mustache, is preparing to sniper his nemesis, FBI Agent Sean Archer (Travolta). Archer is enjoying a nice merry-go-round ride with his young son when Troy pulls the trigger, and the bullet passes straight through Archer’s back, killing the lad. Six years later, the intensely driven Archer lives only for catching Troy, neglecting his wife and daughter....

Manifest Season 4 Teaser: Adjust Your Tray Tables As The Series Flight Reroutes To Netflix Netflix By Joshua Meyer/Aug. 29, 2022 8:24 am EST The fourth and final season of “Manifest” is flying your way on Netflix, and now the first official teaser for it is here. Appropriately enough, “Manifest” season 4 will premiere on November 4. It’s a date we hear often in the teaser and one that should be familiar to anyone who has watched the show, which involves a commercial flight that hits turbulence in the air, only to land and be told that five and half years have passed since it took off and went missing....

One Production Mistake On A Fistful Of Dollars Cost Millions Unidis By Witney Seibold/Sept. 2, 2022 8:36 pm EST A lone stranger wanders through the countryside. He walks into a small town that, at first, looks deserted. When the stranger finally meets a few locals and begins talking to them, he finds that the entire town, though remote, is under the uneasy control of two warring criminal gangs. The stranger, identified as a dangerous handler of weapons, is enlisted by each side of the gang conflict to help eradicate the other....

Robert De Niro’s House In Heat Was A Window Into His Character’s Mind Warner Bros. Pictures By Devin Meenan/Oct. 17, 2022 9:22 am EST “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” In “Heat” that’s the motto of professional thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro). Bank robbery isn’t a career that leaves a lot of leeway for personal attachment....

Sam Rockwell’s Comedic Timing Came In Handy On The Set Of Moon Sony Pictures Classics By Witney Seibold/Oct. 11, 2022 3:36 pm EST Duncan Jones’ 2009 sci-fi film “Moon” is about a lonesome miner named Sam (Sam Rockwell) who works a high-tech drilling facility on the titular heavenly body. In the future, Earth’s oil resources have run out, and energy is produced by a new miracle fuel called Helium-3, which can only be found on the moon....

Sgt. Bilko Made Steve Martin Rethink The Course Of His Comedy Career Universal By Jeremy Smith/Nov. 5, 2022 12:38 pm EST Of the many TV-to-movie adaptations (a trend that kicked off in 1987 with “The Untouchables” and “Dragnet,” and hit overdrive with the success of 1991’s “The Addams Family”), the diciest propositions have always been the films based on series that were tailored to the personality of their stars. Dan Aykroyd made “Dragnet” work (until its lame action finale) because he was doing a dead-on, deadpan parody of Jack Webb’s Sergeant Joe Friday, whereas the great Jim Varney struggled as Jed Clampett in 1993’s “The Beverly Hillbillies” because, when it came to playing TV rednecks, he was too defined by his Ernest P....

Tales From The Box Office: Knives Out Murdered The Mystery Of The Mid-Budget Movie Lionsgate By Ryan Scott/Nov. 26, 2022 11:00 am EST (Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.) Rian Johnson probably could have done a great many things in the wake of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” While I’m more aware than most as to the divisive nature of the filmmaker’s entry into a galaxy far, far away, at more than $1....

Thor: Love and Thunder Marvel Studios Thanks to the never-ending flow of new Marvel Cinematic Universe releases, it feels like both a long time and only yesterday that “Thor: Love and Thunder” made its way into theaters (in reality, it was under two months ago). Taika Waititi’s sequel to his 2017 smash-hit “Thor: Ragnarok” is one of the most emotionally ambitious films Marvel Studios has ever made, taking on mid-life regret and ennui while dealing with heavy topics like terminal illness and what it means to “kill your gods” in both a figurative and very literal sense....

The Reason Paul Newman And Robert Redford Never Got To Make A Third Movie Together Universal By Jeremy Smith/July 12, 2022 2:12 pm EST Though 11 years apart in age, hailing from entirely different parts of the country, Paul Newman and Robert Redford were a big-screen match made in movie heaven. Newman, a rascally Ohio native blessed with those piercing blue eyes, was the elder of the two; after serving in World War II, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College and put in a year at the Yale School of Drama before hightailing it for Hollywood in the mid 1950s....

Vin Diesel’s Pitch Black Contact Lenses Were A Punishing Costume Choice USA Films By Steven Ward/July 29, 2022 2:25 pm EST It’s easy to forget that Vin Diesel lends his voice to everyone’s favorite sentient alien tree Groot. But his role in the MCU wasn’t the first time the actor headed to space in one of his films. His very first breakout role, after all, is owed to “Pitch Black,” a blend of sci-fi and monster horror that first introduced us to Riddick....

Why A Serbian Film Is Misunderstood, And More Relevant Than Ever Unearthed Films By Witney Seibold/Aug. 19, 2022 8:48 pm EST Some films are so disgusting, repellent, violent, prurient, or tasteless that audiences find themselves unable to easily define them. Films like Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom,” Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist,” Gaspar Noë’s “Irreversible,” Ruggerio Deodato’s “Cannibal Holocaust,” Takashi Miike’s “Ichi the Killer,” Tom Six’s “The Human Centipede” trilogy, or even John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos” are all brazenly confrontational films, each seemingly intended not to draw the audience in, but send the audience out....

Aldis Hodge Conquered His Fear Of Heights To Play Hawkman In Black Adam Warner Bros. Pictures By Marcos Melendez/Oct. 21, 2022 2:55 pm EST “Black Adam” features the live-action debut of its titular anti-hero, but there are arguably even more exciting characters at play in the film. The Justice Society of America and its band of superheroes form part of the physical (and philosophical) threat to Black Adam’s mission to free his home country....

Rescue me Lionsgate Premiere Little else has been released about “Blonde,” other than it will star Ana de Armas as Monroe. In the Vulture interview, Dominik stages his film as being in keeping with the popular myth about Monroe, specifically that many wanted to save her from her dire circumstances: “Well, you know, Marilyn’s whole vibe was ‘rescue me.’ Some great feminist writers have said this: Everything that’s been written about Marilyn Monroe, whether it’s by Norman Mailer or Gloria Steinem, is a rescue fantasy....

Andrew Lincoln Calls His Cabinet Of Curiosities Episode The Scariest Thing Netflix Has Ever Done Netflix By Debopriyaa Dutta/Oct. 27, 2022 12:47 pm EST “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities” is the gift that keeps on giving, and we are being treated to two fresh episodes per day in this eight-episode anthology series (you can read our review of the series here).The series’ final installment, Jennifer Kent’s “The Murmuring,” tells a devastating, tragic love story about Nancy (Essie Davis) and Edgar (Andrew Lincoln)....

Christian Bale Drew Inspiration From A Classic TV Series For His Amsterdam Character 20th Century Studios By Matt Rainis/Sept. 19, 2022 3:56 pm EST In David O. Russell’s newest film, “Amsterdam,” Christian Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie star as three best friends in the 1930s who become embroiled in a murder mystery. What truly makes this movie stand out from the crowd is its star-studded cast, which, besides the three mentioned, includes the likes of Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Taylor Swift, Mike Myers, and many more....

Christian Bale’s Dream Star Wars Role Is Not As A Major Character Paramount Pictures By Ryan Scott/Oct. 3, 2022 1:23 pm EST Christian Bale is, without question, one of our most in-demand and talented actors working today. He can do it all, from real-life dramas such as “The Fighter” to gigantic superhero movies like “Thor: Love and Thunder. An Oscar-winner and an A-lister, it seems he’s accomplished so much. But Bale’s big dream is to someday be in the “Star Wars” universe....

Cool Stuff: Top Gun: Maverick Takes To The Sky With A 4K Steelbook Collector’s Set Paramount Pictures By Eric Vespe/Sept. 12, 2022 11:18 pm EST I never in a million years would have predicted “Top Gun: Maverick” to be one of the highest-grossing pictures of the year. It’s a legitimate old-school four-quadrant success story, a minor miracle even under normal circumstances in a blockbuster world obsessed with superheroes and lightsabers, and a hands-down praise-Jesus miracle in pandemic times....

Reimagining U.S. history to highlight inequity Universal Pictures Jordan Peele’s “Us” used the 1986 Hands Across America fundraiser to critique how American capitalism attempts to solve complex social issues like homelessness by throwing money and spectacle at it. Like in “Us,” the campaign featuring celebrity singers like Michael Jackson didn’t solve homelessness. Of the $34 million raised, only $15 million went to charities that mostly used donations for operational costs. In 1986, The New York Times estimated a missing $7 to $8 million from pledges....

In Praise Of House Of The Dragon’s Small Council Scenes HBO By Jeremy Mathai/Aug. 23, 2022 1:00 pm EST Remember all those months of hemming and hawing among the fandom (online, at least) over whether anyone would actually care about a new “Game of Thrones” prequel, particularly after how much controversy and backlash the ending of the original series sparked? Well, “House of the Dragon” answered those questions quite definitively with its widely-seen premiere, proving that viewers still have an appetite for epic fantasy, disturbing moments of violence, and, of course, dragons....

James Dean’s Rise To Stardom Didn’t Sit Well With Marlon Brando Hulton Archive/Getty Images By Witney Seibold/Sept. 9, 2022 3:12 pm EST No more enjoyable conversation grudge match can be had than pitting James Dean against Marlon Brando in a Hollywood Heartthrob showdown. Which do prefer? The rough, raw honesty of Brando in László Benedek’s “The Wild One,” wherein he plays a humming, human motorcycle engine, tanked up on erotic, rebellious energy and living to subvert paradigms and dismiss 1950s squareness?...