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White Noise Review: Noah Baumbach’s Contagion Tale Wrestles With Death And Spectacle [Venice] Netflix By Lex Briscuso/Aug. 31, 2022 1:59 pm EST We’re well acquainted with the prospect of death. Not only is it all around us, looming behind every good deed or shining accomplishment we make, but it’s also become even more of a constant in recent times. We’re thinking about it more, even though we live in service of the concept every single day....

Why Visual Effects Legend Dennis Muren Prefers Star Wars Practical Creatures Lucasfilm By Andrew Housman/Dec. 20, 2022 5:45 pm EST It’s difficult to overstate the immense impact “Star Wars” made in Hollywood. Before it exploded into a massive, decades-sprawling, multi-billion dollar franchise, George Lucas’ original entry, re-named as “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope,” was a strange and ambitious attempt at bringing the campy space operas the director grew up watching to a modern audience....

An Impromptu Audition Kickstarted Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Acting Career Warner Bros. Pictures By J. Gabriel Ware/Oct. 1, 2022 7:00 pm EST Known for his high-flying kicks and flexibility, Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme is trained in kickboxing, taekwondo, and kung fu. As a teen, he won the European Professional Karate Association’s middleweight championship. Hoping to use his unique skillset to become the next big thing in Hollywood, he moved to Los Angeles in the ’80s....

Blockbuster: Release Date, Cast And More Netflix By Jeff Ewing/Aug. 26, 2022 3:40 pm EST (Welcome to …And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.) One Upon A Time, the long-fabled business known as the video rental store reigned supreme. In nearly every U.S. town, one could walk up to the local video rental location and select classics and new releases alike in a variety of formats....

Devotion: Release Date, Cast And More Sony Pictures By Lyvie Scott/July 7, 2022 1:57 pm EST (Welcome to …And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.) It’s been a great year for the return of the heartstring-tugging blockbuster — and if the jaw-dropping success of “Top Gun: Maverick” is any indication, an even better one for films about naval aviators....

Sticking to the formula Paramount In the Fangoria article, Steve Miner, who directed “Part 2” and “Part 3,” recalls a time when the third film was intended to be a departure from the first two movies. Slasher films, as modern audience have come to know them, were invented only a few years previous with films like “Black Christmas” and “Halloween,” and many filmmakers had already found a great deal of success in adhering to a certain formula: Merely gather multiple young people in a remote location for purposes of sex and debauchery, strip them out of their clothes, and then have a masked killer murder them with a blunt object or bladed construction tool....

I’m Thinking Of Ending Things Ending Explained: A Bleak Consciousness Turducken Netflix By Witney Seibold/Nov. 20, 2022 4:00 pm EST Charlie Kaufman’s surreal and heartsick film “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” based on the 2016 novel by Iain Reed, was handily one of the best films of 2020. Intellectually burning and pathetically self-involved — by design — “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” takes place in a psychological dreamscape where reality is mutable and every character appears to be representative of an oblique Jungian archetype....

In Praise Of The Crabfeeder, The House Of The Dragon Villain Who Deserved More Screentime HBO By Rafael Motamayor/Sept. 6, 2022 3:13 pm EST This post contains spoilers for the third episode of “House of the Dragon.” The world of “A Song of Ice and Fire” has given us plenty of memorable characters, especially when it comes to villains. From Ramsay Bolton to Walder Frey, and from Cersei to Littlefinger, we’ve had no shortage of cool and despicable baddies in the world of “Game of Thrones....

Jason Sudeikis Made His TV Sketch Comedy Debut Five Years Before Joining SNL NBC By Matt Rainis/Sept. 9, 2022 4:27 pm EST Before Jason Sudeikis was making people laugh and cry as Ted Lasso, he was mostly just making people laugh on “Saturday Night Live.” From 2006 to 2013, Sudeikis was a permanent cast member portraying such memorable characters as the mysteriously Cajun Judge Marshall T. Boudreaux, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and even a surprisingly chill version of the Devil himself....

Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind: Everything We Know So Far Warner Bros. Home Entertainment By Jenna Busch/Aug. 7, 2022 11:30 pm EST If you are a devotée of “Mortal Kombat,” you’ll be happy to know there is an upcoming sequel to the animated films “Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge,” and “Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms.” The new film is called “Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind,” which is another mouthful of a title....

Respect to Gale Weathers Paramount Pictures Studios As it stands, only six actors have achieved the same honor, all of which are male. Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers joins Christopher Lee as Dracula, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, Warwick Davis as The Leprechaun, Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Brad Dourif as Chucky, and Tobin Bell as Jigsaw. If Roger L. Jackson returns to voice Ghostface, he will also join the esteemed group, but that doesn’t change the fact that Cox is still the first woman to join the consecutive six party....

‘It puts a real burden on the audience’ DreamWorks Pictures At the heart of the “Munich” controversy was the film’s tacit refusal to spoon-feed the audience answers to difficult questions. In one notable scene, Avner and a PLO member named Ali (Omar Metwally) take a cigarette break on a stairwell and have a frank discussion about the possible futility of fighting over holy land in the Middle East. Their dialogue is a true back-and-forth that gives equal weight in the scene to Ali’s Palestinian perspective....

That One White Lotus Season 2 Scene Was Intentionally Confusing – Here’s Why HBO By Shae Sennett/Nov. 1, 2022 8:34 am EST Spoilers for episode 1 of “White Lotus” season 2. One episode in and “White Lotus” season 2 already has me hooked. The new cast of characters was introduced and it features a cynical wife played by Aubrey Plaza and her husband’s obnoxious friend, played by Theo James. One of the most memorable scenes is the first private moment between these two characters, who at first seem totally at odds....

The Long-Gestating Buffy The Vampire Slayer Reboot Is ‘On Pause’ 20th Television By Valerie Ettenhofer/Aug. 19, 2022 3:17 pm EST It’s a bittersweet day for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fans, as the reboot series that was set to star a Black woman as the new Slayer has been put “on pause,” according to executive producer Gail Berman. The news was shared on The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 Podcast (reported via TVLine)....

Tracey Ullman’s Dislike Of The Simpsons Nearly Led It To An Early Grave Now on its 34th season (or 734th episode), “The Simpsons” owes a lot to Tracey Ullman, whose show got the soon-to-be iconic family on TV for the first time. It’s why it’s a little surprising to learn that Tracey herself wasn’t that big of a fan of their original shorts. “Tracey was not fond of The Simpsons,” said Ken Estin, a TV producer who co-created “The Tracey Ullman Show....

Why Don’t Worry Darling’s Action-Packed Ending Was So Challenging To Shoot [Exclusive] Warner Bros. By Tyler Llewyn Taing/Sept. 23, 2022 3:56 pm EST Olivia Wilde’s newest film “Don’t Worry Darling,” which opens in theaters today, is a genre shifting, mystery box piece of popcorn entertainment. Like with most directors who have seen a lot of success with their popular debuts, Wilde (whose first feature, “Booksmart,” earned overwhelmingly positive reviews) admirably swings for the fences with a larger scope, bigger ideas, and just the right amount of confidence in her sophomore film....

Why Patrick Stewart Bided His Time On Bringing The Next Generation’s Stars To Picard Paramount By Lyvie Scott/July 15, 2022 12:19 pm EST When it was first announced that Sir Patrick Stewart would be reprising his role as the titular Starfleet captain on “Star Trek: Picard,” it seemed inevitable that the rest of his castmates from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” would be involved in some capacity. And in a way, “Picard” definitely delivered: the series picked up threads regarding Data and his lineage, which of course merited the return of Brent Spiner as the android....

William Shatner Has Mixed Feelings About Being The Face Of The Michael Myers Mask NBC By Christian Gainey/Sept. 8, 2022 3:42 pm EST The “Halloween” franchise has everything fans want in a slasher: a spine-tingling score, a stalking, homicidal maniac, and some good old-fashioned generational trauma. For almost 50 years, audiences have flocked to theaters to see Michael Myers’ latest murderous shenanigans, and will probably do so again when “Halloween Ends” lands on big screens next month, but the successful franchise has humble beginnings....

Year Of The Vampire: Daybreakers Is An Ambitious Vision Of A Vampiric Future Lionsgate By Ryan Scott/Oct. 15, 2022 10:00 am EST (Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of “Nosferatu,” which turns 100 this year.) Vampire movies have been a part of cinema for a long, long time. Sure, a great many of those movies center on your classic “Dracula in a cape,” and at times, that can be great....

14 Underrated Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes Paramount By David Court/Aug. 22, 2022 4:30 pm EST Running for 178 episodes over seven years, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” deservedly picked up plenty of awards on its ongoing mission, and it’s not difficult to pick out episodes that truly stood out as exemplary. There were some absolute stinkers, too like the lazy budget-saving clip show “Shades of Gray,” and “Code of Honor” and “Up the Long Ladder,” which form a double-bill of offensive cultural insensitivity....