Noticias

A Complete Unknown North America Box Office: 3rd Monday Update ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

The Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, and Elle Fanning starrer A Complete Unknown has not only been praised by the critics but is also performing well at the box office. As we write this article, it is beating the 1968 biographical musical film Funny Girl and 1984’s Amadeus. Keep scrolling for the deets.

The 1968 film by William Wyler was written by Isobel Lennart adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same name. It was loosely based on the life and career of comedienne Fanny Brice and her turbulent relationship with entrepreneur and gambler. The movie featured Barbra Streisand as Brice and Oman Sharif as Arnstein. The supporting cast included Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Allen, and Mae Questel.

Based on Box Office Mojo’s data, Barbra Streisand’s Funny Girl collected $52.22 million in its...

Eight years before Barbra Streisand appeared in the 1976 version of A Star Is Born, she dazzled audiences in William Wyler’s Funny Girl with an awe-inspiring performance of intense vulnerability and carefully modulated broad humor that announced to the world that she was, much like her character, Fanny Brice, born to be a star. Released in 1968, several years after the death knell of the classic musical had been rung, Funny Girl endures—unlike other bloated, big budget musicals of the era like Camelot, Hello Dolly!, and Oliver!—precisely because of the strength of Streisand’s magnetic performance.

Whether flailing around on roller skates across the stage or triumphantly belting out “Don’t Rain on My Parade” as she recklessly flees her starring gig at the Ziegfeld Follies to meet her lover, Nick (Omar Sharif), Streisand’s Fanny is a woman possessed with ungodly charisma and talent. It was Brice’s singularly sly,...

What if Popeye the Sailor Man was a deadly murderer? That's the premise of the upcoming horror movie Popeye from ITN Studios.

Per Bloody Disgusting, ITN Studios has released some first look photos of Popeye, a horror comedy film that reimagines the spinach-scarfing sailor as a sadistic serial killer. The film is coming to be after the Popeye character entered the public domain, similar to how Winnie the Pooh and Steamboat Willie the very first incarnation of Mickey Mouse have been given horror parody movies. However, it should be noted that Popeye is not part of the "Poohniverse," the cinematic universe that will tie Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey to other upcoming horror parody films based on other beloved children's story characters like Bambi and Peter Pan.

Related Pinocchio Attacks in New Poster for Horror Parody From Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey Team

The new poster for Pinocchio...

Filmmaker Natalie Erika James was naturally very dubious for sure when initially considering whether to take Apartment 7A or not. After all, the film is a prequel to the classic horror movie Rosemarys Baby directed by filmmaking icon Roman Polanski and produced by the King of the Gimmicks, William Castle. Now, James seems genuinely excited about the flick, and a slew of first-look photos (below) have flooded the internet for cinephiles and genre fans to enjoy. James talked about taking on the responsibility of following up the Mia Farrow-led Rosemarys Baby in an interview with Vanity Fair:

When I first was approached about the project, I was very dubious for sure. I never wouldve signed on to do a remake of such a classic and seminal film. But its been a joy to be able to play within the world and the sandbox of Ira Levins novel and also play with the characters.

Take a look at Fleischer Studios 1936 "Popeye the Sailor " cartoon  short "Never Kick A Woman", directed by Dave Fleischer, starring Jack Mercer as 'Popeye' and Mae Questel as 'Olive Oyl':

"...'Popeye' talks Olive into taking a self defense lesson...

"... but it's Olive who goes on the offense when Popeye take a turn for the pretty instructor..." 

Click the images to enlarge...  </div...

Take a look at Fleischer Studios 1936 "Popeye the Sailor " cartoon  short "Never Kick A Woman", directed by Dave Fleischer, starring Jack Mercer as 'Popeye' and Mae Questel as 'Olive Oyl':

"...'Popeye' talks Olive into taking a self defense lesson...

"... but it's Olive who goes on the offense when Popeye take a turn for the pretty instructor..." 

Click the images to enlarge... ...

Take a look at Fleischer Studios 1936 "Popeye the Sailor " cartoon  short "Never Kick A Woman", directed by Dave Fleischer, starring Jack Mercer as 'Popeye' and Mae Questel as 'Olive Oyl':

"...'Popeye' talks Olive into taking a self defense lesson...

"... but it's Olive who goes on the offense when Popeye take a turn for the pretty instructor..." 

Click the images to enlarge... ...

Jasmine Amy Rogers, who recently finished a run as the scene-stealing “Gretchen Wieners” in the national tour of Mean Girls, has been cast in the title role of the pre-Broadway world premiere of Boop! The Betty Boop Musical.

Rogers will play the iconic big-headed Jazz Age flapper for a limited engagement at Chicago’s Cibc Theatre from November 19-December 24. The production is part of the Broadway in Chicago line-up.

Directed and choreographed by Tony winning Jerry Mitchell, Boop! features music by composer David Foster, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead and a book by The Prom‘s Bob Martin.

Although the Chicago staging is described by producers as a “pre-Broadway premiere,” neither a Broadway production timeline nor Broadway casting has been disclosed yet.

“From the moment Jasmine walks into a room and shares that magnificent smile and her contagious laugh, you know you are in the presence of Betty Boop,...

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In the opening of the 1986 Saturday morning children's show "Pee-wee's Playhouse," a stop-motion animated beaver casually chewed through a tree somewhere out in the middle of the woods. On the tree was an arrow pointing to the location of Pee-wee's Playhouse, located somewhere deep within the fauna-infested biome. The tree falls, and the arrow points up to the sky. Pee-wee's Playhouse is now symbolically located above. It is a state of mind. The camera pushes through the woods while Mark Mothersbaugh-composed music -- evoking the Exotica-inflected strains of Martin Denny or Les Baxter -- serenades the audience. The camera pans up a cliffside and there, like Shelley's Ozymandias, stands the Playhouse, a curious, multi-leveled edifice that escaped from the skull of a sugared-up five-year-old child, fully formed. The benevolent lord of this manor, Pee-Wee, appears briefly to chuckle --...

Popeye the Sailor: The 1960s TV Cartoons

By Fred M. Grandinetti

230 pages/$30 hardcover $20 softcover/Bear Manor Media

Like author Fred M. Grandinetti, I was a child of the 60s and was exposed to all the Popeye cartoons, and it took time for me to understand that some were excellent, some were good, and some were outright bad. It slowly became clear to me that the best was the theatrical shorts made in the 1930s by the Fleischer Studio. What was less clear was who made the others of varying quality.

Thankfully, Grandinetti provides us with a handy guide, breaking down which animation house did what, all in an attempt to corner the syndicated cartoon market when there were hours upon hours of time to fill.

Elzie Segar’s Thimble Theater featured the Oyl family, with new characters coming and going as needed for each serialized adventure. On January 17, 1929, readers met Popeye,...

"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" is one of those rare movies where every scene is memorable. Its quotability is off the charts, and it's almost impossible to get through an entire holiday season without hearing at least one person make reference to Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his infamously backed-up trailer toilet. It's almost guaranteed that the movie will play on at least one (but probably more like 10+) channels throughout the month of December, and if you aren't secretly a little worried that your Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) will accidentally burn down your Christmas tree, then you aren't really prepared for the hell that often accompanies the holiday season.

The original DVD artwork for "Christmas Vacation" is perhaps just as iconic as the movie itself, sporting a drawing of a frazzled-looking Clark Griswold on its front cover. He's decked out in a Santa suit and wrapped up in Christmas lights that...

Christmas is coming at us faster than Santa’s sleigh, which means ’tis the season for streaming Christmas movies. While there are plenty of family-friendly options for parents — from classics like “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to new entries like this year’s “Spirited” on Apple TV+ — some may prefer a slightly more raunchy selection, which is where 1989’s “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” comes in.

“Christmas Vacation” is streaming on several online platforms, including HBO Max, AMC+, The Roku Channel, fuboTV, Philo, and Sling TV. It can also be rented or purchased on VOD platforms, including YouTube, Vudu, Google Play, Apple TV, and Redbox, for 3.99. In addition, AMC will air the film throughout the next few days at 8 or 10 p.m. Et, including on December 21, December 22, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, “Christmas Vacation” was the third and effectively final entry in the classic “National Lampoon” series...

National Lampoon's Vacation star, Beverly D'Angelo reveals idea for a canceled sequel. One of the most iconic, and hilarious, film franchises belongs to the Vacation series. The premise revolves around the Griswold family, particularly patriarch Clark (Chevy Chase) and his wife Ellen (D'Angelo), and their attempts at trying to maintain a perfect family vacation. However, everything that can go wrong ends up doing do, resulting in a string of outlandish situations that drives Clark to the edge of sanity. The ongoing film franchise currently consists of five installments, each one dealing with every type of vacation or trip any family might have.

While speaking exclusively with Screen Rant to discuss Violent Night, Beverly D'Angelo opened up about a scrapped National Lampoon's Vacation sequel. Unlike the previous films, which all dealt with the tightly-knit Griswold family together, this installment was apparently going to involve a divorce between Clark and Ellen, and a follow-up wedding.

Fleischer Studios' "Popeye The Sailor" cartoon "Protek the Weakerist" (1937) stars the voices of Jack Mercer as 'Popeye', Mae Questel as 'Olive Oyl' and Gus Wickie as 'Bluto':

"...'Popeye' is asked by 'Olive Oyl' to walk her female dog, 'Fluffy' but is confronted by 'Bluto' and his bulldog.

"Now Popeye and Bluto, plus Fluffy and the bulldog each have a score to settle..."...

Click the images to enlarge...

Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s – Volume 3

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1948-49/ 1.33:1 / 121 min.

Starring Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Jackson Beck

Directed by Izzy Sparber

E. C. Segar’s Popeye made his newspaper debut in 1929 and his first animated appearance in 1933 with Max Fleischer’s Popeye the Sailor. By the time he reached Famous Studios a decade later the ornery bar-fighter had become respectable – safely homogenized for the delicate sensibilities of an audience that existed only for over-cautious suits in the front office.

None of that should stop Popeye fans and animation completists from scooping up Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s – Volume 3, Warner Archive’s third and final round-up of Popeye’s post-war adventures. The glossy veneer of these brightly colored cartoons was tailor made for high def scrutiny.

The set opens with one of the studio’s most memorable productions, the schizoid feminist fantasy, Olive Oyl for President. What at...

Popeye The Sailor: The 1940s Volume 1

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1943 – 45 / 1.33:1 / Street Date – December 11, 2018

Starring Jack Mercer, Harry Foster Welch (Popeye), Margie Hines , Mae Questel (Olive Oyl), William Pennell, Jackson Beck (Bluto)

Directed by Dan Gordon, I. Sparber, Seymour Kneitel

The most animated of the great philosophers, Popeye relied on his fists to express his unapologetic mantra – “I am what I am.” Created by newspaper cartoonist E.C. Segar in 1929, the cantankerous but big-hearted sailor was brought to the screen by Max Fleischer and his brother Dave in a series of blissfully rowdy cartoons running from 1933 till 1942 – which is when everything went south.

1942 was the year that Max’s relationships with both Dave and Paramount fell apart – leading to the brothers’ exit and the beginning of Famous Studios, an in-house animation factory at Paramount staffed by Fleischer’s former creative team. But it may have been the sailor at the...

The holidays are finally upon us, and in celebration of the seasons, we're posting five fun facts about our favorite festive flicks!Today's featured film is the 1989 comedy classic "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."1. The flick is based on writer John Hughes' short story "Christmas '59," which was published in National Lampoon Magazine in December 1980. There's actually a secret reference to the story in the movie -- during the part when Clark (Chevy Chase) finds a home movie reel in the attic, it's labeled "Xmas '59."2. The Griswolds live next door to Sergeant Roger Murtaugh? Yep, their neighbor's house is the same one that Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and his family lived in during all of the "Lethal Weapon" movies. They're all located on the Warner Bros. Studios back lot. 3. Mae Questel, who played senile old Aunt Bethany in the movie, is best known as another famous lady -- Betty Boop!

Betty Boop, international animation icon and leading lady, together with Animal Logic Entertainment and Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment today announced their plan to develop and produce Betty Boop's first feature-length film.

Partnering with Fleischer Studios, Animal Logic and Syco Entertainment will produce a music-driven hybrid animated comedy featuring universally adored screen starlet Betty Boop.

Queen of the animation world, Betty Boop is one of the most loved and sought-after animated characters of the past and present centuries with accolades spanning film and television, fashion and music. Having first hit screens in 1930 with numerous appearances in Max Fleischer's Talkartoons and her own Betty Boop cartoon series, her popularity has continued to grow through the decades. Most recently, she has taken her career to new heights, starring in a Lanc&#244me campaign and featuring in collaborations with Coca-Cola, Nascar, Uniqlo and Chupa Chups. Betty also has countless other global commercial...

Betty Boop, international animation icon and leading lady, together with Animal Logic Entertainment and Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment today announced their plan to develop and produce Betty Boop’s first feature-length film.

Partnering with Fleischer Studios, Animal Logic and Syco Entertainment will produce a music-driven hybrid animated comedy featuring universally adored screen starlet Betty Boop.

Queen of the animation world, Betty Boop is one of the most loved and sought-after animated characters of the past and present centuries with accolades spanning film and television, fashion and music. Having first hit screens in 1930 with numerous appearances in Max Fleischer’s Talkartoons and her own “Betty Boop” cartoon series, her popularity has continued to grow through the decades.

Betty’s last movie appearance was a cameo in the blockbuster movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). Her millions of fans spanning generations have made her one of the most recognizable characters in the...

Woody Allen may not believe in God, but he does believe in magic. This much has been clear for years, at least since "Oedipus Wrecks," his entry in the 1991 anthology film New York Stories, in which a hapless magician's mother vanishes only to reappear in the sky over all of Manhattan as unescapable omnipresent nag, calling out his every flaw to all the world. Allen plays the flummoxed magician, and Mae Questel is the newly disembodied mother. It's a silly bit of psycho-analytical fluff, but perfectly passable. So too is Magic in the Moonlight, Allen's latest product courtesy of the systematic annual filmmaking treadmill he's been exercising upon for most of his career. Thankfully, Magic doesn't feel systematic, which is thanks in part to its early...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 30, 2014

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Betty Boop, one of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen, returns newly re-mastered in HD from 4K scans of the original negatives and fine grains in Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 4, Olive Films’ fourth high-definition anthology of her shorts.

A symbol of the Depression Era and a reminder of the more carefree days of the Roaring Twenties, Betty Boop’s popularity was drawn largely from adult audiences and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements. (Or does Betty’s catchphrase “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” not have a deeper meaning than you may have imagined?)

Vol. 4 includes 13 classic animated short films, reportedly available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray. All were produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave Fleischer. They feature the voices of Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 29, 2014

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Betty Boop, one of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen, returns newly re-mastered in HD from 4K scans of the original negatives and fine grains in Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 3, Olive Films’ second high-definition anthology of her shorts.

A symbol of the Depression Era and a reminder of the more carefree days of the Roaring Twenties, Betty Boop’s popularity was drawn largely from adult audiences and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements. (Or does Betty’s catchphrase “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” not have a deeper meaning than you may have imagined?)

Vol. 2 includes 12 classic animated short films, reportedly available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray. All were produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave Fleischer. They feature the voices of Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe...

Sneak Peek Fleischer Studios' 1937 "Popeye The Sailor" cartoon "Protek the Weakerist" restored to its original 'Stereoptical' process, starring the voices of Jack Mercer as 'Popeye', Mae Questel as 'Olive Oyl' and Gus Wickie as 'Bluto':

"...'Popeye' is asked by 'Olive Oyl' to walk her female dog, 'Fluffy' but is confronted by 'Bluto' and his bulldog.

"Now Popeye and Bluto plus Fluffy and the bulldog each have a score to settle..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Popeye The Sailor: Protek the Weakerist"... ...

Merry Christmas Eve! One of the most beloved Christmas movies has to be "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"-- and to celebrate the holidays, we've found five fun facts about the classic comedy! 1. The flick is based on writer John Hughes' short story "Christmas '59," which was published in National Lampoon Magazine in December 1980. There's actually a secret reference to the story in the movie -- during the part when Clark (Chevy Chase) finds a home movie reel in the attic, it's labeled "Xmas '59."2. The Griswolds live next door to Sergeant Roger Murtaugh? Yep, their neighbor's house is the same one that Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and his family lived in during all of the "Lethal Weapon" movies. They're all located on the Warner Bros. Studios back lot. 3. Mae Questel, who played senile old Aunt Bethany in the movie, is best known as another famous lady -- Betty Boop! Mae...

He is the whitest of the white trash, the kind of man who dumps raw sewage in a storm drain and kidnaps your boss as a Christmas present. And the only man to ever combine a leather belt with a bathrobe.

Randy Quaid has played lovable moocher ‘Cousin Eddie’ in four separate National Lampoon films, but his most famous performance still resides at yuletide. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, directed by Jeremiah C. Chechik) has weathered years of apathy to become something of a seasonal favourite. Watching Chevy Chase’s bipolar family man Clark Griswold lose his rag every December is now a festive tradition .

Yet Clark is not really the star of the movie at all, no that honour falls to Cousin Eddie Johnson arriving just past the half hour point wearing an insane grin and vinyl trooper hat. One of the reasons we love Eddie so much is his lack of self awareness.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 24, 2013

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Betty Boop, one of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen, returns newly re-mastered in HD from 4K scans of the original negatives and fine grains in Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 2, Olive Films’ second high-definition anthology of her shorts.

A symbol of the Depression Era and a reminder of the more carefree days of the Roaring Twenties, Betty Boop’s popularity was drawn largely from adult audiences and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements. (Or does Betty’s catchphrase “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” not have a deeper meaning than you may have imagined?)

Vol. 2 includes 12 classic animated short films, reportedly available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray. All were produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave Fleischer. They feature the voices of Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe...

Alec Guinness: Before Obi-Wan Kenobi, there were the eight D’Ascoyne family members (photo: Alec Guiness, Dennis Price in ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’) (See previous post: “Alec Guinness Movies: Pre-Star Wars Career.”) TCM won’t be showing The Bridge on the River Kwai on Alec Guinness day, though obviously not because the cable network programmers believe that one four-hour David Lean epic per day should be enough. After all, prior to Lawrence of Arabia TCM will be presenting the three-and-a-half-hour-long Doctor Zhivago (1965), a great-looking but never-ending romantic drama in which Guinness — quite poorly — plays a Kgb official. He’s slightly less miscast as a mere Englishman — one much too young for the then 32-year-old actor — in Lean’s Great Expectations (1946), a movie that fully belongs to boy-loving (in a chaste, fatherly manner) fugitive Finlay Currie. And finally, make sure to watch Robert Hamer’s dark comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 30, 2013

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Betty Boop, one of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen, returns newly re-mastered in HD from 4K scans of the original negatives and fine grains, in Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 1.

A symbol of the Depression Era and a reminder of the more carefree days of the Roaring Twenties, Betty Boop’s popularity was drawn largely from adult audiences and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements. (Or does Betty’s catchphrase “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” not have a deeper meaning than you may have imagined?)

Vol. One includes 12 classic animated short films, reportedly available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray. All were produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave Fleischer. They feature the voices of Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe and Ann Little as Betty Boop, as...

January 1929 was a very good month for comic strip readers. On the 7th they got to see the arrival of Tarzan and Buck Rogers while ten days later, fans of Thimble Theater met a brand new character named Popeye. The sailor was never intended to take over the strip but his popularity with readers encouraged E.C. Segar to keep him around until he finally shoved the Oyl family from the spotlight.

Burnishing his reputation were the brilliantly execute black and white theatrical shorts produced by Max and Dave Fleischer. After they shuttered operations, others took over the cartoon production, keeping Popeye a mainstay for generations of fans. Many of my generation were treated to the somewhat inferior Associated Artists Productions cartoons which completed their run in 1957. Not to be undone, King Features Syndicate hired Al Brodax to oversee a new round of cartoons aimed for the burgeoning television syndication market.

I know that the holidays are a time for cheer, goodwill towards others, and all that good stuff. But with all the stress, crowds, and busy schedules that also come with the season, it’s hard not to want to blow off a little steam. If you are willing to risk getting a last minute addition to the “naughty list,” here are some pranks inspired by holiday films that should keep you laughing (albeit usually at the expensive of someone else). I mean, who said April 1st is the only acceptable day out of the year to pull pranks? 1. Christmas Tree Surprise Inspired by National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, just when the Griswolds thought nothing else could go wrong during their holiday celebration, their freshly chopped down Christmas tree warranted an unexpected guest (and hilarious moment) when a squirrel jumped out of the tree and wreaked havoc on the house. To...

Yesterday, MTV's Eric Ditzian ran through five of the best movie gifts -- which is to say, gifts given in movies -- a person could ask for. From Buzz Lightyear in "Toy Story" (personally, I'd prefer a TurboMan from "Jingle All the Way") to the self-lacing Nike sneakers in "Back to the Future Part II," Eric shared some great holiday gift ideas. You probably won't be able to get your hands on any of them at this late hour, but you can at least look at the pictures and sigh wistfully at the missed opportunities.

I'm back today with another gifts list. Except these are prezzies that you're not going to find under the tree when you stumble into the living room on the morning of December 25. The history of cinema is rife with great examples of poor gift-giving, and I've collected some of the worst right here. So hit...