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Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Johnny Depp, Kevin Guthrie, Carmen Ejogo, Wolf Roth, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Derek Riddell, Ezra Miller, Cornell John | Written by J.K. Rowling | Directed by David Yates

[Note: With the film now out to buy, here’s a reposting of our review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald from its UK cinema release]

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the pinnacle of what is wrong with the modern day blockbuster. The second of an intended five installment franchise in J.K. Rowling’s prequel series to the enormously critically acclaimed and well-received Harry Potter franchise, the film showcases the delinquency behind such a saga which has already buckled under the enormous pressure of anticipation and efficient story.

David Yates film undoubtedly wears a docile heart on its bland sleeve. It has moments through its running time that evoke a semi-engaging emotional provocation: through small incidents of character and relative significance of political ignorance, that unfortunately plagues the audience after the fact.

Stars: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Ralph Fiennes, Lauren Lapkus, Rebecca Hall, Kelly Macdonald, HUgh Laurie, Pam Ferris, Noah Jupe, Steve Coogan, Adam Scherr (aka Braun Strowman), Bella Ramsey, Rob Brydon, Wolf Roth, Michael Culkin | Written and Directed by Etan Cohen

To say that Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s latest joint exploit, Holmes and Watson, is an abomination to all senses and a travesty to cinema would be to understate the truly abysmal and quite frankly condescending nature of the final product.

Subjectively the comedic prowess and effectiveness of cheap and on the nose pop culture references are completely relative to that of an audience – of whom are completely game and invested for a fun, entertaining ride (no matter what the actual context of the story entails) even before the picture ever begins. In that regard Holmes and Watson, dare I say, justifies itself in the context of bringing entertainment to the masses,...

Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Johnny Depp, Kevin Guthrie, Carmen Ejogo, Wolf Roth, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Derek Riddell, Ezra Miller, Cornell John | Written by J.K. Rowling | Directed by David Yates

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the pinnacle of what is wrong with the modern day blockbuster. The second of an intended five installment franchise in J.K. Rowling’s prequel series to the enormously critically acclaimed and well-received Harry Potter franchise, the film showcases the delinquency behind such a saga which has already buckled under the enormous pressure of anticipation and efficient story.

David Yates film undoubtedly wears a docile heart on its bland sleeve. It has moments through its running time that evoke a semi-engaging emotional provocation: through small incidents of character and relative significance of political ignorance, that unfortunately plagues the audience after the fact. These moments of engagement are far and few in between,...

Warner Bros. may have all hands at the pump in anticipation of Justice League – November 17th is the date for your diaries – but it appears the studio is now beginning to make preparations for another fantasy-fuelled epic: Fantastic Beasts 2.

Pegged to arrive late next year, the Harry Potter spinoff has bolstered its ranks quite considerably over the past few months, adding Jude Law (the young Albus Dumbledore) and Wolf Roth as a character called Spielman, along with Victoria Yeates, Derek Riddell and Brontis Jodorowsky (El Topo, Endless Poetry), the latter of whom is attached to play Nicolas Flamel.

That’s a character who will be overly familiar to Potterheads, given his instrumental, if indirect role in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. If you’re in need of a history lesson, Flamel was the alchemist who discovered the elusive Elixir of Life, which would later fall into the hands of Quirinus Quirrell,...

What better way to pep up Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 than to cast the son of an actual magician as Philosopher’s Stone creating alchemist Nicholas Flamel? That’s probably why Brontis Jodorowsky, son of Alejandro Jodorowsky, has been cast as the character. Now, you may be asking yourself, “who the hell is that and why should I care?” which is understandable given that his film career to date has largely consisted of very strange, arthouse movies directed by his awesome dad (who’s seriously a straight-up magician).

First seen as a child in the original midnight movie El Topo back in 1970, Brontis has more recently played his own tyrannical grandfather in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s two autobiographic movies, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry, in which (in my humble opinion) he was downright amazing. Despite that, the audience for Jodorowsky’s typically bonkers fare is a bit limited,...

Some new casting information has surfaced for David Yates' Fantastic Beasts sequel. The announcement comes from Pottermore and it reveals some new characters being introduced to the film and we learn a little bit about some of them and their ties to the books.

One of the main characters revealed is Nicolas Flamel and he will be played by Brontis Jodorowsky (El Topo, Endless Poetry). The character was originally mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Flamel is known in the wizarding world as an alchemist who discovered the Elixir of Life and he's based on the real-life alchemist of the same name. The report goes on to offer details on the other characters that have been cast:

So far, only a few names have been revealed, but some surnames will be familiar to Harry Potter fans. Joining the cast will be Wolf Roth as a character...

Jessica Williams has joined Warner Bros.' sequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2.

Brontis Jodorowsky, Fiona Glascott, Wolf Roth, Victoria Yeates, Derek Riddell, Poppy Corby-Tuech and Cornell S John have also signed on for the follow-up, it was announced on Pottermore.

David Yates, who also helmed four Harry Potter installments, is returning to direct the second film of the Harry Potter prequel series, which is planned to span five movies and feature screenplays by author J.K. Rowling. The first film was released in November 2016 and grossed $814 million worldwide.

Eddie Redmayne — who stars in the series as a 1920s magizoologist named Newt...