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Will Jennings, the two-time Oscar and Grammy-winning co-writer of the beloved Titanic theme, Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” has died at 80 in his Texan home, according to multiple reports. Though a cause of death was not identified, those close to the composer said he had been in declining health for a number of years.

The prolific lyricist was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the tunes “People Alone” from The Competition (1980) and “Up Where We Belong” from An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), the latter of which he won. In 2006, Jennings was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In addition to his two Oscars, Jennings won three Grammys: “My Heart Will Go On” and “Tears in Heaven” (Song of the Year), from 1992’s Jennifer Jason Leigh-starring cop drama Rush,...

“(Sam) awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better.”

With music!

Of all the ways Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) would leap into others lives to put right what once went wrong on Quantum Leap, the most stories were always ones that involved music. Scott Bakula can do pretty much anything but that man can Sing. The people behind Quantum Leap took great advantage of this and across five seasons they gave him (and other actors) the chance to belt out many incredible songs – some originally written for the show itself and some flawless covers.

Now we’re going through the best of the best of these performances. We’ll be looking at the original series, the 2022 continuation, and an extra gem along the way. To help narrow this list down,...

This Mickey Spillane noir tale has its good points: star Anthony Quinn gives a solid ‘tough guy’ performance, sizing up a quartet of thrill-crazy Spillane dames that promise no end of trouble. The surprisingly clever script dares to exploit the gimmicks of both amnesia and plastic surgery — without insulting our intelligence. Peggie Castle is our new favorite in the glamour sweepstakes, and Gene Evans, Charles Coburn, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith, Barry Kelley, Jay Adler and Bruno VeSota co-star. And remember: ‘Evil to Him who Evil Thinks.’

The Long Wait 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1954 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 94 min. / Street Date March 21, 2023 / Available from ClassicFlix / 39.99

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Charles Coburn, Gene Evans, Peggie Castle, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith, Dolores Donlon, Barry Kelley, James Millican, Bruno VeSota, Jay Adler, John Damler, Frank Marlowe, Paul Dubov.

Cinematography: Franz Planer

Art Director: Boris Leven

Film Editor: Ronald Sinclair

Editorial Supervisor Otto Ludwig...

As 2021 mercifully winds down, the Criterion Channel have a (November) lineup that marks one of their most diverse selections in some time—films by the new masters Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Garrett Bradley, Dan Sallitt’s Fourteen (one of 2020’s best films) couched in a fantastic retrospective, and Criterion editions of old favorites.

Fourteen is featured in “Between Us Girls: Bonds Between Women,” which also includes Céline and Julie, The Virgin Suicides, and Yvonne Rainer’s Privilege. Of equal note are Criterion editions for Ghost World, Night of the Hunter, and (just in time for del Toro’s spin) Nightmare Alley—all stacked releases in their own right.

See the full list of October titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

300 Nassau, Marina Lameiro, 2015

5 Card Stud, Henry Hathaway, 1968

Alone, Garrett Bradley, 2017

Álvaro, Daniel Wilson, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Lazarowich, and Chloe Zimmerman, 2015

America, Garrett Bradley, 2019

Angel Face, Otto Preminger, 1953

Angels Wear White,...

Helen Reddy, the Australian singer whose global hit “I Am Woman” became a feminist anthem and who was the subject of a 2019 biopic of the same title, died today in Los Angeles. She was 78.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Helen Reddy, on the afternoon of September 29th 2020 in Los Angeles,” her children Traci Donat and Jordan Sommers said in a statement. “She was a wonderful Mother, Grandmother and a truly formidable woman. Our hearts are broken. But we take comfort in the knowledge that her voice will live on forever.”

Born on October 25, 1941, in Melbourne; Reddy came from a showbiz family and made her debut onstage at age 4. She first hit the U.S. charts in 1971 with “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” Mary Magdalene’s big song from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. About...

Staten Island vampires face the music and off-tempo dancing as What We Do in the Shadows presents "The Trial."

This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers.

What We Do in the Shadows Episode 7

What We Do in the Shadows, episode 7, "The Trial," finds the Staten Island trio judged by a tribunal the transgression of dispensing with vampire royalty. The episode is yet another high point in a series which seems to pick up speed with every installment. The proceedings themselves are quite perilous, and the charges rather dire, but the implied menace works well for the humor, disarming the sentencing to a toothless threat. Now that Baron Afanas (Doug Jones) has met his second, final, death, someone has to pay.

Also adding to the suspense is that the accused vampires at the center of the suspected vampicide have no recollection of the murder itself, which is how the episode opens.

By Tim Greaves

(The following reviews pertain to the UK Region 2 releases)

When I'm in the right mood I adore bit of film noir. I admire the diversity of its storytelling, I love every facet, from the hardboiled private eyes, duplicitous dames and characters that seldom turn out to be what they first appear, to the alleyways bathed in inky shadows, ramshackle apartments and half-lit street corners they inhabit. How can you not get drawn in by the sheer delight of Edward G Robinson playing a second rate psychic trying to convince the authorities he can see the future in The Night Has a Thousand Eyes? Or amnesiac John Hodiak on a mission to discover his own identity, in the process getting embroiled in a 3-year-old murder case and the search for a missing $2 million in Somewhere in the Night? Yes, indeed, there's nothing quite like a hearty serving of...

The Late George Apley

"If I am remembered at all, it will be as the swine who rewrote Scott Fitzgerald," said Joseph L. Mankiewicz on numerous occasions, and though he does rate a mention in any Fitzgerald bio for his work revising Fitzgerald's screenplay of Three Comrades, he is also getting a sidebar retrospective, The Essential Iconoclast, at the New York Film Festival. Apart from including his several acknowledged classics, this also shines a light on some of the less celebrated movies in the distinguished Hollywood auteur's body of work.

In particular, The Late George Apley (1947) and Escape (1948) are seldom-screened dramas with suave English leading men, Ronald Colman and Mankiewicz favorite Rex Harrison, both supported by the delightful Peggy Cummins.

The Late George Apley supplements the emotion with a good portion of the wit Mankiewicz was so famous for. I spoke briefly on the telephone to co-star Cummins, best known...

Above: German poster by Rolf Goetze for The Barefoot Contessa (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, USA, 1954). 

Some twenty-two years ago, just a couple of months before Joseph L. Mankiewicz passed away at the age of 83, New York’s Film Forum held a retrospective of his work. The one thing I knew about Mankiewicz back then was that Andrew Sarris had consigned him to The American Cinema’s circle of hell that was “Less Than Meet the Eye.” “The cinema of Joseph L. Mankiewicz is a cinema of intelligence without inspiration” he argued. Needless to say I went rather reluctantly to see his films, but by the end of the series I was a convert to his special brand of literate, sophisticated and genuinely moving cinema.

As a sidebar to the New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center is hosting a new retrospective of Mankiewicz’s films that runs...

Barry Manilow has sold more than 80 million records worldwide since “Mandy” hit the charts 40 years ago, making him one of the biggest selling-artists ever, and even though he hasn’t had a Top Forty hit in over thirty years, his music will live on forever, thanks to the love and support of his “Fanilows.” Barry’s discography includes 25 Top Forty Hits (including 11 top ten and 3 #1′s) and 13 of those songs hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, making him one of the greatest AC artists of all time.

His time with Bette Midler (as her piano player) at the Continental Baths in New York City in the early 70′s is legendary, but did you know he wrote or performed some of the most iconic commercial jingles?

On his 71st birthday, let’s rank his top 20 songs. This isn’t the entire Barry Manilow collection, but it’s a good place to...

Somewhere in the Night

Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Directed by Howard Dimsdale and Joseph L. Mankiewizc

USA, 1946

A man (John Hodiak) wakes up in a military hospital, cognizant of the fact that he has been in battle for the United States but entirely oblivious of who he is or where he lives. Only a few cryptic pieces of paper in his pocket inform him of his name George Taylor; that a woman now hates him; and that a good pal of his, Larry Cravat, wants to meet him in Los Angeles transfer a significant amount of saved up funds through a bank account. Thus begins George’s vertiginous journey into the City of Angels, where the clues as to his true identity sometimes add up whilst other times stir further confusion. By all accounts, there are some people who view the name Larry Cravat as either a threat, as in the case of Lt.

The shooting tragedy at Aurora's Century 16 movie theater has just attracted its first lawsuit, according to a TMZ report.

The website reports that Torrence Brown, Jr., who was in the theater when suspected shooter James Eagen Holmes threw gas canisters and open fired into the crowd during "The Dark Knight Rises," lost one of his best friends in the shooting. Alexander J. Boik, known as A.J., was one of the 10 who died in the theater. Two more victims died later at the hospital with 58 wounded and 7 who are still in critical condition.

Brown escaped unharmed but is claiming extreme trauma and has hired an attorney who is targeting three defendants for negligence: the theater, Holmes' doctors and Warner Bros., the studio behind the "Dark Knight" trilogy.

TMZ says the theater is being targeted for having an emergency door that was neither alarmed or guarded. The attorney is also targeting...