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Martin Short is one of the most beloved comedians in the world. Who doesn’t love characters like Jiminy Glick, Nathan Thurm and Ed Grimley? You know, other than that one guy.

But despite his comedy icon status, Short’s cinematic efforts haven’t always gone over too well with film critics. For example, Three Amigos was panned when it first came out. And Jiminy Glick in Lalawood was rated about as highly as a fungal infection – even though it features the best ever David Lynch performance by someone who isn’t actually David Lynch.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Short was asked about how it feels to make a movie that “did not necessarily hit in the moment.” Short explained that, while it may be “a drag” to get bad reviews, it’s “only really a drag if you think the film’s not very good. Then you feel (like), ‘Oh,...

Like the grand majority of film critics out there, Roger Ebert, the famous Chicago Sun-Times referent for all things regarding movies, and probably the most important film critic in history, didn’t exactly love horror movies. It didn’t matter if it was on the TV show Siskel & Ebert, with fellow critic Gene Siskel, or reviewing in print material, Ebert famously looked down on most horror movies. Only a handful of scary films made his Great Movies list (according to his website there are only 16), and a four-star rating was not common. But this doesn’t mean he wasn’t impressed by them occasionally, a good example being Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.

Made in 1994, but from an idea director Wes Craven had in 1987, New Nightmare is a different kind of horror film. There’s nothing quite like it in the universe of scary films, and this is probably...

This is our last filmmaking books column in 2023, and it’s a good one. Plus, you can watch for even more gems from recent months in our companion column running next month. As always, thanks for reading and supporting so many great authors and artists.

Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

As an adolescent in the early 1990s, one of my Sunday night rituals was recording that week’s episode of “Siskel & Ebert”––it aired late-night in Buffalo, NY––and watching it the following day. The internet was in its infancy, so the reviews of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were both a lifeline to what was happening in film and a cinematic education. It is no exaggeration to say that I learned how to discuss movies thanks to Gene and Roger. For my generation, then, the release of...

The Los Angeles Press Club held the 16th annual National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards on Sunday night, honoring the best reporting, criticism, and analysis from across the digital, print, and broadcast media industries. IndieWire received nine nominations and ultimately won seven awards.

Executive Managing Editor Christian Blauvelt won first place in the Soft News, Arts category, for his analysis piece “Will Disney Win Against DeSantis? The Florida Lawsuit Explained.”

IndieWire’s entire staff was honored with third place in the Entertainment Website category. TV Critic and Deputy Editor Ben Travers was also awarded third place in the TV Critic category for his overarching body of work at the site. Additionally, four other individual stories were honored with second or third place finishes.

“I’m really proud of the IndieWire team,” said Dana Harris-Bridson, senior VP and Editor-In-Chief at IndieWire. “We’re a small but mighty crew and I’m...

The Los Angeles Press Club unveiled the nominations for the 16th annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, and IndieWire earned nine nominations. After 1,600 entries were evaluated by the committee, IndieWire’s entire staff was honored with a nomination for Best Entertainment Website, and eight staffers received additional nominations for their individual works.

IndieWire’s TV Critic and Deputy Editor Ben Travers was nominated in the TV Critic category for his entire body of work over the past year.

IndieWire’s Executive Managing Editor Christian Blauvelt earned a nomination in the Soft News, Arts category, for his analysis piece “Will Disney Win Against DeSantis? The Florida Lawsuit Explained.”

IndieWire’s Executive Editor, Business Tony Maglio received a nomination for Humor Writing for his essay “I Took My Daughters, 3 and 6, to See ‘The Little Mermaid.’ Here’s Who Slept and Who Danced in the Aisles.”

IndieWire’s Senior Reporter Brian Welk was also nominated in the Business,...

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were always known for their brutal honesty when it came to film criticism. But the time they bashed “The Three Amigos” to Chevy Chase’s face once led to an unexpected realization about why people were drawn to their show.

This latest story appears in Matt Singer’s new book “Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed Movies Forever.” Ebert and Siskel appeared on the December 12 episode of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” in 1986. Chase was also a guest on the episode to promote his new Christmas comedy, “The Three Amigos.”

During the show, Carson asked the film critics to pick a movie “that is really so bad.” Ebert didn’t hesitate before slamming the very movie Chase was there to promote.

“I can’t really recommend ‘Three Amigos,'” Ebert said at the time, eliciting a round of boos from the audience. “It...

There have been many classic movie comedies over the years featuring Black stars, ranging from Eddie Murphy's Coming to America to Whoopi Goldberg's Sister Act. Those films are among the many that resonated with Black audiences even though they were directed by white filmmakers. Despite that, Hollywood has also had a long tradition of Black directors creating movies aimed specifically at Black audiences; trailblazer Oscar Micheaux, in fact, is regarded as the first major Black filmmaker, directing and producing more than 40 so-called "race films" between 1919 and 1948.

These days, as Hollywood executives increasingly come to realize the importance of Black directors telling Black stories, there's been an ever-growing number of Black directors engaging in big-screen filmmaking, a trend that has been evident not just in dramas but in comedies as well. In fact, some of the most beloved comedies with predominantly Black casts featured Black directors at the helm. For the full picture,...

Few works of pop culture have a higher barrier to entry than “On Cinema at the Cinema,” but even fewer are as rewarding to new viewers willing to invest countless hours of their lives. Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington’s longtime Adult Swim series is ostensibly a parody of syndicated movie review shows like “Siskel & Ebert & the Movies,” with the entirety of each episode taking place on a chintzy talk show set. But over the course of 12 seasons and countless spinoffs, it has evolved into something much, much weirder.

Each episode features Heidecker and Turkington hosting their own public access show about movies, with the two men reviewing films they clearly haven’t seen (a running gag is that every single film receives a perfect “five bags of popcorn” rating). But the real action begins when the reviews end, as they frequently devote a majority of their airtime...

Magnolia Pictures International has acquired worldwide rights, including U.S. sales rights, to “Neon Spring” by writer-director Matīss Kaža (“One Ticket Please”).

The film will have its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Aug. 15.

Set to strobe lights and a techno soundtrack, “Neon Spring” chronicles two months in the life of Laine, a college girl from a middle-class suburb in Latvia. As Laine’s father distances himself from his crumbling marriage and his family, Laine is unable to cope with the separation and discovers the edgy Riga party scene, where she falls in love with seasoned raver Gunda. Going from rave to rave, the girls journey into a drug-fueled underworld of anarchy, freedom and exploration.

Inspired by actual experiences of the filmmaker, the film is “an honest and authentic story that explores the complexity of young relationships and sexual discoveries, loneliness and escapism, without being didactic or preachy,...

Robert Jacquemin, a pioneering TV syndication executive who led Buena Vista Television for a decade before leaving to build DreamWorks’ TV business, died Sunday in Montecito, CA. He was 80.

Jacquemin began his career in the TV business in the 1960s, first with Gardner Advertising and then Peters, Griffin & Woodward. He later was hired by Al Masini to join TeleRep as a regional sales representative in the early- to mid-’70s. He went on to join Paramount Television, where he became the head of the sales division and brought to market such shows as Cheers, Family Ties and Entertainment Tonight, among others.

In late 1984, he was hired at the Walt Disney Company and would become president of Buena Vista Television for a decade-long run. Career highlights at Disney included Siskel & Ebert, Live with Regis & Kathie Lee, The Golden Girls and, in one of the largest off-network syndication sales to date,...

Join us on Tuesday, June 1 at 12 pm Pt for the roundtable discussion “Cancel Culture in Film: Separating Art from the Artist” — a part of TheWrap’s multi-media series “Conversations on Cancel Culture.”

During this session, film critics Ann Hornaday (Washington Post), Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune) and Alonso Duralde (TheWrap) will join Chapman University Film School dean Stephen Galloway for an in-depth discussion on how — and if — this modern form of ostracism is impacting the way we perceive the work of “cancelled” filmmakers, actors, artists, musicians and more.

On Friday, June 4 at 4pm Pt, audiences are also invited to tune into an encore and follow-up discussion exclusively on Clubhouse.

This conversation is the second of four in a series of roundtables titled “Conversations on Cancel Culture,” presented by TheWrap. Starting May 25 for four weeks, TheWrap will be livestreaming a roundtable discussion every Tuesday at 12pm Pt on one of the following topics: journalism,...

Argentine-born Brazil-based director Hector Babenco wasted little time making his mark on the world of cinema. In just his first handful of films he was recognized by the likes of the Cannes Film Festival and Academy Awards, and was an instant crossover hit upon his arrival in Hollywood.

Below, Variety revisits the director’s body of work.

1973 – “O Fabuloso Fittipaidi” Babenco’s feature debut, this documentary covers the life and career of Brazilian formula one racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi from the beginning of his driving career through to the height of his success and international popularity.

1975 – “King of the Night” A Brazilian man recalls his life story in this, Babenco’s fiction debut. A now old Tertuliano recalls the love stories of his youth including with a sickly girl who moved half a world away, a prostitute and the three daughters of his mother’s friend.

1977 – “Lúcio Flávio” Babenco’s...

We all know the saying that “misery loves company.”

But does Oscar love misery?

That was the question being asked three decades ago, when the much-anticipated film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1987 best-seller “Misery” hit theaters. The movie received positive reviews, with critics largely focusing on the performance of its relatively unknown star, Kathy Bates. As an obsessed fan who rescues and nurses her favorite novelist (played by James Caan) after a car accident, Bates had audiences howling – and in more ways than one.

Despite the awards-unfriendly horror genre and the pre-internet era, Oscar buzz for Bates quickly emerged. When asked by People magazine in December about possible academy recognition, she nervously responded “I’m trying not to think about it.”

Academy members themselves had a lot to think about in terms of filling the five Best Actress slots. Anjelica Huston, 1985’s Best Supporting Actress for “Prizzi’s Honor,” seemed poised...

“The world is a totally evil place. It’ll kill you. It doesn’t matter what your dreams, or hopes, or ambitions are. It doesn’t matter if you have a new boyfriend or a new girlfriend, or you’ve got plans for the future. You can forget those plans, because you’re gonna wind up dead.”

No, that’s not a monologue from Christopher Landon’s latest slasher-comedy movie, Freaky. Those words were spoken by esteemed film critic Roger Ebert in his review of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) on Siskel & Ebert.

The quote may bear some familiarity to horror fans. Afterall, it’s ...

“The world is a totally evil place. It’ll kill you. It doesn’t matter what your dreams, or hopes, or ambitions are. It doesn’t matter if you have a new boyfriend or a new girlfriend, or you’ve got plans for the future. You can forget those plans, because you’re gonna wind up dead.”

No, that’s not a monologue from Christopher Landon’s latest slasher-comedy movie, Freaky. Those words were spoken by esteemed film critic Roger Ebert in his review of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) on Siskel & Ebert.

The quote may bear some familiarity to horror fans. Afterall, it’s ...

Frant Gwo’s big-budget sci-fi has dominated Chinese New Year period.

After the end of the prime Chinese New Year holidays, the Chinese box office began to cool down with a 45% week-on-week contraction in the week of Feb 11-17. But the good news is the ticket sales in February are set to top the figures in the same month last year, which held the world record for the biggest single month in a single market.

While the Chinese New Year titles still dominated the box office with the top three positions remained unchanged from the week before, the new releases...

Well, I wasn’t planning on writing about Channel Awesome, at least, not right away, but Jesus; that escalated quickly.

So, as of the moment I’m starting to type this, it’s Monday, the 26th of March, 2:00pm Pacific Time Zone, and in the last 48 hours or so, by my count, and I might be off here, but at least six and probably eight producers have resigned from Channel Awesome over the last 48 hours, and that number might be increasing, including but not limited to such names as Linkara, Todd In The Shadows, Diamanda Hagan, Rap Critic, Mike Jeavons, Sf Debris and Suede, some of those names have been apart of the site for almost a decade and I’m personally a fan of a lot of them, as well as several of the numerous past contributors, who, for some reasons got into a Twitter discussions about their...

Keeping on top of the media conversation in 2017 has begun to feel more like an exercise in self-harm than consumption. The dirty laundry is exhaustive and exhausting; we are quick to expose and defile, but quicker to move onto the next victimizer, leaving little lasting resolution in the wake of the penultimate upheaval. At the movies, we look for meaning where we can get it. Plots are politicized to the point where the once ghettoized “issue film” is mutating into standard grade. Even if the latest Thor joint is raking it in at the box office, cotton candy escapism […]...

With Blade Runner 2049 hitting theaters in just under two weeks, Ryan Gosling has started doing press for this highly-anticipated Blade Runner sequel. Ryan Gosling revealed in a new interview that he did have some trepidation about signing on to a project like this, especially given how iconic the original film was. But, he stated that all of his fears went away once the script came in. Here's what the actor had to say below.

"I was fortunate enough to have gotten to meet with Ridley and talk to him about it first while he was writing it (Blade Runner 2049 script). So I knew that it was something he not only approved of but was actively involved in. And Hampton Fancher, the original writer, was also working on it with him so that was a good sign and then they sent it to Harrison when they were finished. He loved the script,...

Oh, for the love of God, why am I still reading about this? Seems like every godd**n week, I see a new article from somebody trying to figure out the ‘Rotten Tomatoes‘ phenomenon or whatever new phenomenon or faux-outrage or whatever bullsh*t about it there is… Here’s one from Vox.com a few days ago. Here’s one from Wired.com a couple months ago. Here’s one from TVOvermind.com. Here’s one from TheRinger.com. Here’s one from the god**nn New York F**king Times! Here’s an episode of “What the Flick” doing a whole Youtube segment on the New York Times article! And here’s another one from Variety, yes that Variety, about how Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t influence box office. (Sigh) Some of those are from last week; here’s an infamous one that I wrote last year!!!!!!!

Which amazes...

Rob Leane Aug 25, 2017

Does the development of two different live-action Joker movies mean that Warner Bros has issues? We had a think...

In case you missed it: Warner Bros and DC have announced two separate Joker movies, one that will star Jared Leto, reprising his role from Suicide Squad, and one that will not.

First came the announcement that Martin Scorsese, The Hangover’s Todd Phillips and 8 Mile’s Scott Silver are working on a Leto-free Joker origin movie. Deadline broke that piece of news, reporting that this project will be “the first film under a new banner that has yet to be named”. This banner will allow Warner Bros to “expand the canon of DC properties and create unique storylines with different actors playing the iconic characters.”

Then, the very next day, the Tracking Board broke a different story: Warners has John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (Crazy Stupid Love,...

This week, a rather surprising rumor began to crop up surrounding the superhero film genre, particularly as it relates to the original superhero. At the movies, DC Comics' icon and original superhero Superman has always been portrayed as the heroic standard-bearer of any film universe he occupies. Christopher Reeve basically defined the cinematic superhero when he first donned the red cape in 1978, and subsequent Supermen following Reeve have always shown us a character who was clearly and definitively heroic in his world. However, with interactions on Twitter between prominent people in the movie business hinting at multiple pitches based on popular alternate-universe story Red Son, could we potentially see a new trend emerge, showing us alternate — and...

Read More...

Brogan Morris Oct 13, 2017

Has Mickey Rourke ever had as good a role as he got in Angel Heart? We take a look back...

Once considered a successor to Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke unlike those other mumbling screen titans made few stone-cold classics in his prime. In fact, prior to his late-career ‘comeback’ with The Wrestler in 2009, hardly any of this once-vaunted actor’s pictures felt like true all-timers. Where Brando had A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront, and De Niro had Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Rourke had Rumble Fish, a teen angst curiosity from Francis Ford Coppola; he had The Pope Of Greenwich Village, an overblown rehash of De Niro’s own Mean Streets, and erotic thriller 9 1/2 weeks, which now looks like a dated precursor to Fifty Shades of Grey. Even Diner – Rourke’s celebrated 1982 breakout – today feels slight and forgettable.

Angel Heart,...

Cinepolis, the fourth-largest movie-theater chain in the world, is set to introduce in-theater playgrounds to two locations when the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” remake opens next week. Cinepolis Junior will be open to kids at the company’s Pico Rivera and Vista theaters, complete with beanbag chairs, a slide and a play area directly in front of the screen; suffice to say such a thing would never happen at an Alamo Drafthouse.

Read More: Do You Want To Text At The Movies? AMC Considering Texting Friendly Theaters

“It’s really intended to make kids feel welcome and comfortable,” Cinepolis USA Chief Executive Adrian Mijares Elizondo told the Los Angeles Times. “The whole idea is to make it easier for parents to take their kids to the movies and let the kids have more fun.” Tickets to Cinepolis Junior screenings will cost $3 more than a regular screening and are intended...

David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema is set to premiere on the ABC this year over three episodes. Before that broadcast (the date of which is still under wraps) a theatrical cut will be distributed by Transmission.

Produced for the ABC by Stranger than Fiction's Jo-Anne McGowan (Art+Soul) with support from Screen Australia, Screen Nsw, Adelaide Film Festival and Transmission, Stratton describes the project as "very personal".

"It.s not a history of Australian film at all. It.s called David Stratton.s Stories of Australian Cinema, and it's really just that. Without wanting to sound too pretentious about it, it.s sort of my journey coming to Australia from England, running the Sydney Film Festival for eighteen years, fighting censorship, [and] being at the Sydney Film Festival just as the Australian New Wave was happening with the Peter Weirs and the Gillian Armstrongs and the Fred Schepisis.

Last summer, the ongoing debate about texting at the movies reared its head when it was reported that AMC Theatres were testing the waters on allowing texting at movies, because as head of AMC Entertainment honcho Adam Aron put it bluntly, “When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow. You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone.

Continue reading Rumor: Apple’s Next iOS Update Could Include ‘Theater Mode’ To Allow Texting At The Movies at The Playlist.

I write this article today, on the 35th anniversary of my staging a complex breakout from the prison that brought me life. 6 weeks before I was due for release, I set plans in motion that would force the state to grant me early release — however, I was a fool. Born only 3 pounds, 8 ounces left me with no meat on the bone with which to battle the icy storms of the Chicagoland area in 1981. So, I was hurried off to an easy-bake oven for babies… and set to warm until my pop-up thermometer came out clean. This is my exasperated attempt to be funny about writing today, on my birthday. For the record: it’s December 28th, but as you all know, my articles are your most favorite Saturday reading.

I write tonight after a truly uneventful day. As is the case for a Jewish suburban kid whose birthday comes three...

Louisa Mellor Dec 12, 2016

We’ve taken a pen to the UK Christmas TV and radio schedules and circled the shows we’re looking forward to. Add yours below!

Amid the cosy repeats, big movies and inescapable cranberry-stuffed cookery shows on TV this month are a few original gems. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s Inside No. 9 festive special The Devil Of Christmas (Tuesday the 27th of December, 10pm, BBC Two) is top of our must-watch list. Hot on its heels is Yonderland’s family friendly Yonder Yuletide (Saturday the 24th of December, 6.30pm, Sky One). Another for families on Sky is the Christmas Day Jasper Fforde adaptation The Last Dragonslayer, while Channel 4 has the non-festive-but-essential-for-fans-of smart-sci-fi Humans series two finale (Sunday the 18th of December, 9pm).

See related James Cameron's Avatar: five years on Avatar review

Not to forget, of course, the Doctor Who Christmas Special, a brand-new series of Sherlock,...

Following the likes of “Last Days in the Desert,” “Risen” and “Ben-Hur,” 2016 is about to see another film about Jesus — albeit of a different kind. “Jesus Vr: The Story of Christ,” a feature-length 360-degree movie, is set to screen in an abbreviated form at the Venice Film Festival.

Read More: Mel Gibson Says ‘Passion of the Christ’ Follow-Up ‘The Resurrection’ Will Be ‘A Huge Undertaking’

“We are particularly pleased about the opportunity to present the first feature film in the world made entirely for virtual reality,” said festival director Alberto Barbera. “‘Jesus Vr’ will serve to demonstrate the narrative and dramatic potential of the new technology, which has since been limited to short movies.” The news comes just days after “Passion of the Christ” director Mel Gibson confirmed that he and screenwriter Randall Wallace are working on “The Resurrection,” a follow-up to their massively successful 2004 film. Continued Barbera, “The fact is of particular value,...

It’s been decades since a studio produced the kind of colorful musical fantasy that “La La Land” so affectionately salutes, but writer-director Damien Chazelle is the guy for the job. Before his breakout drama “Whiplash,” Chazelle made the 2009 microbudget “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,” a gentle, scrappy, song-and-dance tale of an aspiring jazz trumpeter and the woman who falls for him. That movie now looks like the dry run for this grander spectacle, his third feature — another story about singing, dancing lovers struggling with modern concerns. Carved from the legacies of Vincente Minnelli, Jacques Demy, and so many others, “La La Land” is magically in tune with its reference points even as falls a few notes short of their greatness.

No matter how obvious its antecedents, “La La Land” makes it clear that this film is a serious upgrade. As the opening black-and-white Cinemascope screen opens up to glorious color,...

Why do we still get scared at thing that go bump in the night? At the movies, I mean. Lights Out, the feature-length (well, 80 minutes) film version of a horror short that went viral online, allows Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg to earn his stripes as a director in the big leagues. It was horror master James Wan (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring) who gave Sandberg the go-ahead for a $5 million feature.

He does a solid job of raising hell. With screenwriter Eric Heisserer fleshing out a 146-second short, Lights Out...

This year’s Cannes Film Festival ended with a bang Saturday with the premiere of Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle,” an entertaining and thought-provoking thriller based on Philippe Djian’s novel “Oh…” that features a knockout performance by Isabelle Huppert (here’s our review). The picture marks something of a second comeback for the filmmaker who was a mainstay of Hollywood […]

The post Cannes: Paul Verhoeven Talks ‘Elle,’ Wants Less Superheroes & “A Bit More Normality” At The Movies appeared first on The Playlist.

“I choose you.”

While The Catch‘s Ben dropped that romantic declaration on Alice — along with the revelation that he’d turned himself in to Agent Dao — at the end of last week’s episode, tonight’s two-part season finale (9/8c on ABC) will reveal whether the unlikely lovers can actually make it work.

RelatedThe Catch Renewed for Season 2, ABC Orders Shondaland’s Romeo & Juliet Sequel Still Star-Crossed to Series

“They’re definitely going to try to find a way to be together, but there are big, big forces at work against them,” previews series star Mireille Enos. “In these last two hours,...

Cathrine McVeigh.

Mike Adams.

Mike Adams of Barnett Law has joined Essential Media and Entertainment as Head of Legal and Commercial Affairs, while Cathrine McVeigh is Essential's new Head of Production.

Adams will be working with company directors Chris Hilton, Ian Collie, Sonja Armstrong and Carmel Travers on Essential's legal and commercial interests, plus business affairs for the company.s full slate of television drama, factual, kids and factual entertainment and feature films.

Adams has been subcontracted to Essential from Barnett Law, a Sydney based law firm he joined as a Director following his recent departure from the See-Saw Films group where, since 2009, he worked as Corporate Counsel & Business Affairs Manager..

At See-Saw, Adams provided support to production activities while focusing primarily on Fulcrum Media Finance.s lending operations and oversaw the negotiation and contracting of numerous film and television projects.

As Head of Production, Cathrine McVeigh oversees Essential.s production slate.

I've never heard of The Night Manager before, but after seeing this trailer, it looks like I'm going to have to add it to the ever-growing list of must-watch things in 2016. The six episode BBC One miniseries stars Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Colman, and is based on the novel by master spy writer John le Carre (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

But since I write about movies all day, it was tough to keep a straight face when hearing the bad guy's name is Richard Roper; Richard Roeper is the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-hosted At The Movies with Roger Ebert after Gene Siskel died.

Anyway, I think this trailer looks excellent, but I'm interested to hear if you all agree. Let me know in the comments below.

Via: The Playlist...

Shock grabs another classic clip of critics Siskel & Ebert reviewing horror films. As part of our ongoing series digging up vintage clips of lamented critics Siskel & Ebert making sport of horror and dark fantasy films on their long-running, now defunct TV series At The Movies, we look at their take on one of…

The post Remember When Siskel & Ebert Reviewed Parents? appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

The International Animated Film Society, Asifa-Hollywood, has announced the nominations for the 43rd Annual Annie Awards and "Inside Out" and "The Good Dinosaur," both Pixar movies, led the pack! "Inside Out" received fourteen nominations while "The Good Dinosaur" got nine.

My pick of the year for best animated feature is "Inside Out" but I love Charlie Kaufman's "Anomalisa" as well which picked five noms.

We'll find out the winners of the Annie Awards on February 6th!

Here is the full list of nominees in all categories of the 43rd Annie Awards:

Best Animated Feature

Anomalisa

Paramount Pictures

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Shaun the Sheep The Movie

Aardman Animations

The Good Dinosaur

Pixar Animation Studios

The Peanuts Movie

Blue Sky Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Animation

Best Animated Special Production

Elf: Buddy.s Musical Christmas

Warner Bros. Animation

He Named Me Malala

Parkes-MacDonald / Little Door

I Am A Witness

Moonbot...

Shock grabs another classic clip of critics Siskel & Ebert reviewing horror films. As part of our ongoing series digging up vintage clips of lamented critics Siskel & Ebert making sport of horror and dark fantasy films on their long-running, now defunct TV series At The Movies. Both critics were often very fair and astute…

The post Remember When Siskel & Ebert Reviewed Jaws: The Revenge? appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Though I may be dating myself, I still remember sneaking up late some evenings as a kid and watching “At The Movies” with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Was it foreshadowing to my future as a film writer and contributor? Perhaps. But what it certainly did solidify was my appreciation for other critics, particularly opening up my mind to films I hadn’t heard of, or wouldn’t normally consider watching. Read More: Watch 20-Minute ‘Siskel & Ebert’ Special On The Films of Stanley Kubrick Now I am not quite old enough (by a long shot) to have lived in the 1970s, but it was undoubtedly the greatest decade for American cinema (1940s anyone?) and amongst the infamous titles, there are surely a few gems that fell through the proverbial cracks. In this delightfully nostalgic special from 1979, Siskel and Ebert discuss a few of the films that they loved and the public didn’t appreciate.

Shock digs up more gold from the Siskel & Ebert anti-horror vaults. After seeing a random Facebook post on writer/director Don Mancini’s Facebook page, a clip of late, sometimes great, film critics Siskel & Ebert tearing his Child’S Play 2 a new arsehole on their now defunct At The Movies TV show, Shock re-posted it…

The post Remember When Siskel & Ebert Reviewed Xtro? appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

It's hard to find a serious critic who admires the "Friday the 13th" series, and it's no surprise: the films are cheap, exploitative and artless, made for the express purpose of titillating a few bucks out of undiscerning moviegoers. But no two critics were more vocal about their hatred for the series than Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who made the films a special target of ridicule both separately and in joint attacks on their long-running syndicated series "At the Movies." To celebrate this very special day, below you can find a brief history of the late critical duo's epic anti-"F13" vitriol. 1980: Gene Siskel takes down the original "Friday the 13th" in a famously scathing review for the Chicago Tribune Calling director-producer Sean S. Cunningham "one of the most despicable creatures ever to infest the movie business," Siskel was so outraged by the film that he spoiled the...

Shock digs up more gold from the Siskel & Ebert anti-horror vaults. A few days ago, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Child’S Play 2 by dragging up a vintage clip of late, legendary film critics Siskel & Ebert’s review from their popular syndicated series At The Movies. The review was uproarious, with Ebert praising…

The post Remember When Siskel & Ebert Reviewed Friday The 13th Part V? appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Summer 2015 had a lot to offer, a lot to lose sleep over, and a lot to learn from. It gave us hope that the next summer could be even better, and that Hollywood blockbusters still have some life in them yet. Before back to school this month, here are nine lessons we took away from this summer at the movies.

Lesson #1: Mad Max: Fury Road reset the bar for action movies – Zach Dennis

In a summer overrun by dinosaurs and emotive minds, the real kings of the season busted through the Australian apocalypse on top of supercharged cars with a chrome-infused vengeance. In a summer where nostalgia boomed, a new film that will influence the future was born — and it was born on the Fury Road.

Good movies are invigorating, and nothing awoke everyone’s passion like Mad Max: Fury Road did. It wasn’t just classic fun tied...

Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner is in the running for nine awards from the Film Critics Circle of Australia.

The Babadook and Predestination each scored eight nominations for the awards which will be presented on Tuesday 10 March in Sydney.

There are five nominations apiece for Charlie.s Country, Felony, The Rover and Tracks. Some 12 films released in calendar 2014 got nods.

Up for best film are The Babadook (producers Kristina Ceyton and Kristian Moliere), Charlie.s Country (Rolf de Heer, Peter Djigirr and Nils Erik Nielsen), Predestination (Paddy McDonald, Tim McGahan and Michael Spierig), Tracks (Iain Canning, Emile Sherman) and The Water Diviner ( Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Keith Rodger).

Unlike the Aacta Awards, Crowe was nominated for best director alongside John Curran, de Heer, Jennifer Kent and the Spierig brothers.

Fcca president and ABC Radio host Rod Quinn said, .This year.s nominees show the diversity of the Australian...

From the Pudsey The Dog movie to Joe Cornish and Roger Ebert, what happens when critics make films themselves?

Arts critics tend to get a rough time of it in the movies. Even looking at this year's awards season hopefuls, Birdman casts a wonderfully scabrous Lindsay Duncan as a theatre critic who is determined to kill the hero's play, and Mr. Turner presents John Ruskin as a lisping, pretentious fop, a representation that has led some to take mild umbrage.

To look even further back, at Ratatouille's sneering Anton Ego, or Lady In The Water's film-savvy 'straw critic', or Theatre Of Blood's gleefully murderous tract, there's not a whole lot of love for critics in film. Any of this might give way to the preconception that critics, especially film critics, don't actually like films and that they're out of touch with both the filmmakers whose works they...

The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation has announced the nominations for the 35th annual Razzie Awards. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Legend of Hercules, and Transformers 4: Age of Ex-stink-Tion are leading the nominations for worst movies of the year. The only name I don't think belongs on this list of nominations is Mel Gibson for his role in The Expendables 3, because he was freakin' awesome in that!

You can check out the full announcement below, followed by the nominations list. Look it over and let us know if you agree with what they claim is the worst of 2014.

Hollywood was not happy with box office returns for 2014, their lowest-grossing year in recent history. Despite a handful of high-grossing hits, there were way more major misses — movies based on recycled premises and re-worked concepts that were already tired a decade or more ago, the cinematic equivalent of re-treaded tires.

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Photo credit: Art Shay

“Life Itself,” the documentary directed by Steve James based on renowned film critic Roger Ebert’s rollicking memoir, makes its television debut on CNN Films Tonight, Sunday, January 4 at 9 p.m. Et.

After earning critical acclaim at international film festivals, in movie theaters (Magnolia Pictures) and, most recently, a coveted spot on Oscar’s short list, “Life Itself” comes into America’s living rooms, where many of Ebert’s fans got to know him on the long-running “At the Movies” film review series. His segments with co-host Gene Siskel are so funny they have been compared to a comedy duo. And yet, the life lessons about the movies, racial politics, illness, death and love are some of the most poignant and instructive of any movie in 2014.

Read Jim Batts review Here.

Ebert said that movies are a giant machine that generates empathy,...

At the movies, idiocy never goes out of style.

Twenty years after the 1994 original, Dumb and Dumber To opened with $38.1 million at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Universal sequel debuted almost exactly two decades after the Farrelly brothers first introduced the Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels low-iq duo.

Dumb and Dumber To edged out the animated Disney adventure Big Hero 6, which took in $36 million in its second week. Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic Interstellar slid to third in its second week with an estimated $29.2 million. The film continues to blast off overseas, where it took in $106 million over the weekend, with sales particularly boosted by a strong opening in China.

The top three films took up the lion share of the box office, with the no. 4 film, the romance Beyond the Lights, opening with a distant $6.5 million. In a Hollywood constantly updating, rebooting and sequalizing old properties,...

Director: Steve Jamesl Starring: Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, Ramin Bahrani, Ava DuVernay, Stephen Stanton; Running time: 121 mins; Certificate: 15

Legendary American film critic Roger Ebert gets a loving tribute in the form of documentary Life Itself. It's a fitting match between filmmaker and subject - director Steve James is the man behind Hoop Dreams, a film Ebert championed and named his best of the year in 1994.

Using Ebert's 2011 memoir as a jumping off point, Life Itself follows the writer from his formative years at the University of Illinois, to his hard-drinking newspaper days at the Chicago Sun-Times and on to TV fame with Gene Siskel on syndicated show At the Movies.

James's film picks up with Ebert in the final months of his life - he's wheelchair-bound having undergone a succession of surgeries and treatments for papillary thyroid cancer. As a result, large sections...

Amazon has a sale today on the Quentin Tarantino Xx: 8-Film Blu-ray Collection, which includes Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds. The set is normally priced at $119.99, but today it's only $59.99 and to make your set complete you can also pick up Django Unchained on Blu-ray for only $14.50. amz asin="B009B0OG1O" size="small"As for what the 8-film collection includes, here are the details: Blu-ray Special Features - 2 Discs Critics Corner: The Films of Quentin Tarantino - In-depth critics' discussion piece exploring Tarantino's films that redefined cinema and the impact of one of the most influential writers/directors of our time. 20 Years of Filmmaking - Take a look at Tarantino's career from the beginning, with interviews from co-workers, critics, stars and master filmmakers alike as well as a tribute to his greatest collaborator,...