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Ray Bradbury adapted to the screen is always something to check out; this Jack Smight- directed trio of stories bound together by a mystery man wearing the graffiti of the title at least works up a little ethereal-cereal excitement. Husband and wife Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom spout ominous dialogue as they face various futuristic threats.

The Illustrated Man

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, Robert Drivas, Don Dubbins, Jason Evers, Tim Weldon, Christine Matchett

Cinematography: Philip H. Lathrop

Art Direction: Joel Schiller

Film Editor: Archie Marshek

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by Howard B. Kreitsek from the book by Ray Bradbury

Produced by Howard B. Kreitsek, Ted Mann

Directed by Jack Smight

Ray Bradbury must have had some frustrating times as a screenwriter, although the three times I saw him in person he never...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson)

Wes Anderson’s feature debut, the slyly comedic Bottle Rocket, positions its heroes, three young wannabe criminals with an eye for small-scale robberies, as blind innocents, lost in the unfamiliar world of adulthood. As part of his 75-year plan, Dignan (Owen Wilson) forms a gang, consisting of himself, Anthony (Luke Wilson) who’s fresh out of a voluntary psychiatric hospital, and Bob (Robert Musgrave) who...

Great sequels tend to enrich or build upon the appeal of their predecessors. Lousy sequels misplace that appeal or obscure it by making everything way bigger. Somewhere in the middle lies a movie like Goon: Last Of The Enforcers. Co-writer, co-star, and now director Jay Baruchel has reassembled most of the cast of his…

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On paper it’s a western with everything — a major star, decent supporting players, a cult director and sideways references to the blacklisting years. But even with its ya-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it high noon showdown scene, Joseph H. Lewis’s last feature film is still a lower-tier United Artists effort. Sterling Hayden goes up against Sebastian Cabot and Nedrick Young, armed with a, with a . . . aw, you probably know already.

Terror in a Texas Town

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date July 11, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Sebastian Cabot, Carol Kelly, Eugene Martin, Nedrick Young, Victor Millan, Frank Ferguson, Marilee Earle, Byron Foulger, Glenn Strange.

Cinematography: Ray Rennahan

Original Music: Gerald Fried

Written by Dalton Trumbo, fronted by Ben Perry

Produced by Frank N. Seltzer

Directed by Joseph H. Lewis

Auteurists in the early 1970s championed directors like Phil Karlson, Budd Boetticher and Anthony Mann. These stylists...

This isn’t the only Alfred Hitchcock film for which the love does not flow freely, but his 1947 final spin on the David O. Selznick-go-round is more a subject for study than Hitch’s usual fun suspense ride. Gregory Peck looks unhappy opposite Selznick ‘discovery’ Alida Valli, while an utterly top-flight cast tries to bring life to mostly irrelevant characters. Who comes off best? Young Louis Jourdan, that’s who.

The Paradine Case

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 125 min. / Street Date May 30, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Gregory Peck, Alida Valli, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Louis Jourdan, Ethel Barrymore, Joan Tetzel.

Cinematography Lee Garmes

Production Designer J. McMillan Johnson

Film Editors John Faure, Hal C. Kern

Original Music Franz Waxman

Writing credits James Bridie, Alma Reville, David O. Selznick from the novel by Robert Hichens

Produced by David O. Selznick

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

There...

Somewhere in the middle of Patty Jenkins‘ Wonder Woman, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) asks American soldier Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) what people do when there’s no war. His response is both bittersweet and resonant. There’s an aching in the exchange that gets to the core of human hypocrisy — an inevitably of violence that cannot easily be wiped clean with peaceful intent. If this sounds too lofty for a superhero picture, consider that superhero pictures are quickly becoming all we have in the arena of large-scale filmmaking. That diversity and complexity have slowly begun to seep into the storytelling is as much from necessity as any kind of progressive ideal. When all of the stories have been told, even the least-imaginative of studios will search for new property to mine. So then let us be thankful for a great, big tale as entertaining and insightful as this one.

The...

Documentaries come in al shapes and sizes. Some are groundbreaking works from experimental art world heavyweights while others are rudimentary pieces of filmmaking that are elevated by a captivating subject or theme.

Somewhere in the middle is Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan.

Directed by Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger, Restless Creature introduces viewers to Wendy Whelan, prime ballerina and tenured member of the New York City Ballet. With three decades of professional work under her belt, Whelan has worked with a who’s who of ballet greats, with legendary choreographers like Christopher Wheeldon even crafting roles specifically for her. However, when we meet Whelan, it’s not as she’s taking a bow after yet another superb performance. Instead this story is one as much about the human spirit and it’s resilience as it is specifically about Whelan and her work.

Blending archival materials from Whelan’s youth and present-set...

After the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales number one debut this weekend, it has been revealed that the budget for snacks alone was $2 million dollars on the first installment of the franchise. The number one weekend for Pirates of the Caribbean 5 was enough to bring Disney's monster franchise up over the $4 billion dollar mark worldwide, even with less than stellar stateside numbers and the effect of the Manchester terrorist attack on the European box office. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl debuted in 2003 and became the fourth highest grossing movie of that year after critics estimated that it would be an epic, over budget box office bomb. But what did the crew eat? What about the craft services? Fans the world-over have been asking that question for the past 14 years and now we finally have an answer.

The Hollywood Reporter recently...

Matthew Byrd May 17, 2017

UbiSoft confirms new entries in the Far Cry, The Crew and Assassin's Creed videogame series...

A trickle of Ubisoft news turned into a downpour today as the publisher took to Twitter to officially announce the development of three major franchise sequels.

Today, Ubisoft's Twitter account sent out the following tweets which confirm the imminent arrival of Far Cry 5, The Crew 2, and a new Assassin's Creed game:

Are you ready for a hefty dose of new Far Cry adventures? https://t.co/RiR9MZvSR8 pic.twitter.com/dxcHCzAKEG

— Ubisoft UK (@UbisoftUK) May 16, 2017

Beyond the road%u2026 Stay with us for more high octane thrills! >> https://t.co/SAFYt3ox7l pic.twitter.com/E5BttqCFuz — Ubisoft UK (@UbisoftUK) May 16, 2017

Sharpen your blade. The Assassins will soon step out of the shadows... pic.twitter.com/nUrM4A57J0

— Assassins Creed UK (@Assassins_UK) May 16, 2017

Elsewhere, Ubisoft confirmed that South Park...

Ronny Ahmed will never forget the moment in 2014 when a gunman emerged suddenly and shot him while he was studying for finals at Florida State University.

“First bullet went through, hit my spine at my T-10, bounced off my spine, hit my liver — and then that one instantly paralyzed me,” he says in the third installment of We Are All Newtown, a three-part web series that People is exclusively debuting this week.

In the same webisode, an NRA gun safety instructor says he thinks a trained shooter like himself might have helped prevent the tragedy on Nov. 20, 2014, when a gunman...

Mike Cecchini Mar 22, 2017

The long awaited Flash and Supergirl musical episode is here!

This review contains spoilers.

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3.17 Duet

I hate musicals. I never watched Glee. I only thought Once More With Feeling was okay. I like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in theory but haven't watched since midway through the first season. I fell asleep trying to watch La La Land and the odds of me giving it another chance are directly proportional to whether or not my parents want to watch it when I'm visiting them. Needless to say, I'm not the target audience for Duet.

And, I mean, it's cool if you are. It's just that despite the countless hours that I, too, spent as a child watching musicals with my parents, it's the one piece...

There are a few things that we know about the new Star Wars movie. There are also things that are being actively kept hidden from us. Somewhere in the middle of all that is this little detail called "the plot." How exactly do all these characters fit into the story? While there are many different ways one could interpret the details that we have, there is one man -- and one man alone =-- who truly understands. Stephen Colbert has watched the trailer and he now knows the entire plot of The Force Awakens. If you dare, check out his complete prediction here. Spoiler Alert? Yeah, probably not. As part of his opening monologue, Colbert announced that he now knew what the plot of the film actually was. If you.re actually afraid of spoilers, you probably don.t need to be. His ideas are very broad overviews for the...

Sorting through the list of features scheduled to screen at the upcoming 19th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival, which is set to run from September 23-27, 2015...  Lanre Olabisi's second feature film, titled "Somewhere in the Middle" (his debut was 2007's "August The First," also highlighted on this blog - on the old S&A site- which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and was nominated for a Gotham Award that year), is described as follows: "Four lovers collide into each others' lives as one marriage morphs into several intertwining affairs. Sofia tries to leave her romantic failures behind by embarking on a...

Before Hand of God, Ron Perlman had never spoken in tongues. Then, his character, Judge Pernell Harris, had an religious epiphany, so the 65-year-old actor had to learn quickly. "There's no right way of doing it, there's no wrong way of doing it," says the actor, who looked up YouTube clips to see how those touched by the Spirit speak. "It's one of these things that comes out differently depending on who it's coming out of." The trick, he says, was figuring out how a tough-as-nails character like Harris would...

Earlier this year, in the spring, we featured a Kickstarter fundraising campaign for Lanre Olabisi's second feature film, titled Somewhere In The Middle. The campaign successfully raised over $100,000, which is a rare occurrence for an independent non-celebrity-backed project (to raise that much money via crowdfunding; typically, successful campaigns range in the $10,000 to $30,000 range). Olabisis's feature film debut was 2007's August The First, highlighted on the old S&A site. The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and was nominated for a Gotham Award that year. It's streaming on Netflix by the way. His follow-up to that film,...