Casting That Almost Happened
At one point, Nicolas Cage was set to play Superman, Edward Furlong was offered the role of Spiderman, and the now woefully unfunny Jack Black was considered for Green Lantern — and plenty of other casting decisions tempted similar fate.
John Wick: Chapter 2
Wick’s reality is a network of hired killers, gold coins, hotels that act as violence-free zones, and impeccable Italian suits.
Listen to What You Watch: 10 Film Scores
There are plenty of great film scores that leave an impression on your ears, your heart or your soul. When they do that, you know they’ve done their job. Here’s ten that I love.
6 Potential Future Oscar Hosts
It is long past time to kick the fashion police and TMZ to the curb. They add nothing to the evening. Their banter is annoying, insulting and sexist.
The Founder
The man who bought the Padres (his check cleared) and earned my eternal, unfailing, love was Ray Kroc. The new overseer of the friars also, apparently, owned a little hamburger place called McDonald’s. Evidently, director John Lee Hancock thought the hamburger stand would make a better movie.
The Singular Success of 10 Filmmakers
There are directors who never made a bad movie: Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Andrei Tarkovsky, Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder leap to mind. There are gifted directors who made mostly great films, Stanley Kubrick and Sergio Leone fit into that category.
The Bye Bye Man
When a studio shoots a film and holds onto it for two years, that’s a bad sign. When a film is dumped into the vortex that is January, that’s a bad sign. When a film is shot as an R-rated film and the studio — in a naked attempt to lure more viewers — edits it down to PG-13, that’s a bad sign.
The Changing Face of Film Criticism
As an art form itself, criticism can be educational, confrontational, enlightening or a blunt instrument against the art or the artist.
The Worst Films of 2016
There’s plenty of time and space dedicated to the art and nuance of film, but sometimes you just have to get into the gutter and talk about the bad, the boring and the filthy. That is what I get to do now.
Passengers
Yes, “Passengers” is a sci-fi film, and it does star Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt who have previously roamed in the Marvel Universe, but it’s more than that.
