With the summer movie season started, the live roundtables of “Earth’s Mightiest Critics” have continued in earnest on the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel hosted by Ian Simmons. Filling the widest theaters for the second week of the month of May was the new trilogy starter Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Come watch Ian, myself, Mark Krawczyk of Special Mark Productions, and Cati Glidewell of The Blonde In Front discuss what all the monkeying around was all about.
Read MoreWith the summer movie season started, the live roundtable of “Earth’s Mightiest Critics” have continued in earnest on the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel hosted by Ian Simmons. Opening the month of May was David Leitch’s The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Come watch Ian, myself, Jeff York of The Establishing Shot, Mark Krawczyk of Special Mark Productions, and Mike Crowley of You’ll Probably Agree discuss the peaks and valleys of this stuntman springboard.
Read MoreThrough a cavalcade of creatively designed set pieces, Leitch and The Fall Guy put the bang in “the whole shebang” with this kinetic crowd pleaser positioned to open the 2024 summer movie season with that very sound effect. After years of development hell, Universal Pictures found their perfect stewards with David Leitch and Ryan Gosling and indulged their pyrotechnic and brawny dreams to bust every block in sight. The TV show’s awareness and appreciation for these behind-the-scenes champions has now become Leitch’s own.
Read MoreSpeaking of colors and style, I’ll leave you with this little tidbit of snazzy advice from the movie that mixes with the philosophical slant of Barbie itself. Pink goes with everything. Taking that further into color psychology, pink is said to be a contradictory color associated with innocence, calmness, sensitivity, and optimism as much as it’s the standard bearer for femininity. Those listed qualities are the fluttering feelings of Barbie worn with pride, and that’s a radiantly beautiful thing.
Read MoreBoth men are stupendously deadly in their own ways. Seen and unseen pushers and handlers with unreliable agendas have tied hands, and forced ones too, for the repercussions to come. Pit these two men and their motives against each other, and the unpredictability ignites itself in The Gray Man. Wall to wall, the Russos have unleashed what may stand as the best pure action movie of 2022.
Read MoreWhat you're watching on TV on Sunday night is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association hosted by Jimmy Fallon in an effort to be loved and share some love. It’s a popularity contest more than a true Oscar precursor. The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films and we get Brendan Fraser GIFs.
Read MoreWith the glitzy Los Angeles setting of “La La Land,” many will point to the Old Hollywood musicals of Gene Kelly, especially “Singin’ in the Rain,” as a necessary practice rounds, but “La La Land” is an unequivocally modern-set film. A different range is possible. Furthermore, advising you to re-watch “Whiplash” for Chazelle’s kicks or revisit “Rebel Without a Cause” to touch base with the Griffith Observatory are too easy for practice. Dig deeper and try a few of these on for size as a “La La Land” primer.
Read MoreIn front of and behind the camera, you will find creative people that deftly understand and properly tap into the spirit and flavor of the classic genres and eras they are blending. Breathing jazzy life into a Hollywood musical set in the present day of Priuses and iPhones, Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to “Whiplash” is a modern cinematic masterpiece. It is the kind of film where you will remember where you were when you first saw it. You will not find a more jubilant, romanticized, or flat-out entertaining film this year.
Read More"The Nice Guys" unleashes an arsenal of off-beat traits and playful banter available to every character and situation large and small. Calling it a loose cannon is both a criticism and a complement. Though it can veer off of the rails to some scatterbrained wheel-spinning that pushes limits of tolerance and believability, the screenplay from Black and first-timer Anthony Bagarozzi delivers its muckraking mystery with a canny enough level of perpetual action and a clever humor.
Read MoreClosing out 2015, you will find the most argumentative and ballsiest movie of the year hitting wide theatrical release over the Christmas holiday. The real film in question to bear those bold superlatives is "The Big Short." Headlined by a star-studded cast and directed by one of the most unlikely of sources, this legitimate must-see film tip-toes audaciously between biting satire and topical cautionary tale. You won't know whether to be pissed or be entertained and that's a powerful quality to pull off.
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