MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" YouTube channel talking "Coffee & Kareem"

When Netflix is the one studio with an open and busy storefront, movies like Coffee & Kareem are what we get. Stuff like that is going to have to suffice, both for general audience as us film critics who haven’t seen a new theatrical film in a month. Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat invited me to the streaming sidelines to ride along with the buddy copy comedy from the director of Stuber and Take Me Home Tonight and starring the dolt of Ed Helms and the potty-mouth of Terrence Little Gardenhigh. I chose to crush a beer over enjoying this cinematic coffee. Enjoy this new video podcast episode on his YouTube channel!

Media Appearance, Podcast, Social Media, SPECIAL, 2020Don ShanahanApril 6, 2020AMC River East 21Kicking the SeatComment

COLUMN: How to Throw the Ultimate Backyard Movie Night

If you asked around a bit, you’d be surprised how many people don’t have a backyard although they want one. If you’re lucky enough to have a spacious backyard, you should use it for leisure activities. We’re not only referring o lounging in a hammock or playing sports but throwing an outdoor movie night. There is no need to watch movies in summer alone and slouched in from of your laptop, as you have all preconditions for the ultimate backyard movie night. And did we tell you that there is a list of movies to watch at the end of the text?

2020, Column, Editorial, Home Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanApril 6, 2020Comment

COLUMN: 3 Movies That Used Instagram Marketing and the Way They Did It

by Sujain Thomas

As far as marketers are concerned, they are trying to diversify and build useful strategies to pique audience interest in innovative ways. In this article, we are going to walk you through some of the film industry examples that leveraged Instagram to take their messaging and information delivery to the next level. The photo-sharing social app could be perceived as an initial and final level of interaction with cinema. It could be a customer viewing a post in pre-production, follow the channel, and offering a community for the movie fans after release.

2020, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Social MediaDon ShanahanApril 6, 2020Instagram Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Coffee & Kareem

Those posters clearly catch the eye, but once Coffee & Kareem attempts to evoke the promotional notion that it is worthy of standing next to classic giants like those three films as a homage or even as an lesser riff, it’s asking to bomb. When you fail, even intentionally, you become one more shitty cop movie from a generation ago. Does someone get an award somewhere from some lofty agency of aficionados when you make a shitty cop movie precisely as shitty as the old shitty cop movies this shitty cop movie emulates and remembers? Is that a Razzie or something else?

COLUMN: 3 Tips for Making Custom Movie Posters

Are you a fanatic of movies or series? Do you feel like you want to get closer to your favorite actors and actresses? There is a way for you to do that. It will not matter if you are creative or not. We are all independently unique hence ensure that you bring your brains to the table. You can come up with amazing posters that you can hang in your room alongside many other places of choice. The incredible thing about making them is that you can show off all your creativity. The points that follow show the tips for showing off your favorite movie posters.

2020, Column, Editorial, SPECIAL, Social MediaDon ShanahanApril 1, 2020Comment

GUEST EDITORIAL: How to Use Movies For Personal Growth

by Gregory V. Chapman

Movies are often just a hobby or a way to kill some time while procrastinating. However, it can be turned into a useful tool for personal growth. It would be especially useful for people who feel lost in heir daily routine, come home from work with a head full of numbers and stress. Movies are a work of art and by using them correctly, you can benefit from them a lot. Remember that we are the only ones to choose where and who to learn from and how to apply that knowledge to real life.

2020, Column, Editorial, Essay, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanMarch 31, 2020Comment

REWIND REVIEW: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Big as a billboard in some places and as small as a mobile ad in others, the marketing imagery of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker touts the tagline “The Saga Will End.” There’s something to be said for finality, especially with a 42-year-old franchise as venerated and cherished as this one. The virtues of remembrance, culmination, gratification, and other such lofty notions loom so much larger when an entity is billed to be the last of something important. The movie in disc form hits store shelves everywhere today.

2019, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on Demand, VIDEO REVIEW, DISC REVIEW, 2 STARS, 2020, 3 STARS, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 31, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Vivarium

Vivarium earns very positive credit for its premise and aim. Bending relationship dynamics of survival and gender roles around the middle class dreams of homeownership and building a family is, no question, both absorbing and ambitious. The social commentary is as frank as it is smartly bleak. The graying realities are well-masked by the colorful production dwellings. Their dreamscape trap of the Yonder development is rightly simplistic yet imposing.

2019, 2020, 2 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanMarch 28, 2020Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "You'll Probably Agree" podcast talking feel-good movies in the time quarantine

During this COVID-19 quarantine, a portion of our easy-going lifestyle of going to communal theaters to catch a big screen spectacle has been dealt a body blow. For many, this isolation is not a very fun time. Turning to our favorite movies at home or discovering some motivating and engaging new ones can be great medicine for happiness against the cabin fever blues. I joined Mike Crowley’s You’ll Probably Agree podcast this week to talk comforting cinema in a group conversation with Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat and the esteemed Pat McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com. Give Mike’s YouTube channel a new subscriber, his Facebook page a like, and his Twitter a follow!

Social Media, SPECIAL, Podcast, Media Appearance, 2020, Home Media, Independent Film, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 28, 2020Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" YouTube channel talking 1998's "Mulan"

The present social distancing and near complete shutdown of the mainstream cinema calendar has led to many postponed spring tentpoles. One of those was Disney’s hotly anticipated and latest re-imagining project of Mulan from director Niki Caro. All of us, critic and public alike, will get to see that movie someday. For now, it’s a great time to revisit the 1998 animated original. On the week we would have watched the new one, Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat and I did that very thing. I’ve been a long-time fan of animated one and Ian was a first-timer! Enjoy this new video podcast episode on his YouTube channel!

Media Appearance, Podcast, Social Media, SPECIAL, 2020Don ShanahanMarch 28, 2020AMC River East 21Kicking the SeatComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on "PopCulture25YL" Podcast talking March 1995

Since last summer, I’ve been very proud to be a staff writer for 25 Years Later, a rapidly growing entertainment site. One of their specialties (their namesake as you can likely tell) is looking back and examining cultural moments across all mediums that occurred 25 years ago. The site has been dipping its toes into audio content, including a full-fledged podcast. When the call came across the inter-office communication looking for a movie contributor to talk about the 1995 Academy Awards, I was quick to throw my hat in the ring. Thank you to host Conor O’Donnell for having me on and cutting the whole thing together to make us sound great. Here us talk about Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, and more. Give this new podcast a listen!

25YL, SPECIAL, Social Media, Podcast, Media Appearance, 2020Don ShanahanMarch 26, 2020Comment

GUEST COLUMN: Memorable Romantic Quotes from Movies That You Will Love to Tell Your Date

Forgetting to send a bunch of long-stem red roses on Valentine’s Day to your lover can seem to be a disaster but it can help to make up with a gift and a romantic message. Thanks to the crafted performances and the lilting music, most of us tend to go weak at the knees and also shed a tear when seeing mushy romantic movies. Some of the most romantic lines from well-known movies that you can quote when you want to impress your loved one:

2020, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home MediaDon ShanahanMarch 26, 2020Comment