Charles Bramesco
‘The Grinch’ Understands the Meaning of Christmas, But Not the Meaning of the Grinch
The latest version of the Dr. Seuss classic gets the meaning of Christmas, but not the meaning of its title character.
Extra Credit: Five Haunted House Movies to Stream After ‘Insidious: The Last Key’
Still craving the horrors of a spirit-infested dwelling? After ‘Insidious: The Last Key,’ stream one of these great haunted house movies.
And He’s Off: James Cameron Officically Commences Shooting on His ‘Avatar’ Sequels
James Cameron has finally started production on his four massive CGI-laden 3D blockbusters with a budget of $1 billion.
Angelina Jolie Taking a Year of Me-Time After Newest Feature
The noted actress/director is going to decompress from a ‘family situation’ for a bit before getting back behind the camera.
Lionsgate’s Making a Hunger Games and Twilight Theme Park
The movie studio has set plans for a Hunger Games/Twilight-themed amusement in South Korea.
Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller 3D’ To Make World Premiere at Venice Film Fest
Hard to believe that eight years have already passed since Michael Jackson’s death, but time’s a goon like that. And as the King of Pop settles in the ground, the question of what shape his legacy will take must be answered. While we’d be remiss to gloss over the ethical lapses and general trainwreckishness of the man’s final years (and doubly remiss not to point out the cruel, exacting factors in his life that drove him to that mental state), the time has come for a bit of enshrinement. Next month, the Michael we prefer to remember — the virtuosic performer, the boundary-pushing titan of black art — will return for a glorious new tribute.
‘Despicable Me’ Edges Out ‘Shrek’ As All-Time Highest-Grossing Animated Franchise
It’s a Minion world, and we’re all just living in it. The little pill-shaped yellow critters have left an indelible imprint on the cultural mainstream, for better (footage not found) or for worse (try googling “minions memes,” I dare you). Kids and adults alike have latched onto the phenomenon with an uncommon enthusiasm, and now the numbers reflect the totality with which the Despicable Me universe has permeated modern life. In the seven brief years since Illumination Entertainment loosed the original Despicable Me on an innocent populace, the franchise has grown into the largest of its kind — the highest-grossing animated franchise of all time.
Robert Pattinson Was Almost Fired From ‘Twilight’ For Not Smiling Enough
The actor related an absurd anecdote from his vampire years in a recent interview with Howard Stern.
Daniel Craig Will Reportedly Return… For the Next ‘James Bond’ Movie
With the arrival of San Diego Comic-Con last week, the major announcements started flying fast and furious. After the avalanche of release date announcements, trailer releases, and other first-look headline-generators, the news broke that the gears of progress had begun turning for James Bond’s next cinematic outing. The official Twitter account posted that the still-untitled James Bond 25 would hit American theaters on November 8, 2019 after an earlier release in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and also presumably after shiploads of online pirates have gotten their mitts on it. Americans do not tend to take delayed release dates lying down.
Ryan Gosling Reportedly Wants to Play Willy Wonka
Ryan Gosling is about to play himself. (In the DJ Khaled sense, not the Being John Malkovich sense.) The actor’s been on something of a roll recently, scoring critical plaudits for The Nice Guys and La La Land last year — the latter of which ended up a surprise blockbuster and less-surprise Oscar hoarder — and continuing on into 2017 with this past spring’s Song to Song. He’s got Blade Runner 2049 on the docket for this fall, a likely smash that may earn him admiration among nerd circles, the last niche demographic he has not yet charmed. But with the world at his feet, Gosling’s now making moves to dash all the goodwill he’s recently built up.
Shia LaBeouf Back in Trouble With the Law After Drunken Cigarette-Bumming Gone Wrong
Shia LaBeouf gets arrested a lot. And not “a lot” relative to law-abiding namby-pambies like you or me, I mean “a lot” relative to a street-level Adderall dealer. There was the incident in 2005, where he got an assault with a deadly weapon charge after threatening his neighbor by driving directly into his car, the 2007 arrest outside a Chicago Walgreens, the 2008 drunk driving accident and subsequent license suspension, the 2011 bar fight, the 2014 disorderly conduct charge outside Studio 54, a public intoxication arrest in 2015, and then a minor harassment violation back in this most recent January during an anti-Trump demonstration. That’s quite the rap sheet, but it’s like the old judicial system proverb goes: “Seven strikes and you’re out, unless you’re famous and wealthy, in which case just try to be more careful next time.”
See Sony’s Mysterious Teaser Trailer for the ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ Re-Release
While you and I may know July 3rd as “Fasting in Anticipation of Tomorrow’s Onslaught of Grilled Meats Day,” a certain subset of conspiracy-monger recognizes it as World UFO Day. Apparently, one such believer resides at Sony, as the studio released a mysterious new video on the 3rd and included the hashtag #WorldUFODay in the caption on YouTube. In it, a glowing green air traffic controller’s matrix appears on screen with some slightly-garbled dialogue in the background about an enigmatic foreign craft entering their airspace. While some may find its significance confounding, Spielberg fans recognized the clip straightaway.