Movies

As kids, we loved new movies not just for the films themselves, but for the inevitable merchandising which would help us reenact some of the thrills at home. Whether through Happy Meals or coloring books, there were dozens of avenues that would help keep us entertained, while building significant profit and interest back in the original property. Often underestimated even to this day, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the most famous merchandising efforts, and the amount of profit and interest they have returned to the starting brand.

Not So Long Ago

Starr Carter is sixteen, with an older brother Seven and a younger brother Sekani.  Their father named them Starr, knowing she would shine, Seven, for perfection, and Sekani for joy.  The Carter family lives in Garden Heights, a poor black neighborhood with crime and drugs, but the children go to school in a suburban white neighborhood.  Starr believes she must act according to her environment in order to fit in and not draw attention to herself.  This creates an internal struggle for Starr which consumes her life.

When news broke on Twitter that James Gunn had posted jokes about pedophilia and deplorable acts of sexual assault, including rape, Marvel Studios had a PR nightmare on their hands.

Gunn, the writer/director of Marvel's highly successful GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY franchise, had been exposed as someone that may not be a good representative of Marvel's parent company, Disney. While some would argue that since an "alt-right extremist" outed James Gunn, it shouldn't matter. Whether you like who "outed" him or not, it doesn't make the situation less believable when the evidence is clear as day.

John C. Reilly plays the fool better than most, but don't fool yourself. Remember the lesson of Denzel Washington in Training Day -- good actors can play any role. After seeing The Sisters Brothers you'll view John C. Reilly as a much better actor than you ever expected. 

Catwoman, Green Lantern, and Fantastic Four are generally regarded as examples of the worst superhero films ever made. Now you can add another one to the future Razzie Award winner (loser?) list—Sony Pictures ill-conceived Venom. Calling it a dumpster fire would be an insult to actual dumpster fires. No part of this film succeeds. This waste of time should only be viewed as a study aid for aspiring filmmakers to learn what a terrible movie looks like.

We've seen the trailers online for SANDMAN, but we all know that trailers aren't often representative of the whole story. What can you tell us that's a bit more in-depth about the film?

SANDMAN is kind of a passion for us, for our whole team. It's a project that I wrote about a year and a half ago. Some of the premise is based upon my own life, so it made it a little bit easier to bring the story together.

Matt Damon: Still Looking Slick at 46

The Captain Marvel Trailer makes me flashback to 2013's MAN OF STEEL, and it looks like the movie will be heavy on flashbacks as well.

Okay, I freely admit I’m an exploitation/sexploitation, sleazy/cheesy 1970’s movie junkie, and when I saw this DVD from AGFA I thought, "Oh yeah, this will be a dandy!"

Well…

Let me start this way: this movie was made in 1977 and directed by James Bryan and was written and produced by Renee Harmon, so the credentials were there for what should have been a prime example of the genre. It ain’t, even by low standards. I give credit to AGFA for releasing it, though, as it is something to be seen…once…and then locked away somewhere.

The DVD features the movie in a new 2k scan from the only surviving 35mm theatrical trailer (one can only surmise the others were burned) and tells the story of a woman named Linda Allen (Renee Harmon) a cop hot on the trails of the thugs who killed her twin sister.

If you've ever been locked out of your house, you know what a pain it is trying to break back in. Turn the house is an electronic fortress, and add three armed robbers inside holding your kids hostage, and you've got BREAKING IN, a home invasion / heist drama fraught with tension and desparate players on both sides of the conflict.

Shaun Russell (GABRIELLE UNION) is a mother of two, and has arrived at her late father's estate to prepare it for sale. Her father was a crime boss, about to be face trial before he was run down in the street. But before he could go to trial, he liquidated all his assets and put them in a safe in his country home, a secluded manse on several acres and modified with the best security and surveillance systems money could buy.

Domestically, INCREDIBLES 2 now holds the crown as the highest grossing Disney-Pixar film, with FINDING DORY and TOY STORY 3 taking a step back on the list.

Disney broke the internet when they announced that director Brad Bird was coming back to tell another story involving the family of supers. INCREDIBLES 2 has now crossed the billion dollar mark after continuing to hold on to its theatrical run. Released back in June, it has earned nearly $1.05 Billion dollars worldwide; which surpasses FINDING DORY on the worldwide charts. Whether you're surprised by this or not, it's no small feat for a movie to make a billion dollars worldwide.

Deanna and Dan just dropped off their daughter Maddie for her senior year of college. But before they have even left the campus, Dan drops a bomb on Deanna: He wants a divorce.

Shocked, Deanna makes the decision to complete her own senior year of college, which she dropped out of on the advice of her husband when she was pregnant. Thus begins Deanna's re-introduction to frat parties, ravers, keggers, concerts -- oh yes, and occasionally studying.

First and foremost: If you haven't seen AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and/or ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, you're probably not even reading this article, so the whole "Spoiler Warning" thing should be a moot point. However, on the microscopic chance that you've just stepped in from Taured and are thus unaware of these MCU events, we'll say it anyway: We're going to talk as though we've all been to the films here. So there, you've been warned.

Apparently Forbes contributor Scott Mendelson thinks Disney and Marvel must atone for the sin of firing James Gunn from his role as director and script writer for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 3 after a history of pedophilia-related tweets came to light, and he's offered a few opportunities for the corporate HMFICs to "save face" in the way they proceed.

Heaven forfend Disney and Marvel should simply keep their focus on producing great movies. No, they must now be ready to not just hire a new director -- they have to cast one.

It was a foregone conclusion that seemed to take forever, but the inevitable response has finally come down. Walt Disney Studios, parent company of Marvel Studios, has cut ties with Director James Gunn over a collection of tweets and blog statements that relied on pedophilia as a source of edgy humor.

While Gunn took to Twitter overnight to delete the tweets, critics wondered how Disney could see their way to keeping Gunn on the high-profile Marvel Cinematic Universe project, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, particularly in contrast to the swiftness with which Disney subsidiary, ABC Television, cut ties with Roseanne Barr after a tweet, despite her stratospheric tv ratings.

The twitter account @AnOpenSecret dropped some huge bombshell's ahead of James Gunn's appearance in Hall H tonight at SDCC.

Digging deep into Gunn's twitter history, going back as far as 9 years, @AnOpenSecret posted screenshots of grotesque comments made by the Guardians of the Galaxy director. The comments range from discussing pubescent children, raping American Idol contestants, and being uriniated on by a child.

***GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING***

DC has opened up a website for their DC Universe web platform for pre-orders!  It doesn't actually launch until the fall, but if you subscribe now, you will get an additional three months free when it launches.  The pricing they announced is $7.99 a month of $74.99 for a year.  DC Universe works on desktop and all your iOS and Android devices. It’s also compatible with Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Google Chromecast.  No mention of Roku at the moment.

So what do you get for your $75?  Looks like quite a bit...

Remember that feeling you had when you walked out of the theater after BACK TO THE FUTURE? I don't mean watching it at home on DVD (or VHS), I mean in the theater, because it means you were there, in that moment, in that era, when the 80s were in full swing and pop culture was expanding into new, uncharted waters. It was the time of the arcade games, parachute pants, and a rich variety of music that launched a renaissance.

When I sat down to watch READY PLAYER ONE, I had not seen the theatrical version. I had not read the book. And when I saw the opening scene, with its cinematically ominous Blade Hunter date and the post-apocalyptic landscape, I groaned. I didn't want another one of these.

That lasted for all of about three seconds, after which I was in sheer fanboy ecstasy for over two hours.

I am ever leery of films that are directed by their lead actor; they tend to be showcase films, and having an actor direct himself is rather like having a writer be his own editor -- you're often too close to the situation to see the flaws.

JOHN KRASINSKI (JACK RYAN) does better than most, however, in overcoming the obstacles inherent in that dynamic with his work on A QUIET PLACE. Krasinski plays Lee Abbott, the patriarch of a family surviving a little over a year into an apocalypse that has devastated most of the population. The audience isn't privy to how the apocalypse happened -- whether the creatures came from outer space, from deep beneath the ground, or from a genetic experiment gone wrong. What we do know is that there is a new species on the planet that cannot see or smell, but can hear and is drawn to noise as its method of locating food.

LONDON, UK, July 13, 2018 – Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski announced today that Focus has set production with Carnival Films on the Downton Abbey movie.  The original principal cast from the acclaimed television series have assembled to return for the feature which will begin production later this summer.  Also returning from the series is its creator Academy-Award® winner Julian Fellowes who wrote the film’s screenplay and will produce alongside Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge.  Brian Percival (The Book Thief, About a Girl), who directed the series’ pilot, will direct the film.  Nigel Marchant will also return to executive produce.