You know what nobody asked for? A sequel to Annabelle, itself a spinoff of The Conjuring, which was basically a horrible movie from top to bottom. Alas, here we are in 2016 Hollywood, where head-scratching sequels are the modus operandi for some damn reason, and here is the trailer for Annabelle 2:
And here’s the synopsis:
Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle.
If there is anything positive to take from this movie even existing, it’s the fact that Lights Out director David F. Sandberg is behind the camera. He’s shown his ability to craft a pretty clever horror film already this year, but wouldn’t his talents be better served in another original idea? This has been a banner year for horror, and yet here we are again rehashing something nobody wanted in the first place.
That teaser was a minute and five seconds, and I am fairly certain I will only see a minute and five seconds of Annabelle 2 for the rest of my life. There must be a few people out there who are eagerly anticipating another entry into this franchise, so if you find one – or you are one – let me know.
The trailer for Nocturnal Animals has all sorts of visual decadence, and all manner of intrigue and mystery. Amy Adams leads an impressive cast, and this is certainly going to be a delight to look at if nothing else.
A “story inside a story,” in which the first part follows a woman named Susan who receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband, a man whom she left 20 years earlier, asking for her opinion. The second element follows the actual manuscript, called “Nocturnal Animals,” which revolves around a man whose family vacation turns violent and deadly. It also continues to follow the story of Susan, who finds herself recalling her first marriage and confronting some dark truths about herself.
It definitely has that Lynchian Lost Highway vibe to it, but it will be a bit more stylish I’ massing, coming from the Tom Ford angle. The fashion designer’s first film, A Single Man, was pretty great in it’s own right.
Nocturnal Animals stars Adams – who is poised to have a pretty big autumn – Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Isla Fisher (just to confuse everyone), Armie Hammer, Laura Linney and Michael Sheen among others. It’s based on the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright, and it will open December 9.
If you have wanted to see George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road in black and white – or black and chrome – December 6 is your chance.
Miller is releasing a special edition of the 2015 masterpiece in conjunction with a High Octane Collection that will include all four films in blu ray and a 4K version of Fury Road. That sounds awesome, sure, but hearing Miller talk aboutMad Max: Fury Road in black and chrome is what makes me salivate:
“One thing I’ve noticed is that the default position for everyone is to de-saturate post-apocalyptic movies. There’s only two ways to go, make them black and white — the best version of this movie is black and white, but people reserve that for art movies now. The other version is to really go all-out on the color. The usual teal and orange thing? That’s all the colors we had to work with. The desert’s orange and the sky is teal, and we either could de-saturate it, or crank it up, to differentiate the movie. Plus, it can get really tiring watching this dull, de-saturated color, unless you go all the way out and make it black and white.”
December 6 is going to be Mad Max day for super fans.
Title: Snowden Director Oliver Stone Summary: The NSA’s illegal surveillance techniques are leaked to the public by one of the agency’s employees, Edward Snowden, in the form of thousands of classified documents distributed to the press.
There is a surge of ‘based on a true story’ movies at this time of year. We are moving into the awards season and there isn’t anything Oscar voters love more than a movie that tells them about a real person. I’m not sure Snowden is meant to be an awards movie, though, because it is about technology and cyber security which some young people don’t understand, let alone Oscar voters who have a median age of about 102. Snowden, instead, seems to be pitched as a thriller or spy movie that is based on real events. The tone of the trailer seemed odd but trailers can be deceiving when it comes to the final product.
Snowden tried to imagine the hacking of the NSA by Edward Snowden as a spy thriller to almost laughable results.
It turned out that the odd trailers were not selling us a different movie. Snowden really is filmed and scored like a modern day Bond movie or a Jason Bourne movie. The opening scene in particular was so over the top that I nearly started laughing when the camera zoomed in on a person playing with a rubix cube with one hand. That seems to be the visual shorthand that Hollywood likes to use to make sure the audience knows that the person using that cube is “Very Smart”. It was something I’d expect from Ben Whishaw’s Q from the Daniel Craig James Bond movies and it seemed so out of place in a movie that is supposed to be based on a real events.
Snowden is a movie that falls prey to the idea that it’s true story is somehow not interesting or flashy enough for a mainstream audience so they needed to ‘movie it up’. So there are people looking over their shoulders in crowded areas as they blatantly lie to one another. There are tense phone calls and the implication that they are being watched. There is a scene where a phone rings and everyone stares at it like it’s rigged to explode. The scenes are supposed to be dramatic and instead were coming off strangely funny because none of them fit.
The idea that this story is somehow not interesting enough for a movie is made all the more true when we realize that an amazing documentary was made about this entire situation called Citizenfour. It even won an Oscar, yet director Oliver Stone decided that the general audience wouldn’t like that and shot this like it was a normal Hollywood script. The scenes with Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his girlfriend Lindsay (Shailene Woodley) feel like they are coming from a different movie. The film’s tone leaps wildly from what is supposed to be a tense spy thriller, a true story and a romantic comedy complete with a manic pixie dream girl.
Snowden feels like it was made with the intent of making the general public more aware of what the real Edward Snowden did while also making a crowd pleasing blockbuster. There are ways of making that work, and while Snowden might have interesting and even good parts, they don’t all fit to make a cohesive whole.
Walt Disney Animation Studios released a new trailer for Moana Thursday morning.
The film tells the story of an adventurous teenager, Moana (voiced by Auli’I Cravalho), who goes on a daring mission to save her people. She then meets the once-mighty demigod Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) who helps in her quest.
Moana is directed by Ron Clements and John Musker (The Little Mermaid and Aladdin).
The film includes music from Lin-Manuel Miranda and also features the voices of Nicole Scherzinger, Jemaine Clement and Alan Tudyk.
Moana opens in theaters nationwide on November 23.
Blair Witch is so uninspired and lacking in originality, that for the first time in five years of being a film critic, I almost left a screening. This “film” (consider that term used extremely loosely) is yet another example of Hollywood regurgitating old idea after old idea and not doing a single thing to improve upon the final product. At least if you are going to rehash an old topic, find a way to freshen up the narrative.
The Blair Witch Project raked in $250 million during its initial run and blazed a trail for a new brand of “found footage” horror films. Blair Witch is destined to do far less than its predecessor because word will quickly spread that this film is EXACTLY like the first one except for little things like it’s not nearly as frightening as the first film and it’s nowhere near as groundbreaking.
For those who aren’t familiar with the franchise: according to legend, a witch haunts the Black Hills Forest in Maryland that is so scary that anyone dies when they gaze upon her. In the original, three film students ventured into the woods to see if the legend was actually true. None of them make it out of the forest alive and their bodies are never recovered. However, a grainy bit of footage was found that maps out the events of their untimely demise.
Fast-Forward to the present and we have another group of young aspiring filmmakers (sound familiar) not only venture in the woods to try and prove if this legend is real but perhaps find any survivors from the last crew that went in 1999. Because if they survived surely they’ve been living in the woods for 17 years. This time the young filmmakers feel like they’re better prepared than the last bunch because their cameras come with fancy earpieces and they have an aerial drone. So of course they venture into the very same woods in hopes of their luck somehow being much different than everyone else who’s trudged through that part of the woods and meet their untimely demise (eye roll).
Part of what made the original film so brilliant was the authenticity it conveyed both on screen and in its dialogue. None of the shots were “perfectly aligned” and the dialogue was entirely conversational, far from seeming scripted (they used a rough outline). The lack of perfection in each shot and the realistic discourse that the film students had only enhanced the levels of terror. We never got a shot at all of the witch in the original film, nor did we have any doubts about how scared Heather Donahue was; and audiences were scared as hell along with her.
In Blair Witch, director Adam Wingard demonstrates no understanding of why the original film was such a smash hit and takes the opposite approach. Instead of keeping the visual feel of the film authentic, he relies on perfectly aligned shots and refers to them as “found footage” shots. There is actually a scene where two of the characters ask to talk in private and they just so happen to do this within range of another camera that actually zooms in closer to catch the conversation (I wish I was making this up). Who is the person shooting these two having a private conversation? Can’t be anyone in the group because they are “allegedly” by themselves and this is “allegedly” supposed to be found footage. There is another scene where one of the female characters is trying to escape underground and manages to crawl through a dark tunnel and have just the perfect angle of her face. HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?! Is the Blair Witch also the cinematographer?
Simon Barrett was brought in to help craft a screenplay and his “narrative” is part blatant rip-offs from the first film, part desecration of a brilliant film’s legacy. Barrett brings nothing fresh, but does regurgitate the same rough outline of what took place in the original film. He did attempt to add his stamp to the plot but it only made matters worse. For example, rather than keep the mystery alive of who might still be haunting those woods, he reveals to the audience just exactly who that monster might exactly be. What’s more, he even explains in the film why the witches victims stand in the corner.
Why? Why would you do this? Why would you take away the mystery of the film away from the audience. Part of the terror of The Blair Witch Project was the unknown and that is completely stripped away by these two men. Some questions are best left unanswered.
Blair Witch is the most blatant attempt by a studio to cash in on a film franchise in 2016. As a critic and, more importantly, as a fan of cinema, it sickens me that films like Blair Witch are given such a major push by the studios while other small films are dismissed. The only way to these disingenuous attempts to make films can be curtailed is if we avoid going to see them. Demand better and avoid going to see this film.
“Dark Trinity” part 2! Red Hood’s investigation takes a painful turn when he encounters a mysterious woman named Artemis! Outmatched by this powerful Amazon, Jason’s only hope for survival is finding a common ground with his attacker—that is, if Artemis gives him the chance!
Writing
Man, Red Hood’s investigation not only takes a painful turn, but it nearly implodes on him. Between holding his punches while fighting Artemis, and Black Mask about to leave him to fight against her alone, there is a good chance this plan is going to fall apart very quickly. It’s a wonder if writer Scott Lobdell really intends to keep Red Hood on this mission for very long, but the setup in the first issue and the Rebirth issue made it seem like he was going to be on this path for ages and people should just get used to it. It’s gonna be a bit of a let down if it’s over in the first five issues.
Also the third member of the trio is finally introduced. Not really going to put a spoiler on it because he was featured prominently on the cover of the first issue. Still, his appearance doesn’t really help to move things along at all.
Artwork
Good detail work by Dexter Soy especially with the opening which helps to look at Artemis’ origin. He seems to rely on a bit too many speed lines to try and convey the scenes are moving very quickly. Still, a very visually impressive effort on his behalf.
Conclusion
It’s a solid series but the overall story is on shaky ground already. This isn’t a good thing since it’s only the second issue. In the previous issue Black Mask was lamenting about Gotham and how he had big plans for the city. Now it’s starting to feel like the plans are going to fall short.
This week saw the return of Supernatural day, which celebrates the anniversary of the show’s first episode. Eleven years later Supernatural is heading into season 12, and The CW just released a fiery new poster.
The poster gives us our first look at a possible setting for Supernatural season 12. The tagline “Meet Them On The Dark Side” as well as a flaming gateway seems to suggest that the Winchester’s will explore a new realm in season 12. Could we perhaps see the return of Purgatory? I guess we’ll have to wait until October to find out.
The twelfth season of Supernatural is set to explore a whole new side to the show. Not only is Mary Winchester back in the land of the living, but Castiel will have a more central and personal role in the upcoming episodes. While talking to TV Line showrunner Andrew Dabb revealed that season 12 will tell a more personal story about Castiel and his relationships with the Winchester brothers and their recently resurrected mother.
“He and Mary have a connection. It’s not a romantic one, but they have a lot in common. They’re both strangers in a strange land, in a way. We wanted to focus Cas down a bit more. He feels responsible for Lucifer getting out of the cage, although as we’ll learn, pretty much everyone else on our show feels responsible for that, too. Obviously, as threats to Sam and Dean come up, he will be there to stand by our boys’ side.”
Supernatural Season 12 premieres October 13th on the CW. Are you excited to see a new side to Castiel? How about that poster? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Marvel is known for hiring Directors that aren’t we expect. Instead of big Hollywood names, the studio looks for directors who fit the unique style of their characters. For Guardians of the Galaxy that meant hiring Slither director and for Thor: Ragnarok Marvel landed on Taika Waititi, director of indie films such as What We Do In The Shadows.
In a new interview with Digital Spy Waititi discusses his process of filming a big budget movie, and inserting his unique style into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“We are halfway through and it’s going really well. Everything is going to plan in that we didn’t have a plan to start with.
“It’s going better than expected and it’s a lot of fun shooting. The style is not too dissimilar to how I would normally work. It’s just a longer schedule because it’s a bigger film with more special effects and things like that.”
Waititi Then Went On To Discuss What Attracted Him To Thor: Ragnarok
“I always want to do something different when I make something. I really like the idea of doing something really big. My films have always been a lot smaller.
“I like the kind of films I make but it was an opportunity that presented itself that wouldn’t come around often, so I thought I would just pursue.
“Also, I know Chris [Hemsworth] and wanted to work with him at some point. Again, it seemed like a good opportunity.”
Thor: Ragnarok Might Not Be The Last Big Budget Movie For Waititi
“If I do really well with it and people like it and I enjoy the process then I’d definitely think about doing another one.”
If Thor: Ragnarok is a success, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise for Marvel to keep Waititi with the family and develop a fourth Thor movie. Although the plan was originally to have Captain America, Iron Man and Thor trilogies, Chris Hemsworth’s god of thunder hasn’t had the same exposure to the MCU as these other characters. Waititi may have the style and plan to warrant multiple Thor sequels.
Thor: Ragnarok stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Cate Blanchett, Anthony Hopkins, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban and Mark Ruffalo. The film will open on November 3, 2017.
The Mysterious Season 6 Of ‘American Horror Story’ Kicks Off In Spectacular Fasion
Premiering with minimal plot details, we now know what the sixth season of ‘American Horror Story‘ is all about! The new title is “My Roanoke Nightmare”.
The Roanoke Colony was established in 1585 and was found empty by 1590. Out of no where, the entire group just disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War. It is known as “The Lost Colony”. It seems like this will be the setting for this season as the show will jump from modern time to the past.
We start with an episode titled “Chapter 1”. This season is apparently a mockumentary titled ‘My Roanoke Nightmare‘. The premiere opens with confessional interviews and dramatic reenactments of events told by a married couple. After experiencing a hate-crime and a miscarriage, the couple move from their big city to a small country home in North Carolina. Acting in these dramatized reenactments are Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Angela Bassett. Paulson plays the wife Shelby, Gooding Jr. plays the husband Matt, and Bassett plays the sister of Matt.
From the moment this couple buys their house, strange things start happening. Matt quickly dismisses Shelby’s claims of strange events. He believes it to be the racist townies that also wanted the house. Even when Shelby claims it was raining teeth or she was attacked by people with pitchforks, Matt still doesn’t believe her.
Review:
Known to explore different sub-genres of horror, this stylistic change makes sense. One of my only complaints is the documentary style can be distracting. Narration throughout took focus away from the scares at hand. I know I like documentary-style but some different editing choices will help it flow better.
It feels like more terror was brought back into the mix cause there was some serious tension and scares happening. The hot-tube scene had beautiful cinematography and also instantly set the creepy mood.
Seems like we will be getting a new creature this season. That grotesque pig-man was instantly memorable and truly shocking. The Internet did have fun with tons of “Man-Bear-Pig” memes though.
All these actors did a fine job. I love seeing Cuba Gooding Jr added to the ‘American Horror Story‘ mix. His work in ‘The People vs OJ Simpson’ was incredible so another collaboration with Ryan Murphy works. Now, we wait to see what other actors show up in this season. Some familiar faces did appear towards the end of the episode.
This season has influences from ‘The Blair Witch Project‘ to Slender Man. But most importantly, the Roanoke colony will play a big part. Using this true life event to inspire the season was genius on the part of writers Murphy & Brad Falchuk.
Can’t wait to see how this new season of ‘American Horror Story‘ will grow. All of the hype before hand really paid off. Going into the season with no idea of what’s happening was refreshing in the time where everyone knows everything.
‘American Horror Story‘ airs Wednesday Nights at 10pm on FX.
For those who aren’t familiar with the franchise: according to legend, a witch haunts the Black Hills Forest in Maryland that is so scary that anyone dies when they gaze upon her. In the original, three film students ventured into the woods to see if the legend was actually true. None of them make it out of the forest alive and their bodies are never recovered. However, a grainy bit of footage was found that maps out the events of their untimely demise.
