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Halo Episode 9: A Messy First Season Comes To A Close With A Disappointingly Conventional Finale Paramount+ By Jeremy Mathai/May 19, 2022 3:00 am EST Maybe the real war after all had nothing to do with the UNSC and the Covenant, John and Makee, or Dr. Halsey and the Spartans’ fight for their very humanity. At the end of the day, “Halo” and its continued struggle to forge its own identity wound up becoming the last, bitter taste left in our mouths as the inaugural season of the buzzy sci-fi adaptation wrapped up last night....

How Stanley Kubrick Pulled Off The Shining’s Brilliant Elevator Scene Warner Bros. By Marisa Mirabal/Dec. 28, 2021 3:56 pm EST As we approach the end of the year, many of us are indulging in Christmas-themed films. Not a lot of people think of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film “The Shining” as a holiday movie (and if they do, they definitely don’t consider it a happy one), but this cinematic treasure contains a visual feast of disturbing imagery that climaxes during the winter, so let’s add it to the list of alternative holiday films....

Jurassic Park Needed Some Bark To Match The T. Rex’s Toilet-Busting Bite Universal Pictures By Matthew Bilodeau/June 9, 2022 8:34 am EST When Steven Spielberg unleashed “Jurassic Park” upon the masses in the summer of 1993, audiences were rocked by the master filmmaker’s revolutionary blend of CGI and practical effects. The prehistoric teeth chompers had largely been represented by the spot-motion wizardry of Willis O’Brien (“King Kong”) and Ray Harryhausen (“The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms”), but here they were, looking as tangible as ever....

Jurassic World Dominion Reveals The Atrociraptor, A Very Real And ‘Brutal’ New Dino Universal By Sandy Schaefer/Dec. 20, 2021 12:21 pm EST The Atrociraptor might sound like another made-up hybrid dinosaur invented for the “Jurassic World” films in the same vein as the Indominus rex and Indoraptor, but it’s a very real dino with its own Wiki page and everything. It’s also, apparently, not very impressed with Owen Grady’s (Chris Pratt) raptor whispering skills, judging by the new image of an Atrociraptor chasing Owen on his motorbike in “Jurassic World Dominion....

Let’s Unpack The Saddest Ozark Death Yet Netflix By Shania Russell/Jan. 25, 2022 8:35 am EST Over the years, “Ozark” has put us through a metric ton of grief. The Netflix crime drama has no reservations about putting its many characters in peril and upping the body count season by season. After all, violence is abundant when your lead characters are wrapped up with a ruthless drug cartel — especially when they have a talent for getting strangers entangled in their life-threatening schemes....

Netflix Scraps Bone Series As Animation Department Disintegrates Jeff Smith By Valerie Ettenhofer/April 21, 2022 8:42 am EST Amid news that Netflix’s stocks are plummeting, The Wrap Pro has published a report indicating that the streaming giant’s animation department and Kids & Family section are changing for the worse. In reporting that includes a series of interviews with Netflix creators, the outlet claims that ambitious projects are being canceled in the wake of shifting mission statements, and some projects are getting axed before they even make it to air....

Outlander’s ‘Temperance’ Takes Its Time, Sets Stage For Inevitable Conflict Starz By Vanessa Armstrong/March 20, 2022 10:00 pm EST The third episode of “Outlander” season 6 is here, and it’s the calm before the storm of the American Revolution. And when I say calm, I mean calm — we get a lot of time with Fergus and his family, further confirmation that Tom Christie is The Worst, and … not much else!...

Patrick Stewart Had No Idea Who Sting Was While Working On David Lynch’s Dune Universal By Bill Bria/April 26, 2022 5:28 pm EST In 1984, Sting was practically a household name. His band, The Police, had released their last studio album titled Synchronicity a year earlier in 1983, and that album included such chart-topping singles as “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” “King of Pain,” and the immortal “Every Breath You Take,” with the video for the latter in heavy rotation on MTV....

The 15 Best Sidney Poitier Movies Ranked Columbia Pictures By Noel Ransome/Jan. 26, 2022 1:31 pm EST He stood upright, smiled his debonair smile, and signaled to Hollywood that he was too flawless to ignore. Such was Sidney Poitier’s responsibility. He was every good-intentioned white American’s Black friend, every hyper-visible good example. He was the chosen one invited to dinner parties and the exception to the assumed rule. But for Black Americans, he was a comfortable myth — not necessarily the Black man they wanted to mimic, but rather the Black man they needed him to be....

The Dangerous Film Stunt That Nearly Killed Jackie Chan Miramax By Fatemeh Mirjalili/March 7, 2022 11:02 am EST Jackie Chan is one of the biggest action stars in the world. The Hong Kong legend has been doing his own stunts since “Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow,” the 1978 film that cemented his name as a certified action star. Chan’s slapstick kung fu comedy style has been celebrated ever since, and although the actor’s long stunt-filled career has made him a household name, it has also given him some severe injuries....

The Protector of the Light ABC Originally, the climax of “Lost” was going to be set atop an active volcano, but budgetary concerns and larger aesthetic questions led to the idea being scrapped. Instead, the focus shifted to the idea of a strong light near the Island’s center, one that represented “life, death, and rebirth.” It was something to be protected, because somebody was always going to attempt to find it....

The Man Who Fell To Earth Creators Alex Kurtzman And Jenny Lumet On Optimism And Episode 4 [Interview] Showtime By Jack Giroux/May 16, 2022 12:17 pm EST Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet is a writing partnership that makes sense. When interviewing the writing and producing duo, they’re joking around and completing each other’s sentences. Now, the longtime collaborators and friends have created Showtime’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” a continuation of both author Walter Tevis’ novel and director Nicolas Roeg’s seminal David Bowie-led sci-fi film....

The Mandalorian Season 3 Footage Reaction: Multiple Babu Friks And Many Mandalorians Lucasfilm By Valerie Ettenhofer AND Ben Pearson/May 28, 2022 3:13 pm EST Everyone’s favorite space Western is coming back: “The Mandalorian” season 3 is headed our way, and some new footage just premiered at Star Wars Celebration 2022. While “The Mandalorian” stood alone as the sole live-action “Star Wars” series during its first two seasons, the show returns to an expanded TV universe that now includes “The Book of Boba Fett” and the upcoming spin-off “Ahsoka....

The Ratings For The 2022 Academy Awards Were Slightly Better, But At What Cost? Warner Bros. By Valerie Ettenhofer/March 28, 2022 2:05 pm EST The Academy Awards pulled out all the stops to get viewers back on board last night, and it sounds like it sort of worked. Last year’s show delivered historic low ratings, with only 10.4 million viewers tuning in according to The Hollywood Reporter. In contrast, early numbers from last night indicate at least 13....

The Scariest Scene In Willow Creek Is In It For The Long-Take Dark Sky Films By Matt Donato AND Ariel Fisher/March 11, 2022 12:00 pm EST (Welcome to Scariest Scene Ever, a column dedicated to the most pulse-pounding moments in horror with your tour guides, horror experts Matt Donato and Ariel Fisher. In this edition: Matt goes Squatching and Ariel finds terror in the silence.) I’m not afraid of Sasquatch. This entry isn’t some deep-seated fear of a cryptid icon....

Those Space Goats In The Thor: Love And Thunder Trailer Have A Comic Book Origin Marvel By Natalia Keogan/April 18, 2022 12:42 pm EST The much-anticipated return of Taika Waititi to the Marvel director’s chair is upon us with “Thor: Love and Thunder.” Following his Oscar-winning black comedy “Jojo Rabbit,” Waititi comes back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to helm the fourth Thor-focused film in the franchise. Waititi previously directed the beloved “Thor: Ragnarok” in 2017, so there’s already considerable hype surrounding the filmmaker’s return to the character and his ever-developing storyline....

Why Jamie Foxx Was The Perfect Choice For Django Unchained The Weinstein Company By Mike Shutt/Feb. 4, 2022 11:05 am EST December 25, 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of “Django Unchained,” and it’s still a little difficult to gauge the cultural reputation of Quentin Tarantino’s slave revenge picture. The film won Tarantino his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and took in a massive $426 million at the worldwide box office, making it the writer/director’s biggest hit....

/Film Showdown: Pennywise Vs. Freddy Krueger Warner Bros. By Anya Stanley AND BJ Colangelo/May 17, 2022 12:39 pm EST Welcome back to /Film Showdown, wherein we pit a pair of genre giants against each other in a hypothetical Thunderdome to see who would triumph. So far we’ve seen Leatherface go up against the Priest of the “Hellraiser” films, Obi-Wan Kenobi face-off against Spock, and Magneto vs. Agent Smith. Today, /Film enters darker territory to speculate on a brawl between two mean distillations of evil....

A throwback to overheated nonsense Hulu There are touches throughout “Deep Water,” primarily via its script written by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson, that hint at a desire to be a full-on throwback to the overheated nonsense that lined erotic thrillers of the 1980s and 1990s. And frankly, some of what makes “Deep Water” enjoyable is the fact that those touches and hints exist at all. The coy manner with which Vic teases Melinda’s various squeezes, his threats as playful as they are scary; the way that nighttime Big Easy parties turn into desperate attempts to save a person’s life all while a torrential downpour drops upon them; and the idea that a relative newcomer to the town, portrayed by Tracy Letts, is scoffed at by his younger wife (Kristen Connolly) for daring to take Vic’s murderous threats as real all feel like dashes of the same sweaty intensity that you can find in everything from “Basic Instinct” to “Wild Things....

Disney+ Adds Nearly 8 Million Subscribers In Overall Great Quarter, Sorry Netflix Disney+ By Ryan Scott/May 11, 2022 5:55 pm EST Disney is currently riding high in the streaming world as the company recently reported its quarterly earnings, and the numbers were pretty much all great — particularly as it relates to streaming endeavors, with Disney+ adding nearly 8 million subscribers in the past quarter. This is in stark contrast to what is going on at Netflix right now; the landscape is changing and it’s changing fast....