Too Many Lifeless Aspects Drag The Dead Don't Die Down

In the quiet small American town of Centerville, some strange occurrences are happening. Just when it's supposed to be night outside, the sun is shining as if it's the middle of the day. Animals are vanishing. Did I mention that polar ice caps are being so severely fracked that it's adversely affecting the Earth's axis? Yep, lots and lots of strange occurrences happening around Centerville. Police officers Ronald Peterson (Adam Driver) and Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) are perturbed by such events and they only become even more concerned once two local citizens are slaughtered in a vicious fashion. Only a zombie could do such a slaying. Oh boy. This is not going to end well.

Ed Wood Provides A Thoughtful Ode To The Man Behind Plan 9 From Outer Space

Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) is a filmmaker. Or at least he will be. Right now, in the year 1952, he just writes and directs plays that barely anyone sees, but nobody has a can-do spirit like Ed Wood, yes sir. He's constantly pitching his ideas for movies to anyone in Hollywood who will listen to him and, wouldn't you know it, he's finally got his shot! He's supposed to direct a movie that will eventually turn into Glen or Glenda and it's the feature that establishes the precedent for what kind of films Ed Wood will direct throughout his entire career: cheaply made, full of continuity errors and full of creative passion. Maybe people don't like his movies, but Ed Woods love making them and that's what drives him as an artist.

Isle of Dogs Is A Very Very Good Boy And Deserves A Belly Rub

One of the many pieces of connective tissue between the assorted directorial efforts of Wes Anderson is the element of families, Wes Anderson loves to explore complex, typically fractured, family dynamics. Whether it's the two brothers who lead Bottle Rocket, the expansive Tenenbaum clan or Mr. Fox and his kin, Anderson is fascinated by the storytelling possibilities offered up by complicated families. It's a recurring narrative pattern of his that has served him well in the past, but he's been eschewing it in his most recent works, first in The Grand Budapest Hotel and again in his newest feature Isle of Dogs. Both of these movies are superb works that indicate Anderson works just fine as a filmmaker without the aid of family dynamics in the stories he tells.

Rushmore Is A Phenomenal Examination of A Teenager Coming To Terms With Reality

Allow me to cut to the chase here and say, upfront and outright, that I absolutely loved Rushmore. This is a movie that just captured my attention from the moment it began and even long after its credits stopped rolling it's still occupying a space in my mind. The reasons for this are numerous, but before I detail those reasons, allow me to establish what exactly this motion picture is about. Rushmore begins by introducing our lead character, fifteen-year-old Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), in a math class where the teacher has put up a math problem that nobody he's ever known has been able to solve for extra credit. Putting down the newspaper he's reading in class, Fischer goes up to the board to solve it.

Scrooged Gives Charles Dickens A Bill Murray Twist

Why do storytellers love A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens so much to the point that it's appeared in countless pieces of media for over a century now? Well, it being in the public domain certainly doesn't hurt, but the narrative allows one to easily plug in characters into the well-known roles of the multiple ghosts, Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, etc. Plus, the lead character, Ebenezer Scrooge, stands out amongst other Christmas tales in that he's crotchety and cruel, though his unique (among Christmas-related tales) personality does get resolved just in time for an emotionally fulfilling climax. It's basically a "have your cake and eat it too" scenario with Scrooge on a thematic level.

You Should Press Pause On Passion Play

Back in, oh, I'd say...2010, I say an image from Passion Play in an issue of Entertainment Weekly with the publication promoting said image as "an exclusive first look" of an upcoming movie starring then-recent Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke and one of the lead characters of the Transformers movies. I simply assumed from that moment on that Passion Play would be a high-profile release only for the feature film to vanish off the face of the Earth afterward. It received a small May 2011 theatrical release in two locations that summoned up a massive $3,669 domestic gross and five years later I've finally managed to watch this movie.

Tootsie Review (Classic Write-Up)

As weird as it may sound, Tootsie clinched the idea for me that Dustin Hoffman is one of my favorite actors. Not that I've "disliked" him before mind you, far far far from it, I've really enjoyed his performances in the likes of Rain Man and The Graduate. But Tootsie is one where he gets to exist in a more overtly comedic environment and he thrives in it while retaining the kind of persona that's made him a Hollywood legend. Also of note is that surrounding Hoffman in Tootsie are two other noteworthy actors who would go on to become notable fixtures of the silver screen themselves, Bill Murray and Jessica Lange.

The Jungle Book Review

I'm a hardcore Disney fan (my first word as a human being, believe it or not, was Disney), but, to be perfectly frank, this new wave of live-action adaptations of classic Disney cartoons hasn't really done much for me. Alice In Wonderland was typical modern day Tim Burton pablum, Maleficent's few interesting ideas (namely weaving in a metaphor for rape into the backstory of its titular character) were severely overshadowed by how tedious and uninspired the rest of the film's story and characters were and Cinderella was only inoffensive at best. But finally, oh finally, one of these live-action adaptations has finally turned out to be a well-made movie in its own right.

B.O.O.: The DreamWorks Animation Movie You Will Never See

There is an animated family comedy named B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Organisms starring Seth Rogen and Mellissa McCarthy as crime-fighting ghosts. Their foe? Bill Murray as an evil ghosts. This feature had a plot that basically sounded like a more family-friendly version of the 2013 box office dud R.I.P.D., had Rashida Jones, Matt Bomer and Octavia Spencer in supporting roles, and was slated to be released this past June.  However, it was pulled from the release schedule just six-and-a-half months prior to its release. Apparently, the film was in post-production when it was cancelled, to the point that when director Tony Leondis was announced as the director of The Emoji Movie, the press release for that development noted that his previous film, B.O.O., had actually been completed under his watch.

Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone Go To Hawaii In Trailer For Aloha

There's few actors I like more than Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone. I'd add Bill Murray, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride and John Krasinski to that list too. So why does a film, called Aloha, that unites all these actors together look so....cookie-cutter? No really, this trailer plays more like a parody of the conventions of these kind of dramedy features instead of an actual concrete tease of a film. Check it out for yourself below.

St. Vincent Review

After all of his party crashing, french fry thievery and Space Jam cameos, it sorta feels weird to see Bill Murray headline a by-the-numbers feature like St. Vincent. It's not that he's bad in it, or that the film is some monstrosity (it's really not), but it's just sorta routine and lacking in the inventive spark that marks the works of filmmakers Murray usually collaborates with like Wes Anderson.

Bridesmaids Director Paul Feig Set To Direct Ghostbusters Reboot

Ghostbusters 3 has been a potentiality for years, mainly through Dan Aykroyds refusal to give up on the franchise. But Bill Murray has always said he'd never do another one, and earlier this year the director of the two original Ghostbusters films Ivan Reitman also said he's not up for another proton pack adventure. That seemed like the end of the road for the busters...until now. Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, is officially onboard to direct the film.

Space Jam Review....Why Is This Movie So Popular?

If You Wanna Slam...You Probably Grew Up In My Generation

What is Michael Jordan standing on in this thing??
That circle can't possibly hold him, can it?

Four months back, me and a bunch of friends sat down to rewatch a movie that we knew had shaped not only our own cinema sensibilities, but pretty much our entire generation. Was it the only movie to do this? Of course not. But a movie where Michael Jordan faces off against a Danny DeVito voiced alien is likely to remain one of the more memorable features to have that kind of impact. We popped in the VHS, and it started.

I Wanna See That!: Space Jam

I find it weird that Sylvester got to be on this CD cover and not Daffy.

In this Thursday fixture, I Wanna See That!, I take a look at specific trailers that are both well crafted and have some kind of importance to them beyond just informing you a film is coming soon. This week, welcome to the jam as I start my epic coverage of the 1990's film Space Jam by taking a look at its trailer.