OK, How About We Get All Of The Details Straight On The Inhumans Becoming An ABC TV Series That'll Air Right After The Middle, Shall We?

I'm not as familiar with The Inhumans via their comic book appearances as I am with numerous other Marvel comic book characters, but they are the kind of overtly stylized science-fiction nonsense I can groove on rather easily. I mean, the Royal Family of Inhumans contains a guy who can't speak lest he his vocals destroy entire planets, a woman whose hair can tear enemies apart, a fish person and a gigantic teleporting bulldog. When it was announced this Royal Family would be headlining a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to be released in November 2018, well, I was happy as clam.

Beauty And The Beast Trailer Is Angling For Your Millennial Nostalgia

The next in Disney's long line of upcoming live-action adaptations of their animated movies (which somehow does not include a Home On The Range remake from director Peter Strickland) is Beauty And The Beast, which already had the most watched trailer of all-time this past summer and is now looking to translate the popularity of its trailer into box office success. That shouldn't be a problem at all (seriously, this thing's gonna be a box office...beast!), but will it actually be a good movie? Pete's Dragon and The Jungle Book suggest these live-action Disney remakes are on the upswing quality-wise but the likes of Maleficent and Alice In Wonderland still linger in one's mind. Well, there's a new trailer for Beauty & The Beast that looks to give prospective moviegoers a better glimpse as to what's to come.

Doctor Strange Wins The Box Office Again While Arrival Arrives To Solid Numbers Over Veteran's Day Weekend

Alright, let's talk about some box office figures, shall we? Maybe it'll take all of our minds off some....not so good recent real world events for just a moment.

Arrival Is An Excellent Demonstration Of The Power Of Visual Storytelling

We've had a lot of alien invasion movies over the decades, but the best ones are those that carve a distinct tone and perspective in their narrative, the movies that seek to do something more than just have aliens blow stuff up. Sometimes ya get the anarchic glee of Mars Attacks!, other times you get the post-9/11 allegories of War Of The Worlds. So what is Arrival's particular approach to the alien invasion subgenre? Intimacy, honestly. Just in the way the movies shot alone suggests a sense of the filmmakers wanting the audience to become familiar with its protagonist and connect with her on her journey of discovery.

Kurt Russell And A Go-For-Broke Attitude Shine In Big Trouble In Little China

To look at the career of director John Carpenter in an in-depth manner is to realize that this guy was nothing if not tonally versatile in the work he produced. The creepy horror film Halloween launched his vocation as a filmmaker into the stratosphere, while the 1982 effort The Thing returned Carpenter to the horror genre with plenty of newfound science-fiction elements to keep things fresh. John Carpenter's 1986 feature Big Trouble In Little China is a bold departure of either of those previously mentioned movies in a myriad of ways, not only in the way it constantly uses Eastern and Chinese imagery but also in its more zany light-hearted atmosphere.

What Do We Do Now? Where Do We Go?

If you're at all a reasonable person, you're likely gripped by fear by the results of yesterday's election that have ensured that rapist and white supremacist Donald Trump will be the 45th President Of The United States. A man fueled by hatred is ruling our country, and his followers who love to burn black churches and support his rhetoric will only help ensure that the racially-based bigotry (which has always existed in our country for that matter) he has exploited for this election will become all the more prominent. Now would be a great time for someone to offer words that stir one's soul and let everyone know everything's going to be alright in the end.

That is not this piece of writing.

Hacksaw Ridge Is An Over-Done But Mostly Emotionally Satisfying War Drama

In an on-air interview with Stephen Colbert this past week, Mel Gibson made explicit mention that he felt that the act of suffering was a critical part of his religion, Catholicism. And that comes through loud and clear in Hacksaw Ridge, a World War II movie that makes sure to find plenty of time to linger on the kind of barbaric violence and grotesque casualties that occur in war. His devotion to his faith also manages to have a heavy presence in the movie by way of the lead characters strict adherence to the ways of Jesus Christ. It must be said, as a Christian myself, it is truly nice to see a movie with my theology at the center of it that's actually well-made and professional looking. This isn't a God's Not Dead type endeavor in terms of production value in other words.

Inferno Is So Bad I'm Not Even Giving It A Hell-Themed Pun. It Doesn't Deserve My Puns.

Just a few days after seeing The Handmaiden, a fantastic example of using plot twists to enhance plot lines and characters, here comes Inferno, whose entire purpose seems to be to serve as the nadir of what gratuitous story twists can accomplish. There is literally nothing going on in Inferno beyond two acts that plunge the viewer into complete confusion before revealing a final act that ceaselessly drops plot twists on the audience in the same way donuts were served to Homer Simpson in Hell in Treehouse Of Horror IV. Could this be the worst 21st-century movie Tom Hanks has starred in? Mayhaps people, mayhaps.

Man Clutching Anime Body Pillow Claims Film Critic Who Affected A Films Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Infested With "Bias"

Earlier this morning, local Texas pizza roll devourer and anime body pillow aficionado Justin Dunnigan took to the internet to express grievances with a film critic named Tina Harmon who dared to give a negative review to the forthcoming Star Wars movie Star Wars: They Built An Even Bigger Death Star This Time. Dunnigan noticed the individuals negative opinion upon immediately recognizing that said movie review had knocked the Star Wars movies Rotten Tomatoes score from 100% to a mere 98%. Despite having not seen the movie, Justin Dunnigan immediately noted that Tina Harmon was "full of bias" and "being paid off for her review".

Doctor Strange Casts A Spell Over the Box Office While Trolls Have A Hair-Raising Opening Weekend And Audiences Show Loving Some...Money

Well, after so many box office bombs, something's finally going right for Marvel Studios at the box office, as one of their movies for once may actually make some money at the box office. All snarking aside, Doctor Strange had a mighty strong opening weekend, grossing $84.9 million in its bow, only $600,000 beneath the debut of the only other Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to debut in November, Thor: The Dark World. It's also the biggest sub-$100 million opening weekend for a 2016 movie and the third biggest November opening weekend ever for a movie that doesn't belong to the Harry Potter, Twilight or Hunger Games franchises.

The Birds Isn't Quite Peak Alfred Hitchcock, Though It's Not Outright Fowl Either (Classic Write-Up)

The Birds is a movie that's become one of Alfred Hitchcock's most influential features, which is truly saying something considering the dudes IMDB filmography is stacked with motion pictures whose impact spreads far and wide across the globe. Some of that I would say is due to it being one of the few horror films to revolve around threatening avian creatures (the only other noteworthy movies are B-grade schlock like Beaks: The Movie or Birdemic: Shock And Terror), giving it a sort of unique nature that makes it stands out in people's minds, there's no way you'll confuse The Birds with many other movies.

By Embracing Its Unique Traits, Doctor Strange Becomes A Visually Impressive Winner

A number of these non-sequel Marvel Cinematic Universe features have big questions looming over them that somehow make new entries in one of the biggest franchises of all-time "underdogs" in certain respects. For Doctor Strange, the queries surrounding this property are particularly noteworthy. Can Benedict Cumberbatch play Doctor Strange in a way that doesn't immediately remind viewers of the countless other socially inadequate but brilliant characters he's played? Can the character of Doctor Strange be executed without coming off like Iron Man 2.0? And then there are the uncomfortable racial aspects to the character that have only been compounded by the white-washing casting of Tilda Swinton as the Tibetan character The Ancient One.

Prepare For Glorious Battle With The New Trailer For Wonder Woman!!

So...look, it's been a bit of a rough year for DC, let's not beat around the bush. Neither of their live-action films were quite the box office bonanzas (read: billion-dollar hits) they were hoping for, both Suicide Squad and especially Batman v. Superman were critically savaged and even that Killing Joke movie became a punchline thanks to a Comic-Con panel gone horribly awry and that Batman/Batgirl romantic subplot. Luckily, the future holds some hopeful properties such as a new animated Justice League TV show that looks like a lot of fun and next year's Wonder Woman movie, which just dropped a new trailer that you can watch directly below!

What The Actual Hell Is Going On With American Pastoral?

Now that we're 50 years removed from America in the 1960's, any given storytelling has enough distance from that 10 year period in this countries history to cultivate a story that can really lend a sharp eye to this decade with a sense of perspective. For his directorial debut, Ewan McGregor adapts the Philip Roth novel American Pastoral, which primarily takes place in the 1960's and revolves around various events that shaped this era, namely the Vietnam War and radical protestors of this war. And it ends up saying nothing at all and doing nothing despite attempting to give off the impression that lots of something are occurring on-screen. It's like that one passage from an Alice In Wonderland book where Alice has to keep running just to stay in one place.

Deceit And Romance Are Parallel Forces In The Handmaiden

My unfamiliarity with the works of South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook meant I walked into my screening of The Handmaiden with a sense of uncertainty wafting over my being. I'd heard plenty of positive things about this project, but like I said, I haven't seen past Park Chan-wook films like Stoker and Oldboy, so I had no idea what kind of atmosphere, themes or recurring storytelling ideas run through his work. My lack of exposure to his past efforts means I can't say exactly how The Handmaiden fits into his body of work as a whole, but I can say that I'm extremely curious to see other pieces of work Park Chan-wook considering just how entertaining and well-crafted The Handmaiden is.

Halloween Is A Terrifying Movie About What Happens When Fear Intrudes On Normalcy

Even if no other high-quality horror films had been released that decade, it's quite likely that the 1970's would have cultivated a persona as a landmark decade for horror cinema solely thanks to the presence of the massive success of the micro-budget horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But that phenomenal horror feature would not be the only low-budget entry in that genre to soar in this era, as four years after Leatherface sliced up a bunch of teenagers Michael Myers would enter the world of horror cinema via Halloween and, much like Leatherface before him, change the landscape of horror movies forever.

Tom Hanks Inferno Falls Beneath Box Office Victor Boo! A Madea Halloween

First of all, I wanted to make a thorough apology for something that appeared in last week's box office article written by yours truly. I inadvertently used a terrible awful racial slur in the headline of last week's box office round-up article and from the bottom of my heart, I want to say I am so very sorry.  While I had no clue that the word itself was a racial slur when I used it initially, that's no excuse for the ignorance my article spread and I shall be more diligent about such things in the future. Again, my most sincere apologies to everyone, I assure you, it won't happen again.

300 Is Sparta...And Also Pretty Middling

And so it was with March 2007 that Zack Snyder went from being just another director of one of the many horror remakes created in the mid-2000's to a visual auteur. In the nearly decade since 300's release, Snyder has received a, let's say, divisive reputation, with his last three films (Sucker Punch, Man Of Steel and Batman v. Superman) garnering a particularly negative response. But before all that, there was the subject of this review, 300, the film that launched a wave of new films full of slow-motion (a technique that had obviously existed before but had been made cool again by those 300 spartan warriors) and other movies starring Gerard Butler.

I Saw The Light Is An Abysmal Ode To A Country Music Legend

For those searching for a motion picture that examines the life of 1950's country music sensation Hank Williams in a remotely interesting way, well, you're gonna have to look elsewhere, because such a film is most certainly not what you'll find in the 2016 motion picture I Saw The Light. If you've been looking everywhere for the worst kind of musical biopic, the sort of movie that goes through a real-life individuals life with no compelling drama or filmmaking to speak of, well, I'd ask you what kind of life choices led to you pursuing such a hunt, but I suppose I Saw The Light fits such qualifiers.

Angels & Demons Is, At Best, Only Passable, But It's Got Way More Life In It Than Its Predeccesor

It's hard to imagine someone walking out of The Da Vinci Code in the summer of 2006 and going "Oh man, I wanna return to that universe!", though it's easy to picture vividly audiences leaving screenings of that 2006 Ron Howard film and muttering under their breaths "What was all the hype about?". And yet, Sony/Columbia was not going to be the studio that ignored the $700 million worldwide box office gross of The Da Vinci Code and respond to it with a sequel, so May 2009 brought the world Angels & Demons, a book actually published prior to The Da Vinci Code but reformatted as a sequel in its cinematic adaptation.