Movies

There you have it fans, Deadpool’s official suit for the forthcoming Deadpool (2016) movie: With great power, comes great irresponsibility. #deadpool #officialsuit @deadpoolmovie pic.twitter.com/MPM89bYz1B — Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 27, 2015 Which is maybe better than the featured image for the article probably suggested. Sane though Lady Deadpool may be. Speaking of, hopefully this time around the Merc with a Mouth actually has a mouth to use. After the debacle that was Deadpool towards the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, one can only hope. How exactly that movie ended up with some mouthless, uninspired Mortal Kombat-esque Baraka rip-off in place of Deadpool is more mysterious than the serious origins of this hirsute superhero (also kindly tweeted by Ryan Reynolds). Surely even Dogpool had to have been a barking lot better than pseudo-Barakapool? Even with Deadpool’s freakish healing abilities, it has taken many years for him to recover from that misstep! Fans are a ...

The movie Beetlejuice (1988), nearly three decades later still has an ongoing debate about the correct spelling of the title character’s name. (Because that’s what the internet does.) Is it Beetlejuice, Betelgeuse, or- Better stop before summoning the ghost with the most. In the film, which is accepted as being called Beetlejuice, the spelling on Michael Keaton character’s tombstone is Betelgeuse, so perhaps the maker of the tombstone was the one who misspelled it? Although the character is a ghost, and this is probably overthinking it. It also doesn’t account for the spelling in the ad for the “freelance bio-exorcist” himself. The explanation offered here, is that the difference of title between the movie’s name Beetlejuice and the character’s name Betelgeuse, was largely a studio-driven marketing decision (and artistic compromise, better than the studio-suggested House Ghosts and Burton’s tongue-in-cheek counter of Scared Sheetless, which was apparently seriously considered by the studio). ...

Daily Planet and Wayne Enterprises, of a Sort When the news broke that Ben Affleck would be the next Batman, the next one to don the cowl of the Dark Knight, it was met with mixed and divisive reactions. It seems that everything burns. Rebooting so soon after the Nolan trilogy, maybe it is not about the message and all about the money? Baffle Me This Gothamites have weighed in, knowing that if the new Batman vs. Superman vs. Batman (it should be two out of those three, in some order) movie set to be released in 2015, is no good, the punishment must be more severe than mere flame wars on Twitter. “Holy three letter acronyms Batman!” They may be some of the nicer things said. Of course the conspiracy theorists out there – of which there may be a few on the internet – will have noticed the ...

Abdellatif Kechiche’s film, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, won the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The film, is a three-hour drama, telling the story of two young French lesbians played by actresses Adèle Exarchopolous and Léa Seydoux.  Blue Is the Warmest Colour sweeps across the emotive, yet familiar, spectrum of young lust and love, anger and sadness, closeness and distance. Much talk has been made of the bold, explicit, and lengthy use of the lesbian sex scenes. Cinematic use of graphic sex scenes – always in the name of art – have often been talking points of films, from Klute to the more recent Black Swan.  (The latter also sharing a lesbian sex scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman; arguably giving males an excuse to enjoy a film about ballet.) Critics have generally favoured Blue Is the Warmest Colour, believing the awarded Palme is well deserved.  ...

The Cannes Film Festival, a scene of glitz and glamour.  Another place for the stars to shine, and also a place for some of the less mainstream, outside of Hollywood, films to maybe do the same. Amongst those was director Roman Polanski, there to premiere his latest film, Venus in Fur.  The film stars Polanski’s wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Mathieu Amalric.  Adapted from the play by David Ives, it tells the story of an actress and theatre director rehearsing Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novella Venus in Furs.  Examining the roles of gender, as the actress overshadows the director. Not that Roman Polanski is any stranger to controversy, his 1979 conviction of having sex with a minor, saw him flee the United States to avoid further legal issues.  (Maybe playing out vaguely somewhat like Lolita.)  Polanski has again courted controversy with his comments at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. Whether ...

A time about now in a world on the 4th, 4th May… Scrolling Star Wars text starts here.  Sure John Williamson will do the musical score for it. Star Wars, it’s the cultural phenomenon that has launched such things as: Moves to make Jedi an official religion in censuses worldwide The metal bikini, as comfortable as it is sexy. Generations of folks that have tried to use the Force to do everything from opening their doors in the morning to choking someone with a closing hand gesture from afar. It hasn’t all been good though.  There is a dark side to it.  Beyond Caravan of Courage (it wasn’t ‘that’ bad), beyond the whole confusion with the introduction of midi-chlorians (as if mitochondria weren’t already confusing enough), and even beyond Jar Jar Binks, there have been some clangers along the way. Including plot holes big enough to fly the Millennium Falcon though.  If the Rebels blew up ...

With the approach of May the 4th almost being with us, both the Rebel Alliance and the Empire are gearing up.  Meanwhile George Lucas is sitting about as pretty Jabba the Hutt after the US$4 billion sale of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise to Disney.  (That Mouse has got some money!)  It was also announced that JJ Abrams will be directing (at least) the first movie in the new sequel trilogy.  The new trilogy movies will roll out in 2015, 2017, and 2019; with another two spinoff movies filling in the yearly gaps between Star Wars: Episode VII, VIII and IX. With not such a long time to go for this much new Star Wars, and many of the original cast rumoured to be returning how could things go wrong? Three words may sum it up:  Jar Jar Binks. And with JJ Abrams now directing both the new Star ...

With the recent release of Oz the Great and Powerful, a film that many are describing as the Tin Man in the Emerald City – no heart and a lot of money spent – despite the fact that the original was an allegory on US monetary policy (who’d have thought), people are wondering several things. Has James Franco done it again.  Let’s leave that rhetorical question unanswered. Notwithstanding Rise of the Planet of the Apes and now the links to the flying monkey (see how far Zach Braff has come since Scrubs ended), many are also wondering when it comes to simians, if the flying monkey is the best mythical pet.  (Or minion, if you want to do evil.  Perhaps being the anti-Google.) You may know exactly what you’re thinking, that’s easy enough. Predicting what the crowd is thinking is another matter. Maybe you should discard your brain of straw for a moment ...