Cameron Crowe

10 Movies You Never Knew Were Also TV Shows

By Jason Bailey on Mar 26, 2013 11:00am

‘Tis the season for adapting movies into television shows: A&E made a big splash with its Psycho prequel series Bates Motel, NBC has its Hannibal Lecter series Hannibal on deck for an April 4 debut, and Amazon has just announced its order for a pilot episode of Zombieland, based on the 2009 Jesse Eisenberg/Woody Harrelson movie. With all this activity stewing in the movie-to-TV pipeline, let’s not forget one important fact: with only a few exceptions, most TV shows based on motion pictures sink without a trace. Don’t believe us? Here are ten movie-to-TV adaptations that you probably didn’t know… Read More

Film

This Supercut Will Make You Never Want to Fly Again

By Jason Bailey on Nov 2, 2012 10:30am

It has its share of problems (contrary to what the ads are showing you, it spends most of its running time being yet another addiction melodrama), but Robert Zemeckis’ Flight does have one major draw: its opening in-flight sequences are among the most gripping, terrifying flying scenes ever put to film. And that’s not an easy boast to make — over the past several years, many filmmakers have brought the air traveler’s biggest fear to harrowing life on screen. After the jump, we’ve put together a dozen of the most harrowing flying sequences into this exclusive supercut. … Read More

Film

The Best Dylan Cues in Movie History

By Jason Bailey on Sep 11, 2012 10:31am

So Bob Dyan’s got a new album out today, and while your film editor usually sticks to the movie beat, it’s not like Dylan is just a music figure, or even that vaguest of descriptions, a “pop culture icon.” He’s also an ever-present force in film and television, with his songs (as either writer or performer) appearing in nearly 400 movies and TV shows (according to IMDb). And while at least half of those are lazy filmmakers using the opening riff of Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” cover to convey the turbulence of the sixties, that’s still quite a lot of Zimmy on film — he’s been much more free with his licensing than, say, the Beatles, whose best cinematic cues we ran down a couple of months back. In honor of Dylan’s new record (always a cause for celebration), we do the same for him below — with the same rules, i.e., no covers, no straight-up performances, but scenes where the music of Mr. Dylan is spotlighted, and in turn furthers the action and mood. Our ten favorites are after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 Movies That Make Us Miss the Twin Towers

By Jason Bailey on Sep 10, 2012 12:00pm

It’s always a bit of a jolt to flip through a photo album or an old high school yearbook and to come upon a picture of someone who’s gone, a beloved relative or a classmate who left before their time — it hits you fast, and, for just a moment, it hurts again, the force of that loss compressed into a single moment of grief. It’s not the exact same feeling, but there’s something like that moment when you watch a movie shot in New York between the 1970s and 2001, and that inevitable shot of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center appears. The towers appeared in literally hundreds of films, sometimes as background, sometimes very active in the onscreen action, but its eventual fate always makes it the foreground object when those films are viewed now. On the eve of this sad anniversary, a look at ten movies that make us miss the World Trade Center even more. … Read More

Film

10 of Film’s Greatest Sex Comedies

By Jason Bailey on Aug 30, 2012 12:30pm

We’ve been excited about For A Good Time, Call… since its Sundance premiere, and not just because it (like fellow Sundance film Bachelorette, on demand now and in theaters next month) indicates that the post-Bridesmaids female-heavy R-rated comedy surge is actually going to happen. More than that, For A Good Time is, quite simply, a very funny and exquisitely likable sex comedy, and there’s a shortage of those any way you slice it. There’s no shortage of sex comedies, of course — since the early ‘80s heyday of Porky’s and Hardbodies and their ilk, they’ve been all but ubiquitous. But have you ever tried going back and watching those iconic titles? Good heavens. They do not hold up well.

But a select few do. After the jump, we’ve assembled ten of our all-time favorite sex comedies (which we’re defining as movies where sex is the primary preoccupation/subject matter); add your own in the comments. … Read More

Film

10 Viciously Backlashed Movies We Still Like (and Why)

By Jason Bailey on Apr 5, 2012 3:00pm

Backlash is a funny thing. It’s always been present in popular culture, but it feels as though it’s become particularly prominent over the past few years, an unavoidable step in any celebrated film, band, book, or television show’s penetration into the cultural landscape: first comes critical acclaim, then financial success, then ubiquity, and then the inevitable backlash from those who object (or who have turned, perhaps because of said popularity and/or ubiquity). Sometimes, the pendulum swings back and the backlash fades — but often, the negative connotation is what sticks, and that’s what becomes the lasting perception.

This week’s 3D rerelease of Titanic got us thinking about backlash, and how often we find ourselves defending movies that were, at least in the beginning, critical and popular hits, but have since fallen out of public favor. Thus, we’ve collected ten movies that the worm turned on — but that we’re standing by, damnit, and we’ll tell you why. Check them out after the jump, and add your own in the comments. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Judy Berman on Dec 23, 2011 10:01am

1. Tyler, the Creator — who, along with his Odd Future cohorts, made our list of the year’s most controversial cultural icons — is in trouble again. The rapper was arrested in Hollywood last night for destroying sound equipment at the Roxy, where he had performed. Also, his mom was there. [via … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on Nov 22, 2011 9:00pm

Today at Flavorpill, we met 100 of the greatest movie villains. We loved this hilarious Thanksgiving-themed spoof on The Hunger Games from McSweeney’s. We heartily agreed with this Thanksgiving Food Pyramid. We found it incredibly endearing that Cameron Crowe made Matt Damon a really sad mixtape to… Read More

Film

The Most Definitive Music Cues in Film History

By Jason Bailey on Nov 10, 2011 12:30pm

There’s a terrific little movie coming out tomorrow called London Boulevard (it’s available now on demand as well), a tough British gangster flick along the lines of The Long Good Friday or Mona Lisa, starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley and directed by William Monahan, who wrote The Departed. But his stylish direction and their charismatic performances aren’t why I can’t get the picture out of my head. It’s because of the Yardbirds.

Three times in the film (the opening credits, the closing credits, and a key point in-between), Monahan fires up “Heart Full of Soul,” the marvelously moody blues-rocker from 1965. It’s a great song, but it’s so well-matched to the film that they’re now all tied up together in my head; it’s pretty safe to bet that any time I hear that song from now on (which, being a Yardbirds fan, will be more often than you’d think), there will be an image of Farrell on his jail cot to accompany it.

And that’s the power of a well-chosen music cue in film; when they’re properly matched, we’ve suddenly married them, and anytime we hear that song we see that scene, and anytime we think of that movie, we hear that song. After the jump, we present ten songs that are forever tied to the movies that showcased them (and, just to keep it fair, there’s no songs from “musicals,” and no songs that were composed specifically for the film in question). Agree, disagree, and add your own in the comments. … Read More