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Film

30 Behind-the-Scenes Monster Movie Photos That Will Blow Your Mind

By Jason Bailey on

Because it came out in the ‘90s and now people old enough to remember it are running websites, a lot of Internet ink has been spilled recently over the 20th anniversary of The Sandlot, writer/director David Mikey Evans’s 1993 remembrance of baseball, boyhood friends, and the summer of ’62. But the most interesting discovery of all of this nostalgia bathing was the unveiling of three photos (by Mr. Evans himself) of the elaborate puppets they used to create “The Beast,” the giant English mastiff that terrifies that neighborhood kids. Looking at those images (and you can check them out after the jump), we get a little nostalgic ourselves — for a time when computers weren’t the solution for scaring an audience, leaving artists and puppeteers to create the horrifying creatures of moviedom. Let’s take a look at how it used to be done. … Read More

Film

Inventive Artwork Inspired by New York Movies

By Jason Bailey on

Brooklyn’s Bottleneck Gallery opens a new exhibit tomorrow that’s rather close to our hearts: The Popular Face of New York, in which artist Raid71 (aka Chris Thornley) reinterprets classic NYC scenes from movies, as well as paying tribute to those who create them. The results are clever, inspired, and frequently funny. Check out some of our favorite pieces below, and if you’re in New York, visit the show in person through Friday, March 29; online sales begin Saturday, March 16 at approximately noon EDT. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. A $30 million musical version of King Kong that’s currently in the works in Australia might be heading to Broadway, perhaps as soon as 2014. In case any part of you thinks that this sounds like a good idea, producers are reportedly eying the space currently occupied by Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. [via… Read More

Film

10 Movies That Make Us Miss the Twin Towers

By Jason Bailey on

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

Movies Banned in Foreign Countries for Weird Reasons

By Victoria McNally on

Keeping in mind the amount of gratuitous violence and rape that goes on in David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, India’s decision to bar the film from showing there is easy to understand, albeit unfortunate from a creative standpoint. But the highly publicized decision got us thinking about some of the less obvious justifications some countries have used to keep foreign movies from their theaters. We’ve rounded up a handful of the oddest bannings from around the world for your consideration after the jump. … Read More

Film

‘Beauty and the Beast-Style’ Love on Film

By Alison Nastasi on

Disney’s 1991 animated favorite Beauty and the Beast is being re-released in theaters on January 13. The studio saw dancing dollar signs in their eyes when a 3D re-release of The Lion King performed well at the box office. They decided to give their film about an unlikely love connection the same treatment. The mouse house has three other 3D versions planned for Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and The Little Mermaid — which is a genuinely cool opportunity to enjoy the classics on the big screen if you missed them the first time.

The contemporary screen fable was inspired by the 18th century fairy tale La Belle et la Bête and Jean Cocteau’s stunning movie of the same name — both of which didn’t feature Law & Order‘s Jerry Orbach as the voice of a feisty French candelabra, but all things can’t be perfect. The trope of the angsty monster — a device sometimes used quite literally and other times implied — soothed by a kind and loving lady has been a cinematic plot line for ages (cue “Tale As Old As Time”). We looked at several examples of beauty and beast romance on film past the break. Did we leave out your favorite star-crossed lovers? Share them with us below. … Read More

Art

Pic of the Day: Aging Pop Icons

By Caitlin Brody on

Francesco de Molfetta’s exhibit, New Icons, currently on display in Milan’s Don Gallery, takes super recognizable 80′s icons and places them into a world with a lot less activity, and much more… Read More

Web

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

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we felt bad for Patrick Swayze; nothing’s worse than becoming a hot search term on Twitter because people think you’re dead. We had no sympathy for Jessica Biel. Without resorting to snark: Grace Kelly. Meryl Streep. Marilyn Monroe. Being hot is not the reason you don’t get choice parts. We… Read More

Web

The Five Most Insane, Famous Monkeys of All Time

By Caroline Stanley on

Yesterday 15-year-old Travis was just another chimp in showbiz with hobbies that included drinking fine wine and surfing the web. That was before he was shot dead by police after “inexplicably” going berserko on owner Sandra Herold’s BFF. According to the AP:

“[Stamford police Capt. Richard] Conklin told reporters the chimp was acting so agitated earlier that afternoon that Herold gave him the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in some tea. Conklin also suggested the animal may have attacked Nash because she was wearing her hair differently and perhaps wasn’t recognized.”

After the jump, in honor of our fallen friend and to prove that he’s not alone, we count down the five craziest pop culture primates of all time. Let us know who we’ve left out in the comments. [PS. Thanks to what evs (dot org) for the inspiration; we couldn't stop giggling at your post, so we decided that we had to write our own.] … Read More