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10 Suggested New Year’s Resolutions for Filmmakers

By Jason Bailey on

Happy New Year’s Eve, everybody! Yes, it’s one of those wonderful days where we can get a little bit of comfort out of knowing we’re all doing many of the same things: picking out our best-looking outfit, grousing about how holiday snacking means we can no longer fit into our best-looking outfit, preparing to get out and have an amazing New Year’s Eve, preparing for the inevitable disappointment of another lame New Year’s Eve, and, of course, working up our New Year’s resolutions. But here’s what’s great about working at a pop culture blog: we can put off making our own resolutions by making them for others. It’s fun! Thus, after the jump, we’ve got some 2013 resolutions for a few of our favorite (and some of our least favorite) filmmakers. Check them out after the jump. … Read More

Film

9 Things We Learned at Last Night’s ‘Princess Bride’ Reunion

By Jason Bailey on

Tuesday night, the New York Film Festival celebrated the 25th anniversary of The Princess Bride (and the release of a new Blu-ray tied to said anniversary) with a special screening of the film, followed by a Q&A with several members of the cast and crew. The movie was raucously received by the rowdy audience: they applauded their favorite lines, cheered the entrances of its many memorable characters like old friends arriving at a party, and generally ate it up with a spoon. After the closing credits, director Rob Reiner, screenwriter William Goldman, and co-stars Billy Crystal, Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Carol Kane, and Chris Sarandon sat down for a Q&A with NYFF Associate Programming Director Scott Foundas. A few highlights from that chat after the jump. … Read More

Film

The 10 Best Stephen King Movies

By Jason Bailey on

Tomorrow is the 65th birthday of Mr. Stephen King — yep, the master of pop horror is now a senior citizen — so break out a party hat, have a slice of cake, and douse yourself in pig’s blood. Mr. King’s gradual progression, over the last couple of decades, from genre populist to critical darling has been a joy to watch. But the conventional wisdom that his books make for lousy movies inexplicably still holds. Make no mistake, they’ve turned his works into some turkeys, as anyone who’s sat through Graveyard Shift, Dreamcatcher, or his first (and so far only) directorial effort Maximum Overdrive can tell you. But his novels and stories have also provided the groundwork for several genuinely great movies — many of them, surprisingly enough, not even set in the world of the supernatural. After the jump, our picks for the best Stephen King movies to date. … Read More

Film

10 Once-Great Directors Who’ve Lost Their Touch

By Jason Bailey on

Rob Reiner has a new movie in theaters this Friday; it’s called The Magic of Belle Isle, it stars Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen, and it is just plain terrible. This shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point in the Reiner filmography; after a hot streak that included the likes of This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, and Stand By Me, Reiner went cold after 1995′s The American President and hasn’t made a great movie since. It happens — for every Scorsese that maintains a consistent quality for decades on end, there are plenty of filmmakers who don’t (even such greats as Hitchcock, Wilder, Chaplin, and Hawks were turning out clunkers at the end of their distinguished careers). In fact, we took an inventory, and dug up 10 more contemporary filmmakers who have gone cold; check them out after the jump, and add your own in the comments. … Read More

Film

This Week in Trailers: ‘Looper,’ ‘The Magic of Belle Isle,’ ‘The Samaritan,’ and More

By Jason Bailey on

Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week’s new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two about what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. We’ve got seven trailers for you this week, including the latest from Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Simon Pegg, Morgan Freeman, and Samuel L. Jackson. Check ‘em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Kevin Bacon, Chris Colfer, and John C. Reilly have joined a stacked cast that already includes George Clooney, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, and Martin Sheen in a Rob Reiner-directed performance of Dustin Lance Black’s play 8 on March 3rd in LA. Funds raised by the one-night only show will go to support marriage… Read More

Film

10 Memorable Cinematic New Year’s Eves

By Jason Bailey on

Ah, New Year’s Eve — that special night of the year where we put so pressure on ourselves to have a great time, have a great time, HAVE A GREAT TIME that we end up, inevitably, having a really lousy time. (Don’t pretend like it’s just me.) Part of our self-imposed pressure to enjoy ourselves on the last night of the year is, we contend, the fault of movies, which often present the evening as an occasion for joyous celebration, thoughtful reflection, and new beginnings (often with a new object of affection). But some films also recognize the nightmare of New Year’s Eve, and dramatize that. We’ve assembled a few examples of each after the jump, and humbly present ten on-screen New Year’s Eves that we find memorable — for reasons both good and bad. All will make fine New Year’s Eve viewing — and are far better than New Year’s Eve. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. TIME magazine’s Person of the Year 2011: The Protestor (as portrayed here by cover artist Shepard Fairey). “There’s this contagion of protest,” explains managing editor Rick Stengel. “These are folks who are changing history already and they will change history in the future.” More on the reasoning behind the editors’ choice here.… Read More

Film

10 Movies That Were Better Than The Book

By Jason Bailey on

[Editor's note: While your editors take the day off, Flavorwire will be counting down some of our most popular features of 2011 so far. This post originally ran on March 23rd. Enjoy your Memorial Day!] One of several slight disappointments at the box office last week was The Lincoln Lawyer, an adaptation of a Michael Connelly novel with Matthew McConaughey in the lead. We haven’t seen the film, but based on the poster, it appears to be about a lawyer who works from the hood of his car. Yeah, we’re gonna go with that. Anyway, it came in fourth for the weekend, so whoever approved McConaughey wearing a shirt in the poster is surely fired already. But the film met with warm reviews, garnering an 82% at Rotten Tomatoes and positive comparisons to the source material (even from the author himself).

Though many would consider Connelly’s books to be serviceable genre potboilers rather than fine literature, this may very well be a case where the movie is better than the book — the exception to the rule. Or is it? The notion that film adaptations of novels are always inferior to the original isn’t always borne out by the facts. Join us after a jump for a look at ten movies we think were better than the book. … Read More

Film

10 Great Summer Nostalgia Movies

By Jason Bailey on

Finals, graduations, barbecues, baseball, summer jobs, summer camp, vacations… yes, friends, summer is upon us. What’s more, summer movies are upon us — more giant robots and superheroes and pirates and Vin Diesels than you can shake a stick at. It’s all pretty depressing, frankly.

So instead of looking at those summer movies, let’s take a look at some of our favorite films that are set in the summer. Summertime nostalgia is a powerful thing, and few screenwriters worth their salt can resist the opportunity to pen an introspective voice-over about the summer that changed their lives (“Nothing was really the same after that summer of 1963…”). After the jump, a brief survey of some of our favorite slices of summer nostalgia. … Read More