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Film

Trailer Park: Murderers, Messengers, and More Muppets

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and puzzling over what they may be hiding. We’ve got ten new trailers for you to feast your eyes on this week; check ‘em out after the jump. … Read More

Film

Flavorpill’s Incredibly Comprehensive Fall Movie Preview

By Jason Bailey on

Ah, fall. The fall movie season is when we film lovers do our very best to shake off a summer’s supply of Transformers, ‘80s remakes, and wilted comic book heroes, and open our arms to the “prestige pictures”: the smart movies for grown-ups that studios trot out as close to Oscar time as possible, so that they can pretend like these are the kind of movies they make all year long.

Of course, those studios still have bills to pay, so it would be a mistake to presume that quality and intellect will be the sole flavor of the season. Too often, your fall movie previews tend to focus on the most promising releases, as though Oscar bait is all we’re going to see this autumn. Make no mistake: there will still be plenty of dumb comedies, mindless action, and copious amounts of 3-D. So in order to present the most complete picture of fall 2011 at the cinemas, we’ve assembled a comprehensive list of the major fall releases, good and bad alike. Of course, that’s quite a big list of movies, so we’ve boiled our comments down to the basics: who’s in it, what it is, who it’s for, and if we’re in or out. Break out your calendars and join us after the jump. … Read More

Film

Open Thread: Which Actors Are You Over?

By Jason Bailey on

Last Friday, during our weekly trailer roundup, we asked a glib but honest question: “Are we all agreed that we’ve passed the tipping point with Samuel L. Jackson?” The query was posed in response to the release of the trailer for Arena, a (from all indications) aggressively stupid straight-to-DVD video-game-centered action flick — and just another in a long, long line of terrible movies from an actor once considered to be among the finest of his generation. Jackson certainly isn’t alone, though; there are plenty of film actors who have proven themselves capable of brilliance but have apparently made the conscious decision to (barely) expend their energies on lazy, paycheck roles. … Read More

Film

The 10 Worst Dads in Film History

By Jason Bailey on

Well kids, Father’s Day is Sunday, so we hope you’ve bought your tie or drill or whatever. Dads always get the shaft in the holiday sweepstakes; mothers get flowers, candy, elaborate gifts, songs written for them, shout-outs on television, and, let’s face it, fathers sorta get taken for granted. But if the movies have taught us one thing, it’s that the potential for being a terrible father is limitless. We’ve compiled a list of the worst fathers in movie history; check it out after the jump, and maybe give Dad an extra hug on Sunday. … Read More

Television

The 10 Best ’30 Rock’ Guest Appearances

By Jason Bailey on

First, the bad news: tonight’s episode of 30 Rock is a rerun. The good news came earlier this week, on Tom Hanks’s Twitter feed: “RadioMan delivers msg from T.Fey. Result? I’m on 30 Rock! Thanks, RMan Hanx.” Translation: “RadioMan” is Craig Castaldo, a homeless man who frequently pops up in New York-filmed TV shows and films, and is often found outside of David Letterman’s studio. Fey posed for a picture with Castaldo last week, and he apparently somehow brokered the deal for Hanks to make a 30 Rock guest appearance.

30 Rock fans often split on the show’s frequent use of guest stars; some say they’re too reliant on them, while others insist that Fey and her writing staff often find ingenious ways for celebrities to send up their own images or bring their comedic gifts to off-the-wall characters. We lean towards the latter point-of-view (with occasional exceptions — even we weren’t nuts about Jennifer Aniston’s episode). So with an eye on the upcoming Tom Hanks cameo, we took a look back at some of our favorite 30 Rock guest appearances. In the interest of brevity, we restricted ourselves to folks who only appeared once, so you’ll not find recurring favorites like Will Arnett’s Devon Banks, Jon Hamm’s Dr. Drew Baird, or Isabella Rosellini’s Biana Donaghy (“You know I love my big beef ‘n’ cheddar!”). Check out our picks after the jump, and add your favorites in the comments. … Read More

Pop Culture

The Flavorpill 2011 Pop Culture Terror Alert Scale

By Christine Jordan on

It’s the end of an era: the Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday that it would stop relying upon its color-coded terrorism alert scale, which means that no longer will the nightly news give us an inexplicable craving for Life Savers. We here at Flavorwire thought the government really had something with their Rainbow Brite approach to the truly terrifying, though, and decided to re-purpose their spectrum of scary things for the new year.

After the jump, take a peek at Flavorpill’s very own Pop Culture Advisory System and the celebrities, shows, and films that have terrorized 2011 so far and are on our cultural disaster watch list from here on out. … Read More

Film

The 10 Best Movie Car Chases

By Jason Bailey on

Peter Yates, the British filmmaker whose credits include the giddy caper flick The Hot Rock, the heartwarming small-town comedy/drama Breaking Away, and the Jacqueline-Bisset-in-a-wet-T-shirt classic The Deep, died Sunday of heart failure. He was 81.

As enjoyable as those films are (seriously, they’re all on Netflix Instant, we can wait), Yates is probably best remembered for Bullitt, his lean, mean 1968 cop flick featuring Steve McQueen at his absolute coolest. And Bullitt is best remembered for its jittery, thrilling car chase — a rip-roaring, tire-squealing pursuit through the streets of San Francisco that set the template for decades. … Read More

Books

Mini Interview with Memoirist and Poet Nick Flynn

By Caroline Stanley on

We were first introduced to the work of Nick Flynn after he was recommended to us by his friend and fellow writer, Stephen Elliott. After devouring his first memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, we were excited when his latest, The Ticking Is the Bomb, landed our on desk earlier this year. While Bullshit tackles the subject of Flynn’s childhood in Boston and his relationship with his father (who just happened to wander into the homeless shelter where he’d been working one night), Ticking is a much different story, focusing instead on his daughter’s impending birth and America’s obsession with torture. The former has been optioned as a film that will be directed by Paul Weitz and star Casey Affleck and Robert DeNiro. … Read More

Film

Martin Scorsese May or May Not Make These Films: An Exhaustive List of His Upcoming Projects

By Fernanda Diaz on

Due to the keen eye of the editors at Cinema Blend, the blogosphere has been buzzing about The Falcon’s Tale, the newest addition to Martin Scorsese’s giant list of upcoming projects. The movie, which Scorsese would direct and was originally a story which appeared in this August’s Playboy, is a tale about a criminal offered his freedom in exchange for doing undercover investigations at a high-security mental institution.

We did a round-up of all the movies Scorsese is planning to direct in the somewhat-near future, and found at least eight possible films whose production status is at least one step beyond existing in Marty’s mind. To put this in some perspective, IMDB currently lists Steven Spielberg’s “in development” number at seven, Clint Eastwood’s at two, and PT Anderson’s at one.

Is “attaching” to projects just a great new way to stay relevant within the quick turnaround of the film-nerd blogosphere news cycle? Or is it just that Scorsese got really excited after he finally clinched that best director Oscar? After the jump, we look into all these projects whether or not we’ll see them in theaters anytime soon (spoiler: probably not). … Read More