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Actress Genelia D’Souza on Sunday showered birthday love on ‘navra’ Riteish Deshmukh, calling him the greatest man in the entire universe. Riteish is celebrating his 45th birthday, and his wife Genelia has a special message for the actor.

The lovebirds are known for their social media Pda, and are often seen shelling couple goals on the internet. Genelia and Riteish had tied the knot in a Marathi tradition on February 3, 2012. They also had a Christian wedding. The couple have two sons — Riaan and Rahyl. They have reportedly known to be dating since they starred together in the 2003 movie ‘Tujhe Meri Kasam’.

Now, on the occasion of the ‘Dhamaal’ actor’s birthday, Genelia shared a black and white picture, wherein both can be seen laughing candidly, while holding on to each other.

The ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ actress penned a sweet birthday note, which read as: “If someone had to...

A concerned Chris Pratt warned his female fans not to respond to someone pretending to be him on Facebook.

Late Thursday night, the star took to his Instagram to post a “pervy dude alert” after becoming aware of an imposter making contact with women over Facebook.

“Pervy Dude Alert!!! (Not a joke) It’s confirmed: somebody is trying to pretend to be me on Facebook (and maybe other social media platforms) apparently hitting on a lot of different female fans, trying to get their numbers and who knows what else. I’m not joking,” the actor wrote as part of a long Instagram caption.

According to the story he himself tells in the documentary series Hollywood, UK, Canadian filmmaker Sidney J. Furie came to England to take part in the British new wave, whose films he admired. First, he had to pay his dues with nonsense like Dr. Blood's Coffin, The Snake Woman and The Young Ones (starring pop singer Cliff Richard), but eventually, with The Leather Boys in 1964, he was able to make the kind of dynamic working-class social realism he'd been admiring from afar (Rita Tushingham's presence in the cast provides the stamp of authenticity).But During One Night (1961) shows Furie working on a small-scale independent film that has more in common with his mid-sixties work than it does with the cheesy exploitation movies he marked time on, and its date shows how quick off the mark Furie must have been: Look Back in Anger only hit cinemas in 1959, and by '61 Furie was in Britain,...

Carson Daly is missing his late mother, Pattie Daly Caruso.

The Voice host took to Instagram on Thanksgiving Day to express how the holiday isn't the same without his beloved mom.

“Deeply missing the smell of mom’s Jimmy Dean sausage as I woke up this am. Luckily, she left the family recipes for us. #Happy Thanksgiving #TomTurkey,” Daly wrote alongside an image of a pre-cooked turkey and his mother’s recipes.

Daly’s mother died of a heart attack on Sept. 17. The 44-year-old TV personality has been vocal about losing his mother, sharing letters and special notes that Caruso left behind.

During his return to the Today show, Daly told his co-anchors that he was “doing Ok.”

"I'm healing, still in shock, really rough loss," he said. "Nobody likes that phone to ring in the middle of the night to get that call.”

Last month, Daly suffered another loss when his stepdad, Richard Caruso, also died.

"Pops...

As with last week’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David’s latest misadventures aren’t connected to the fatwa he obtained in the season premiere. Instead, Larry’s palling around with his whole social circle. Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 9, Episode 6 Recap Our hero’s latest escapades begin at the airport when he misses his plane, forcing […]

Source: uInterview

The post ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Season 9, Episode 6 Recap: Larry Has Brilliant Ideas appeared first on uInterview.

Matthew Byrd Nov 1, 2017

Chickens, luchadors, and everything else good in life. Here's the first trailer and details for Guacamelee 2...

At Paris Games Week, developer DrinkBox Studios revealed Guacamelee 2, the sequel to their 2013 inide hit, Guacamelee.

Guacamelee 2 takes place roughly seven years after the events of the first game. Our hero from the original adventure (luchador/farmer Juan Aquacate) is called into action once more when a new terror threatens to end the universe and all that jazz.

As for what new elements this sequel brings to the table... well, it's got a whole lot more chickens than the original game. Developer DrinkBox has stated that you'll get a lot more mileage out of Juan's ability to tranform into a chicken this game. That's oddly encouraging to hear given that the transformation abilities of the first game were, in retrospect, kind of underutilized. Along with more instances of being able to transform into a chicken,...

Carson Daly is coping with the recent death of his stepfather, Richard Caruso, just five weeks after his mother, Pattie Daly Caruso, died of a sudden heart attack.

The 44-year-old television personality returned to the Today show on Thursday, where he honored Caruso's memory. Daly shared that Caruso had come into his life when his mother remarried when he was eight years old, after Daly's biological father died when he was five.

"It's been a crazy month, it's just been really, really hard," Daly acknowledged, before describing Caruso as a person. "He took us in. He's my role model, my mentor. He was an incredible guy. Old school. ... He led by example, not by words."

"Had a deep personal faith that I, later in life, would gravitate towards, just again, by example," he added. "Family first. We always had dinner in high school. He was like, 'Hey, I don't care what you do after, but we're all gonna...

Just five weeks after Carson Daly's mom, Pattie Daly Caruso, died suddenly of a heart attack on Sept. 17, he confirmed in a heartbreaking Instagram post that his stepfather, Richard Caruso, passed away. The Voice host, who lost his biological father to bladder cancer when he was just 6 years old, posted a photo of Richard on Tuesday night, writing: "Pops passed away today with absolute dignity & pride. The greatest man we ever knew. Our hero. He exemplified great faith, loyalty to family & hard work. He provided us all with so much. We're grateful. His legacy lives on in all of us & anyone who had the pleasure of meeting him. He's reunited with mom now. Our faith remains strong. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers." A post shared by Carson Daly (@carsondaly) on Oct 24, 2017 at 1:18pm Pdt Earlier this month, Carson also shared a note that his mom wrote...

Rest in peace, Richard Caruso. Carson Daly took to Instagram on Tuesday to mourn the death of his stepfather, just one month after his mother, Pattie Daly Caruso, died. “Pops passed away today with absolute dignity & pride. The greatest man we ever knew. Our hero,” Daly wrote alongside a photo of his father. “He exemplified great faith, loyalty […]...

Five weeks after the death of his mother, Carson Daly‘s stepfather has passed away.

The Voice and Today host announced in a touching Instagram post on Tuesday that Richard Caruso has died. According to Today.com, Caruso had been battling bone cancer.

“Pops passed away today with absolute dignity & pride. The greatest man we ever knew. Our hero,” Daly, 44, captioned a smiling photo of his stepdad.

“He exemplified great faith, loyalty to family & hard work. He provided us all with so much. We’re grateful,” the TV host continued.

“His legacy lives on in all of us & anyone who...

Carson Daly has experienced another heartbreaking loss in his family. The Voice and Today show host revealed on Instagram Tuesday afternoon that his step-father Richard Caruso has died after battling bone cancer. "Pops passed away today with absolute dignity & pride. The greatest man we ever knew. Our hero," Carson wrote on Instagram. "He exemplified great faith, loyalty to family & hard work. He provided us all with so much. We're grateful." He continued, "His legacy lives on in all of us & anyone who had the pleasure of meeting him. He's reunited with mom now. Our faith remains strong. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers." When the news was...

Rest in peace, Richard Caruso.

Carson Daly took to Instagram on Tuesday to mourn the death of his stepfather, just one month after his mother, Pattie Daly Caruso, died.

"Pops passed away today with absolute dignity & pride. The greatest man we ever knew. Our hero," Daly wrote alongside a photo of his father. "He exemplified great faith, loyalty to family & hard work. He provided us all with so much. We’re grateful. His legacy lives on in all of us & anyone who had the pleasure of meeting him."

"He’s reunited with mom now. Our faith remains strong," he continued. "Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers."

Related: Carson Daly Shares Heartbreaking Letter From His Late Mother Following His Return to 'Today' Show

Daly tweeted early Tuesday morning that he and his family had been experiencing a "rough month" after his mother's sudden death on Sept. 17, and that his stepfather's health was "in peril." His father, J. D., died...

In 1942, with the war going fairly well for Germany, Joseph Goebbels green-lit a lavish, technically complex account of the sinking of the Titanic, one with a decidedly different viewpoint. All blame falls on Evil British plutocrats, and a decent, ethical German officer is the only competent man on the bridge. Kino’s features a game- changing extra — a superb commentary that explains everything about this crazy picture.

Titanic (1943)

Blu-ray

Kino Classics

1943 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 85 min. / Street Date October 17, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Sybille Schmitz, Hans Nielsen, Kirsten Heiberg, Ernst Fritz Fürbringer, Karl Schönböck, Charlotte Thiele, Otto Wernicke, Franz Schafheitlin, Sepp Rist, Claude Farell, Theodor Loos.

Cinematography: Friedl Behn-Grund

Film Editor: Friedal Buckow

Visual Effects:< Ernst Kunstmann

Original Music:< Werner Eisbrenner

Written by Herbert Selpin, Walter Zerlett-Olfenius

Produced by Tobis Filmkunst

Directed by Herbert Selpin, Werner Klingler

Everyone loves movies about the sinking of the Titanic, and if...

MaryAnn’s quick take… It’s tormented hotheads all around with a hero and villain who are almost indistinguishable and same-old spy stuff racing to a seen-it, been-there ticking-clock finale. I’m “biast” (pro): love a good action movie

I’m “biast” (con): this looked really familiar

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Lordy, save us from young hothead dudes who disobey every order yet save the day, leaving their older, wiser, and more experienced superiors in awe. Let’s not encourage this. Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien: Deepwater Horizon, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials) — why not just call him Lank Squarejaw? — is “the best I’ve ever seen” whose test scores are “off the charts” and “through the roof.” He’s got “talent and balls”! He’s got a dead blonde fiancée killed by terrorists — let’s...

The Lal Jose directorial Velipadinte Pusthakam starts out like the usual 'good professor who turns around students who play truant' story. The stage set is quite familiar, with warring groups on campus and a helpless management that is unable to resolve the problems.

Our hero, Michael Idiculla (Mohanlal) steps in, performing a crowd- pleasing cycle stunt and we sit back, thinking we know how this one will go. He's the guy who plays fair to the 'chandha' boys, the students from the fishing community who study in the college and are ridiculed by others for it.

In reference to movie adaptations of books, it is often said that “the book was better”. This is a look at some of the films where the opposite is true.

When I think about books that have made the transition to the big screen, I consider the reason that those books were chosen for adaptation. A lot of the time, I assume that the books are chosen because of their popularity. Movie studios want to make money, and by making a movie version of a popular book, they can cash in on that popularity. At other times, a book may be chosen because it has a unique concept that would make for an interesting film. In a time when it seems like script writers can’t come up with any new ideas, it makes sense to try and find inspiration in print. Likewise, a book may be chosen because of the person who wrote it.

According to a recent report from The Mirror, the next James Bond film will be shooting under the working title Shatterhand. They also claim to have information regarding the plot.

They are reporting that Bond 25 will be inspired by the 1999 book Never Dream of Dying. The book was written by Us author Raymond Benson, who also wrote Bond books Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day and The World is Not Enough.

A source close to the production said, "Bond scriptwriters feel it could be the perfect follow-up to Spectre. They are hoping to film in Croatia next year."

In Never Dream of Dying, 007 comes "face to face with his most cunning nemesis-the enigmatic blind criminal mastermind behind the sinister organization known only as the Union." The report goes on to offer the following details:

The action kicks off in the south of France where a police raid ends up killing innocent people.

Taking place in 1948, Curse of the Phantom Shadow is an homage to Dick Tracy, Batman, Radio Drama, Republic Movie Serials, and pulp magazines. Shot primarily in Las Vegas with two soundstage shoots in Las Vegas and one location shoot in Pahrump Nevada, This is a passion project six years in the making for writer/director and producer Mark Ross. The film has wrapped principle photography and is currently in post production, where Ross and co. are compiling the extensive visual FX work for what looks to be something of an indie gem…

The official synopsis:

The year is 1948 and the United States has a new enemy, The Phantom Shadow. This dark figure has diabolical plans for captured scientist, Dr. Hammond, and his War Department weapons of mass destruction. Upon the Phantom Shadow launching a treacherous missile attack on key locations in the United States, the government takes action. There is only one man to call,...

Yes, that's zero stars you see up there. Every time Michael Bay directs another Transformers abomination (this is the fifth), the movies die a little. Mark Wahlberg has announced that The Last Knight will be his farewell to the Bay franchise. Quoth the actor: "I get my life back."

Ha! Now Wahlberg knows how sentient film critics feel every time they exit another Bay travesty. Transformers: The Last Knight is all kinds of awful. It's also the worst of the series to date, which is saying something. The year is only half over,...

We live in the golden age of television, where complex longterm plotting meets stunning visuals and iconic performances. Some days it feels like you can’t move for genre-defined iconic must-watch dramas. But you know what the golden age of TV generally can’t do well? People punching each other in the face and doing awesome martial arts kicks.

Sure, Daredevil had its moments, particularly in season 1, but the second season was a real letdown. Then Iron Fist managed to make a supernaturally powered martial arts dragon dude spectacularly boring. But Cinemax are hoping to produce the first genuinely great martial arts TV show. It’s called Warrior and it originates from the notebooks of Bruce freakin’ Lee. You just don’t get a better martial arts pedigree than that. Apparently, the idea for the series was discovered in Lee’s handwritten notes long after his death, with his daughter...

Author: Emily Breen

It’s time, gentlemen. It’s time to give us Wonder Woman back. We dutifully shared her with you. Just as we were raised to do. Even though you already had all the other heroes to play with. Though she was the only one you felt entitled to tear from her packaging and manhandle. Even though you devalued her each time you made her the sidekick to your games of make believe, or propped her in a corner, when we intrinsically understood that she could stand alone. But some among you are not treating Diana of Themyscira with the respect due to a princess of the Amazons thus we have to regretfully conclude that playtime is over.

To credibly cover any film or television release from the Marvel or DC Universes (Dcu) one must be fully conversant in origin stories. And a number of contemporary reviewers – amateur and professional – undeniably are.

Author: Jo-Ann Titmarsh

There’s been a lot of anticipation for this film by John Cameron Mitchell, who brought us the entertaining Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the sombre and moving Rabbit Hole. Mitchell returns to the punk territory of the former, but unfortunately with less success.

We’re in Croydon in 1977. Punk is at its height and Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her silver jubilee. This choice of 1977 gives the director plenty of Union Jacks and street parties to set against the iconic Sex Pistols song and record cover, which he uses consistently throughout the film. Our hero is Enn (Alex Sharp): he’s being raised by his single mum, his jazz musician dad having abandoned the family ship years earlier. With his two best mates, the chubby and cerebral John (Ethan Lawrence) and the Billy Idol lookalike Vic (Abraham Lewis), the three schoolboys have embraced punk.

Author: Jo-Ann Titmarsh

Takashi Miike has just made his hundredth film, and what a fine centenary moment it is. Blade of the Immortal takes the Japanese director to familiar territory, with samurai swordsmen and shoguns at odds with a renegade faction. In fact, there are many similarities with Miike’s highly entertaining 13 Assassins, not least of all the body (and limb) count.

Whereas 13 Assassins was a more classical tale, Blade of the Immortal is an adaptation of a manga comic about a cursed samurai who has to kill a thousand evil men to become mortal. And – spoiler alert! – in the film version our hero gets to about a fifth of that number in the first ten minutes before we’ve even got to the opening credits. The film opens in black and white. Our hero, Manji (the excellent Tetsuya Oishi), has killed some men, one of whom is his sister’s husband.

Back in 2014, the blockbuster success of Guardians of the Galaxy took Marvel by surprise. The months that followed saw Marvel Comics do everything it could to capitalize on the film’s popularity. In those days, pretty much every member of the Guardians got their own comic – Star-Lord, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, etc. Not many of the books lasted more than a handful of issues, however.

Now, in 2017, Marvel’s a lot more on-the-ball. The House of Ideas knew full well that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would be one of the most popular films of the year. So, history’s repeating itself and the publisher is launching a whole range of books once again, including solo series. Although this time, they’re releasing alongside the film. The odds aren’t great that any of them will last, however, given that retailers have been complaining customers are interested in following an...

By Hank Reineke

The Vampire Bat (1933) was a staple of TV late-night movie programming well into the 1980s. Too often the running time of this maltreated film was irreverently trimmed or stretched to accommodate commercial breaks or better fit into a predetermined time slot. With black-and-white films almost completely banished from the schedules of local television affiliates by 1987, TV Guide disrespectfully dismissed The Vampire Bat as a “Dated, slow-motion chiller.” That’s an unfair appraisal. But with the MTV generation in the ascendant and Fangoria gleefully splashing the lurid and blood-red exploits of such slice-and-dice horror icons as Michael Meyers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger on its covers, it’s somewhat understandable why the other-worldly atmospherics of The Vampire Bat were perceived as little more than a celluloid curio – an antiquated footnote in the annals of classic horror.

The Vampire Bat is hardly original. The film was, no doubt, conceived...

“Ya had a lotta guts, lady… a lotta guts.”

The Poseidon Adventure screens at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater this weekend as part of their Classic Film Series. It’s Saturday, April 12th at 10:30am at the Hi-Pointe located at 1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, Mo 63117. The film will be introduced by Harry Hamm, movie reviewer for Kmox. Admission is only $5

The Poseidon Adventure is the breathtaking story of a cruise ship capsized by a tidal wave, the result of an undersea earthquake. At the time of the disaster, many of the ship’s passengers are celebrating New Year’s Eve in the Grand Ballroom of the ocean liner. The film then details the trials of ten survivors as they desperately make their way to the ship’s hull, which is now their only hope for escape, something they must do before the ship sinks to the ocean floor. Along the way,...

In accomplishments, impact, and general appearance, there are few figures in history who need an introduction less than Albert Einstein, a man whose impact on global culture is well-documented and rarely disputed. “Genius,” National Geographic’s largest foray into scripted drama to date, wants to make the point that, even in his day, Einstein was already a celebrity.

Out on the streets of Berlin as a rally passes or in a lecture hall with eager observers lining the rafters, the Einstein of “Genius” becomes a figure that demands attention. His scientific insights made him a target for fascist suppressors and inquisitive thinkers alike, which makes the show’s continuous decision to boldly intone Einstein’s greatness, as if it were something to be proven, all the more curious. Context is vital to understanding the man’s true achievements, but the self-imposed, continuous weight of history somehow robs this series of...

“The #1 movie in America was called Ass. And that’s all it was for 90 minutes. It won eight Oscars that year, including best screenplay.”

Idiocracy plays this weekend (April 14th and 15th) at the Tivoli as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight series.

In Mike Judge’s utterly rude, crude, and politically incorrect 2006 yarn Idiocracy the U.S. Army selects a thoroughly average Army private, Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) for their top-secret Human Hibernation Project, because he is thoroughly average. Since the U.S. Army couldn’t find anybody in their ranks to fill the female slot, they have selected a hooker, Rita (Maya Randolph), from an African-American pimp named Upgrayedd (the extra ‘d’ stands for “double dose”). Joe and Rita are put into suspended animation for only one year as a part of the experiment, but an accident occurs and they wind up being suspended for 500 years!

Vinod Khanna’s wife Kavita Khanna has asked the media and everyone else to stop posting or sharing his pictures on the internet.

“Stop Posting Vinod Khanna’S Photos. Please don’t bother him. He’S Our Hero. Let Him Be” Kavita posted on her Facebook page.Read More

The post Stop posting Vinod Khanna’s photos, please don’t bother him: Wife appeared first on .

Marvel’s latest Netflix show Iron Fist was released yesterday and it’s gotten punched in the gut by critics, receiving a paltry 17 % fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a somewhat higher 37% on Metacritic. Is it really that bad? Cinelinx break down the show to see if it’s as dismal as advertised and if so, what went wrong. (Spoilers ahead)

Is Iron Fist terrible? Well…no, not really. It’s disappointing but it’s not as horrible as the critical ratings make it seem. The likely reason that the show—which stars Finn Jones as the iron fisted hero—is getting stomped on so hard is probably due to the fact that the previous Netflix shows have raised the bar so high in quality that expectations for Iron Fist were in the stratosphere. Sadly, Iron Fist doesn’t meet those expectations. It’s not bad…it’s just frustratingly mediocre.

Tyler McCarthy Mar 16, 2017

Checkmate might be the best episode of Arrow season 5 so far, with the most charismatic and scary villain to boot...

This review contains spoilers.

See related Mindhunter: first trailer for David Fincher's new show

5.16 Checkmate

At long last, Arrow season five has cut all the foreplay, faffing about, and stalling to deliver an incredibly satisfying one-on-one bout. As if that wasn’t enough, Checkmate rewarded viewers for investing in the mayoral aspect of the show with an impressive and intense political drama.

No time was wasted catching the characters up to speed following last week’s surprising reveal that Adrian Chase (newcomer to the cast Josh Segarra) wasn’t the surprising new anti-hero to arrive in Star City, Vigilante, as his comic book namesake implied. Instead, he’s the new dark archer in town, Prometheus. Our hero figured it out with a brief trip to...

Shooting for “A Wrinkle In Time” has wrapped. Director Ava DuVernay confirmed the news on Sunday via Twitter, where she shared some stills from the film, as well as photos from the set, the crew and some of the stars of the Disney production, including Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, “Moonlight” actor Andre Holland and “Girl Meets World” star Rowan Blanchard.

Read More: Ava DuVernay, Kerry Washington, Amma Asante and More Female Filmmakers Participate in #ArrayToday Twitter Take-Over

Based on the popular 1963 science fantasy novel by Madeleine L’Engle, “A Wrinkle In Time” follows the story of Meg Murry (Storm Reid), a 13-year-old who sets out on an epic adventure around the universe to rescue her scientist father (played by Chris Pine). She enlists the help of her brother, who is a genius, an older classmate and three very peculiar neighbors, one of which is played by Winfrey.

Last August,...

by Robert Balkovich

Today is International Women's Day. To honor this day, a look back at a great female directed film that was critically lauded at the time but tends to not get the legacy attention it deserves: Claire Denis' "White Material."

Set in an unnamed former French colony in Africa on the brink of violent civil war, White Material is not new territory for Denis – a French national who grew up in Cameroon, Burinka Faso, Somalia and Senegal – but it does represent a more searing look at the ways in which colonialism has completely uprooted the continent.

Our hero of the story is no hero at all...

Brogan Morris Oct 13, 2017

Has Mickey Rourke ever had as good a role as he got in Angel Heart? We take a look back...

Once considered a successor to Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke unlike those other mumbling screen titans made few stone-cold classics in his prime. In fact, prior to his late-career ‘comeback’ with The Wrestler in 2009, hardly any of this once-vaunted actor’s pictures felt like true all-timers. Where Brando had A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront, and De Niro had Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Rourke had Rumble Fish, a teen angst curiosity from Francis Ford Coppola; he had The Pope Of Greenwich Village, an overblown rehash of De Niro’s own Mean Streets, and erotic thriller 9 1/2 weeks, which now looks like a dated precursor to Fifty Shades of Grey. Even Diner – Rourke’s celebrated 1982 breakout – today feels slight and forgettable.

Angel Heart,...

Everything you need to know about “Headshot,” an Indonesian bloodbath that stars the same actor from “The Raid” and feels like it was cut together from that film’s deleted footage, can be gleaned from an early fight scene aboard a public bus that’s just been shot to pieces by a gang of vicious criminals.

Our hero, an amnesiac ass-kicker named Ishmael (Iko Uwais), doesn’t remember that he used to be a member of the same syndicate that he’s now trying to kill, hops on board and promptly begins to snap ligaments and gouge eyeballs. Directors Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto make spectacular use of the confined area, and — as with all of the many, many death matches that are stretched across this saga — the sequence continues for so long that you forget how the characters actually got there.

So when Ishmael eventually tackles one of the...

Author: Daniel Goodwin

Along with Colin Minihan’s zombie redux It Stains the Sands Red, the vampire subgenre has also been given a makeover by writer/ director Michael O’Shea, in his debut feature The Transfiguration. This social-realist, coming of age tale of a teenage blood-sucker premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard category. O’Shea’s feature imbues loss, love and life within broken communities but before horror fans hiss and hold up crucifixes to such maudlin slush, The Transfiguration is neither mawkish Twilight silage, ostentatious renovation nor is it a love letter to the films that inspired it. It’s a potent horror masterpiece with harrowing drama, diverse characters and requisite bloodletting/sucking to quench the thirst of the gore hounds.

Fourteen year old Milo (Eric Ruffin) is a browbeaten introvert in crime-rife New York. Milo believes he is a vampire which remains open to interpretation.

The worldwide success of last year’s “Deadpool” has apparently opened the door for R-rated superhero adventures, and director James Mangold (“The Wolverine,” “3:10 to Yuma”) takes full advantage. Our hero (played once again by Hugh Jackman) drops an F-bomb in his first line of dialogue, and soon thereafter he’s fighting off some would-be car thieves by sinking his claws directly into their skulls. But the screenplay — credited to Mangold, Scott Frank and Michael Green — feels more like the product of the guy who wrote “Green Lantern” (Green) than the one who wrote “Out of Sight” (Frank). It’s a perfectly.

Spoiler-free: Hugh Jackman returns to play Wolverine, and Logan is a bloody, bold turn for the X-Men movies.

Other

About a third of the way through Logan, the film formerly referred to as The Wolverine 3, Hugh Jackman’s title character is in a car. He's desperately trying to make his escape, hurtling towards a fence that stands in his way. We’ve seen this lots of times before in the movies: reality be damned as the fence goes flying, and the car effortlessly makes it escape.

But not here.

In Logan, the fence does its job. The car is stopped, and stopped suddenly. Our hero – appreciating the film frequently questions if he’s a hero at all – needs a plan B. It’s a small detail, a little subversion of a cinema cliché. Yet it’s indicative of what director James Mangold has tried to do with his follow-on from The Wolverine.

When the Academy moved Barry Jenkins’ script for “Moonlight” to the Adapted Screenplay category, the Oscar race for Original Screenplay became a battle between two writer-directors. While Damien Chzelle’s reboot of the Hollywood musical is a strong contender throughout its 14 nominations, and Oscar voters will tick plenty of “La La Land” boxes on their ballots, it’s still rare for an original musical to land a screenplay win. (Alan Jay Lerner’s “An American in Paris” and Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” are exceptions.)

That’s why lauded playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan could win this race.

Here’s how Original Screenplay is shaking out:

Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”)

The Oscar could go to the comeback writer-director for his tragic New England family drama.

Lonergan initially struggled with “Margaret” star Matt Damon and John Krasinski’s story idea about a man with a tragic history who must face...

When the Academy moved Barry Jenkins’ script for “Moonlight” to the Adapted Screenplay category, the Oscar race for Original Screenplay became a battle between two writer-directors. While Damien Chzelle’s reboot of the Hollywood musical is a strong contender throughout its 14 nominations, and Oscar voters will tick plenty of “La La Land” boxes on their ballots, it’s still rare for an original musical to land a screenplay win. (Alan Jay Lerner’s “An American in Paris” and Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” are exceptions.)

That’s why lauded playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan could win this race.

Here’s how Original Screenplay is shaking out:

Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”)

The Oscar could go to the comeback writer-director for his tragic New England family drama.

Lonergan initially struggled with “Margaret” star Matt Damon and John Krasinski’s story idea about a man with a tragic history who must face...

How is Michael Keaton's performance as McDonald's self-proclaimed founder Ray Kroc? I gotta say, I'm lovin' it. Keaton is firing on all cylinders in The Founder and he makes this electrifying film something to see. Kroc was a hustler down to his fingertips, but he never found the product he was born to sell until he eyeballed those golden arches. That's right: Everything about this fast-food franchise, from the pickle to the bun, was already there when Kroc drove out from his Illinois base in 1954 to see what Dick...

We’re introduced to the protagonist of Son of Joseph as he silently observes the tortured of a trapped rat. Two of his schoolmates jab thin steel pins at the frightened rodent. “Try to poke one of its eyes out” one urges. “I can’t, he’s too clever,” the other replies. Our hero promptly leaves, finding himself to have more in common with the rat than his supposed friends.

If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Eugène Green you have a weird road ahead of you. He’s an American-born French filmmaker with a tendency towards brain numbingly glacial pacing, intentionally monotone performances, compositions static to the point of fossilization and characters who generally end scenes by gazing blankly into the lens. His style is definitely an acquired taste, catering for those with reservoirs of patience and the ability to tolerate some pretty artsy fartsy filmmaking.

Our lonely...

Railroad Tigers is one of those films where, despite its few-versus-many premise, the antagonist often feels like the one with nine lives. That is to say, it is not star Jackie Chan and his small band of freedom fighters who seem like they are surviving by the skin of their teeth, but instead gliding effortlessly through hazardous scenarios. With its 1941 setting in a small Chinese town invaded by the Japanese, this feels like a bit of an anomaly. Yet Chan and company dodge around, knock-out, and dupe their exceptionally silly Japanese oppressors (led by Hiroyuki Ikeuchi of Ip Man villainy) through almost every set-piece and moment of tension, conjuring up images of Buster Keaton or Road Runner. This function makes for some giddily fun scenarios, with wonderful choreography and cartoonish violence, but director and editor Ding Sheng makes the mistake of stuffing his two-plus-hour runtime with unnecessary downtime and bouts of narrative incoherence.

How could England have won the war without him? Horatio Smith sneaks about in Nazi Germany, liberating concentration camp inmates right under the noses of the Gestapo. Leslie Howard directed and stars in this wartime escapist spy thriller, as a witty professor too passive to be suspected as the mystery spy.

‘Pimpernel’ Smith

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 121 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring Leslie Howard, Francis L. Sullivan, Mary Morris, Allan Jeayes, Peter Gawthorne, Hugh McDermott, David Tomlinson, Raymond Huntley, Sebastian Cabot, Irene Handl, Ronald Howard, Michael Rennie.

Cinematography Mutz Greenbaum

Camera Operators Guy Green, Jack Hildyard

Film Editor Douglas Myers

Original Music John Greenwood

Written by Anatole de Grunwald, Roland Pertwee, A.G. Macdonell, Wolfgang Wilhelm based on a character by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Produced by Leslie Howard, Harold Huth

Directed by Leslie Howard

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I like movies...

"It is an exciting debut, and a film that, without exaggeration or false modesty, finds interest and feeling in the world just as it is." That was A.O. Scott, reviewing Barry Jenkins' Medicine For Melancholy (2008) for the New York Times back in early 2009. Scott was hardly alone in his praise. A modest micro-budget film that made ripples on the festival circuit, Medicine For Melancholy was a day in the life of two black bohemians in San Francisco (Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins), who, following a one-night stand, travel the city, share a tenuous courtship, and debate the challenges and contradictions of being black in a white cultural space. The most obvious comparison is the walk-and-talk films of Richard Linklater, but that comparison is also something of a trap. Wyatt Cenac's cry from the heart in Melancholy was that the cachet of "indie" culture privileges white perspectives above all others,...

Nick Aldwinckle Dec 21, 2016

The Bottom Shelf returns, with more DVDs and Blu-rays of a horror persuasion...

Anyone who had the pleasure of catching veteran horror director, cinematic musical hero and all-round (if we subtly forget to mention Escape From L.A) legend John Carpenter on his recent debut live concert tour will be more than familiar with his skilled craftsmanship in the field of synth earworms. With the Blu-ray release of Assault On Precinct 13 in November comes perhaps the best of said themes, as we delve into a Santa’s sack of cinematic treats.

Carpenter’s 1976 budget siege thriller, inspired by classic western Rio Bravo and George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead, follows the skeleton staff of a police station about to close for the last time as they and the few remaining prisoners fend off a marauding band of, erm, marauders. Only Carpenter’s...

Paul Bullock Dec 15, 2016

Our salute to Steven Spielberg at 70 moves to the 2000s: A.I, Munich, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can & Crystal Skull.

By the end of the 1990s, Spielberg found himself in a position of unparalleled luxury. As an executive, he’d set up Amblin and DreamWorks and was enjoying success with both, while as a director he’d ridden through an uneven decade to achieve the critical success he’d longed for. Where do you go from there? What do you do when you’re the film-maker who’s done everything? Well, Spielberg himself never seemed sure of how to answer that question because during the first ten years of the new millennium he hopped from genre to genre, covering sci-fi and historical thriller, retro caper and fish-out-of-water comedy. It's one of the most eclectic decades of his career and, in my opinion at least, the...

MaryAnn’s quick take…

If there is something new to be said about boxing, Bleed for This doesn’t find it. Sucks all the energy out of a story that should have been a can’t-miss. I’m “biast” (pro): don’t mind a good boxing movie…

I’m “biast” (con): …but I’m not a fan of the sport

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

If there is something new to be said about boxing in a movie, Bleed for This does not find it. If there is something new to be said about incredible true-life tales of survival, Bleed for This does not find it. Does Our Hero defy the odds? He does. Does he climb his way back to success and make an unlikely comeback that nobody but nobody could ever have imagined? You bet. Does the human spirit triumph? Of course it does.

Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Shamita Shetty’s father Surendra Dejoo Shetty passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in suburban Andheri on Tuesday. Shilpa Shetty Kundra, who was close to her father, shared a heartfelt message for him that read, “Our Hero Loving and kind in all his ways, Upright and just toRead More

The post Shilpa Shetty Kundra bids farewell to late father with a heartfelt message appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.

Meet the latest Marvel superhero to hit Netflix: Luke Cage, a mysterious and indestructible avenger raising hell up in Harlem, the bulletproof man who twists thugs' guns into pretzels. As one of his enemies says, he's "half Houdini, half Ali." And the man has got a lot of enemies, because he's had it up to here with the unrighteous fools trying to run this neighborhood. So he walks the streets in broad daylight, looking for the next ruckus to bring. Netflix's excellent Luke Cage is its latest addition to the Marvel universe,...