Category: Celebs

“Beast” Starring Idris Elba – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Above we have the poster and below the trailer for Beast starring Idris Elba.  It’s got to be better than Endangered Species… right?

Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Writers: Ryan Engle
Producers: Will Packer, James Lopez, Baltasar Kormákur
Executive Producers: Jaime Primak Sullivan, Bernard Bellew
Cast: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries

Sometimes the rustle in the bushes actually is a monster.

Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Suicide Squad) stars in a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator.

Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.

Iyana Halley (The Hate U Give, This is Us series) plays Daniels’ 18-year-old daughter, Meredith, and Leah Sava Jeffries (Rel series, Empire series) plays his 13-year-old, Norah.

From visceral, experiential filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, the director of Everest and Universal Pictures’ 2 Guns and Contraband, Beast is produced by Will Packer, the blockbuster producer of Girls Trip, the Ride Along franchise, and ten movies that have opened No. 1 at the U.S. box office, including Night School, No Good Deed and Think Like a Man, by James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions, and by Baltasar Kormákur. The film is written by Ryan Engle (Rampage, Non-Stop) from an original story by Jaime Primak Sullivan and is executive produced by Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew.

“Murder at Yellowstone City” Starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane and Richard Dreyfuss – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Westerns are making a comeback.  Murder at Yellowstone City starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane and Richard Dreyfuss has a cool poster and the trailer ain’t bad.

Murder at Yellowstone City is coming to theaters this June 24th!

The once peaceful and booming Yellowstone City has fallen on hard times, but when a local prospector strikes gold, things seem to be turning around. Any hope is soon shattered when the prospector is found dead and the Sheriff quickly arrests a mysterious newcomer. But nothing is so simple in this sleepy western town, and more than a few of the locals have secrets to keep and reasons to kill. As the brutal murders continue, pitting neighbor against neighbor, Yellowstone City goes down a bloody path to a final showdown that not all will survive.

Starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane, Isaiah Mustafa, Anna Camp, Nat Wolff, and Richard Dreyfuss

Directed by Richard Gray

“The Gray Man” Ryan Gosling & Chris Evans – The New Poster and Trailer is Here!

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The Gray Man trailer is here and it looks awesome.  Deal me in.

Ryan Gosling is THE GRAY MAN and Chris Evans is his psychopathic adversary in the Netflix/AGBO spy thriller directed by Anthony and Joe Russo – available globally July 22 on Netflix.

Also starring Ana de Armas, with Regé-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, Wagner Moura and Alfre Woodard. Based on the novel The Gray Man by Mark Greaney, the screenplay is by Joe Russo, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

THE GRAY MAN is CIA operative Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling), aka, Sierra Six. Plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once a highly-skilled, Agency-sanctioned merchant of death. But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it.

“Vengeance” Written, Directed and Starring B.J. Novak – The Trailer is Here!

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I like the look of the Vengeance trailer.  This is one to keep an eye on.

VENGEANCE, the directorial debut from writer and star B.J. Novak (“The Office”), is a darkly comic thriller about Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and podcaster who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was hooking up with.

With an ensemble cast that includes Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, and Dove Cameron.

“Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One” Starring Tom Cruise – The Trailer is Here!

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I’m a fan of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible movies. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One looks to be another winner.  I just wish that it wasn’t released in two parts.  I’d much rather see a 3 or 4 hour film in one sitting than to have to wait a year for the conclusion.  In my way of thinking a movie is a complete story.

 We all share the same fate. Watch the official teaser trailer for #MissionImpossible – Dead Reckoning Part One starring Tom Cruise. Coming to theatres 2023.

Frank Miller’s The Geek Art Plus More About New “Sin City” Yarns and “Ronin II”

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Since the news was announced that Frank Miller was returning to comics in a big way with his Frank Miller Presents publishing company, news has continued to come out detailing what we can expect.  IGN posted Frank Miller Presents: Why the Acclaimed Comic Book Creator Is Reviving Sin City and Ronin.  If you click over you’ll see Miller’s The Geek (above) as well as Phillip Tan art for Ronin II and more.

House of Wax (1953) / Z-View

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House of Wax (1953)

Director:  André De Toth

Screenplay:  Crane Wilbur based on The Wax Works by Charles S. Belden

Starring:  Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Roy Roberts and Charles Bronson (as Charles Buchinsky).

Tagline: UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE SEEN BEFORE!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Henry Jarrod (Price) is a skilled sculptor who creates life-like wax figures of famous people from history.  Jarrod’s business partner, Matthew Burke (Roberts) feels their wax museum would do better business if Jarrod sculpted scenes of murderers and their victims.  Jarrod refuses. So for the insurance, Burke sets the museum on fire.  He douses Jarrod with kerosene and leaves him to burn alive!

Months later a horribly disfigured man murders Burke.  Coincidently (?), Henry Jarrod reappears.  Although the fire didn’t disfigure his face or kill him, Jarrod is confined to a wheelchair.  His burned hands are no longer useful.   Jarrod plans to create a new wax museum with the help of his assistant, Igor (Bronson) and some of his art students.  When Burke’s fiancé is murdered by a disfigured man, the police begin looking for a serial killer.  And isn’t it strange that Jarrod’s new figures look amazingly like women who have recently been killed?

The disfigured man has his sights on more victims… will the police discover his identity in time to stop him?

House of Wax was originally presented in 3D, so there are some scenes specifically to take advantage of the process.  This is one of Vincent Price’s most famous roles and rightly so.  Carolyn Jones is a standout in one of her earliest roles.  Charles Bronson is effective as Igor, Price’s deaf/mute assistant.

House of Wax is a reworking of 1933’s Mystery at the Wax Museum (which is also worth a watch).  Interestingly enough, the success of the 1953 film, gave Warner Bros. the idea to create a weekly television series involving bizarre murders solved by a trio of amateur detectives who own a wax museum.  A pilot was filmed, but rejected as too intense for television.  The pilot was then expanded into a full length feature, titled Chamber of Horrors and released to theaters!

House of Wax rates 4 of 5 stars.

RIP: John Aylward

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John Aylward, a character actor who is best known for his roles on The West Wing and ER, died on May 16th at the age of 75.  No cause of death was given.

John Aylward graduated from the University of Washington’s Professional Actor’s Training Program in 1970.  The biggest majority of his career until the mid-1980s when he started getting roles on television and in movies.  For the rest of his career Mr. Aylward alternated between feature films and television.  His best known roles were as Dr. Donald Anspaugh on 74 episodes of ER and The West Wing where he played former DNC Chair, Barry Goodwin.  Other notable television appearances include the series: Ally McBeal, The X-Files, The Practice, Law & Order, Boston Legal, Alias, The Mentalist,  CSI, Mad Men, Fringe, American Horror Story, Yellowstone and Briarpatch.  Some of Mr. Aylward’s feature film appearances include: Armageddon, The Crazies, Water for Elephants, Gangster Squad and The Way Back.

John Aylward was a character actor that would have found work in any era.  Like most character actors, you might not recognize his name, but you knew his face.  You also knew that John Aylward’s appearance in any movie or television show meant it was going to get a little better because he was in it.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to John Aylward’s family, friends and fans.

“Mr. Wu” (1929) Starring Lon Chaney! / Z-View

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Mr. Wu (1929)

Director:  William Nigh

Screenplay:  Adapted by Lorna Moon, Titles by Lotta Woods, based on the play by Maurice Vernon and Harold Owen, from the book by Louise Jordan Miln

Starring:  Lon Chaney, Renée Adorée, Ralph Forbes, Louise Dresser  and Anna May Wong 

Tagline: SHE WAS GUILTY OF LOVE AND THE UNWRITTEN CODE OF THE EAST CRIED FOR VENGEANCE!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Mr. Wu (Chaney) is a wealthy and powerful man raised to follow the ancient traditions of China.  Although he is a traditionalist, Wu knows “the West is coming to the East.”  To that end, Mr. Wu interacts with diplomats from other countries.  That is how Wu’s adult daughter, Nang Ping (Adorée) meets and begins secretly seeing Basil Gregory (Forbes), the son of a British diplomat.

Nang Ping becomes pregnant at the same time she learns that Basil is about to return to England.  A gardener learns of Nang Ping’s pregnancy and informs Mr. Wu.  Wu is despondent, torn between love for his daughter and what tradition requires of a father whose daughter has dishonored the family.  Mr. Wu will comply with tradition and then extract revenge on the Diplomat’s family!

Lon Chaney plays two roles in this silent film.  Chaney created his own makeup making him unrecognizable as both Grandfather Wu (100 year old man) and Mr. Wu.  Mr. Wu provides an excellent example of why Lon Chaney is my favorite silent movie star.  He plays a full range of emotions and they all come alive through his facial expressions.  Anna May Wong appears in just a few scenes but she shines.  Renée Adorée is okay as Mr. Wu’s daughter, but it’s interesting to think what Wong would have done in the role.

Mr. Wu’s plan to extract vengeance on the diplomat’s family forces an impossible decision and a surprising conclusion to the film.  Mr. Wu rates 4 of 5 stars