Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Mister Miracle was a comic series created by Jack Kirby that ran for 18 issues, premiering in April of 1971. You can see the covers and some interior art for every issue in the series thanks to the good folks at PencilInk.
Horror veteran Thomas Jane (Deep Blue Sea, The Mist, 1922, Before I Wake, The Predator) will next take on werewolves in Hunter’s Moon, a home invasion film that arrives on DVD, Digital, and On Demand March 24, 2020, from Lionsgate.
In the film, “When their parents leave town, three teenage girls decide to throw a party in their new country home. But when a gang of dangerous local boys with sinister intentions turn up, the women are forced to not only defend themselves from the evil inside of the house, but an unseen bloodthirsty predator that is hunting them one by one outside of the house.”
From an executive producer of Live Free or Die Hard, 16 Blocks, and Hostage, the film also stars Jay Mohr and Sean Patrick Flanery.
Hunter’s Moon – The only thing it needs is to be seen in a drive-in. Since I don’t have one, my tv room will have to do.
The fourth installment of Fargo is set in 1950 Kansas City, where two criminal syndicates fighting for a piece of the American dream have struck an uneasy peace. Chris Rock stars as Loy Cannon, the head of the African American crime family who trades sons with the head of the Italian mafia as part of tenuous truce.
The 4th season of Fargo looks like a lot of fun!
IMPAwards is running a survey to determine the best action movie poster design from 2019 releases. Click over and you can select your top five choices.
My first choice would be Rambo: Last Blood. Of course it’s hardly ever fair when you ask me a favorite if it includes Stallone. So for this contest I thought I’d include my other two top favorites: Hellboy and John Wick 3.
Jordan Peele’s Us displays a master attention to detail at a nearly unparalleled level. Like his previous horror film, Get Out, there is much more to be discovered on repeat viewings, especially in the production design. In this case, his book choices all align with the film’s themes, and are great additions to the movie. For this video essay, I point out some of the hidden books, as well as other clues and details hidden in plain sight you may have missed when you saw the movie. Edited by H. Nelson Tracey http://www.hnelsontracey.com/
Christopher Fudiccia and ScreenRant posted 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of my favorite horror films and perhaps the one that is most deserving of an new movie. Fudiccia presents ten fun and informative facts. Below are three of my favs and my thoughts on each. Click over the article for all the facts and the full details.
The Film Was Originally Presented In 3D. (I’ve seen Creature from the Black Lagoon many times, but never in a theater and never in 3D. There’s money to be made if Universal ever decides to do a 3D re-release! – Craig)
Glenn Strange Almost Played The Creature (I did not know this. Given the fact that Strange played Frankenstein in several movies, he seems like a natural choice… if he was a better swimmer. Ha! – Craig)
The Gill-Man Wasn’t Really A Monster (This is an argument I’ve heard from fans. See the rationale Fudiccia presents. I’d agree except for the fact that the Creature kills two native workers at the start of the film. – Craig)
Ben Sherlock and ScreenRant posted Yo, Adrian!: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Rocky Franchise.
Most regular readers here will know the majority of the trivia posted, but there may be a few that surprise you. Below are three of my favs and my thoughts on each. Click over the article for all the facts and the full details.
Thanks To Rocky, Sylvester Stallone Has An Oscars Record Tied With Charlie Chaplin And Orson Welles. (Sly was the third person to ever receive Academy Award nominations for writing and acting in the same film! Since Sly earned this honor, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Billy Bob Thornton, Matt Damon and Roberto Benigni have joined this elite group. – Craig)
Rocky Balboa Was The First Rocky Film To Use Real Punches As Sound Effects. (Most folks know Sly and his co-stars traded real punches at times during the fight scenes, but how many knew that the real punch sounds weren’t used until Rocky Balboa? – Craig)
The Original Film’s Script Was Tweaked To Accommodate Production Errors. (While not technically a production error, the skating scene with Rocky and Adrian originally was supposed to take place with the skating rink full of people. The budget wouldn’t allow it, and I think the film is better for it! – Craig)
Here’s the poster and trailer for the new Amazon Prime tv series Hunters. Not sure about this one yet, but I will be tuning in to check it out.
Inspired by true events, HUNTERS follows a diverse band of Nazi Hunters in 1977 New York City who discover that hundreds of escaped Nazis are living in America. And so, they do what any bad-ass vigilante squad would do: they set out on a bloody quest for revenge and justice. But they soon discover a far-reaching conspiracy and must race against time to thwart the Nazis’ new genocidal plans.
Jake Rossen and Mental Floss present 8 Surprising Facts About Cary Grant. Grant appeared in over 75 films (including two of my favorites, Arsenic and Old Lace and North by Northwest).
Cary Grant lived an interesting life. Here are my three favorite facts and my comments on each. Click over to the article to get all the details.
3. CARY GRANT WAS OFFERED THE ROLE OF JAMES BOND. (While I really like Grant’s acting, I can’t see him as James Bond. Well, maybe he’d have pulled off a Roger Moore-type Bond if he had been younger. All in all — good pass.)
8. CARY GRANT RETIRED EARLY. (Grant did something that many stars talk about doing but don’t. Most stars retire and then make a comeback. Grant did it right. He retired from acting and never came back.)
4. CARY GRANT REALLY LOVED LSD. (I include this fact not because I like Grant’s drug use, but because it is so surprising. It goes to show, you never know about people. Who’d have thought Cary Grant would be into LSD? Not me.)
Check out this really well done short, Skywatch.
SKYWATCH is a sci-fi proof of concept written & directed by Colin Levy.
This short has been six years in the making, funded via Kickstarter, and crafted by volunteering artists across the world.
Starring young up-and-comers Uriah Shelton (13 REASONS WHY, LOOKING FOR ALASKA) and Zach Callison (STEVEN UNIVERSE, THE GOLDBERGS), the short also features an appearance by Jude Law.
When two outcast teens hack into a ubiquitous drone delivery system to pull a prank on their neighbor, they accidentally crash-land a dangerous prototype – and find themselves entangled in a life-and-death conspiracy.
Kieran Fisher at Film School Rejects ranked the films of Michael Bay. I decided I’d play along. I’ve ranked Bay’s films (that I’ve seen) with a comment on each.
09. Transformers (2007) – I didn’t care for this at all but then again, I wasn’t in the target audience.
08. The Island (2005) – I saw it, but remember thinking it would be better.
07. Bad Boys (1995) – I can remember sitting in the theater and thinking, ‘This should be better.’
06. Pain & Gain (2013) – I wasn’t expecting a lot from this one and so the bar wasn’t that high.
05. 6 Underground (2019) – Put your mind in neutral and go along for the ride.
04. Pearl Harbor (2001) – I liked this better than most folks. In fact I almost put it in the third spot.
03. Armageddon (1998) – A great cast and a fun story.
02. Bad Boys II (2003) – I didn’t care for the first Bad Boys but really dug the second.
01. The Rock (1996) – Absolutely loved this one!
Max Allan Collins posted an excellent piece on The Shining – the book, the movie and the differences that Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick had in regard to their versions. As a bonus Collins looks at Doctor Sleep and the 1997 TV mini-series of Stephen King’s The Shining.
Max Allan Collins’ blog is always worth reading (as are his novels) and his “Shining” post is just an example of the fun to be had.
Frank Frazetta is a legendary artist known for his beautiful magazine and book covers so his pencil art isn’t as widely seen. It’s a shame when he produced pieces like this one. You can see a bigger version by clicking on the art above.
Source: Frank Frazetta Art.
Scott Beggs and Mental Floss present 12 Surprising Facts about The Godfather Part II. Here are four (I couldn’t pick just 3!) of my favorite facts presented. Click on the link to read all of the facts and additional details!
3. MARLON BRANDO AND ROBERT DE NIRO ARE THE ONLY ACTORS TO WIN OSCARS FOR PLAYING THE SAME CHARACTER.
6. AN EXTRA HAD THE GUTS TO IMPROVISE AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN THE GODFATHER PART II.
11. JAMES CAGNEY TURNED DOWN A ROLE IN THE GODFATHER PART II.
12. FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA WANTED MARLON BRANDO TO REPRISE HIS ROLE AS THE YOUNGER VERSION OF HIMSELF IN THE GODFATHER PART II.
Cut Bank (2014)
Director: Matt Shakman
Screenplay: Roberto Patino
Stars: Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Billy Bob Thorton, Bruce Dern, John Malkovich and Michael Stuhlbarg.
The Pitch: “Do you like movies like Blood Simple and Fargo…”
Tagline: Good Folks. Bad Deeds.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Dwayne McLaren dreams of getting out of Cut Bank, a small town with little promise. When McLaren and his girlfriend accidentally video the murder of a postal worker, they may have stumbled on their ticket out. The $100,000 reward money offered by the postal service would be life-changing money.
But all is not as it seems.
The postal worker was set to deliver a parcel that a man is willing to kill to get and perhaps the postal worker’s killing wasn’t a murder at all. Who is scamming who?
Cut Bank features great cast and a story with plenty of twists. I was surprised how good it is. Although I’ve posted the trailer below, I suggest you skip it and go straight to the movie. (Some of the twists are given away in the trailer. Go in cold and enjoy!)
Rating:
