Movie Scum

Photo: Warner Brothers Hey guys! It's been a while since I've posted! Has anything new happened? Oh, global pandemic? That sucks. Is this affecting movies? Oh, it is?

Photo: Warner Bros. Quite a week for family-friendly films.

Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer The early 1990s were not a great time in the horror genre as the big slasher franchises had mostly run their course and the new teenage wave starting with Scream were still a few years away. Arguably, the biggest film to come from this barren time is 1992's Candyman , a smart and socially relevant tale with more heft than your later Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th installments.

Photo: STX Entertainment A fake boy and a fake dog? Interesting theme this week at the box office.

Two weeks from Halloween opening. We can do it, guys.

The Shape is back! And he’s slashed all concepts of canon and connectivity to shreds! Depending on who you ask, it’s either been eleven years since the last “good” Halloween film or much longer. However, the new David Gordon Green -directed Halloween sequel-reboot-thing may just be the film die-hard fans have been waiting an indeterminate amount of years for.

I didn’t think we needed a live-action Winnie the Pooh movie. Clearly, I was wrong.

For anyone who grew up in the late 80s or early 90s, the Karate Kid films were a staple of your childhood. Now, the story continues and ... what the fuck, is Daniel LaRusso the villain here?

Earlier this week, Sony released the trailer for Venom , starring Tom Hardy with nary a Spider-man in site. I dig it, even though real critic’s reactions are decidedly mixed.

We could have had a brand-new Jason Voorhees film this weekend had Paramount not pulled the plug in what I hope turns out to be a daily ass-kicking around there. So in return, we get a new-ish? horror film and a prestigious biopic.

Since last year’s Sicario was one of my favorite films, I was excited to learn that Denis Villeneuve was cooking up another film before heading off to the Blade Runner sequel. And the trailer for Arrival that popped up this week just increased my anticipation for that film even more. Based on the short story ‘ Story of Your Life ’ by Ted Chiang , Amy Adams , Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker star as a team dispatched when an alien ship arrives on Earth. Adams’ Dr. Louise Banks is tasked to devise a way to communicate with the aliens and determine if their intentions are hostile or not. As you can see, the trailer does not give too much away but we can likely expect an escalation between the military and the aliens, especially as many more ships appear throughout the world. However, considering Villeneuve’s penchant for slow and meticulously drawn out affairs in his films, this will almost certainly not be an unofficial bombastic Independence Day sequel. Arrival opens Novem...

An Angry Birds movie may have made sense a few years ago. Is this an attempt to reinvigorate the franchise or merely sell more games and plush animals? The new trailer for The Angry Birds Movie , due out next summer, a good four years or so since Angry Birds were relevant in pop culture, doesn’t show much action or plot but merely introduces the characters we’ve all grown to love and loathe through our pig-destroying levels. The fact that this trailer light on jokes and heavy on name placement doesn’t bode well for this adaptation but we are still a few seasons away from a release. Although, this cast, including Jason Sudekis as ‘Red’, could enliven the scorned birds sufficiently, this seems more of a late cash grab than any animated kids movie that has any merit. Perhaps I’ll be wrong.

After a silly tiltle, some inspired casting, and a “meh” trailer, new images have emerged for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice to remind people it is still happening. Entertainment Weekly brings us looks at the aforementioned inspired casting of Ben Affleck and Jesse Eisenberg as Batman and Lex Luthor respectively and ... not much else except for the preppy/hippy vibe I’m getting from Eisenberg ... and a mosh pit forming around Supes ... and a dance scene between uneasy allies and/or frenemies that seems ripped from just about every other action film (including the last Batman movie!). Click through for the rest and don’t let news of Affleck’s divorce get you down. Let’s just see how well this film goes before we see how much we feel sorry for him ... and Superman.

San Andreas : Opening May 29 The Good : Disaster movies are fun, especially when they take place (like they seem to do the majority of the time) on the West Coast full of granola-crunching hippies singing Kumbaya (note: I’ve never been further west than Ohio). Disaster movies these days are also good for mediocre special effects showing the complete destruction of iconic areas and landmarks and San Andreas looks no different. But if anyone can take on the mother of all earthquakes, it’s The Rock with sidekick Carla Gugino. The Bad : Let’s be honest though. The disaster movie genre of the 70s is long gone and it took with it any sense of characterization or possible realism. San Andreas is a Hollywood producer’s wet dream with big blockbustin’ stars, action, effects ... the whole nine yards. And boy, does it show it in every single trailer or TV spot I’ve seen for this with the crumbling buildings, massive chasms in the ground and a 100’ tidal wave that The Rock(!) powers a speed...

One for the kids ... one for the slightly more grown kids. Pitch Perfect 2 When 2012’s Pitch Perfect opened, it was a modest hit but with tremendous staying power thanks in no part to that damn Cups song. But now Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson are back in a ‘Bring It On’ style dance off after being booted from their competition. Will they succeed? Will Rebel Wilson steal the show again? Will there be another damn song that somehow is still popular a year after the movie premieres? Verdict: Please no more Cups! Mad Max: Fury Road We’ve already covered this one before but guns! Explosions! Tom Hardy! George Miller returning to his roots after some questionable directorial affairs like Babe and Happy Feet! Verdict: It’s Tom Hardy! Of course it’ll be badass.

What do The Purge , Insidious , Paranormal Activity , and Sinister have in common? Jason Blum , previously just a junior producer on lesser Hollywood features, has become the major player in horror cinema since his participation in launching the first Paranormal Activity that kicked the horror genre out of pointless remakes and big-star titles and into original, low-budget productions that actually ... were scary. Just one look at the filmography of Blum’s production company Blumhouse turns up a couple of duds that did nothing for me. But more than not, the films under Blumhouse’s shingle are more of the cerebral, under-your-skin type horror than fake jump scares. Of course, there have been many independent horror films over the years to accomplish the same feat but these productions aren’t limited to VOD or straight-to-DVD status. These are opening in 2000+ theaters each and every time. The Gallows looks to try and continue that trend. Even looking at the teaser above, it d...

Maybe my general dislike of this premise is that I never saw, nor felt any compelling reason, to see Man of Steel . But now, Batman v Superman: Blah Blah Blah seems to be using that as a launching point for the next generation of DC comic movies. And, uh ... well. I’m not convinced. The world seems to be against Supes for whatever transpired in his last outing and Batman is just along for the ride? Does he have an actual beef with the Man o’ Steel? Or is this just some hokey plot meant to mesh together two superheroes? Unfortunately, the trailer is more or less vague other than implying that Batfleck has evil eyes for Superman. And I’m not sure how I feel about the Batfleck voice either. It sounds too ... robotic? Anyways, call me nonplussed for now. But I’m sure we’ll be subjected to about 13 more trailers before this comes out next year.

The original Sinister was a kick in the gut as far as horror films go. Having grown up with a steady diet of Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, and whatever other random shlock was out at the time, I typically don't respond well to horror films for their intended purpose: to scare. But I'll be damned if Sinister didn't get me time and time again but not with cheap jump scares and cats in pantries, but with truly disturbing imagery and an unsettling tone throughout. Much like James Wan 's recent non- Saw output, such as The Conjuring or Insidious , I do respond to those low-key but emotionally terrifying scenes that present a real danger to the characters, rather than one composed by lazy screenwriting to justify a horror label. And much like The Conjuring, Sinister was not big on jump-scares or fakeouts but real scenarios playing out to real-ish characters that carried emotional weight. But since Sinister focused on Ethan Hawke and his family, I wonder what directi...

After the wonderfully shot and masterfully directed Skyfall , the news that director Sam Mendes was returning upped my anticipation for the next installment. Now, MGM has released a teaser for James Bond's newest adventures in murdering and womanizing, Spectre (or maybe SPECTRE, can't figure out which yet), showing off Waltz's standard creepy vibe and a new mystery for 007 to be entangled in. Spectre (or SPECTRE!) is due for release in November 2016.

Yes, zombeavers are a thing. I'm shocked it took so long for this concept to come about with the resurgence in zombie related media. But now that it's here, Zombeavers looks awesome.