Film

R.I.P. Doris Day, legendary actress and musician dead at 97

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Legendary actress and singer Doris Day has died at the age of 97. According to The Associated Press, Day died Monday at her Carmel Valley, California home surronded by close friends. At the peak of her popularity in the 1950s and 60s, Day was the biggest female film star and ranked sixth all time among box office performers. At the 1989 Academy Awards, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. Day was also an accomplished musician, who released 29 albums over the course of her life. For her efforts, she was bestowed a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Legend Award from the Society of Singers. Consequence of Sound RSS Feed

Film Review: The Ranger Turns a Flashlight on Authority Horror

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The Pitch: A rag-tag crew of crusty punks evade the law by leaving the city and heading out into the woods, where one of their friends has a secluded family cabin. Unfortunately for them, they’re not alone as they come face to face with the titular terror, who may or may not recognize said friend. Will these punks survive this sordid “Police Story”? Police On My Back: Okay, so it’s a little Green Room, it’s a little Evil Dead, and it’s a little Cabin Fever, but what really elevates this woodsy story from being, well, another woodsy story is its capitalization on authority horror. At a time when those red and blue lights have taken on an ominous turn, a villain like Jeremy Holm’s Ranger really works. It helps that Holm rips apart every scene with his bare hands, dialing back to ’90s DTV villainy in the most complementary way. Whether he’s swinging axes into people’s jaws or pressuring a snotty teen to tear their leg from a bear trap, he’s always grinning like an asshole, and you can’t help but relish every second he magically appears. Yet you also can’t help but shudder, either, no pun intended. Holm’s caricature […]

Winnie the Pooh actor Jim Cummings accused of sexual assault, animal abuse by ex-wife: Report

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(Editor’s note: The following article contains descriptions of sexual assault, domestic abuse, and animal abuse.) Reports have emerged from The Blast regarding court documents from an ongoing case between veteran actor (and longtime voice of Winnie the Pooh) Jim Cummings and his ex-wife Stephanie. In them, Stephanie accuses Cummings of rape, animal abuse, and sustained harassment of her over several years. The couple initially separated in 2011. The Blast reported the news based on court documents obtained (which were not included in the article), from legal filings between the two in their divorce proceedings. In the documents, Stephanie alleges that Cummings “has engaged in physical, sexual and emotional abuse including but not limited to death threats, rape, and various sexual deviant behavior forced upon me without my consent.” The court claims speak to a battery of abusive behavior during and after their marriage, from harassment in front of their children (the ) to drug abuse to repeated violations of restraining orders. In the filings, Stephanie also alleges that “…she was raped by Jim in 2013, and allegedly filed a police report over the incident but did not give more detail. In open court testimony, Stephanie describes how she entered rehab after the […]

Zac Efron: Metallica’s James Hetfield “crushed” his role as a cop in Ted Bundy movie

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James Hetfield in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, via Brian Douglas (COTA Films) The new movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile premieres on Netflix and in select movie theaters this Friday (May 3rd), and actor Zac Efron, who stars as serial killer Ted Bundy, has nothing but praise for Metallica frontman James Hetfield’s role in the film. Hetfield plays Officer Bob Hayward, the highway patrolman who arrested Bundy in 1975. While it may be his first dramatic acting role, Hetfield had previous experience working with the film’s director, Joe Berliner, who co-directed the infamous Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster. Last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Efron was asked by the late-night host about working with the Metallica legend, and the actor immediately applauded at hearing Kimmel utter Hetfield’s name. “He comes on the set, and it’s one of the more pivotal moments,” began Efron. “It’s the moment that Ted actually got caught for the first time — he ran a stop sign. And James Hetfield plays the policeman that picks him up.” Efron continued, “And James Hetfield, to his credit, and absolutely nailed the part, he just crushed it. It’s like he’s been acting his own life. […]

Grease prequel coming as if sequel wasn’t enough of a misfire

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Want to know what rarely works in Hollywood? Prequels. Too often we go into these stories knowing exactly how they’ll end, which is why most, if not all, can be filed under the increasingly overstuffed Bad Idea Jeans cabinet. The latest addition? A prequel to Grease. Yes, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount wants to turn the key again on Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson’s relationship with Summer Loving, their aptly titled prequel that doubles back to the time when the two star-crossed lovers met on the beach one summer. You know, everything the two already detailed in the song “Summer Nights”? Nevertheless, screenwriter John August has been tapped by the studio to tell us more, tell us more, and he’ll have the unenviable task of capturing magic that’s now well over 40 years old. (Read: The 50 Greatest Rock and Roll Movies of All Time) Currently, there’s no director attached, but god have mercy on the soul of any casting director who has to find replacements for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Perhaps they could go the Scorsese route and de-age the two stars for a wickedly talented spectacle? We’ll have to see. In the meantime, revisit the song […]

The Matrix Was Prescient About the Online World, But Also the Real World

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There’s a tension at the heart of The Matrix. The film frames its machine-forged digital ecosystem as a prison, as a lie intended to keep humanity docile. It’s the work of an authority that means to tame us. But the Matrix itself is also a world of unlimited possibility, one where you can look cooler than the real world would ever allow, do what no flesh-and-blood human ever could, and see and feel and experience things that simply aren’t possible outside of this virtual space. The film quickly establishes a tug-of-war between the truth but meager subsistence the real world offer and the blinding but comforting falsehood of the world made out of ones and zeroes. The inherent push and pull between those two realms keeps The Matrix resonant 20 years later. Granted, certain elements of the film feel dated, like the phone-centric imagery that made sense in an age of dial-up but seems quaint in an era of ubiquitous connectivity. And yet, beyond the movie’s stunning action, intriguing and adaptable premise, and philosophical bent, the thing that makes the film remain so potent and prescient in 2019 is how that essential dichotomy it presents is still with us. Because […]

The Toxic Avenger will avenge once again in new reboot

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Those who grew up in the ’80s, and even the ’90s, no doubt remember Troma’s disgusting anti-hero The Toxic Avenger. Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman’s 1984 splatter superhero film spawned three sequels, a musical, a video game, and, yes, even a children’s cartoon. Well, Toxie is back, as Variety reports that actor, screenwriter, and director Macon Blair has grabbed hold of the slimy toxic drum and will write and direct a new reboot for Legendary. Even better, Kaufman and Herz will serve as producers to make sure it’s as grimy and despicable as ever. Blair, who starred in Jeremy Saulnier’s indie thrillers Blue Ruin and Green Room, has recently made some waves as a screenwriter and filmmaker. In 2017, he won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore, and has since penned Netflix’s Hold the Dark and Small Crimes. Rest assured, this will be brutal, and Blair will certainly add another edge to the janitor-turned-toxic crusader. Revisit the original film’s trailer below, in addition to the trailer for his award-winning directorial debut shortly after. [embedded content] [embedded content] Consequence of Sound RSS Feed

SXSW Film Review: Stuber Thrives as an Action Movie, Not So Much as a Comedy

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(Editor’s note: The following review concerns a work-in-progress cut of Stuber at SXSW 2019. As such, a final grade will be held until the film’s release this summer.) The Pitch: Hardened Los Angeles detective Vic (Dave Bautista) is supposed to be at home recovering from a recent LASIK procedure. But when Tejo (Iko Uwais), the drug lord who killed his partner six months earlier, is reported to be back in town, he disobeys doctor’s orders in an attempt to seek revenge. Because Vic is barely able to see, he ends up enlisting the help of a pushover Uber driver named Stu (a.k.a. Stuber, played by Kumail Nanjiani), to be his eyes, navigator, and reluctant sidekick. The tension between the unlikely crime-fighting team threatens to explode as the danger increases, and the two men begin offering unwanted advice about each other’s personal lives. Four Stars for Action: Taking a page from so many R-rated buddy-cop films of the ’80s and ’90s, Stuber refuses to pull its punches when it comes to the violence. The knockout opening sequence contains all the bullet dodging, spurting blood, and crushed bones you could ever want from two onscreen powerhouses like Bautista and Uwais. There’s an artistry in the […]

Luke Perry Redefined Cool and Slayed My Heart

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“I always felt like something of an outsider, but I identified with people on the screen.” –Luke Perry Hearts didn’t just stop at the sight of Luke Perry; they doubled, at least for this writer. As a young and easily confused six-year-old, seeing Dylan McKay show up on the third episode of Fox’s Beverly Hills 90210 was confounding. Here was this loner, this rebel, this real James Dean type, who was a complete juxtaposition from the rest of the hunks — from Jason Priestley’s kindhearted braniac Brandon Walsh to Ian Ziering’s insufferable Steve Sanders. He defined “slacker chic”: he was effeminate, he wore his heart on his sleeve, and he won over the coolest of the West Beverly girls. It was an instant first sell, too. When we first meet Dylan, he’s literally surrounded by bolts of electricity as he slinks out of the shadows of West Beverly’s computer lab. From there, he scares off two jocks, gets Brandon to cut school, cruises around in a vintage Porsche convertible with a copy of Byron, surfs the big waves, breaks the big boards, and orders hamburgers in his millionaire father’s hotel suite with some Beverly babes. Though, as we all learn […]

Steven Spielberg wants more rules for Netflix to win Oscars

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This year’s Oscars was a big deal for Netflix. With Alfonso Cuaron nabbing Best Director for Roma, the streaming giant is essentially one level removed from a Best Picture win, which is quite a feat for their original content. Most have celebrated this progress, but others aren’t so happy. Among them is Steven Spielberg, who’s sounding a lot like Shooter McGavin these days, essentially running around The Academy saying, “Yeah, yeah, everyone seems to be coming around … Well, I’m not, Dawn!” Prior to the Oscars, Spielberg made a not-so-subtle jab at streaming services while accepting the Filmmaker Award at the Cinema Audio Society’s CAS Awards for last year’s Ready Player One. As he explained: “I don’t believe that films that are just given token qualifications, in a couple of theaters for less than a week, should qualify for the Academy Award nominations. Fewer and fewer filmmakers are going to struggle to raise money, or to compete at Sundance and possibly get one of the specialty labels to release their films theatrically. And more of them are going to let the SVOD [Streaming Video On-Demand] businesses finance their films, maybe with the promise of a slight, one-week theatrical window to […]