Policemen break into the office of University of Zurich professor Dr. Hans Gruber (Al Berry, different Hans Gruber), where it appears that student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is attacking Gruber. Pulling West away, the bloodied doctor jumps up, his eyes bulge and explode, and he falls dead. Accused of killing Gruber, West exclaims, “I gave him life!” Thus begins the insaneRe-Animator(which celebrates its 37th anniversary today), the cult classic based loosely onH....

WithKong: Skull Islandnow playing in theaters and IMAX, I recently sat down withSamuel L. Jacksonfor an exclusive video interview. During our wide-ranging conversation he talked about how he got involved inKong: Skull Island, what it was like filming in Vietnam, Australia and Hawaii, what the 1970s Vietnam-era setting adds to the film, and more. In addition, with Jackson involved in a number of other things, we talked aboutThe Blob,The Incredibles 2,the ending ofSplit, andSplit 2....

In the mid 1970s, celebrated filmmaker,Stanley Kubrick, set out to do something he had long dreamed of — direct “the world’s scariest movie.” By 1980, theA Clockwork Orangehelmer’s project,The Shiningarrived in cinemas,fulfilling Kubrick’s mission. Although the final versionstrayed rather far from the Stephen King novelfrom where it took its foundation and title, Kubrick made one of the genre’s most beloved pieces, so much so that it still holds up more than four decades later....

Next up from Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment isSuicide Squad: Hell to Pay, which will be headed to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital this Spring. The animated movie is rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, sexual content, brief graphic nudity, and some drug material. You can get a heaping helping of all of that content in the brand new trailer for the upcoming film, which certainly seems to earn its R rating and relishes in that fact....

WithEmpire of Lightbehind him now,Sam Mendeshas set his sights on his next project—and this time it’s a television series.While HBO Max may be in a state of flux this week,Deadlinereports that the pilot forThe Franchisehas just secured its series regulars, in addition to a pair of recurring cast members. The comedy series, which comes from the mind of Mendes,has a fairly entertaining plot when one considerswhy things at Warner Bros. Discovery have been so chaotic recently....

As I’ve already written aboutmanytimesbeforeThe Good Placeis an incredible TV show.Parks and Recreationcreator/showrunnerMichael Schur’s follow-up NBC sitcom blends the very best of Prestige TV and traditional network sitcom, resulting in a hilarious, surprising, and consistently compassionate work of art. The show is heavily serialized for a half-hour comedy, but Schur and his writing team have consistently presented “twists” that recontextualize the series in ways that opens up even more exciting possibilities....

Amazon has released the firstThe Man in the High CastleSeason 3 trailer, while also announcing an early renewal for Season 4. I don’t keep up with this show at all, but I’ve heard pretty good things about it, and this is a promising trailer. You can see that they’re really digging into the sci-fi aspect of the multiverse instead of just “Hey! It’s Nazis in America! What a crazy—what’s that? Oh, in Charlottesville?...

Babylon 5,J. Michael Straczynski’s landmark science fiction series, has a new streaming home. All five seasons of the series are now streaming onPrime Video. The series was the brainchild of Straczynski; he has since gone on to write the filmsChangelingandNinja Assassin, and co-created the Netflix seriesSense8withLana and Lily Wachowski. Produced by Warner Bros. Television, it premiered in syndication in 1993, running there for four seasons before its fifth and final season aired on TNT....

The recent success ofBeetlejuice Beetlejuicereminded audiences that directorTim Burtonhas been a gifted cinematic artist for four decades. Rather than create a page-one reboot, Burton found a natural evolution forMichael Keaton’s troublemaking bio-exorcist and the quirky Deetz family. It took over 30 years for all the key players to agree on the right story. But at one time,a different idea for aBeetlejuicesequel would have done away with all the original characters except for the Ghost with the Most....

Hulu has announced everything coming to and leaving their service in March 2020, aka the beginnings of FX on Hulu! The pairing between the two media companies begins in earnest this month, and you may tell with the glut of incoming original programming from FX to Hulu, including the series premiere ofBreeders, season premiere ofBetter Things, and the first full-on partnership between the two,Devs(a fever dream wereviewed here). Hulu will also debut original titles likeHillary, a documentary about Mrs....

One of the reasons I love film festivals is you often get to see films before you’ve read a review or seen a trailer. Most of the time you’ll watch something with no idea of the twists and turns that are coming and it’s one of the reasons those early film festival screenings can have huge reactions. But it’s hard to experience that early screening magic unless you’re in the industry or a member of the press....

John Wickwas initially hailed asKeanu Reeves’ comeback vehicle, but in the near decade since its release, the film has proven to be much more than that. It seems likeJohn Wickhas become this generation’sDie Hardin the sense that it’s now a short-term point of comparison for pitching new action movies. Similar to the movies pitched as “Die Hardin a___,” recent revenge movies likeNobody, Atomic Blonde, Violent Night, Kate,andExtractionhave all taken inspiration fromJohn Wick’s premise....

The Lord of the Rings trilogy returned for a third and final round in theatersthis weekend, concluding a special re-release run that began earlier in June. Each film inthe ground-breaking trilogywasre-issued for one day at a time, three weekends in a row. While the box office response was quite impressive in the opening weekend, the results have understandably tapered off. The three movies made a combined total of just around $500,000 this weekend, having admittedly played in only 51 locations....