In the first third of “The Accidental Getaway Driver” you might think you’re in for the film of the festival at Sundance 2023. The setup is simple and suspenseful: Long (Hiệp Trần Nghĩa), an elderly Vietnamese immigrant who works as a driver is paid double for a late night assignment that turns out to be about keeping three escaped prisoners ahead of the law. When Tây (Dustin Nguyen), one of the convicts, points a gun at him to prevent him from bailing when he wants to get out, the tension ratchets up to the breaking point.
But “The Accidental Getaway Driver” is not the film of the festival. And though the tension ratchets up there near the beginning, that’s as high as it goes for the whole movie. Instead, it’s merely . When it starts, you think you’re in for the second coming of Michael Mann’s “Collateral,...
But “The Accidental Getaway Driver” is not the film of the festival. And though the tension ratchets up there near the beginning, that’s as high as it goes for the whole movie. Instead, it’s merely . When it starts, you think you’re in for the second coming of Michael Mann’s “Collateral,...
- 1/23/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Geoff Murphy's 1992 sci-fi thriller "Freejack" has a fun premise. In the distant dystopian future of 2009, the ultra-wealthy can afford to hire special time-traveling agents called bonejackers to reach back in time and kidnap people the second before they are about to die. The wealthy then use futuristic technology to shunt their consciousnesses into the bodies of those they kidnapped. It's an effective way to assure immortality, as well as a clean way to acquire bodies that will not be missed by history. The problem is, when the victims are kidnapped from the past, they arrive in the future unscathed. The wealthy will indeed have to effectively "kill" their victims in order to take over their bodies.
The victims who escape are called freejacks.
As 1990s sci-fi thrillers go, "Freejack" is not terribly well remembered, nor was it an overwhelming hit (it made a mere 17 million at the domestic box office). The premise,...
The victims who escape are called freejacks.
As 1990s sci-fi thrillers go, "Freejack" is not terribly well remembered, nor was it an overwhelming hit (it made a mere 17 million at the domestic box office). The premise,...
- 12/26/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Holidays loom, but don’t fear TBS marathons of A Christmas Story. If, like me, you once enacted some good and let studio classics stream on Criterion during family Christmas, you know the trip home will be easier with December’s additions. (People at Criterion: please don’t report me for logging into multiple devices.) As family arrives, drinks are downed, and questions about what you’ve been up to are stumbled through it’ll be nice to stream their “Screwball Comedy Classics” series—25 titles meeting some deep cuts (10 via Venmo if you’ve recently watched It Happens Every Spring).
Personally I’m most excited about the 11 movies in “Snow Westerns,” going as far back as The Secret of Convict Lake, as recently as Ravenous, with the likes of Wellman, Peckinpah, and Corbucci in-between. I personally cannot stand soccer but I appreciate the World Cup giving occasion for a series...
Personally I’m most excited about the 11 movies in “Snow Westerns,” going as far back as The Secret of Convict Lake, as recently as Ravenous, with the likes of Wellman, Peckinpah, and Corbucci in-between. I personally cannot stand soccer but I appreciate the World Cup giving occasion for a series...
- 11/22/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The story of the Sunday school teacher behind a bawdy best-seller, Theodora Goes Wild opened the door to more comedy roles for the usually reserved Irene Dunne. Written by newspaper reporter Mary McCarthy, the 1936 film was directed by Polish immigrant Richard Boleslawski, no stranger to melodrama himself (he juggled all three Barrymores in Rasputin and the Empress). Melvyn Douglas, an expert in high class satire, co-stars as the illustrator of Theodora’s risqué novel.
The post Theodora Goes Wild appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Theodora Goes Wild appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 6/21/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
One has to appreciate Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s winking self-awareness in calling his new feature Creepy. It’s as if the Coen brothers released a film entitled Snarky, or Eli Roth named his next stomach-churner Gory. Kurosawa, who’s still best known for Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001), two rare outstanding examples of the highly variable J-Horror genre, instills a sense of creepiness into virtually anything he does, regardless of subject matter. His latest, which sees him return to the realm of horror after excursions into more arthouse territory, certainly lives up to its name and has a lot of fun doing so. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where...
Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
One has to appreciate Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s winking self-awareness in calling his new feature Creepy. It’s as if the Coen brothers released a film entitled Snarky, or Eli Roth named his next stomach-churner Gory. Kurosawa, who’s still best known for Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001), two rare outstanding examples of the highly variable J-Horror genre, instills a sense of creepiness into virtually anything he does, regardless of subject matter. His latest, which sees him return to the realm of horror after excursions into more arthouse territory, certainly lives up to its name and has a lot of fun doing so. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where...
- 10/16/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Criterion Channel’s stellar offerings are continuing next month with a selection of new releases, retrospective, series, and more. Leading the pack is, of course, a horror lineup perfectly timed for Halloween, featuring ’70s classics and underseen gems, including Abel Ferrara’s The Driller Killer (pictured above), Tobe Hopper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, early films by David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, and Brian De Palma, Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess, and more.
Also of note is a New Korean Cinema retrospective, featuring a new introduction by critic Grady Hendrix and a conversation between directors Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook, whose Barking Dogs Never Bite, The Host, Mother, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance are part of the lineup, as well as Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide, and more titles to be announced. Bong’s short Influenza will also arrive, paired with Michael Haneke’s Caché.
Also of note is a New Korean Cinema retrospective, featuring a new introduction by critic Grady Hendrix and a conversation between directors Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook, whose Barking Dogs Never Bite, The Host, Mother, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance are part of the lineup, as well as Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide, and more titles to be announced. Bong’s short Influenza will also arrive, paired with Michael Haneke’s Caché.
- 9/29/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of the first full Technicolor features is a romantic fantasy about an innocent beauty’s encounter with an equally innocent fugitive monk … all surrounded by sensuous, confected Hollywood exotica, courtesy of producer David O. Selznick. Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer steam up the screen, but dancer Tilly Losch steals the show with just one scene.
The Garden of Allah
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1936 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 79 min. / Street Date January 9, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith,
Tilly Losch, Joseph Schildkraut, John Carradine.
Cinematography: W. Howard Greene
Film Editor: Hal C. Kern
Art Directors: Edward G. Boyle, Sturges Carne, Lansing C. Holden, Lyle R. Wheeler
Original Music: Max Steiner
Written by W.P. Lipscomb, Lynn Riggs, from the novel by Robert Hichens
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by Richard Boleslawski
David O. Selznick’s personally produced movies combine canny commercial judgment...
The Garden of Allah
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1936 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 79 min. / Street Date January 9, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith,
Tilly Losch, Joseph Schildkraut, John Carradine.
Cinematography: W. Howard Greene
Film Editor: Hal C. Kern
Art Directors: Edward G. Boyle, Sturges Carne, Lansing C. Holden, Lyle R. Wheeler
Original Music: Max Steiner
Written by W.P. Lipscomb, Lynn Riggs, from the novel by Robert Hichens
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by Richard Boleslawski
David O. Selznick’s personally produced movies combine canny commercial judgment...
- 12/23/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Ronald Colman: Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in two major 1930s classics Updated: Turner Classic Movies' July 2017 Star of the Month is Ronald Colman, one of the finest performers of the studio era. On Thursday night, TCM presented five Colman star vehicles that should be popping up again in the not-too-distant future: A Tale of Two Cities, The Prisoner of Zenda, Kismet, Lucky Partners, and My Life with Caroline. The first two movies are among not only Colman's best, but also among Hollywood's best during its so-called Golden Age. Based on Charles Dickens' classic novel, Jack Conway's Academy Award-nominated A Tale of Two Cities (1936) is a rare Hollywood production indeed: it manages to effectively condense its sprawling source, it boasts first-rate production values, and it features a phenomenal central performance. Ah, it also shows its star without his trademark mustache – about as famous at the time as Clark Gable's. Perhaps...
- 7/21/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
What's this? John Ford's last silent western is as exciting and entertaining as his later classics. A trio of horse thieves turn noble when given the responsibility of a young woman lost on the prairie; Ford gives the show comedy, drama and spectacle. 3 Bad Men Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1926 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap. / 92 min. / Street Date August 23, 2016 / 29.95 Starring George O'Brien, Olive Borden, Lou Tellegen, Tom Santschi, J. Farrell MacDonald, Frank Campeau, Priscilla Bonner, Otis Harlan, Phyllis Haver, Georgie Harris, Alec Francis, Jay Hunt . Cinematography George Schneiderman Original Music Dana Kaproff (2007) Written by John Stone, Ralph Spence, Malcolm Stuart Boylan from a novel by Herman Whittaker Produced and Directed by John Ford
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
What a great discovery! Last year Kino brought us a good-looking disc of John Ford's Hurricane and now they take the bold step of issuing one of the director's oldest intact features,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
What a great discovery! Last year Kino brought us a good-looking disc of John Ford's Hurricane and now they take the bold step of issuing one of the director's oldest intact features,...
- 7/17/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Norma Shearer: The Boss' wife was cast in 'The Divorcee.' Norma Shearer movies on TCM: Early talkies and Best Actress Oscar Note: This Norma Shearer article is currently being revised and expanded. Please Check back later. Norma Shearer, one of the top stars in Hollywood history and known as the Queen of MGM back in the 1930s, is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of Nov. 2015. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that even though its parent company, Time Warner, owns most of Shearer's movies, TCM isn't airing any premieres. So, if you were expecting to check out a very young Norma Shearer in The Devil's Circus, Upstage, or After Midnight, you're out of luck. (I've seen all three; they're all worth a look.) It's a crime that, music score or no, restored print or no, TCM/Time Warner don't make available for viewing the...
- 11/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Constance Cummings in 'Night After Night.' Constance Cummings: Working with Frank Capra and Mae West (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Actress Went from Harold Lloyd to Eugene O'Neill.”) Back at Columbia, Harry Cohn didn't do a very good job at making Constance Cummings feel important. By the end of 1932, Columbia and its sweet ingenue found themselves in court, fighting bitterly over stipulations in her contract. According to the actress and lawyer's daughter, Columbia had failed to notify her that they were picking up her option. Therefore, she was a free agent, able to offer her services wherever she pleased. Harry Cohn felt otherwise, claiming that his contract player had waived such a notice. The battle would spill over into 1933. On the positive side, in addition to Movie Crazy 1932 provided Cummings with three other notable Hollywood movies: Washington Merry-Go-Round, American Madness, and Night After Night. 'Washington Merry-Go-Round...
- 11/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Greta Garbo movie 'The Kiss.' Greta Garbo movies on TCM Greta Garbo, a rarity among silent era movie stars, is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” performer today, Aug. 26, '15. Now, why would Garbo be considered a silent era rarity? Well, certainly not because she easily made the transition to sound, remaining a major star for another decade. Think Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, William Powell, Fay Wray, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Warner Baxter, Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, etc. And so much for all the stories about actors with foreign accents being unable to maintain their Hollywood stardom following the advent of sound motion pictures. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star, Garbo was no major exception to the supposed rule. Mexican Ramon Novarro, another MGM star, also made an easy transition to sound, and so did fellow Mexicans Lupe Velez and Dolores del Rio, in addition to the very British...
- 8/27/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
By winning the Best Cinematography Oscar for a second year in a row, "Birdman" director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki has joined a truly elite club whose ranks haven't been breached in nearly two decades. Only four other cinematographers have won the prize in two consecutive years. The last time it happened was in 1994 and 1995, when John Toll won for Edward Zwick's "Legends of the Fall" and Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" respectively. Before that you have to go all the way back to the late '40s, when Winton Hoch won in 1948 (Victor Fleming's "Joan of Arc" with Ingrid Bergman) and 1949 (John Ford's western "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"). Both victories came in the color category, as the Academy awarded prizes separately for black-and-white and color photography from 1939 to 1956. Leon Shamroy also won back-to-back color cinematography Oscars, for Henry King's 1944 Woodrow Wilson biopic "Wilson" and John M. Stahl...
- 2/23/2015
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
Above: Us three-sheet poster for The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, UK, 1933).
The great Charles Laughton may not have been the prettiest of movie stars, but he had a presence that many matinee idols would have killed for (as the current retrospective running at Film Forum will attest). In an era in which glamor was everything, studio marketers may have struggled with how to present Laughton’s unconventional looks and his larger-than-life portrayals of larger-than-life characters (so many monsters, murderers, tyrants, or simply overbearing fathers) to the public. In most of the posters for his most famous film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), he is all but a silhouette, a spoiler alert to his monstrous transformation as Quasimodo. And in some posters for The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), the film for which he won his first Oscar, Henry is made to look more like the Hans Holbein...
The great Charles Laughton may not have been the prettiest of movie stars, but he had a presence that many matinee idols would have killed for (as the current retrospective running at Film Forum will attest). In an era in which glamor was everything, studio marketers may have struggled with how to present Laughton’s unconventional looks and his larger-than-life portrayals of larger-than-life characters (so many monsters, murderers, tyrants, or simply overbearing fathers) to the public. In most of the posters for his most famous film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), he is all but a silhouette, a spoiler alert to his monstrous transformation as Quasimodo. And in some posters for The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), the film for which he won his first Oscar, Henry is made to look more like the Hans Holbein...
- 2/21/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly in Singinʼ in the Rain (USA 1952) by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
Copyright: George Eastman House, Rochester, © 2014 Warner Bros Ent. All Rights Reserved.
The Retrospective of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival will celebrate the centenary of Technicolor. The Retrospective will present around 30 magnificent Technicolor films, some of which have been elaborately restored. They were made in the early years between the dawn of Technicolor and 1953 – and include six British films.
“The blazing red of Southern skies in Gone with the Wind or the ecstatic yellow of the raincoats in Singin’ in the Rain – in those days, the play of dramatically intensified colours was a sensation. The Technicolor process combined with cultural and economic trends to produce great cinematic works of art that still thrill audiences today,” says Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.
As of 1915, inventors Herbert T. Kalmus, Daniel Comstock and W. Burton Wescott developed the two-colour process Technicolor No.
Copyright: George Eastman House, Rochester, © 2014 Warner Bros Ent. All Rights Reserved.
The Retrospective of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival will celebrate the centenary of Technicolor. The Retrospective will present around 30 magnificent Technicolor films, some of which have been elaborately restored. They were made in the early years between the dawn of Technicolor and 1953 – and include six British films.
“The blazing red of Southern skies in Gone with the Wind or the ecstatic yellow of the raincoats in Singin’ in the Rain – in those days, the play of dramatically intensified colours was a sensation. The Technicolor process combined with cultural and economic trends to produce great cinematic works of art that still thrill audiences today,” says Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.
As of 1915, inventors Herbert T. Kalmus, Daniel Comstock and W. Burton Wescott developed the two-colour process Technicolor No.
- 11/13/2014
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Retrospective strand to celebrate 100th anniversary of Technicolor.
The Retrospective of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 5-15) is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Color by Technicolor.
The strand will include around 30 Technicolor films, some of which have been restored, which were madebetween the dawn of Technicolor and 1953 – and include six British films.
Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick said: “The blazing red of Southern skies in Gone with the Wind or the ecstatic yellow of the raincoats in Singin’ in the Rain – in those days, the play of dramatically intensified colours was a sensation. The Technicolor process combined with cultural and economic trends to produce great cinematic works of art that still thrill audiences today.”
As well as those mentioned by Kosslick, titles to be screened include Richard Boleslawski’s drama The Garden of Allah (1936), George Sidney’s adventure film The Three Musketeers (1948) and Victor Fleming’s hit musical The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Other features will include...
The Retrospective of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 5-15) is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Color by Technicolor.
The strand will include around 30 Technicolor films, some of which have been restored, which were madebetween the dawn of Technicolor and 1953 – and include six British films.
Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick said: “The blazing red of Southern skies in Gone with the Wind or the ecstatic yellow of the raincoats in Singin’ in the Rain – in those days, the play of dramatically intensified colours was a sensation. The Technicolor process combined with cultural and economic trends to produce great cinematic works of art that still thrill audiences today.”
As well as those mentioned by Kosslick, titles to be screened include Richard Boleslawski’s drama The Garden of Allah (1936), George Sidney’s adventure film The Three Musketeers (1948) and Victor Fleming’s hit musical The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Other features will include...
- 11/12/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Irene Dunne movies: Five-time Best Actress Academy Award nominee starred in now-forgotten originals of well-remembered remakes In his August 2007 Bright Lights article "The Elusive Pleasures of Irene Dunne," Dan Callahan explained that "the reasons for Irene Dunne’s continuing, undeserved obscurity are fairly well known. Nearly all of her best films from the thirties and forties were remade and the originals were suppressed and didn’t play on television. She did some of her most distinctive work for John Stahl at Universal, and non-horror Universal films are rarely shown now. Practically all of her movies need to be restored; even her most popular effort, The Awful Truth (1937), looks grainy and blotchy on its DVD transfer, to say nothing of things like Stahl’s When Tomorrow Comes (1939), or Rouben Mamoulian’s High, Wide, and Handsome (1937), two key Dunne films that have languished and deteriorated in a sort of television/video purgatory.
- 9/12/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
A favorite subject at MGM in the thirties was the "three girls in the big city" sub-genre, which as an approach to questions of sexual morality and wish fulfillment has proved a long-lived one, revived in the Jean Negulescu Cinemascope romp which gives this article its title, and in a certain TV series which has spawned a couple of feature films but which I will not sully this sweet ocean breeze by uttering the name of.
Beauty for Sale (1933) follows on the heels of popular MGM affairs like Our Dancing Daughters and its quasi-sequels, and like most of those films it presents a trio of characters, one more or less virtuous, one tempted to sin and punished somewhat, and one entirely destroyed. It's based on a novel by one woman (Faith Baldwin, a much-adapted specialist in urban romances), and is written by two others (Eve Green & Zelda Sears), and casts...
Beauty for Sale (1933) follows on the heels of popular MGM affairs like Our Dancing Daughters and its quasi-sequels, and like most of those films it presents a trio of characters, one more or less virtuous, one tempted to sin and punished somewhat, and one entirely destroyed. It's based on a novel by one woman (Faith Baldwin, a much-adapted specialist in urban romances), and is written by two others (Eve Green & Zelda Sears), and casts...
- 5/30/2013
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Ben Johnson isn't exactly what one would call a movie icon; Johnson isn't even a Western icon, despite his presence in numerous Old (and not-so-Old) West movies during his 50+-year career. Johnson's semi-obscurity today is a great reason to celebrate Turner Classic Movies' devoting one whole day to him as part of its "Summer Under the Stars" film series. [Ben Johnson Movie Schedule.] TCM will be presenting 12 Ben Johnson movies, including one premiere, the 1957 Western War Drums, directed by Viennese filmmaker Reginald Le Borg (Voodoo Island, Sins of Jezebel), and starring former Tarzan Lex Barker. The movie sounds like a hoot: Mexican gal Riva (Joan Taylor, actually from Geneva, Illinois) is wanted and desired by both a white trader (Johnson) and an Apache chief named Mangas Coloradas (Barker). Barker playing an Apache should be, ahem, interesting enough, but one named Mangas Coloradas? Here's wondering if that translates as "Colored Mangoes." Anyhow, War Drums sounds like a must-see.
- 8/11/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.