Well, maybe this could be good after all? When it was first announced, it was summarized as “Matt Damon and Ben Affleck' star as medieval knights in a rape/revenge movie,” which sounded laughably bad. But according to this trailer Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer is undoubtedly the lead, which could be great for her. And Adam Driver is a lot more plausible in a setting this far in the past than Matt Damon, and he could be a good villain. We’ll see.
Disney's 'Encanto' Mixes Magic and Music
Looks cute enough I guess, though I would have still preferred if they had gotten a Colombian musician to write all the music for this instead of a famous Puerto-Rican (Lin-Manuel Miranda is the one doing it). But I’m sure it will be satisfying for family audiences anyway.
Tony Soprano Gets an Origin Story in 'The Many Saints of Newark'
This one probably excites a lot of fans, but I feel out of the loop, because…confession: I haven’t seen The Sopranos! Shocker, I know. With all the shows I watch, how did I miss that one? Well, I have seen the occasional random episode, but I never watched it regularly and it somehow managed to pass me by at the time. I’ve always meant to go back and watch it through- maybe this is the right time to do finally do it. And yes, that’s Michael Gandolfini as young Tony in this- the late James Gandolfini’s own son. Bittersweet.
A Teen From a Deaf Family Embraces Music in 'CODA'
CODA stands for Child of Dead Adults, and this movie, which was a very popular crowdpleaser at the Sundance Film Festival this year, was bought by Apple for a big price tag. It looks like it tells a mostly conventional story, but using deaf actors for the non-hearing roles, including Marlee Matlin, who produced it. This film, along with last year’s Sound of Metal, aim to relay to the public the idea that the deaf community views being deaf as a culture rather than a disability. Looks pretty good.
C-List DC Villains Take Center Stage in James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad'
Nothing in this latest trailer for The Suicide Squad makes me want to check it out much, thought it wouldn’t be tough to have it turn out better than David Ayer’s studio butchered original. I still wish it was an entirely new cast though, as I’m really sick of Margot Robbie’s unfunny, forced Harley Quinn shtick (even if Gunn has her in colors closer to her original costume- it’s still not the real thing, which no one seems to want to do).
Shang-Chi Faces the Mandarin in New Trailer
It really, really bothers me if a movie is set in China (or anywhere else) and everyone is speaking English in that phony, Disney-fied manner. It just immediately takes you out of it because it’s so inauthentic. And I know not all of this movie is set in China, so Shang-Chi himself would be speaking English for most of it anyway- can’t he speak Chinese when he’s actually in China? So annoying.
Jessica Chastain Takes On Tammy Faye Bakker in New Biopic
Get a load of all the makeup! Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield play the famed televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, scheduled to come out in September. I have to admit I don’t know a lot about these two, but this is based on the documentary of the same name in case you want to do your research. Looks like it could be good.
Anya Taylor-Joy Sings in 'Last Night in Soho' Trailer
Now this looks good. Another movie delayed by a year due to Covid, Edgar Wright’s latest is finally coming out in September and judging by this freaky teaser, I can’t wait. Although I wasn’t the biggest fan of his last one, Baby Driver, so who knows. Still, as a foray into straight horror (after his parodies with Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End) and combining what looks like time travel and potential body horror, it sure looks intriguing to me.
See the First Teaser for Marvel's 'Eternals'
The only reason I’m interested in this movie is because of Richard Madden, who I love from Bodyguard. The rest of it does nothing for me, since that last “joke” scene is Marvel reassuring its audience that, Oscar winning director Chloe Zhao and her insistence on natural light notwithstanding, if you thought for a second this might actually be different from any of their other movies, don’t worry, it won’t be.
Jennifer Hudson Is Aretha Franklin in 'Respect'
Sorry to say this looks like the most generic biopic ever made, following every expected cliche for these kinds of movies to a tee, which is unfortunate because I think Aretha Franklin deserves better, don’t you? But maybe this is all people want when it comes to movies about iconic figures. The music probably does it all for them anyway (even if it looks like it could be a old-fashioned TV movie from the 90’s).
Charles Grodin 1935-2021
Charles Grodin passed away today at the age of 86 after a battle with bone marrow cancer. The versatile comic actor was known for his deadpan sense of humor and droll delivery, his filmography ranging from leads to supporting parts in movies like The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Catch-22 (1970), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Real Life (1979), Seems Like Old Times (1980), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Midnight Run (1988), Beethoven (1992) and Dave (1993). Always a scene stealer even in bit parts, he was a longtime favorite guest of David Letterman on his old Late Night show in the 1980’s and hosted his own talk show on CNBC from 1995-1998.
Trailer for The Heartbreak Kid (seek this one out- it’s really good and you can see why he almost landed the role of Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate):
Midnight Run trailer:
'Dear Evan Hansen' Comes from Stage to Screen
Wow. Not only is this trailer three and a half minutes long (what’s with that?), but it looks SO bad that I’m convinced this really popular Broadway musical I heard about for so long must actually be really awful. Seriously, I was intending to see this movie until I watched this trailer, purely on the show’s hype alone. Now? Not so much. It may well be a hit, given the play’s popularity, but if this is the actual story of that show (someone pretends he was friends with a student that committed suicide and forces his parents and school to believe it?) its success seems inexplicable. (Not hearing any good music in here either).
