What frustrates me the most about Bad Country, a self-proclaimed "gritty action thriller" set in 1980s Louisiana, is how much it wants to be taken seriously. There's hardly any light in the whole picture, actors growl every line and the dialogue pushes far past the point of believability in hopes of being as gruff and brooding as possible. And yet, no amount of posturing can mask the fact that Bad Country more than lives up to its name - this is one bad, bad movie, from laughable writing and lousy editing to performances that are utterly eclipsed by terrible accents and even worse mustaches.
Everyone knows that the best fairy tales are the really dark ones you never heard as a child. What's better: Cinderella's ugly stepsisters pouting in the background, or getting their eyes pecked out by vengeful doves? The Evil Queen in Snow White falling off a cliff, or dancing in red-hot iron shoes until she drops dead? I'll consider that point proven. Big Bad Wolves, an Israeli film from writer-directors Navot Papushado and Aharon Kashales, wants to be a modern fairy tale for adults, one which bets on being as twisted and disturbing as possible. Though Quentin Tarantino (probably knowingly) damned Big Bad Wolves by naming it the best film of 2013, which it certainly is not, there's still an undeniable fascination to be found in watching a tale of men becoming the monsters they fear.
Who knew that Ben Stiller, the funnyman behind Zoolander and There's Something About Mary, was the right man to bring James Thurber's classic short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to the big screen? Of course, much of the short story is absent from Stiller's adaptation, but that was always a certainty (beautiful though it is, the original story is hardly enough to fill a short, let alone a major studio tentpole). What Stiller does manage to do, however, to my great surprise, is capture the adventurous heart of his title character.
After a well-received premiere at the Cannes Film Festival almost a year ago, James Gray's period drama The Immigrant is finally preparing to hit screens stateside. There was a time where it was presumed that The Weinstein Company would be relegating The Immigrant to a VOD release via its Radius-TWC brand, but the company did an about face earlier this spring, opting instead to send the film into a limited theatrical run. Now, The Immigrant, which stars Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Renner and Joaquin Phoenix, has received a U.S. trailer and accompanying poster, along with a slew of images.
Star Trek actor Chris Pine is in talks to lead a Disney period drama called The Finest Hours, which focuses on the efforts of the coast guard to rescue the crews of two oil tankers caught in a Noreaster. Based on an actual rescue in 1952, the project is being approached as a suspenseful but uplifting drama.
It may come as a surprise to some that, a full year after his phenomenal biopic Lincoln landed in theaters, legendary director Steven Spielberg still hasn't locked down his next big screen venture. At this point in his career, the prolific helmer (behind such classics as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, in addition to many more) can certainly afford to be choosy with his projects, but such a long gap is unusual for Spielberg. Now, it appears he's added another buzzy possibility to the already huge list of films he has expressed interest in: a historical drama titled The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.
Great horror films are somewhat of a rarity in Hollywood, which explains why fans of the genre were so taken with Sinister, an engrossing and genuinely disturbing flick about a true crime writer who, after moving his family into a house where another family was previously murdered, stumbles across a box filled with tapes depicting the grisly murders of multiple families. And though Sinister's shattering conclusion may have led viewers to conclude that there wasn't much room for a sequel, Sinister 2 is already well on the way.
What is it about kids in horror movies? Ever since those skin-crawlingly scary twins in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, nothing unnerves me more than children chanting eerie lines of dialogue. So, if this latest trailer for Hammer Horror's upcoming demonic possession flick The Quiet Ones is any indication, I'll be better off staying far away from the film when it opens next week.
I'm really looking forward to being reincarcerated at Litchfield State Penitentiary when Netflix's hit prison dramedy Orange Is The New Black returns for its 13-episode second season this June. The show made We Got This Covered's list of the top 10 TV shows of 2013, and there's no reason to think that showrunner Jenji Kohan won't deliver the goods yet again in Orange Is The New Black's sophomore year.
Though DreamWorks' beloved Shrek franchise wrapped up in 2010 with Shrek Forever After, fan favorite character Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) got a new lease on life the next year with his own spinoff, titled Puss in Boots. The film, which found Puss battling evil versions of Jack and Jill, was a critical and commercial success, earning over $554 million and a nomination for Best Animated Feature.
