Do you feel the need? The need for ... another Blu-ray column? The biggest entry in this latest Blu-ray round-up is, of course, the mega-hit "Top Gun: Maverick." But there are a bunch of other major releases here, including a Criterion Collection edition of "Malcolm X," Mia Goth going crazy in "Pearl," a massive box set from Columbia Pictures, a 4K release of "Punisher: War Zone," the latest from George Miller, and a Brian De Palma classic. So keep spinning those discs.
Top Gun: Maverick
I wasn't as high on "Top Gun: Maverick" as most people, but I appreciate it as an old-school blockbuster. Tom Cruise is back, training a new generation of fighter pilots to pull off a move that really seems like the plan to blow up the Death Star at the end of "Star Wars." Blending practical effects with digital seamlessly, "Maverick" is a fist-pumping, action-packed adventure that...
Top Gun: Maverick
I wasn't as high on "Top Gun: Maverick" as most people, but I appreciate it as an old-school blockbuster. Tom Cruise is back, training a new generation of fighter pilots to pull off a move that really seems like the plan to blow up the Death Star at the end of "Star Wars." Blending practical effects with digital seamlessly, "Maverick" is a fist-pumping, action-packed adventure that...
- 11/10/2022
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
If it’s Tuesday, this must be Election Day in a year when democracy itself is on the ballot. It’s a moment that Jefferson Smith – the naive but idealistic young senator played by Jimmy Stewart – could have appreciated in the Oscar-winning 1939 classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” from director Frank Capra. It tops the list of 25 movies that this Gold Derby editor singles out as exemplary staples of the political genre over the past 80-plus years. Most originated on the big screen, but a few were made-for-tv.
Why bring this to you today? Think of it as a distraction tactic at a time when so many of us are overloaded with anxiety over an especially consequential election that will determine control of Congress. The list features biopics, satires, historical dramas and journalism hybrid thrillers as well as fictitious allegories.
SEE15 Best American Political Films
Watch any of these tonight...
Why bring this to you today? Think of it as a distraction tactic at a time when so many of us are overloaded with anxiety over an especially consequential election that will determine control of Congress. The list features biopics, satires, historical dramas and journalism hybrid thrillers as well as fictitious allegories.
SEE15 Best American Political Films
Watch any of these tonight...
- 11/8/2022
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
Black Americans saw very little representation of their lives and culture on TV during the 1950s. The only mainstay was Eddie Anderson, who played Jack Benny’s sardonic valet Rochester on CBS’ “The Jack Benny Program.” In 1937, he’d became the first Black performer to be a regular on the radio version of the beloved comedy series and played Rochester on television from 1950-65. Terry Carter played Pvt. Sugie Sugerman for 98 episodes of CBS’ Emmy Award-winning “The Phil Silvers Show.’ And Black singers and performers would occasionally appear on various musical-variety series.
Pianist Hazel Scott was given her own summer series “The Hazel Scott Show” on DuMont in 1950. But she was soon named as a Communist by “Red Channels”. Though she denied the charges, the series couldn’t attract a sponsor and was history after four episodes. Likewise, NBC’s 1957-58 “The Nat King Cole Show” couldn’t find a...
Pianist Hazel Scott was given her own summer series “The Hazel Scott Show” on DuMont in 1950. But she was soon named as a Communist by “Red Channels”. Though she denied the charges, the series couldn’t attract a sponsor and was history after four episodes. Likewise, NBC’s 1957-58 “The Nat King Cole Show” couldn’t find a...
- 6/25/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
George Litto, a longtime Hollywood talent agent who represented blacklisted writers and collaborated with Melvin Van Peeples and Ossie Davis, has died. He was 88.
Litto passed away at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on April 29 from complications of aortic stenosis, his daughter and business partner, Andria Litto, told Deadline.
George Litto started in the mailroom at William Morris New York in 1954, and worked his way up to an agent, booking summer stock theatre. Among his early successes was helping Mae West secure a role in Come On Up (Ring Twice).
There would be many other famous clients when he moved to boutique agencies in Los Angeles before opening The George Litto Agency in the mid-1960s.
Litto represented Mel Davenport, aka Waldo Salt, who at the time was working in New York under his pseudonym because he was blacklisted. George put him to work under his own name on the film, Midnight Cowboy (1969).
Soon after,...
Litto passed away at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on April 29 from complications of aortic stenosis, his daughter and business partner, Andria Litto, told Deadline.
George Litto started in the mailroom at William Morris New York in 1954, and worked his way up to an agent, booking summer stock theatre. Among his early successes was helping Mae West secure a role in Come On Up (Ring Twice).
There would be many other famous clients when he moved to boutique agencies in Los Angeles before opening The George Litto Agency in the mid-1960s.
Litto represented Mel Davenport, aka Waldo Salt, who at the time was working in New York under his pseudonym because he was blacklisted. George put him to work under his own name on the film, Midnight Cowboy (1969).
Soon after,...
- 5/8/2019
- by Anita Bennett
- Deadline Film + TV
Cinema has always liked telling a good life story, and all kinds of biography – from the humblest to the starriest – have been given a filmic going-over. The Guardian and Observer's critics pick the 10 best in a very crowded field
• Top 10 animated movies
• Top 10 silent movies
• Top 10 sports movies
• Top 10 film noir
• Top 10 musicals
• Top 10 martial arts movies
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
This is the most radical of all biopics. It does exactly what it promises, breaking the Canadian pianist's intense and troubled life into concentrated fragments. Reassembly is left to the viewer. When he began working on the screenplay with Don McKellar, the writer-director François Girard recognised the pitfalls of the genre. "There are many traps," he said. "The main temptation is to try to cram everything about a life into one film. What you need is a radical idea...
• Top 10 animated movies
• Top 10 silent movies
• Top 10 sports movies
• Top 10 film noir
• Top 10 musicals
• Top 10 martial arts movies
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
This is the most radical of all biopics. It does exactly what it promises, breaking the Canadian pianist's intense and troubled life into concentrated fragments. Reassembly is left to the viewer. When he began working on the screenplay with Don McKellar, the writer-director François Girard recognised the pitfalls of the genre. "There are many traps," he said. "The main temptation is to try to cram everything about a life into one film. What you need is a radical idea...
- 12/12/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
There's a scene in Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" (1992) where the title character recalls his mother being harassed by the Ku Klux Klan in Nebraska while pregnant with him. They shatter her windows with rifles as she frantically pleads to be left alone with her children. A white band of Kkk members cover the skyline, riding off into the moon. One of the most visually striking scenes in the film, it immediately sets the context into which Malcolm was born, one that he'd spend his life combating. The film, based on "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Haley and Malcolm X, with a script written by Spike Lee and Arnold Perl, faced similar turbulence because of its subject matter. Lee was...
- 3/11/2013
- by Nijla Mumin
- ShadowAndAct
After all the debates, controversies, and stereotype accusations have cleared, looking back on Blaxploitation cinema today it’s easy to see healthy portions of the crime and action genres. Using these genres and the struggles of the black community, these films were created for those that wanted to see African American characters on the big screen not taking shit from the man, “getting over”, and–above all else—being the heroes in movies. In the documentary Baad Asssss Cinema, Samuel L. Jackson gives his take on the heroes of Blaxploitation: “We were tired of seeing the righteous black man. And all of a sudden we had guys who were…us. Or guys who did the things we wanted those guys to do.”
The unsung supporting players in these films that backed Fred Williamson and Pam Grier and many other stars were people acting and making a living off of it.
The unsung supporting players in these films that backed Fred Williamson and Pam Grier and many other stars were people acting and making a living off of it.
- 12/4/2012
- by Gregory Day
- SoundOnSight
Director Spike Lee.s bio film Malcolm X comes to Blu-ray looking great and sporting a 40 page book that looks at the making of the film and its stars. The Blu-ray also features a bonus DVD of the Oscar-nominated 1972 feature length documentary Malcolm X. Based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, the film was directed by Lee (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arnold Perl), and stars Denzel Washington, Delroy Lindo, Albert Hall, Angela Bassett, Al Freeman Jr., and Lee. It also features cameos from Bobby Seale, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and Nelson Mandela. Covering different important moments in Malcolm X.s life, the film starts with his criminal career as Malcolm "Detroit...
- 2/16/2012
- by Patrick Luce
- Monsters and Critics
The year was 1992. Spike Lee’s Malcolm X was on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the neighborhood. Teens and children were listening to jazz inspired hip-hop from Tribe Called Quest’s second album, The Low End Theory. The Native Tongues were encouraging unity in their music. Wearing Africa Medallions became a trend in fashion, along with clothing that reflected African unity and education. Cross Colours proclaimed catch phrases like “Academic Hard Ware” and “Racism Hurts Everybody”, while sweatshirts marked African American College Alliance bolstered the youth’s interest in higher education. The word in the street was “spread love not war”. The winter season was just coming to a close in the first quarter of ‘92 and Malcolm X had yet to even open in the theaters.
2012 marks the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s Academy-Award-nominated biopic Malcolm X. When you look at a film when it is first released,...
2012 marks the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s Academy-Award-nominated biopic Malcolm X. When you look at a film when it is first released,...
- 2/2/2012
- by Bags Hooper
- BuzzFocus.com
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