https://collider.com Examine the past, present, and future of film with in-depth writing on classics, overlooked favorites, blockbusters, and the filmmakers behind the movies you love. Tue, 17 Oct 2023 01:00:29 GMT en-US hourly 60 Despite being one of the greatest actors of all-time, Marlon Brando was a risky actor to cast in the early 1970s. Brando had amassed the reputation of being a brilliant, but notoriously difficult to work with actor thanks to his experiences with Elia Kazan on the groundbreaking dramas On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire. No one could doubt Brando’s brilliance, but that didn’t mean that his personality made him very fun to work with. Even when Brando seemed “uncastable” due to the stories circulating about his off-screen activities, he managed to have a major comeback role in 1972 when he took on perhaps his most beloved role as Don Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster film masterpiece The Godfather. Working with Brando was in Coppola’s favor, but that didn’t mean that the notorious The Wild One star didn’t present some difficulties on set. In fact, Brando voiced his opinion on who would be playing his onscreen son well before the cameras started rolling. In a different world, it would’ve been Burt Reynolds, and not Al Pacino, who was starring as Michael Corleone.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 18:00:31 GMT https://collider.com/the-godfather-marlon-brando-burt-reynolds/ Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Nowhere.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 00:30:31 GMT https://collider.com/nowhere-netflix-true-story/ As we find ourselves in the heart of the spooky season, there are plenty of horror films making their streaming debut to check out. Not looking to be scared? Don’t fret as there are family comedies, fun action dramedies, a modern riff on the Western, and much more. Whatever type of movie you’re looking for, there is a good chance you’ll find it here.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 20:00:34 GMT https://collider.com/streaming-movies-new/ In our current cinematic landscape dominated by franchise powerhouses like Star Wars, DC, and of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, post-credit scenes are a given. Nowadays, it's hard to imagine a film from a major franchise not culminating in a post-credit scene that teases some inevitable crossover, or drops an Easter Egg hinting at future plot points. But one of the most successful and robust film franchises actually only contains one post-credit scene in all eight films — and it's one that many fans may have completely forgotten about (pun very much intended).

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 22:30:33 GMT https://collider.com/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets-post-credit-scene/ The 1970s was an epic decade for the horror genre, particularly for films that dealt in some way with satanism or the occult. While The Exorcist can justifiably be considered the king, there are a plethora of noteworthy shockers from this era. 1971's The Mephisto Waltz is a weird, oddly captivating film from screenwriter Ben Maddow (The Asphalt Jungle). Released two years before the late, great William Friedkin's massively influential hit — still as terrifying as ever to this day — the Mephisto Waltz took the genre in a slightly different, more offbeat direction. With its soul-transferral subplot and a Jerry Goldsmith score that writhes and suffocates with melodramatic fury, it's quite the film-going experience even withstanding its baffling story beats and character choices. The film manages to remain magnetic in the face of scrutiny for the way it successfully conjures a dreamlike atmosphere; everything seems unreal for most of the film's duration well before the most unsettling sequences occur.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 19:15:30 GMT https://collider.com/the-mephisto-waltz-movie/ Almost a decade after its initial release, 2014's It Follows (it didn't arrive in U.S. theaters until 2015) is now on Netflix. Director David Robert Mitchell's film is one of the most chilling of the last decade, a throwback film that's part Halloween and part A Nightmare on Elm Street, but also its own brilliant creation. While It Follows wasn't exactly a huge hit when it came out, it did make a respectable $22 million worldwide. In the years since its release, It Follows has gathered a cult following before becoming more mainstream thanks to streaming services and the rise of Maika Monroe as a known actress in the horror genre. It Follows might feel familiar, but its themes go much deeper than your typical teenagers-in-danger horror flick. Whether you're revisiting it for the tenth time or only being introduced to it now, here's a full breakdown of everything that happened in the film's finale.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:00:29 GMT https://collider.com/it-follows-ending-explained/ For classic Hollywood legend, Gary Cooper, his most iconic role in his later years came so close to never happening. In an alternate universe, studios and executives follow through on their false intuitions and never cast the actor in the celebrated 1952 Western, High Noon. Today, Cooper is indelible as Marshal Will Kane, and the idea of any other star in this role is unthinkable. The role as the conflicted sheriff in the face of violence earned Cooper his second Academy Award for Best Actor, and High Noon quickly ascended as an American classic. All of this would be infeasible without the impact of Gary Cooper.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 04:31:31 GMT https://collider.com/gary-cooper-high-noon-oscar/ The 2017 Tom Cruise film American Made has new life after surging back up inside Netflix's top 5 movies recently, and it's an unlikely true story, to say the least. Cruise plays Jerry Seal, a real-life commercial pilot who ends up being recruited by multiple government agencies to infiltrate the South American drug cartels in the late '70s into the early '80s. And his on-again, off-again Southern drawl aside, it's a wonderful performance from the Mission: Impossible star in a movie that flew under the radar upon its initial release. And because the events depicted in American Made are taken directly from a true story, it makes it an even more fascinating story of how a commercial airline pilot ended up dealing with the likes of Pablo Escobar and the dangerous Medellín drug cartel in Colombia. Let's break down an ending that gets a little convoluted as just about every United States agency is involved at some point along with tie-ins to some political events unfolding at the same time including the Iran-Contra affair and the Sandanista government coup in Venezuela.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 20:45:29 GMT https://collider.com/american-made-ending-explained/ Despite being one of the greatest movies ever made, it was no easy feat making The Wizard of Oz. Even by today's standards, this 1939 classic holds up as an impressive feat of filmmaking. We all love its well-crafted story and fun cast of characters, and even its special effects have managed to remain charming in 2023. That said, in the '30s, this movie was nothing short of groundbreaking. All kinds of tricks and techniques had to be made in the middle of production to bring the land of Oz to life. As interesting as that sounds, it made for a hellish, stressful atmosphere on set. Not only that, but there were loads of issues behind the scenes keeping the people on board that were making the movie. Sometimes, a classic movie comes together easily, but in the case of The Wizard of Oz, it was a total nightmare.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 03:46:34 GMT https://collider.com/wizard-of-oz-production-drama/ Martin Scorsese is a meticulous director who leaves no stone unturned when telling his incredible stories. His latest project, Killers of the Flower Moon is no exception. So when we found out that he decided to omit one truly remarkable and fascinating detail out of his epic tale of Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, we obviously had to dig deeper into the why of it all and share it. When Belfort was sent to prison for his various fraudulent securities and trading crimes, his cellmate was none other than Tommy Chong! That's right, one-half of the most famous stoner duo in cinema history, "Cheech (Marin) and Chong" shared a bunk with the character that Leonardo DiCaprio so fabulously brought to life in the movie. This seems like an impossible coincidence that would be worth at least a scene or two, right? So why was it left out when it could have so easily added to the greatness of the movie?

]]> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 01:00:29 GMT https://collider.com/the-wolf-of-wall-street-jordan-belfort-tommy-chong/ Terence Davies, the poet of regretful longing and crushing societal constriction, recently passed, and with that comes a perfect time to look back on one of his best films. Let's sweeten the pot by choosing a film that happens to star Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston, just before he officially became Loki. Even better, let's throw in international treasure Rachel Weisz as top billing in top form; if we add all of those ingredients together, we get a slice of the most achingly British and tragic of melodramas. I'm talking about a little film called The Deep Blue Sea.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 18:31:31 GMT https://collider.com/the-deep-blue-sea-tom-hiddleston-rachel-weisz/ Ridley Scott is perhaps best known for his work within the science fiction genre. His work on the Alien franchise, along with Blade Runner and HBO-MAX shows like Raised By Wolves have rightfully made him one of the most celebrated directors of all time. However, he has frequently branched out and explored other types of movies that are about as far away from tail-whipping xenomorphs and killer replicants as possible. One of those triumphant efforts was the harrowing and tragic retelling of Black Hawk Down in 2001. The comprehensive account of the United States' involvement in the civil war-torn Somalia in the early to mid-'90s is both viscerally stunning and emotionally touching on a very personal level.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 22:01:36 GMT https://collider.com/black-hawk-down-ending-explained/ The Scream franchise plays by the slasher horror film rules but also pays homage to many different classics throughout the series. "The Exorcist was on, it got me thinking of you" is one of the more iconic lines from the first movie, paying obvious homage to one of the original demonic possession films. We know there are Halloween and The Exorcist references, but one movie stands out above all the other Easter eggs and references. Some are obvious and some are harder to catch. Is it the movie you're thinking of?

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 22:16:28 GMT https://collider.com/scream-franchise-psycho-movie-references/ The Harry Potter franchise has been graced by many fantastic filmmakers, but none have had as big of an impact on the Wizarding World as the first director to bring it to life — Chris Columbus. The footprint that he left on the movies and general franchise to come cannot be understated. Between the series' tone, casting choices, creative team assembled, and degree of accuracy to the books, Columbus' work on both Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets was so great that everyone had no choice but to follow his lead. It's not that his movies are the best, but without Chris Columbus, we wouldn't have the Harry Potter franchise as it is today.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 21:46:30 GMT https://collider.com/harry-potter-chris-columbus-director/ From classic books to video games to, of course, real life, there is no limit to how far horror movies can go for inspiration. After all, spooky tales can often stem from the most unlikely of places. However, one of this year's most anticipated horror flicks looks at a particularly unusual source material in order to create its own freaky universe. Produced by Lionsgate and Buzzfeed, John McPhail's Dear David, one of 2023's biggest Halloween month releases, is based on a Twitter (or should we say X?) thread.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 17:01:30 GMT https://collider.com/dear-david-twitter-thread/ Director Martin Scorsese is most often associated with classic movies about wise guys and gangsters. But with his upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon, the director is tackling a new genre with his first-ever Western. The film, an adaption of journalist David Grann's 2017 nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and The Birth of the FBI, tells the story of at least twenty murdered members of the Osage Tribe in Oklahoma during the 1920s in Oklahoma.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 19:31:32 GMT https://collider.com/killers-of-the-flower-moon-release-date-cast-trailer/ What images flit across your mind when you think about Alfred Hitchcock? The English master of suspense in profile, a with a cigar? Birds accosting Tippi Hendren as she screams? There's no doubt that the prolific director was one of the horror-thriller's greatest pioneers — from Vertigo to Rear Window, there are many classics on his shelf. So one might be inclined, when asked about Hitchcock's tensest moments, to point to these widely-seen films. (After all, who hasn't had the shower scene from 1960's Psycho burned into their psyche since they first saw it? (Or checks behind the curtain in the bathroom?) But Hitchcock directed over 50 movies, and there are bound to be a few somewhat forgotten gems in such a large stack. Rope, a 1948 thriller based, some say, on a true story, is considered one of Hitchcock's best offerings — and yet isn't often at the forefront of our consciousness when we consider his work. It's not too surprising considering the banality of the film's aesthetic and its mixed reviews. Indeed, horror doesn't always hold up after the passage of so much time. Sometimes, though, the themes and characters in a work will transcend cultural changes, cutting into a deeper, timeless human core. Rope is, undoubtedly, one of those stories — and it contains some of the tensest moments in all of Hitch's oeuvre.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 11:16:34 GMT https://collider.com/alfred-hitchcock-rope-movie-intense-scene/ Netflix's Ballerina hits all the crucial marks one craves from a revenge thriller. Protagonist Ok-ju (Jeon Jong-Seo), a retired bodyguard with fight training lifted from the John Wick handbook, has a very particular skill set. She aims to avenge a loved one's death. She grimly declares, "I need guns." The cinematography favors shadowy corners and neon-drenched streets, while the action sequences spray enough inventive gore to make David Cronenberg grimace. A woman leading an action thriller isn't even an outlandish concept anymore, despite what some internet comments might say. So how does Ballerina distinguish itself from its peers while still embracing its place in Korean revenge cinema? As it turns out, simply. Ballerina is an unrepentantly humane and woman-centric revenge epic that puts a sleek budget to full effect with impressive panache. Why wait for the actual John Wick spin-off that's also entitled Ballerina when writer-director Lee Chung-hyun's creation is currently streaming?

]]> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 00:01:46 GMT https://collider.com/ballerina-netflix-movie/ “Original science fiction” is a term that’s lobbied around a lot, but what defines originality? Even a film not based on previously existing intellectual property may draw inspiration from other classics within the genre. Interstellar is technically “original,” but owes a lot to 2001: A Space Odyssey; it’s almost impossible to talk about The Creator without mentioning The Terminator. However, Andrew Niccol is one of the few filmmakers working today whose films genuinely feel totally based on his own ideas. Niccol’s films may be flawed, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not telling the types of stories that haven’t been seen anywhere else. Niccol’s 2011 sci-fi thriller In Time presents the concept of time itself being a commodity. Although it’s not necessarily fleshed out in extensive detail, In Time’s premise provokes interesting discussion points about classical relationships, economic inequality, and the value of life itself.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 16:15:29 GMT https://collider.com/in-time-cillian-murphy-justin-timberlake/ For director Martin Scorsese, The Departed represents the ultimate career breakthrough. Up until his 2006 crime drama, the legendary filmmaker had never been the recipient of a Best Director or Best Picture Oscar. Two of his Director nominations, Raging Bull and Goodfellas, were both lost to actors in their directorial debuts, Robert Redford and Kevin Costner, respectively. It appeared as though Scorsese was cursed from ever receiving that coveted statue. The tide had finally turned with The Departed, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Director. But underneath the triumphant success of the film in awards season was a distribution process that was marred by controversy, as a result of The Departed's banning in a country on the other side of the world.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 23:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/departed-martin-scorsese-banned-china/ Everyone's favorite striped sweater-wearing, knife-gloved slasher may have been based on a true story. That's right, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) from A Nightmare on Elm Street was inspired by a real-life story, not just entirely made up by Wes Craven. Just when you thought the concept of Freddy infiltrating your nightmares and killing you in torturous ways couldn't be scarier, there seemingly was a dream killer wreaking havoc in the 1980s.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:30:31 GMT https://collider.com/nightmare-on-elm-street-true-story/ There’s no Ridley Scott historical epic that is more beloved than 2000’s Gladiator. Although “sword and sandals” movies had seemingly been dormant since the 1960s, Scott reinvented the genre that gave us Spartacus and Ben-Hur with a powerful story of political intrigue, revenge, and destiny. With its spiritual overtones and more melancholy analysis of grief, Gladiator is much more than just an action film. Gladiator’s impact was recognized almost immediately upon its release; the film took home the Academy Award for Best Picture, and won Russell Crowe his first Best Actor prize for the role of Gladiator’s fearless hero, General Maximus Decimus Meridius. Cameras may be rolling on the upcoming Gladiator sequel, but it’s unclear how the next film in the series will continue the story, considering how definitive the first film’s ending is.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 21:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/gladiator-ending-explained/ The Friday the 13th franchise has had a ridiculous number of sequels over the years, with some being better than others, but the number of sequels that have failed to get past production is even greater. Enter Jason Never Dies, the unmade seventh film in the franchise that continues to haunt fans' dreams to this day. The film would have been made by director Tom McLoughlin, the same twisted mind behind Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Given that film's reputation as one of the franchise's strongest entries, Jason Never Dies was set up to be a major success. But what happened to this unseen seventh movie, and what does McLoughlin think about it now?

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 11:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/friday-the-13th-jason-never-dies-unmade-movie/ Over 43 years, there have been a whopping 12 Friday the 13th films. There would've been a lot more if it wasn't for that pesky lawsuit, which has resulted in no new entries since 2009 — but slasher fans are thankful for what we do have. While not every film in the franchise is a good one, Jason's biggest aficionados keep coming back to two as being the very best: 1984's Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and 1986's Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives. The latter could've been a joke, after the disaster that was Friday the 13th: A New Beginning and its copycat killer, and the bold decision to have Jason as a zombie in a meta film which winked at what came before.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 17:30:32 GMT https://collider.com/friday-the-13th-part-6-jason-lives-alternate-ending/ Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Ballerina

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 21:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/netflix-ballerina-ending-explained/ Wes Craven’s Scream has become a staple in the horror genre. It not only revolutionized the horror-comedy sub-genre but also gave us a thrilling whodunnit and a new horror icon in the process. Its success, of course, went on to spawn a franchise, much like Craven’s most famous work, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Scream now has six movies under its belt, with a seventh underway. The series is rich with lore, each film connecting back to the original in some way, whether it be a direct reference, a bloodline, or, as is usually the case, going back to the franchise’s final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). But despite the copious amounts of lore and callbacks to the 1996 original, the franchise never once went back in time in the form of a prequel, which feels like a rather missed opportunity. It would be rather impossible to go back and make a prequel to Scream now, as the cast has obviously aged in the nearly 30 years since its release, and casting new actors in the iconic roles just wouldn’t work. Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard are perfect fits for their characters of Billy and Stu (respectively), and you definitely can’t recast Sidney Prescott, so a prequel likely wouldn’t go well nowadays. But had the idea come about in the years after the original, there was a lot that could’ve been done to deepen the lore of that first movie.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 14:45:29 GMT https://collider.com/scream-franchise-prequel/ Although Voldemort does not appear in every Harry Potter film, he is the main antagonist of the series; an omnipotent presence that keeps returning after every so-called defeat. For the first five films, we never truly understand how Voldemort was able to survive after a baby Harry seemingly destroyed him. But in the The Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore introduces Harry to the complicated piece of magic known as Horcruxes.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 03:00:31 GMT https://collider.com/harry-potter-horcruxes-explained/ Sergio Leone's 1968 Hollywood epic Once Upon A Time In The West is widely praised as one of the greatest films in the Western genre (if not the greatest). The Italian director's fourth outing in the genre, following his Clint Eastwood-starring Dollars trilogy, Once Upon A Time is both a love letter and a critique of the Western. It has the staples of tense shootouts, fast-paced action, and sublime imagery of the vast American desert, but at the same time, it manages to deconstruct the iconography through unexpected twists, heightened violence, and a subversive casting decision that manages to reflect a shift in cinema and society all in a single role. Yes, we're talking about Henry Fonda as Frank.

]]> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 03:30:33 GMT https://collider.com/henry-fonda-once-upon-a-time-in-the-west/ Horror author Stephen King has provided the source material for some of the most riveting films of the past 40 years. The Shining, The Green Mile, Carrie, Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and It among many other modern cinematic classics are all based on King's written works. In some of the adaptations of his books, King even graces the silver screen with a cameo. On occasion, he'll even play himself in projects beyond his own bibliography. He threw out the Red Sox's opening pitch in 2005's Fever Pitch and voiced himself in the Season 12 Simpsons episode, "Insane Clown Poppy." One of his most overlooked contributions to the screen, however, is also his sweetest, as he lent his voice to a scene in an unassuming romantic comedy, which in turn portrays King in a down-to-earth and earnest manner.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 21:30:33 GMT https://collider.com/stephen-king-stuck-in-love/ On the surface, Toy Story and Monster, Inc. have little in common, but both Pixar franchises feature a pair of unlikely friends who didn't get along when they first met and have a habit of finding trouble. Despite these similarities, the two stories occur in different worlds, one with monsters and the other with living toys. But Monsters, Inc. includes a child from the human world, giving little information about her home. This is how fans believe the two franchises may connect, and some even point to evidence from the films. It's widely known that Pixar includes a constant stream of Easter eggs in each one of their films. From the Pizza Planet truck in each movie to the hints for their new films, Pixar always creates several references to their other works, usually in small, subtle ways. Fans search for these Easter eggs and try to use them to connect otherwise unconnected films.

]]> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 02:15:31 GMT https://collider.com/pixar-monsters-inc-toy-story-theory/ The 1958 classic psychological thriller Vertigo is a seminal film and one of the most iconic works in the filmography of legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. While the film is hailed as a cinematic classic, it was nearly ruined by censorship incited by the United States Production Code Administration. Ultimately, Hitchcock was able to get the ending he wanted, but he had to compromise with the U.S. Production Code Administration. At one point, Hitchcock did film a “happier” ending that could have diminished the integrity of the film and Hitchcock’s singular vision. This is the story of how Vertigo almost had an alternate ending that ruined the film.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 16:30:30 GMT https://collider.com/vertigo-alternate-ending/ Taylor Swift isn't the problem, she's a one-woman juggernaut. At this point, one might argue she owns the world and we're just living in it. It's a deserved triumph. The singer-songwriter titan has spent 17 years forging a dynamic, genre-defying career and breaking practically every music record imaginable. Now Swift has "saved" Hollywood with Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a concert film extravaganza documenting her similarly record-breaking (and economy-boosting) worldwide tour. Before it opened in select theaters this Thursday night, The Eras Tour had already outgrossed Star Wars: The Force Awakens in presale tickets to the pretty tune of $100 million. As it stands, The Eras Tour is projected to earn far more during its theatrical run, positioning Swift's creative apotheosis as one of the highest-grossing concert films of all time.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 16:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/which-songs-are-not-in-the-eras-tour-movie-taylor-swift/ With Piper Laurie's passing on October 14th, 2023, Hollywood mourns an icon. Born Rosetta Jacobs, Piper Laurie, as we came to know her once she changed her name after signing a contract with Universal Studios at the age of 18, was a fine actress who withstood the test of time making us a part of her impeccable acting career for more than half a century. She survived '50s Hollywood's starlet-making machine, took a break from acting, and returned to it with gusto before retiring again. In between, she earned three Oscar nominations, an Emmy Award from eight nominations, and a series of other outstanding actor accolades for her performances. Perhaps the most memorable of them is her venerated portrayal of Carrie's mother in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film, Carrie. As a come-back-present after a fifteen-year-hiatus (Laurie hadn't appeared in films since her Oscar-nominated role in The Hustler in 1961), her portrayal of Margaret White in Carrie earned her a second Oscar nomination. It was as if she never left. And with her mother-from-hell role in the film, Laurie subverted the horror genre.

]]> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 00:30:29 GMT https://collider.com/carrie-piper-laurie/ Jordan Peele's acclaimed directorial debut project, Get Out, is one of the most grim and thought-provoking films released in the last decade. The psychological thriller features everything from body-swapping to a poignant commentary on the pervasiveness of racism in the world. The film follows Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a Black man who discovers some horrifying secrets when he and his girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) visit her family home. Chris uncovers the sinister scheme laid out by their family, where they transplant their brains into the bodies of abducted Black people in order to achieve a heinous form of immortality.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 09:15:29 GMT https://collider.com/get-out-original-ending/ The Bechdel Test is a metric used for measuring how women are represented in a given film. In order to pass, a film must feature at least two women onscreen talking to each other about something other than a man. This seems like a very low bar to pass, but scrolling through a list of movies on bechdeltest.com, one is reminded of how male-centric the form of cinema is. While, when used alone, it is not the most fair and accurate way to judge a movie, this list will show the limitations of the Bechdel Test, as the list of films below indeed passed the test, much to the surprise of anyone, but under no circumstances would all of these be considered feminist texts. However, in some cases, it highlights that they have a better understanding of how to depict women realistically.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 03:31:33 GMT https://collider.com/bechdel-test-surprising-movies/ By definition, it’s not often a horror film ends with a happy ending. Certainly, there are exceptions depending on the subgenre and the creator's story goals, but as a whole, horror equals violence, dread, and a survival that's tainted with some kind of traumatic misery. If the genre-defining multiple-times-over director Wes Craven had his way with the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, however, not only would the ending have changed the film’s tone entirely, there might not have been a franchise at all.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 21:15:35 GMT https://collider.com/nightmare-on-elm-street-alternate-ending/ Although he’s now become one of the most influential storytellers in modern popular culture thanks to the success of the Yellowstone franchise, Taylor Sheridan was once merely a humble screenwriter with a few clever ideas on how to reinvent the Western genre. Sheridan made a name for himself with his brilliant screenplays for Sicario and Hell or High Water, but he got the chance to prove himself as a filmmaker with his 2017 directorial debut Wind River. Like many Sheridan projects, Wind Driver mixed current political discourse with a neo-noir mystery element in order to be both highly entertaining and surprisingly thought-provoking. Although the mystery Sheridan presents in Wind River is a doozy, his more serious motivations for the film are evident by the real crime statistics that he incorporates at the very end.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 14:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/wind-river-ending-explained/ Usually, horror movies have at least a somewhat predictable ending. If you're watching a franchise slasher, chances are that the killer might look dead at the end, but he's probably coming back. But at least the hero or the final girl gets a moment where they're standing tall, victorious, even if only briefly. Increasingly, however, horror has gone for darker, more disturbing endings. There was nothing to smile about at the end of last year's Smile, or this year's Evil Dead Rise and Talk to Me, for example. Going back a little farther, Saw in 2004 and The Mist in 2007, went dark as well. And much farther back, who can ever forget the final images of 1973's The Wicker Man? In all of these cases, the hero dies, or at least wishes they were dead.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 01:00:33 GMT https://collider.com/wolf-creek-ending-explained/ Any movie fan not living under a rock is well aware of Tom Cruise's affinity for aviation. Having attained a pilot's license in 1994, the 60-year-old actor has put his skills to jaw-dropping use in several films, most dangerously in the Mission: Impossible films and Top Gun: Maverick. While his role as Pete Mitchell in the latter film and its predecessor remain iconic portrayals of a pilot, his performance as a flying daredevil in another film – American Made – also deserves praise.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 12:31:31 GMT https://collider.com/true-story-tom-cruise-movie-american-made/ Director Ángel Manuel Soto’s Blue Beetle gave us the premiere of cinema’s first solo Latin-American superhero and his ridiculously loveable family. The superhero movie charmed its way into the hearts of many through its unwavering respect for its heritage, something commented upon directly through its homage to the Mexican supernatural classic Macario. The homage occurs during Blue Beetle’s most crucial scene but is actually hinted at prior to the eagle-eyed viewers who would have spotted Nana (Adriana Barraza) watching the film on television during the film’s first act. For repeat viewings, just keep an eye on the moment during Nana’s channel surfing when one of the images shows a man walking into a cavern overridden with burning candles. If that doesn’t ring any bells don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 22:16:37 GMT https://collider.com/blue-beetle-macario-references/ For decades, Disney has taken their own wholesome magical spin on fairy tales that tend to have incredibly dark origins. It’s no secret that the original Little Mermaid fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen didn’t exactly end in a happily ever after for our main character; or that Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters received a much harsher punishment for their cruelty in Charles Perrault’s book than missing out on a prince’s proposal; or that the Evil Queen from the adaptations of the Brothers Grimm didn’t simply fall off a cliff. Peter Pan is no different in that respect.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 07:30:30 GMT https://collider.com/peter-pan-dark-true-story/ Heads rolled! And it was an axe-wielding Joan Crawford who got them rolling. In 1946, she was one of Hollywood's biggest stars, winning a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mildred Pierce, the long-suffering mother who would do anything to protect her spoiled, gun-crazy daughter. Eighteen years later, she was chopping off a young Lee Majors' noggin in the cult horror classic Strait-Jacket. Crawford's career journey from glamorous leading lady to fright fest queen was extraordinary, and much of the credit (or blame) goes to producer-director William Castle, famous for a string of low-budget shock-shlock movies in the 1950s and '60s, like The House on Haunted Hill, Macabre, and The Tingler.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 18:45:31 GMT https://collider.com/william-castle-joan-crawford-camp-horror-movies/ Sometimes, misogyny manifests in such pronounced ways that it breathes down your neck like a fire. Other times, though, it manifests in a quieter fashion. This is where the dehumanization of women and other marginalized genders is normalized through everyday behavior dismissed as "boys being boys" or just an average part of life. As one encounters these smaller-scale but no less devastating incarnations of sexism, your spirit can get ground down. This is especially true in workspaces, where employees are often at the mercy of customers spewing vile rhetoric and behavior. In the interest of keeping a roof over their heads, these employees are forced to put on a smile and stifle down their pain. “This is just how workplaces operate,” they might be told. It’s a despicable part of reality writer/director that Kitty Green is well aware of and has put under a microscope in her narrative features.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 22:46:39 GMT https://collider.com/the-royal-hotel-the-assistant-kitty-green/ Although directing The Godfather trilogy is about as great of an achievement as any director could hope for, Francis Ford Coppola would be renowned as one of the greatest filmmakers of all-time even if it weren't for his trio of Mario Puzo adaptations. Outside of gangster films, Coppola has experimented with various genres, from biopics, romantic comedies, family films, and thrillers, showing that The Godfather only represents a fraction of his interests. Coppola’s ambition often got the better of him, and many of his grandest ideas never made it to the production stage. Although Coppola planned to make an adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s highly influential coming-of-age novel On the Road before The Godfather was even published, it was sadly a project that would keep eluding him.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 16:45:29 GMT https://collider.com/francis-ford-coppola-on-the-road/ The legacy of the Harry Potter novel series and the film franchise that inspired it are very different. While the Harry Potter books have become overshadowed by the transphobic comments of their author, J.K. Rowling, the Wizarding World films served as an appropriate coming-of-age story for many young fans who grew up on the adventures of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson. Even so, the films do fall short when it comes to the use of spells and magic.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 04:30:30 GMT https://collider.com/harry-potter-movies-spells-wrong/ Okay, Taylor Sheridan, we'd like to make a statement and follow it up with a request. We know you are busy with your ever-expanding Paramount family of shows, which includes Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, and, of course, Yellowstone. But, we think that it is high time that you, the master showrunner and screenwriter that you are, should cut bait and dive back into the element that you are so very adept at. Specifically, gritty neo-Westerns that have both non-stop action and skillfully crafted, well-rounded characters that we can get fully invested in.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 08:15:31 GMT https://collider.com/taylor-sheridan-neo-westerns-hell-or-high-water/ While the Marvel Universe has seen a number of characters make the leap from the comic page onto the big and small screens, the property that seems to be the hardest to adapt is Fantastic Four. The quartet of superpowered adventurers hasn't exactly had the best luck when it comes to film adaptations. The Roger Corman-produced film from 1994 has more or less been regulated to circulated videotapes and cult legends. The Tim Story films, while possessing a solid cast, didn't exactly make an impact. The less said about 2015's Fant4stic, the better. But the Four's struggle for screen time extended far beyond their film woes. In fact, it was one of the team's most popular members — the Human Torch — that was largely responsible for the calamity that befell the Four.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 18:00:31 GMT https://collider.com/fantastic-four-human-torch-rights-issues/ You never want to see an actor get replaced, for really any reason. Those reasons could range anywhere from bad behavior off-screen to salary disputes to the classic "scheduling conflicts" excuse, but the worst possible reason for having to recast someone is a tragic death. There haven't been many instances of this throughout Hollywood history, but one of the most notable examples was when Heath Ledger passed away in 2008 while shooting what would become his final film role, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. This could have completely tanked the project and caused it to shut down since Ledger was playing an important character whose actions helped drive the plot; however, writer/director Terry Gilliam came up with an idea that worked within the confines of his magical fantasy world: he recast Ledger's character with three different actors all playing the same character, with no need for drastic costly reshoots.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 11:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/heath-ledger-final-movie-imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus/ It's always rough when your favorite celebrity dies, whether it be a musician or a movie star. You think back on the impact they had on your life, or how they inspired you. Maybe the one time you were lucky enough to meet them. If they pass away suddenly, or at a young age, the added shock can hit you even harder, the idea that someone was in their prime, or in the middle of an ongoing career, is now gone forever. You won't get to hear new music or see them in new movies; all there is now are the ghosts on film and on the radio.

]]> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 09:30:31 GMT https://collider.com/rudolph-valentino-death/ Where do you go when you've exhausted your horror collection? When you feel like you've seen everything and another viewing of Saw just won't do? The answer, of course, is mondo horror favorite Faces of Death. Both the 1978 original and a slew of follow-up films under the same infamous name have captured the morbid fascination of generations — more for their shock value than outright quality. Featuring a pathologist named Francis B. Gröss (Michael Carr) as he takes the audience through his collection of deadly footage, the real draw of Faces of Death, as many an edgy suburban kid knows, is that the series is real. (I swear, man! Don't tell my mom, though.) That's right: through decades of changing morality, the wicked rumors of Faces of Death's veracity have persisted. But just how real is real? Is it all fake blood, or have we just witnessed a murder on tape? As it turns out, the truth lies somewhere in the middle — and if you've seen the films, you know that isn't as comforting as it sounds.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 21:31:32 GMT https://collider.com/faces-of-death-real/ Sean Connery is obviously best known for his work as 007, but his filmography contains far more than just a secret agent. However, his most underrated movie has strong ties to the Bond franchise, as it was only ever made as part of the price to get him to return as Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. The film is 1973’s The Offence, directed by Sidney Lumet. The Offence, the third of five collaborations between Connery and Lumet, is the story of a detective that snaps after 20 years investigating rape and murder, savagely beating a suspected pedophile, with Connery providing one of the best performances of his career.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:30:33 GMT https://collider.com/sean-connery-underrated-movie-the-offence/ Released in 2001, Zoolander is a ridiculous exploration and satire of the fashion industry. The comedy is directed by Ben Stiller, who also stars as the titular character — the dimwitted male model having somewhat of an existential crisis. Alongside Stiller, the film features Owen Wilson as Zoolander's rival, Hansel, and Will Ferrell as Mugatu, a wacky fashion designer who carries around a comically placid toy poodle and has a uniquely memorable take on the effects of foamy lattes. Not everyone was as excited about the film's satirical prowess as the western world, however, as according to The Guardian, the film was banned in Malaysia.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/zoolander-banned-malaysia-singapore/ Once a rare cinematic treat, the post-credit scene has become a vital part of the modern cinematic experience. These scenes are just as eagerly anticipated as the films they follow, leaving audiences feeling either utterly gratified or massively disappointed. But how can we distinguish a truly compelling post-credit scene that serves as a powerful storytelling device from one that simply comes across as a tired gimmick? Essentially, it boils down to three critical elements: emotional impact, surprise factor, and relevance to the story or tone. A good post-credits scene is deemed worth the wait when it successfully delivers on at least one of these vital components.

]]> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 06:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/post-credits-scene-good/ Editor's Note: The following article contains spoilers for Loki Season 2.Jonathan Majors' Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as He Who Remains in Loki Season 1 is so good, that it actually works to the detriment of his second and more essential character, Kang the Conqueror. Frankly, Phase 5 of the MCU has frankly gotten off to a bit of a weird start with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). While not the worst superhero film ever made, the third film in the Ant-Man series feels like it's trying to do way too much while accomplishing very little. All at once, it's trying to be a straightforward movie about Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and his family, trying to introduce a new facet of the MCU with the Quantum Realm, and introduce the franchise's next big bad. That last goal is undoubtedly the most important to achieve, and thankfully the film gets close to accomplishing it thanks to another fantastic performance from Jonathan Majors as Kang.

]]> Tue, 17 Oct 2023 05:45:30 GMT https://collider.com/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-loki-kang-the-conqueror/ David Gordon Green's The Exorcist: Believer didn't seem to impress theater goers very much. The film made a respectable $26.5 million in its opening weekend, but critic reviews and audience opinion weren't kind. It's no surprise. The franchise has a long history of disappointment. 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic is regarded as one of the worst horror movies ever made. The Exorcist III was a dud when it came out in 1990, but has thankfully become a cult hit over the decades. In 2004, there was an attempt to bring the IP back with Renny Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning. It was so unimpressive that another cut of the same movie came out the next year under director Paul Schrader called Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, but it wasn't any good either.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 09:46:32 GMT https://collider.com/the-exorcist-alternate-ending/ The mask worn by knife-wielding madman Michael Myers in 1978's Halloween is the stuff of low-budget legend. John Carpenter, undoubtedly the Master of Horror but even more masterful at stretching a dime into gold, left the mask in the hands of production designer Tommy Lee Wallace, who famously purchased a William Shatner mask from a random Hollywood Boulevard costume shop for $1.98, spray painted it white, and tinkered with the eyeholes and hair a bit. The result, against all logic and reason, was and still is terrifying enough to become iconic shorthand for "scary murderer with a knife." It's the blankness, the utter lack of emotion at odds with the quick, effectively brutal physical violence Nick Castle brought to the role; that first Michael Myers mask is the embodiment of the nothingness at the center of a sociopath. It's improbably scary, but the real surprise came later. Here we are after 45 years, 13 sequels and counting — Miramax recently confirmed plans for a Halloween cinematic universe — and budgets ballooned well past what Carpenter was dealing with in '78, and Michael Myers' mask has somehow never looked as good as it did when someone bought Captain Kirk's face for less than $2 and slapped some spray paint over it.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 20:15:30 GMT https://collider.com/halloween-michael-myers-mask-history-explained/ In 2014, New Zealand writer-director-actors Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi released What We Do in the Shadows, a quirky mockumentary about a group of vampires sharing a flat. While What We Do in the Shadows was not the first movie in either filmmaker’s career, the mockumentary is arguably what granted Waititi his Hollywood status as one of the best active comedy directors. The title is well-deserved, as Waititi proved the MCU could be genuinely funny beyond one-liners with Thor: Ragnarok, and has continued to redefine the boundaries of the rom-com genre with Our Flag Means Death. Still, after almost two decades of writing and directing features, Waititi is yet to surpass what he managed to build with Clement in What We Do in the Shadows. That’s because the fan-favorite mockumentary had a trump card like no other: Stu Rutherford, the IT guy.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 01:45:31 GMT https://collider.com/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-taika-waititi-stuart-rutherford/ Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Pet Sematary: BloodlinesReleased in 1983, Stephen King's novel, Pet Sematary, is arguably one of his best and scariest. The book led to a popular film adaptation in 1989, and a less well-received sequel in 1992. There was a reboot in 2019, which was quickly forgotten. Now, exclusively to Paramount+ comes a prequel called Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, which is the directorial debut of Linsdey Anderson Beer. Set in 1969, it focuses on a young Jud Crandall (Jackson White), as he discovers the deadly secrets kept by the townsfolk, including his father, Dan (Henry Thomas), and the father of a friend, Bill Baterman (David Duchovny). We all know what Jud will do with the Pet Sematary later as an old man, but how does he handle it when he discovers its powers for the first time?

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 21:46:44 GMT https://collider.com/pet-sematary-bloodlines-ending-explained/ During his vast career, Marvel comic book legend Stan Lee made cameo appearances in just about every movie adapted from his work on the page. From playing a juror in 1989's made-for-TV The Trial of The Incredible Hulk to being an animated salesman version of himself in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Stan Lee wore a lot of hats on camera. Many times these cameos didn't involve delivering any lines but were brief, blink-and-you'll-miss-it instances of the white-mustached creator winkingly coming onto the scene to the audience's excitement. However, there is at least one Stan Lee cameo that is more than just a fan-service gag. While it is still humorous, it actually pays homage to a very specific moment in the comics and is the only Stan Lee cameo lifted directly from the panels. That performance is Stan Lee's cameo in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Here's exactly what makes it his most comics accurate cameo.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 10:30:32 GMT https://collider.com/stan-lee-fantastic-four-rise-of-the-silver-surfer-cameo/ While many associate 13 with negative superstitions, Taylor Swift doesn't. In fact, she'd call the number a lucky one. With her spectacular concert movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour now available in theaters worldwide today, October 13th, other films have made a blank space for her preferred date. What sounded like the perfect Friday for horror movies was quickly seeded to Swift. But not because she felt the need to interfere with the spooky atmosphere. 13 is just a considerable part of her career and always has been. It may seem odd for a number to be tied to a person, but she's Taylor Swift and can do just about anything she wants. It just happens that one of those things is to work in her lucky number whenever she can. With an established reputation for leaving hints and clues in the most inconspicuous places, it's no surprise that Taylor Swift and her fans have latched on to the number, using it to create puzzles or make subtle references. In fact, Swift's ever-increasing ability to relate things to 13 is impressive.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 15:46:32 GMT https://collider.com/taylor-swift-13-explained/ When Black Panther was released in 2018, it quickly became one of the most important and impactful MCU films. It made incredible strides in representation and on-screen diversity, in addition to being a visually striking and emotionally impactful story. Much of the narrative weight came from the heavy focus on family relationships, loyalties, and responsibilities. The film followed T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) becoming the King of Wakanda and addressed his relationship with his late father, his mourning mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett), and his younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright). But it’s not just his direct family that he engages with as T’Challa’s relationships with his former lover, friend, and cultural advisors are also vitally important in the movie’s narrative.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 21:45:32 GMT https://collider.com/black-panther-sterling-k-brown/ In an oeuvre filled with classics, 1963's The Birds is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous and beloved, and its influence can be seen throughout the last 60 years of horror filmmaking. And yet, from the hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on phony-looking mechanical birds to real birds attacking the cast and crew to Alfred Hitchcock's allegedly incessant harassment of star Tippi Hedren, the making of The Birds was almost as terrifying as the movie itself.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 16:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/the-birds-production-history-explained/ While not as renowned for his taste and integration of popular music as other notable auteurs, Jonathan Demme is one of a kind as a curator of idiosyncratic songs. With an eclectic filmography, ranging from comedies, courtroom dramas, horror-thrillers, concert docs, and historical epics, Demme utilized original scores and soundtracks of pop music. Audiences never knew if the director would aim for mainstream hits or a subversive tune that throws a wrench in a particular scene. No song choice satisfies the latter quite like the use of "Goodbye Horses" in his Best Picture-winning classic, The Silence of the Lambs.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 02:45:30 GMT https://collider.com/jonathan-demme-silence-of-the-lambs-goodbye-horses/ Director Shawn Levy's Real Steel, whose main selling points were Hugh Jackman and big-ass robots beating the cogs out of one another, seemingly appeared out of nowhere. It was a huge hit that went beyond its Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot premise (which the marketing of the film focused primarily on), as it proved to be a winning combination of heart, redemption, family, and Cinderella story. The effects—a seamless blend of practical and CGI—even earned the film an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. Talks of a sequel began shortly after its release in 2011 and before we knew it, Real Steel 2 was put into development. Now, 12 years after the original was released, there is still no sequel. So, where is the sequel to this endearing robot story?

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 07:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/real-steel-2-movie-explained/ Although John Wick: Chapter 4 offered a fairly definitive conclusion to the story of Keanu Reeves’ titular hitman, the world of John Wick is being rapidly expanded. It was clear from the first film that Wick himself is part of a larger network of spies, assassins, and killers that work under the High Table, and we’re now just getting to see some of those other stories told. The Peacock original series The Continental: From The World of John Wick explores the early exploits of Wick’s mentor Winston Scott (Colin Woodell), and Len Wiseman’s upcoming spinoff film Ballerina will explore the adventures of the new heroine Rooney (Ana de Armas). It’s exciting to see that the John Wick universe will go on, even if the character himself has departed, as many of the films have hinted at some of the other players in this world whose stories have yet to be completed. Now that Wick has joined his wife in death, it’s about time that the films check in on Halle Berry’s Sofia Al-Azwar.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 23:31:30 GMT https://collider.com/john-wick-halle-berry-sofia-spinoff/ When the George Lucas science fiction epic Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope took the world by storm in 1977, it starred a relatively unknown Mark Hamill in the lead role of a young Luke Skywalker. Hamill may not have been the established performer and voice actor that he is now with credits including Batman: The Killing Joke, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and Mike Flanagan's Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher, but he certainly looked the part. People swooned in the late '70s as they were unable to get enough of his feathered blonde hair, dreamy blue eyes, and California smile. If George Lucas thought he was right then who are we to argue?

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 17:45:36 GMT https://collider.com/mark-hamill-star-wars-empire-strikes-back/ The use of color in film has a longer history than you would think. Early endeavors in making color films involved hand painting on the film, like rare prints of the iconic Trip to the Moon. It was still a long time until the well-known, inventive technicolor process took over and gave filmmakers an easier way to full-color filmmaking. Before this though, there were still color films. Determining the first depends on what parameters are set. There were many experiments with color in short films, one of the most known being A Visit to the Seaside which is credited as the first film filmed in natural color. However, this is only eight minutes in length. The first feature film in color is a different story.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 02:15:33 GMT https://collider.com/the-world-the-flesh-and-the-devil-first-color-movie/ Thanks to the brilliant team of Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker, audiences have been laughing along for 43 years to one of the best comedies ever made, Airplane! And thanks to this same team, audiences got the gift of seeing actor Leslie Nielsen, best known for dramatic roles in classic films like Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure, playing comedy for the first time. And thanks to Nielsen's commitment to portraying Dr. Rumack, the discombobulated physician trying to save the passengers on a doomed airliner, as if he were the most serious character in the most serious disaster movie ever made, Nielsen's career as a comic performer was born, some 30 years after his first onscreen appearance. Airplane! was a send-up of 1957's Zero Hour, a low-budget "airliner in peril" movie, and some of the movie's dialogue was lifted directly from the film and inserted into the Airplane! script. Abrahams and the Zucker brothers knew that for Airplane! to work, the actors in the film would have to play it straight, just like the actors in Zero Hour did, and Nielsen nailed the assignment. When it was time to bring The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! to the big screen, with Nielsen as the hopelessly inept, yet downright deadpan Detective Frank Drebin, the search was on for an actress who could play his love interest with the same sense of earnest commitment to the completely absurd. Enter Priscilla Presley, a completely unlikely choice, but a perfect fit as Jane Spencer, the woman who just can't resist the bumbling gumshoe.

]]> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 02:15:29 GMT https://collider.com/priscilla-presley-naked-gun-movies/ Even though he only has three films under his belt, Jordan Peele has accumulated a number of traits during his filmmaking career. There are deceptively simple plots that hide layers of meaning. Don't forget the outlandish science fiction elements, including evil duplicates and brain transplants. And of course, there are the distinct visuals, from a pair of golden scissors to a man falling into the inky shadows of the "Sunken Place." In addition to all that, Get Out, Us, and Nope all have something else in common: Each one features a Bible verse, and touches upon what happens when man dares to play with forces outside his comprehension.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 03:30:33 GMT https://collider.com/jordan-peele-biblical-repercussions-nope-get-out-us/ One of the biggest movies of the 1980s (it was the third highest-grossing film of 1984) was the Joe Dante-directed Gremlins. Its unique story about pint-sized monsters terrorizing a small town was part horror film, part 1950s creature feature, and a little bit of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Its adorable hero, the Mogwai Gizmo, took over pop culture long before Grogu from The Mandalorian did. It seemed certain that there would be a sequel soon after. In fact, Warner Bros. begged Dante for a follow-up, but it took six years before he caved in, delivering the wacky Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990. While not as popular as the first film, it was still enough of a success that many expected a third. 33 years later, we're still waiting for the trilogy to be completed.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 19:30:34 GMT https://collider.com/gremlins-3-still-happening/ The question must be asked: why hasn't Steven Spielberg made a Western? Like Alexander the Great, of whom it was said wept when realizing there were no more worlds to conquer, one wonders if Spielberg ever looks over his filmography with the same feeling — with no more genres left to conquer. The release of West Side Story in 2021 and 2022's critical favorite The Fabelmans knocked two more genres off of the unconquered list: musicals and autobiographical dramas. His is a career that has seen him direct films of almost all genres: horror (Jaws), sci-fi (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), action-adventure (Raiders of the Lost Ark), history (Lincoln), war (Saving Private Ryan), and many, many more. In fact, there's really only one genre that Spielberg has not committed to film: Westerns. What's eben more baffling is that Spielberg is a noted fan of Westerns, having made mention of his desire to make one, with John Ford's The Searchers one of his all-time favorite films. So, Mr. Spielberg, what's the sitch? Why haven't you made a Western yet?

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 21:00:33 GMT https://collider.com/steven-spielberg-western-movie/ For cinephiles searching for a dark and twisty psychological thriller, look no further than Shutter Island. Adapted from Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel, the 2010 film checks all the prerequisite boxes for a neo-noir rollercoaster ride. Isolated setting? Check. An obsessive and paranoid main character? Check. Shadowy visuals and low-key lighting? Check. The film about a U.S. Marshal investigating the case of a missing mental patient was a hit for director Martin Scorsese, with praise given for its atmosphere, performances, and camera work. Reactions were split on the film's polarizing twist ending, but that didn't stop Shutter Island from becoming a box office success.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 01:45:32 GMT https://collider.com/shutter-island-ending-explained/ A hero as iconic as Batman has always required a villain that is just as memorable and impactful for audiences. The Joker, with his own standalone movie starring Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role and its sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, set for 2024, is easily one of the greatest comic book antagonists that has left a lasting legacy in theaters as well as on the page. Bringing a character as uniquely eccentric and visually striking as the Joker from an illustrated medium into a live-action one has always been an adaptational challenge, eliciting different approaches from makeup artists, wardrobe designers, and even the actors themselves as they bring the Clown Prince of Crime to the big screen.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 09:15:32 GMT https://collider.com/jack-nicholson-joker-makeup/ Do you recall what Marvel movies were like before Disney took over? Let's look at it this way. Critical reception to the latest MCU release, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, has been average at best, currently rocking a Rotten 46% on Rotten Tomatoes. Even a low score like that tops pre-Disney Marvel films like Howard the Duck (14%) or 2003's Daredevil (43%). Generally speaking, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's critical reception is not the norm for the MCU, with the derided Eternals the only MCU film to score worse, so it can safely be said that Disney righted the ship for Marvel. Before Disney, Marvel movies varied radically in quality. So, with apologies to Sergio Leone, let's look at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of pre-Disney Marvel movies, and how Disney can do a course correct for characters in those films who have yet to join the MCU.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 08:30:32 GMT https://collider.com/marvel-movies-before-disney-mcu/ Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Pet Sematary: BloodlinesPet Sematary: Bloodlines, the prequel to the 2019 reboot Pet Sematary starring Jason Clarke and John Lithgow, takes place decades before the 2019 adaptation of Stephen King's classic novel of the same name. Unfortunately, aside from lacking the scares and gore of the novel, it also isn't exactly rooted in anything that the author himself wrote. Instead, this is a brand-new look at how one of the original film's central characters came to learn of the titular "Sematary," and the secrets that the town of Ludlow, Maine has been burying for years. The end result doesn't exactly provide the most exciting prequel ever made, but for fans of King's novel who are dying for one more trip to Ludlow, this movie might scratch that itch.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 00:01:29 GMT https://collider.com/pet-sematary-bloodlines-reboot-connections/ Get ready for a huge weekend of TV, because the entire movie industry evacuated their release dates after Taylor Swift swept in and claimed this weekend on the calendar. The only major film hitting theaters this weekend is Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a concert film that documents the massive tour that she just went on over the summer. Those shows were a massive deal, so this project is looking to be the next big wave of that phenomenon. If concert films aren't really your thing, then the small screen is where you will want to direct your attention. First off, The Fall of the House of Usher, Netflix's next big Mike Flanagan project, will be hitting the streamer. This time, the acclaimed horror filmmaker is bringing Edgar Allen Poe stories to life, all with the help of Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Mary McDonnell, Henry Thomas, and more. Shudder, on the other hand, is debuting the fourth season of Creepshow, Greg Nicotero's spin on the classic anthology horror movies of the same name.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 13:30:32 GMT https://collider.com/what-to-watch-this-weekend/ How does a long-running action franchise keep raising the stakes? If one follows the Mission: Impossible rule book, it’s about stunt work. Previously, Tom Cruise climbed up the world’s tallest skyscraper and clung to the side of a plane taking flight. In Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, he speeds off a cliff with a parachute. The movies don’t usually check off the other box to keep the tension going: killing off a beloved, major character. And when it comes to an action series, there may be nothing worse than a lackluster farewell when this scenario plays out. Unfortunately, it's what happens to Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). What makes it baffling isn’t so much the character’s death, but the narrative choices leading up to it and what happens after. Here lies agent Ilsa Faust, whose death is utterly unsatisfying.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 21:01:49 GMT https://collider.com/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-one-ilsa-death/ Being a young heartthrob in romantic comedies may be a great way for some actors to initiate their careers, but it doesn’t offer them much room to grow in the long run. Romantic comedies can only take an actor so far, and after a while, it’s impossible for them not to feel stale. This was something that Hugh Grant experienced after initially finding a lot of success in the rom-com genre. All the traits that had made him seem so funny and endearing in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sense and Sensibility, and Notting Hill grew to be extremely obnoxious by the time that he was doing Two Weeks Notice and Mickey Blue Eyes. Thankfully, Grant recognized that he needed to evolve his persona, and has begun leaning into his darker attributes. Grant is now in his villainous era, and we’re absolutely here for it.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 19:00:34 GMT https://collider.com/hugh-grant-villains/ In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the final battle between Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) transpires, but the cinematic portrayal of this climactic scene is nowhere near as impactful as the original scene from the book. Film director David Yates wanted the final duel between the Dark Lord and the Chosen One to be more gritty and earthy, and although Yates does achieve this visual style, it is a shame that aesthetics were prioritized over depicting the depth of the original storyline. In the film, Harry and Voldemort are dirt-ridden as they stand before each other amidst the expanse and wreckage of the Hogwarts courtyard. Nobody else is watching them. Spells shoot from their wands and their magic meets in the middle, but Harry’s spell overwhelms Voldemort’s wand and he gets the upper hand. Voldemort’s wand flies into Harry’s hand, and then Voldemort’s body disintegrates into what looks like ash, which flies into the air as his body evaporates. Yes, the whole scene is unforgettable and a satisfying end to the Harry Potter films. But compared to the original scene from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book, the movie counterpart does not measure up in the slightest.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:30:31 GMT https://collider.com/harry-potter-movies-voldemort-death/ Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part OneMission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a movie with stakes higher than just worldwide destruction (although that's on the table, as always). Things go deeper for superspy protagonist Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) when he encounters a new kind of threat with a very familiar modus operandi. The Entity, a sentient AI with lethal impulses, concludes that the best way to protect itself from Ethan is to emotionally destabilize him by killing someone he loves. This plot point is an unfortunate but expected echo of prior Mission: Impossible movies. Despite the franchise's many outstanding cinematic achievements, its creatives also decided to saddle Ethan with a trope as tired as time itself.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 16:15:30 GMT https://collider.com/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-one-ethan-hunt-ilsa-faust-death/ Much like the paranormal exterminators themselves, Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife tries its hardest to capture the spirit of the original Ghostbusters with a force far more powerful than any unlicensed nuclear accelerator: nostalgia. The bulk of Afterlife’s runtime features an onslaught of glorified Easter eggs, references, and cameos tied to the Ivan Reitman original and its lore, vying to be the long-awaited Ghostbusters three-quel fans have asked for decades to see. What results is a film that exists more in rose-tinted fanboy reverence of the franchise than an attempt to embody what made the original classic great as a film, which it failed to do.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 21:01:31 GMT https://collider.com/ghostbusters-2016-better-than-afterlife/ [TW: This article discusses the general topic of eating disorders and how they are portrayed in To the Bone, Gossip Girl, Black Swan, and Ginny and Georgia.]

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 23:15:30 GMT https://collider.com/eating-disorders-movies-shows/ Julia Roberts is to rom-coms as pepperoni is to pizza, which is why it's easy to forget that she's actually had just as successful a career within the thriller genre as she's had in romantic comedies. She's been the girl slinging pizza behind the counter in Connecticut in Mystic Pizza, and, of course, she's been the pretty woman in the appropriately titled Pretty Woman. But at the same time, she's also had to fake her own death to get away from an abusive husband in Sleeping With the Enemy and stay one step ahead of being killed seemingly by her own government with The Pelican Brief. Basically, Julia Roberts has done it all, but when it comes to thrillers, there's no stopping her.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:00:54 GMT https://collider.com/julia-roberts-thrillers/ Cinema has long been used as a provocative force to spark conversations about race, politics, and culture, and Spike Lee has never shied away from using his voice as a director. Be it discussions about cross-cultural prejudices in Do the Right Thing, or the fight for reparations in Da 5 Bloods; Lee has long been at the forefront of cinema's political dialogue. However, what makes Lee’s 2018 film Blackkklansman noteworthy is how it actively comments on the nature of ideals presented in on-screen fiction versus the reality that informs them. This is seen in how the film examines the supposed 'truth' of biopics, looking into the futility of giving a story revolving around racism a happy ending when such prejudices still exist today. Furthermore, Lee turns this examination onto the history of cinematic depictions of Black people as a whole by examining how stereotype informs perception.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 19:31:32 GMT https://collider.com/blackkklansman-ending-explained/ George Lucas' Star Wars was always intended to be enormous, told across multiple movies. For example, one needs to look no further than the title of an early draft of his script, "The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga One: The Star Wars". However, while shooting the 1977 original, few could predict the accuracy of Lucas' predictions for how the franchise would evolve, with some actors portraying the now-iconic characters for over 40 years. "Harrison [Ford], Mark Hamill, Billy [Dee Williams] and I [became] heritage players" according to C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels, who admits that he doubted Star Wars would amount to anything special at the time of filming.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 22:15:31 GMT https://collider.com/star-wars-anthony-daniels-c3po-offer/ Quentin Tarantino has openly celebrated the notion that his films "steal" from every movie that came before, beginning with his feature directorial debut Reservoir Dogs which took heavy inspiration from City on Fire. In 2012, the writer-director made his first entry into the Spaghetti Western genre, even naming the film and its character after Sergio Corbucci's Django from 1966. This wasn't stealing exactly, since the immediate success of Corbucci's '60s hit led to almost 40 other Spaghetti Westerns in the following years renaming their own movies to include the word "Django", and capitalizing upon its success. Tarantino's Django Unchained is by far the most different of the bunch, swapping out the quiet caucasian gunslinger for a liberated deep-south slave.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:46:31 GMT https://collider.com/django-unchained-quentin-tarantino-sacha-baron-cohen/ "Honorable men go with honorable men." In one sentence, Cesare Danova's Giovanni sums up the exact opposite kind of men that we follow in Martin Scorsese's explosive hangout gangster movie, Mean Streets. For his third feature, Scorsese takes his loosest approach to narrative filmmaking yet. With Mean Streets, we aren't witness to the epic rise and fall of powerful criminals like in GoodFellas or The Wolf of Wall Street. Instead, this is a movie where Scorsese forces the audience to run with a group of low-level mobsters, getting a peek behind the curtain as they grab drinks together, catch a movie to kill time, and rest up in a cemetery between errands. All the while, we sit back and experience a master at his most primordial form. Scorsese is too often stereotyped as only making gangster movies, an accusation that couldn't be further from the truth. That being said, when he chooses to, he makes a damn good one.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 18:31:31 GMT https://collider.com/mean-streets-review-martin-scorsese/ Frank Herbert’s beloved science fiction novel Dune was essentially the Lord of the Rings of space operas. While it obviously boasted a rich mythology, memorable characters, and a story that had the potential to make a great film or franchise, the pressure of bringing such beloved material to the big screen was almost unfathomable. The Dune novel series already had an extensive fan base that knew the different planets, worlds, and languages quite well, and any director who approached the material was going to be facing an uphill battle. Denis Villeneuve's Dune from 2021 starring Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, and Timothée Chalamet was a massive success, and a sequel is on its way. However, David Lynch took a stab at Herbert's world in 1984. It wasn’t just fans who were disappointed in Lynch's box-office bomb — it seems like the only person who hated 1984’s Dune more than die-hard Herbert readers was Lynch himself.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 17:46:30 GMT https://collider.com/david-lynch-dune/ Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour, which swept the nation this past summer, is officially in theaters. The pop star sensation's lavish tour will be screened in over 1,000 theaters across the United States at AMC, Cinemark, and Regal locations, and in a stunning turn of events, the star and her father directly negotiated with the theater chains, bypassing traditional distribution through the studio system. As a result, Swift is in line to receive a staggering 57% of the film's gross. Considering that the upcoming concert film registered $37 million in presale tickets in 24 hours, which out-performs Star Wars: The Force Awakens in presales, Swift appears to be unstoppable as an artist and business mogul. She also may have revitalized a waning, but vital, genre of film, the concert movie.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 21:15:30 GMT https://collider.com/taylor-swift-eras-tour-concert-movie/ In the grand mosaic of cinema, there exists a subset of films for which the term “endurance test” was coined. Anyone who has spent enough time in online film circles will be familiar with them, and forcing yourself to watch them has turned into a strange rite of passage any self-described cinephile must eventually undertake. Come and See and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom are two of the most cited examples, attracting both critical praise and utter disdain that makes them ideal entries on “greatest films you’ll only watch once” lists. Threads is another prime candidate, and could well be the most terrifying of all. But whereas the aforementioned examples utilized their fictionalized narrative to explore the horrors of the past, Threads looks in the other direction, conceptualizing a dystopian future where conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union erupts into nuclear Armageddon. The film was released at the height of the Cold War and presented its narrative with such shocking brutality that it disappeared from our screens for almost 20 years. Today, it is more widely available, and given how the Doomsday Clock has only edged closer to midnight in the decades since, it remains disturbingly relevant.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 18:00:31 GMT https://collider.com/threads-apocalypse-movie-disappearance/ Horror purists once considered the central villain from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) the patron saint of movie maniacs, and the reigning king of nightmares. The razor-fingered ghoul made an indelible mark in popular culture throughout the '80s, becoming one of the most iconic horror figures since Nosferatu. Krueger became a pop-cultural juggernaut spanning the mediums of film, literature, and comic books. We're all familiar with his M.O.: Freddy would stalk and hunt his victims in their dreams, using their strengths (and weaknesses) against them. With Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, released in 1984, the slasher genre turned a corner into a darkly imaginative new arena when Halloween and Friday the 13th had cornered the market on silent, knife-wielding masked lunacy. Freddy Krueger was a different kind of animal, providing razor-wit while bringing grisly death to the teens of Springwood.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 14:45:33 GMT https://collider.com/freddy-krueger-worst-death/ Watching a very long movie can be an undeniably daunting task. For some viewers, a movie exceeding two hours would have to have a pretty good reason for doing so, and even more viewers would likely get restless once something reaches the three-hour mark. That does make the idea of watching the director's cut of Wim Wender's Until the End of the World a potentially tall order for many, as it's just 13 minutes shy of five hours, at 287 minutes long. That might have some viewers running for the hills, but they should know that this science-fiction film — which was conceived as the "ultimate road movie" — has a surprising amount to say about life in the 21st century, with many of its scenes and stylistic touches aging surprisingly well. It'd be a cult film at best in any event, thanks to its length, but it also fits the idea of a cult classic by being likely to resonate more with audiences now than it might've done upon its release in 1991.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 19:31:32 GMT https://collider.com/until-the-end-of-the-world-movie-predicted-today/ If you want to get technical about it, it’s easy to pinpoint exactly what killed the X-Men movies: Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox. Disney, owning Marvel Studios, had its own plans for the beloved Marvel Comics series, and that plan could not be enacted if they continued moving forward with Fox's cast and (confusing) continuity of the X-Men timeline up until that point. As further evidence, look to Disney's ho-hum marketing of X-Men: Dark Phoenix after its acquisition of Fox, and the paltry box office result. It was a whimpered ending to a franchise that helped kick-start the comic book movie genre as we know it with 2000's critically and financially successful inaugural installment. However, before the Disney acquisition and even Dark Phoenix, the franchise was already headed towards failure thanks to one truly terrible entry that signaled the beginning of the end: 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 23:00:34 GMT https://collider.com/how-x-men-apocalypse-killed-franchise/ "Why didn't Idina Menzel sing in Enchanted?"

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 17:15:30 GMT https://collider.com/taylor-swift-the-lorax/ Michael Mann’s career can be split into two very distinctive halves. His first era (defined by films like Heat and Manhunter) showcased a refined and almost novelistic approach to storytelling, with sweeping stories about complex characters who felt like they’d been ripped from the page of a classic tome, all told with a level of technical finesse that transformed even the most mundane scene into an awe-inspiring moment.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 23:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/collateral-michael-mann-second-era-filmmaking/ Brian De Palma's Scarface is as unapologetic as it gets and has grown to be one of the most iconic and over-referenced mobster flicks in film history. With a narrative focusing on drugs, violence, and the tempting life of crime, it was expected to receive some form of regulation from the film censorship authorities. However, it was initially slapped with an X-rating, a classification usually reserved for pornographic films. This decision by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) kickstarted a protest, one that continues to be a point of discussion regarding film censorship, authorship, and what should and should not be presented on screen.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 20:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/scarface-x-rating/ While the original Friday the 13th film from 1980 inspired one of the most profitable and popular horror franchises of all-time, it’s not a particularly good movie. Compared to franchises like Halloween or A Nightmare On Elm Street, the Friday the 13th series didn’t really find its footing until it was already a few installments in. It was 1981’s Friday the 13th Part 2 that finally utilized Jason Voorhees as the main antagonist, but the iconic slasher didn’t don his signature hockey mask until 1982’s Friday the 13th Part III. Beyond simply nailing Jason’s wardrobe, Friday the 13th Part III set the tone for what the series would be; it’s a goofy, genuinely nasty bloodfest that makes little to no logical sense -- and that’s okay! However, Friday the 13th Part III would have taken the series in a much different direction if director Steve Miner had chosen to keep the original ending.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:45:33 GMT https://collider.com/friday-the-13th-part-3-alternate-ending/ George Orwell once said that all art is propaganda, that every decision made in the process of making art serves some kind of political purpose or is a reflection of the times in which it was made. One of the most prevalent examples of this is how law enforcement, and specifically the police, have been portrayed in mainstream American cinema throughout film history. Cops have routinely been portrayed as always dutiful and just and fair-minded, completely ignoring the years of proven corruption, biases in their policing practices, and license to get away with violent malpractice on citizens. This is all in service to serving audiences the belief that they can and should always trust the American police system, when that simply shouldn't be the case. While there are various American films you can find that critique the police system and its rotten history, I want to highlight one that doesn't seem like it's criticizing the cops at all, but that's what makes it so amazing: The Big Heat.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 22:00:39 GMT https://collider.com/the-big-heat-anti-cop/ William Friedkin's most iconic work is his 1973 horror classic, The Exorcist, but what most people don't know is that he made another film about exorcisms. That being said, it's not exactly what you'd think. In 2017, Friedkin released a documentary titled The Devil and Father Amorth, which captures Father Gabriele Amorth's ninth exorcism that he has performed on an Italian woman simply referred to as "Christina." It's a fascinating piece of filmmaking on multiple levels. Given Friedkin's groundbreaking work with his notorious 1973 film, his growing fascination with exorcisms over the years since, and his skill as a documentary filmmaker, The Devil and Father Amorth is made with a recipe for success. Unfortunately, some odd filmmaking choices and shady narrative moves make this project a bit less credible, even if you have faith in some form of spirituality.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 23:31:28 GMT https://collider.com/william-friedkin-exorcism-documentary-the-devil-and-father-amorth/ Is a humanized Darth Vader still an effective villain? See, a long time ago, 1977 to be precise, in a galaxy far, far... nope, this galaxy, Star Wars was still just Star Wars (the subtitled Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope came with the 1981 rerelease of the film), and the release of the space adventure exceeded the most optimistic of expectations. The film became a touchstone moment for those who lined up for blocks just to see it. It was simply unlike anything else. John Williams' grandiose theme played over a scrolling text, one that added context to what was to come next. The shot of the massive Imperial Star Destroyer, takes up nearly the entire screen as it chases down the Tantive IV (perfectly lampooned in Spaceballs). And soon, we would be introduced to a film antagonist who, like the film itself, was unlike any before: Darth Vader.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 15:30:34 GMT https://collider.com/star-wars-darth-vader-anakin-skywalker-villain/