movies

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Why Does Everyone Love J.J. Abrams?

star wars j.j. abrams

From Star Trek and Star Wars to Lost and Fringe, this celebrated film and television writer/producer/director is on a bit of a roll.

This week on Now Conspiring, Maria and I breakdown the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We also discuss Abrams’ best projects and why he’s managed to cement himself as one of the most important directors of our time, and whether or not his success will continue.

Plus, we do a roundup of some incredible Oscar contenders that will be releasing soon, including Angelina Jolie’s second directorial gig: the WWII epic, Unbroken, and why should love it as much as we do.

Hope you enjoy the show, and be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes for instant access to available episodes. Enjoy!

First Trailer For ‘Pan,’ The Peter Pan Origin Movie, Gets a lot of Things Wrong (and Right)

Things Pan gets right:

  • The score
  • Joe Wright as director
  • Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard
  • Garrett Hedlund as Hook
  • SyFy’s Neverland being the thrust of inspiration here

Things Pan gets terrible:

  • Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily (seriously, you’re not even trying, Warner Bros.)
  • Blackbeard’s beard goatee
  • How close this feels to Cloud Atlas
  • Hook being “James Hook” before he even loses his hand
  • The apparent omission of Peter Pan as a ruthless jerk and instead being an innocent, doe-eyed orphan

Also, is this Hollywood’s live-action canon for Peter Pan? (Pan, Peter Pan (2003), Hook)

Here’s a Pretty Perfect Plot Idea For ‘Toy Story 4.’

toy story 4

Since it was announced, many Toy Story fans like myself have been scratching our heads about the upcoming plot for Toy Story 4.

After all, John Lasseter promises that it’s good enough to warrant yet another sequel to an otherwise perfect trilogy. So what could this great idea be?

It’s too early to tell, but that didn’t stop Aaron Helman from writing out what he considers to be a pretty exciting script. Enjoy:

TOY STORY 4

by Aaron Helman

The film is set 6-7 years after Toy Story 3.

The toys are hanging out by themselves, doing Toy Story things when a woman barges in the room in a tizzy and starts throwing them into boxes. The toys are confused, but they hear a conversation in the next room, trying to figure out what’s going on. Through the perspective of the toys, we hear bits and pieces:

“Once I heard, I just knew you had to have these.”

“That’s so sweet, but what about…”

“Oh she’s 13 now. She doesn’t really play with them anymore.”

“I’m sure Andy will be thrilled.”

“When’s the baby due?”

Cue music and excitement from the toys.

Go on…Here’s a Pretty Perfect Plot Idea For ‘Toy Story 4.’

Pixar Quotes Make Excellent Posters

Risa Rodil is an up-and-coming illustrator who just happens to love Pixar films. Hence her “Pixar Lettering Series,” which just debuted on her website.

Using some of the most memorable quotes from Pixar’s finest films, including one that just got polled most memorable quote of all time, Risa designed some stunning posters that highlight the fun and artistic ingenuity of the movies they’re based on.

The posters are below, but you can see the whole list and more on Risa’s site (and please do yourself a favor and check her work out!)

pixar posters pixar posters pixar posters pixar posters pixar posters pixar posters pixar posters

Why Inception Is One of the Best Movies of Our Generation

 

 

inception

What You Missed About Inception:

For me, a truly great film isn’t really like a masterpiece. A masterpiece, after all, is more about critical praise and the apex of one’s career. Inception is great in a different way. It’s just smart. It didn’t receive universal, critical praise (though it got some) because it completely went over the heads of almost everyone.

For all of you who think you “get” the movie, I sincerely doubt that more than a handful actually caught everything that was going on in the story.

Here’s a test to see if you did: do you think the ending was a cliffhanger? Because if you did, you are dead wrong.

With Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar coming out this week, I thought it would be fun to revisit one of the first fan theories I ever wrote. I wrote this piece about Inception and it’s myriad secrets back in 2013, and I’m still finding more reasons for why it’s one of the best films, period. And why most people don’t seem to fully grasp how important it was.

Check it out here in case you haven’t had a chance to read it.

Movieo Lets You Discover the Best Movies For Free – Without Ads

movieo

About | Movieo:

This is a place for discovering movies. Made by a couple of friends for fun – as a side project.

We love movies but finding new ones is usually a hassle. We searched for a nicely designed and simple interface for movie browsing but we didn’t find one. So we made one ourselves.

There’s no ads, no annoying popups, no catch – it’s free. We’ll keep improving it as time passes. For now we’d appreciate your feedback. Criticism and praise are both welcome.

This website is seriously worth your time. At its base level, it offers you a chance to stream excellent movie trailers without popups and ads by hosting from a YouTube channel.

But it also features a search function that lets you find new movies that you’ll like, complete with review scores that hover with the description. Fun idea.

Check it out and see for yourself: Movieo

 

Inside the Incredible Mind of Christopher Nolan.

christopher nolan

Gideon Lewis-Kraus | The Exacting, Expansive Mind of Christopher Nolan:

Nolan’s movies are often about people doing their best to get back in touch with consensus reality — against our tendency to be swept away by delusion (“Inception”) or demagogy (“The Dark Knight Rises”) — so it feels organic, rather than gimmicky, that they would periodically gesture toward their own stagy conceits. 

“Interstellar” regrets the diminished ambitions of the space age, but it also regrets the diminished ambitions of the same age in cinema — the art form that, for the moment at least, reaches the most disparate people in the most far-flung places. “Interstellar” is about the recovery, in the greatest mass medium, of hope and drive and intelligence, about the very promise of a robust, elevating middlebrow. Perhaps all Nolan does, as one of his critics has put it, is “invest grandeur and novelty into conventional themes.” But at interstellar scale, that’s good enough.

This is quite easily the best, most complete analysis I’ve ever read about Christopher Nolan, who is rapidly becoming the next generation’s Spielberg. I highly suggest you give it a read, especially with Nolan’s Interstellar only being a week away (of which I’ve heard remarkably good things).

One highlight from Gideon’s piece is that Nolan’s last three movies have a place in the top 100 movies of all time (in box office sales). And eight of his fourteen films have accrued over $3 billion. And that’s without making movies about transforming robots.