Movies Archives - Page 18 of 84

October 21, 2015 in “Back to the Future II”

Back to the Future October 2015

In the 1989 film Back to the Future II, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) visited the future date of October 21, 2015. There are a number of ways for us to celebrate this date, including a new Blu-ray/DVD Back to the Future package and the movie’s brief return to movie theaters.

For more instant gratification, you may visit the “Back to the Future Day” Facebook page, and below you may see how the filmmakers envisioned Hill Valley would look in October 2015. I want my flying car.

Back to the Future II was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Bob Gale. On A.V. Club, Gale recently discussed the odd coincidence of the film predicting the Cubs winning the World Series in 2015 and this year the Cubs being in the playoffs.

What item from the Back to the Future II segment set in October 2015 do you most wish were true? Leave your two cents in the comments.

Was Kurt Russell’s Voice in “Forrest Gump” as Elvis Presley?

Eddie Valiant Is Off the Case

This Week in Pop Culture Roundup (Nov. 20, 2011)

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Trailer for Coen Brothers’ Film: “Hail, Caesar!”

Coen Brothers Clooney

It is always good news when there is a movie from Joel and Ethan Coen on the horizon. The brothers have just released the trailer for their upcoming film, Hail, Caesar! The new movie stars Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill and Ralph Fiennes.

Hail, Caesar! is set during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, with Brolin trying to track down the kidnapped star (Clooney) of a movie called “Hail, Caesar!” With several stars from previous Coen movies and a kidnapping story, The Guardian has called the new movie an “extremely Coen-y comedy.” Check out the trailer below.

Hail, Caesar! hits theaters on February, 26 2016.

Will you go see Hail, Casar! Leave your two cents in the comments.

How Does “Inside Llewyn Davis” Rank In the Coen Brothers Canon? (short review)

Red Band Trailer for Upcoming Coen Brothers’ Film: “Inside Llewyn Davis”

Critics Really Love “Her” (Short Review)

What Is the Murder Ballad That Holly Hunter Sings to Nathan Jr. in “Raising Arizona”?

Show Me the Meaning! (Podcast Review)

When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

“Pawn Sacrifice” and the Tragedy of Bobby Fischer (Short Review)

Bobby Fischer movie One of the challenges for director Edward Zwick in Pawn Sacrifice (2015) is that he was making a movie about a board game where the main character is not very sympathetic. But Zwick lives up to the challenge, with the movie recounting chess genius Bobby Fischer’s rise to prominence and chess champion, while also showing Fischer’s struggles with paranoia and mental illness.

Pawn Sacrifice begins with a short scene of Fischer, played by Tobey Maguire, at the 1972 world championship against Russian Grandmaster Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). And then it takes us back to Fischer as a child with a growing fascination with chess. The movie then follows the chess prodigy as he rises to the championship stage, revealing Fischer’s mental problems and the importance of his game for Americans and Soviets during the Cold War era.

The movie does an excellent job telling the story of this piece of American history, while giving some insight into Fischer. For me, I wanted to know more about the man beneath the chess and the madness, but the movie instead focuses on the link between the latter two without much deviation from that path.

Similarly, even though Pawn Sacrifice follows the real-life history pretty well and does a good job at getting the story right, one also may gain insight from Liz Garbus’s excellent documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011). That documentary retraces much of the same story using real footage.

Yet, a dramatized movie can take us places that a documentary cannot. And Pawn Sacrifice is at its best in the little moments, such as when Schreiber shows a human side of Spassky and when we see Fischer’s interactions with lawyer Paul Marshal (Michael Stuhlbarg) and a chess-playing priest friend Fr. Bill Lombardy (Peter Sarsgaard). It is these interactions that made the movie for me and made me wish for more about Marshal and Lombardy.

Ultimately, Pawn Sacrifice is an interesting and entertaining movie for anyone interested in the 1970s and the sad story of Bobby Fischer. Rotten Tomatoes gives Pawn Sacrifice a 72% critics rating and a 75% audience rating.

Bonus Bobby Fischer: If after seeing Pawn Sacrifice you are in the mood for another movie about chess, check out the excellent movie Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), which is not about Fischer but another real-life childhood chess prodigy, Joshua Waitzkin. Finally, for another perspective on Bobby Fischer, check out this appearance with Bob Hope not long after Fischer won the world championship.

What did you think of Pawn Sacrifice? Leave your two cents in the comments.

Low Budget Sci-Fi & Much More in “Robot & Frank” (Short Review)

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Doing “The Time Warp” Since 1975

Rocky Horror Anniversary On September 26, 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in the United States, following its August 14 release in the U.K. Despite doing well in Los Angeles, the film initially did not do well elsewhere, resulting in the cancellation of a planned Halloween night opening in New York City.

Executives at 20th Century Fox, however, noted that some films were doing well at midnight showings, so the following April, the movie began running at midnight in New York, soon spreading to other locations. The rest is history, as the studio has never ended the 1975 distribution, making the movie the longest-running release ever and Meat Loaf’s greatest big-screen appearance.

It was a long road, but the counterculture movie written by director Jim Sharman and actor Richard O’Brien (Riff Raff) stuck around long enough to become mainstream. Brad Majors, played by Barry Bostwick, spoke for the movie when he sang to Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon), “The future is ours/ So let’s plan it.”

So, to celebrate the anniversary of the film’s release, get out your toast, spray guns, and toilet paper. Below is the original trailer for the film that became a cult phenomenon.

For more on The Rocky Horror Picture Show, check out this rare Tim Curry interview from the time of the movie’s release. Also, for the fortieth anniversary of the film, Fox News interviewed cast members Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn, and Nell Campbell.

What is your favorite song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Leave your two cents in the comments.

Buy from Amazon

Tim Curry on “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in 1975

Meat Loaf: “For Crying Out Loud”

That’s When Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through

It’s Only Two O’clock and the Temperature’s Beginning to Soar

Low Budget Sci-Fi & Much More in “Robot & Frank” (Short Review)

Anniv. of Civil War’s Start: Elvis’s American Trilogy

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Bruce Springsteen Takes It Easy With Jackson Browne

Browne Take It Easy

This week on September 22, Bruce Springsteen joined Jackson Browne to sing “Take It Easy” with Browne. On stage at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, the Boss looked both bemused and relaxed, perhaps because he was so close to his home. In other words, he was taking it easy too.

Browne wrote “Take It Easy” with Glenn Frey, who sang lead vocals when The Eagles made it a hit in 1972 and put it on their debut Eagles album that year. Browne also released his version of the song on For Everyman in 1973. The song remains associated with both The Eagles and Browne, but this week, Springsteen enjoyed bringing some Winslow, Arizona to New Jersey.