A new video compiles scenes of movie characters breaking the fourth wall through such tactics as commenting to the camera or even just giving a knowing look. Video essayist Leigh Singer put together this supercut that highlights the various ways that movie directors and actors can convey humor and a knowing wink to the audience.
Check out the Breaking the 4th Wall II: Break Harder montage below. At the Vimeo website, you may find the list of films that appear in the video, such as The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), A Hard Day’s Night (1964), and The Big Lebowski (1998).
And yes, if you want more wall breaking, there was an earlier supercut of breaking the fourth wall from a few years ago. If you missed it, check out the first Breaking the 4th Wall Movie Supercut below (with list of movies available here).
Bonus “fourth wall” trivia: According to Wikipedia, most attribute the idea of the “fourth wall” to the philosopher and writer Denis Diderot.
What is your favorite moment of a movie breaking the fourth wall? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, and Jason Sudeikis star in the upcoming movie Masterminds. The film, based on a true story, is directed by Jared Hess, who also gave us Napoleon Dynamite (2004).
Masterminds is based on the story of a real bank robbery that happened in 1997 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where a bank supervisor stole $17 million and ran off to Mexico. It was one of the largest bank robberies in history. Check out the trailer for the upcoming comedy take on the story.
For more about the real Loomis Fargo and Company heist, check out this video.
Masterminds hits theaters on August 7, 2015. Leave your two cents in the comments.
This new video examines movies that were meant to launch big-budget franchises but failed. Movies like Battle: Los Angeles (2011), Super Mario Bros. (1993), and John Carter (2012) (which I thought was not that bad), are among those that made the list.
Some of these movies ended in a way designed to lead to a second film that — fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint — never came. Check it out.
What is your favorite failed movie franchise? Leave your two cents in the comments.
For those of us who are not satisfied with three random trailers for the upcoming Avengers: Age Of Ultron, JohnnyB2K created a mashup of the three trailers. And it is not just three trailers thrown together. He put the scenes together in apparent chronological order, giving the viewer a bit more of the storyline.
So, if you are interested in the short film version of the sequel to The Avengers (2012), check out the mega-trailer below.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is scheduled to be released in the U.S. on May 1, 2015.
What do you think of the trailer mashup for Avengers: Age of Ultron? Leave your two cents in the comments.
One has to be suspicious of movies released during the post-Oscar and pre-summer movie season. So, when I saw there was a new sports movie called McFarland, USA that I had not heard anything about that starred Kevin Costner, I went into it with low expectations. Sometimes, though, low expectations lead one to find a pleasant surprise, and that is what I discovered in this “based-on-real-events sports movie” about a high school cross-country team.
In McFarland, USA, Costner plays Jim White, a high school coach who has screwed up so many times he ends up in a poor California school as an assistant football coach. But after he loses that position, he convinces the school to start a cross-country team because he has noticed the endurance of many of the students who work in the fields all day and run between work and school.
Yeah, the film has a lot of sport film conventions as a Disney movie with the down-on-his-luck coach and Mexican-American students with the odds against them. But the reason spots films follow many of these conventions is because, like this one, they are real-life stories about the kind of struggles that bring us to sports in the first place.
McFarland, USA does a pretty good job with the sports scenes, but it also features excellent acting from those like Carlos Pratts who portray the student athletes. At the same time, director Niki Caro does a decent job of showing how the coach’s wife (Maria Bello) and family has to adapt to their new neighborhood too. The movie is not perfect, but it is a pretty good sports movie that probably have not seen advertised very much.
Consistent with this kind of feel-good straightforward movie, audience members liked it more than critics, although the critical reaction has generally been positive. Rotten Tomatoes gives McFarland, USA an 80% critics rating and a 92% audience rating. So, give it a chance if you are looking for a fun movie, and make sure you stick around until the end for the traditional images of the real people portrayed in the movie.
What did you think of McFarland USA? Leave your two cents in the comments.
