Matt Singer is the editor and critic of the website ScreenCrush.com. For five years, he was the on-air host of IFC News on the Independent Film Channel, hosting coverage of film festivals and red carpets around the world. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, he’s been a frequent contributor to the television shows CBS This Morning Saturday and Ebert Presents At the Movies, and his writing has also appeared in print and online at The Village Voice, The Dissolve, and Indiewire. His first book, Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular, is on sale now.
Matt Singer
The ‘Jurassic World’ Sequel Is Coming in 2018, With Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard
Sequels, like evolution, are inevitable. Like genetically-modified dinosaurs, they cannot be stopped. When Jurassic World becomes the third highest-grossing movie of all time (not this year, not this decade; ever) you could bet your dino DNA that Universal was going to make another one. And now it’s official: an as-yet untitled Jurassic World sequel is coming to theater on June 22, 2018.
The BBC Names the 100 Greatest American Films of All Time
What is the greatest American film of all time? According to BBC.com, who just released a brand new ranking of more than a century of great U.S. cinema, the old favorites are still the best; perennial pick for best film ever, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, came in first in a poll of “62 international film critics ... from the United Kingdom and continental Europe to South America, Australia, India, and the Middle East” and the United States as well.
‘The Revenant’ Trailer: Leonardo DiCaprio Explores America With the Director of ‘Birdman’
So do you think this movie has any cuts?
‘Joy’ Trailer: Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell’s Next Oscar Contender
The first time Jennifer Lawrence teamed with writer/director David O. Russell, they made Silver Linings Playbook, and she won an Oscar. The second time they teamed together they made American Hustle, and she was nominated for another Oscar. Now they’ve got Joy, yet another prestige drama coming out in December. Looks like they’re going for the trifecta.
Jesse Eisenberg Compares Comic-Con to Genocide
When I watched the Comic-Con panel for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I thought to myself, “Man, Jesse Eisenberg does not look happy to be here.”
Disney Bans Smoking in Youth-Rated Movies
If you’re a fan of Disney baddies like cigar-smoking Bill Sykes from Oliver & Company (and really, who isn’t a fan of Bill Sykes from Oliver & Company?), this news is relevant to your tobacco-stained interests: The Walt Disney Company has banned all depictions of smoking from all of its films from all of its child-oriented labels (including Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm) rated G through PG-13. Via a press release:
‘Magic Mike XXL’ Review: Just Like Riding a Pony
Magic Mike was a movie about strippers trying to make ends meet in the midst of the Great Recession, the difficulty of modern romance, and the dangers of drug use. Magic Mike XXL is a movie about strippers stripping. And not a whole lot else.
‘Ted 2’ Review: Hateful Teddy Bears Are People Too, Bro
It’s funny that the poster for Ted 2 features the title character with his back to the camera and his hands suggestively poised near his crotch above the tagline “Ted is coming, again” because the whole movie revolves around the fact that Ted can’t come, not even once. Ted doesn’t have any genitals or a reproductive system, so he can’t have a baby with his wife. His search for a sperm donor eventually spills into the legal system, where a court case will decide a surprisingly complex question: Is Ted a person?
New Netflix Instant Releases: July 2015
July is almost upon us and it’s going to be a good month for Netflix users, as the streaming service is adding a whole slew of new movies and TV shows, including a bunch of exclusives. Cult comedy fans are eagerly awaiting the debut of the return of Wet Hot American Summer as a new series featuring the original cast, and standup fans will get a brand-new special from Rush Hour star Chris Tucker. Plus, there’s a whole slew of recent hits from television and cinemas (The Guest!). Read on for your guide to the new Netflix Instant releases arriving in July.
Watch Jon Stewart’s Powerful Response to the Charleston Shooting
We are going to miss Jon Stewart.
‘Inside Out’ Review: A New Pixar Masterpiece
It’s been at least five years since the last great Pixar film (or more, depending on your feelings about Toy Story 3). In the interim, they produced a series of sequels — some quite entertaining, but few as transcendently beautiful as the original concepts that turned the studio into the most dependable brand in all of Hollywood. Their latest effort, Inside Out, isn’t just a return to form; it surpasses almost all of their previous classics. It is, from start to finish, one of the best films Pixar has ever made.
Christopher Lee, ‘Dracula’, ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ Actor, Dead at 93
After a staggering career that spanned more than sixty years actor, Christopher Lee has died. He was 93 years old. The BBC reports he passed away on Sunday “at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, after being hospitalized for respiratory problems and heart failure.” The legendary actor appeared in over 240 movies.
‘Jurassic World’ Review: The Park Is Open and Full of Dumb People
When all you care about is money, bad things happen. That’s the message of Jurassic World, where greedy theme-park executives hoping to spike attendance engineer the “Indominus Rex,” a genetically-modified dinosaur that immediately turns on its creators and runs amok. Designed as a cautionary tale about the dangers of building a meaner, badder monster purely for the sake of profits, Jurassic World works equally well as a cautionary tale about doing the same thing in movies. All of the rationalizations provided by Jurassic World’s employees — “Consumers want them bigger, louder, more teeth.” “Somebody’s gotta make sure this company has a future!” — could have been taken directly out of the mouths of the studio executives who approved this gene splice of a reboot and a sequel. Their creation — the Indominus or the movie, there’s basically no difference — is as advertised; huge, mean, and visually striking. But this experiment is not without consequences.
‘Frozen Ever After’ Ride Coming to Disney’s Epcot Theme Park in 2016
You had to know that when Frozen became the seventh highest grossing movie in history (its $1.27 billion is more than Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Casino Royale combined) that Disney was going to turn it into a ride, if not a whole section of rides at one of (if not all of) their amusement parks. They’d already announced the plans for a Frozen attraction at Epcot, and today, via The Wall Street Journal, the revealed a lot of the details about it. It’s called Frozen Ever After and it opens next year.
‘Bridge of Spies’ Trailer: Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s Cold War Thriller Looks Mighty Cool
When Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg last made a war film, they produced Saving Private Ryan, which was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and features what’s widely considered one of the greatest battle scenes ever captured on film. They’ve worked together since, including on Catch Me If You Can, one of the best movies of either man’s career, but Bridge of Spies might be considered a kind of spiritual sequel to Ryan. That was Hanks and Spielberg’s World War II picture. This is their Cold War one.
The 50 Coolest Pixar Easter Eggs of All-Time
The wizards at Pixar Animation Studios are known for a few things. They’re famous for producing thrillingly original and innovative computer-animated movies. They’re known for cartoons that please adults as much as (or sometimes more than) they please children. And they’ve become even more beloved in nerdier circles for their inexhaustible dedication to Easter eggs.
‘Spy’ Review: An Empowering but Uneven Female Spy Spoof
Paul Feig’s The Heat took a genre that has traditionally belonged to men — the buddy cop movie — and gave it a female twist. Feig’s new movie, Spy, does much the same thing, this time for spy films, a world that has long been by, about, and for dudes and their power fantasies. Spy explicitly subverts the genre’s typical gender dynamics by casting Melissa McCarthy as a lowly, desk-bound CIA analyst named Susan Cooper, who has spent her entire career in the shadow of a glamorous James Bond-esque spy (Jude Law) and then finally gets her opportunity to step into the spotlight and become a full-fledged field agent.
Clint Eastwood to Direct Movie About Heroic Pilot Chelsey ‘Sully’ Sullenberger
On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 was struck by a flock of geese during takeoff from LaGuardia Airport. The plane’s captain, Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger, successfully brought the plane down in the Hudson River, where all 155 passengers and crew members were evacuated and survived. It was an incredible story, one that played out in real time on the news; I vividly remember being at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and watching the whole rescue play out on television.
Review: The ‘Entourage’ Movie Is Basically ‘Entourage’ Season 9 on a Larger Screen
That’s Entourage in a nutshell. Whenever things threaten to get too serious, the show (and now the film) would just trot out a celebrity cameo or two, distract the audience for a couple minutes, and then carry on as if nothing ever happened. For better or worse, the Entourage movie is an extremely faithful adaptation of the Entourage television show. All the main characters and most of the key supporting players from the show’s eight seasons are back, along with series creator Doug Ellin (who co-wrote and directed the movie). Even though the TV show ended with its lovable bad boys making their first tentative steps toward maturity and monogamy — Vince gets engaged, his manager Eric (Kevin Connolly) finally settles down with his pregnant ex-girlfriend Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui), and Ari decides to retire to spend more time from his family — all of that gets instantly erased before the movie’s opening credits roll. Status quo restored, Vince, Eric, Ari, Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), and Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) return to their luxurious, lascivious ways with R-rated abandon. Shouldn’t these characters have grown up by now?
‘Jaws’ Is Coming Back to Theaters For Its 40th Anniversary
On June 20, 1975 a movie about an angry fish opened in about 500 theaters around the country. It was called Jaws, it was directed a guy named Steven Spielberg, it was scary as hell, and it changed the world forever. Its unique release strategy (wide instead of limited), intense television marketing campaign, and record-breaking box office essentially created the summer movie season (and made Spielberg a household name). 40 years later, regardless of its impact, Jaws remains a masterpiece, and a much better and more interesting movie than the vast majority of so-called summer blockbusters that it birthed.