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Once upon a time in late night television, it was customary for talk shows to fill up their couches as the evening's episode progressed. The first guest would do their segment and then move down a spot on the adjacent couch, making room for the next guest to yap with Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett or whoever. What with the barnacle presence of sidekick Ed McMahon, Carson's couch could get especially crowded some nights. Sometimes this got tense (like the time Burt Reynolds inexplicably went after "Double Dare" host Mark Summers on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"); sometimes it was chaotic comedy bliss (which is what happens when you ask Carson to rein in the irrepressible duo of Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters); and sometimes it was just plain surreal.

This tradition started to fade out of fashion in the 1980s when "Late Night with David Letterman" introduced its one-guest-at-a-time approach.

Following its recent debacle involving fabricated trailer quotes, Lionsgate’s Francis Ford Coppola epic Megalopolis has cut ties with marketing consultant Eddie Egan, sources have confirmed to Deadline.

Lionsgate declined comment. But we hear that the quotes featured in yesterday’s trailer, revealed by Vulture to be fake, were found to have been generated by AI following an investigation. The materials fell under the purview of Egan, who prior to his work as an independent consultant, held executive posts at STXfilm and assorted major studios.

In the immediate aftermath of the trailer snafu, some questioned whether the fake quotes were part of a a marketing ploy purposefully designed to keep the film in the headlines. But we’re told this couldn’t be further from the truth. Rather, the situation should be looked at as a cautionary tale, as neither Egan nor Lionsgate was out to intentionally fabricate quotes. Mistakes...

El tráiler comenzaba con citas inventadas de críticos famosos. © Lionsgate

Lionsgate ha retirado el tráiler de Megalópolis, la nueva película de Francis Ford Coppola, debido a una controversia.

El tráiler de la película comenzaba con una serie de citas atribuidas a conocidos críticos, que criticaban duramente algunas de las obras más emblemáticas de Coppola, como El Padrino, Apocalypse Now o Drácula. Estas citas incluían frases como «no sabe lo que quiere ser» sobre El Padrino, «una basura épica» sobre Apocalypse Now, y «un triunfo de estilo sobre sustancia» sobre Drácula. Con estas citas negativas sobre películas muy aclamadas del director, el estudio quería restarle importancia a la dura y fría acogida de Megalopolis en su estreno mundial en Cannes. ¿El problema? Todas estas citas son inventadas y falsamente atribuidas a críticos famosos como Pauline Kael, Rex Reed y Roger Ebert.

En una declaración facilitada a Vulture, un portavoz de Lionsgate...

Before Jonathan Mostow attempted to break out with big sci-fi films like the much-maligned Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and the Bruce Willis movie Surrogates, he made a humble little missing persons thriller with Kurt Russell called Breakdown. The film’s plot would involve one of the worst situations to have while traveling cross-country in the middle of nowhere and it is also one of our picks for the 10 Best Kurt Russell Movies. The paranoia film is an underrated gem that features one of the last great performances of the late J.T. Walsh. Blu-ray.com has now reported that Breakdown will soon be getting a 4K physical media release from Paramount Home Media Distribution. The cast that rounds out the film includes Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey, and Jack Noseworthy. And the description reads, “All roads lead to excitement with Kurt Russell in reakdown, the non-stop thrill ride that’s ‘a movie of nerve-frying intensity…...

This week, Lionsgate released — and then promptly recalled — an audacious trailer for “Megalopolis,” an ugly yet undeniably ambitious late-career monstrosity from Francis Ford Coppola.

Normally, trailers come padded with hyperbolic quotes from less-than-credible critics — “quote whores,” we call them — plucked out of context and punched up with exclamation marks.

“An edge-of-your-seat thrill ride!” (“Any Given Sunday”)

“The best Western since ‘Unforgiven’!”

“Two thumbs way up!” (professional enthusiasts Siskel and Ebert on more movies than you can count)

In the case of “Megalopolis,” the marketing team tried a different strategy. Instead of quoting reviews out of the Cannes Film Festival, Lionsgate lied.

Whoever oversaw that trailer seemed to be working on the assumption that you’ve already heard that “Megalopolis” is a disaster, so they set out to discredit the critics … by making up negative reviews of past Coppola triumphs. The trailer quotes Andrew Sarris and Pauline Kael sniping “The Godfather,...

This already figured to be an uphill climb for “Megalopolis,” Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed ($120 million) epic that had generated decidedly mixed reviews coming out of its May premiere at Cannes. While it also generated a seven-minute standing ovation for that first screening, it logged in at a lukewarm 53% on Rotten Tomatoes from 68 reviews. The somewhat bewildered consensus from those early critiques was that the movie was a beautiful, imaginative, erudite disaster bolstered by flashes of brilliance.

Hoping to launch a preemptive strike on any other critics looking to denigrate the movie and get a jump on any potential bandwagon of negativity, the Lionsgate marketing department outsmarted itself so badly that heads had to be rolling by midweek. It released an official trailer on Wednesday that pushed, without an ounce of subtlety, to make the point that any critical pans of “Megalopolis” could put reviewers in the same box as...

"Megalopolis," the upcoming movie from "The Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola, has been generating headlines as much for its behind-the-scenes drama as for the actual content of the movie itself. There have been reports of erratic behavior from Coppola throughout production, and videos obtained by Variety show the director trying to kiss young female extras during a nightclub scene. Now, Lionsgate has had to pull the latest trailer for "Megalopolis" and offer an apology.

Perhaps in response to the negative buzz surrounding "Megalopolis," the trailer opened with voiceover of Laurence Fishburne's narrator saying, "True genius is often misunderstood." It then winds back the clock to 1972 with a review of "The Godfather" by the Village Voice's Andrew Sarris, which calls it a "sloppy, self-indulgent movie." Another, attributed to the New Yorker's Pauline Kael, says the film is "diminished by its artsiness." A review for "Apocalypse Now" by National Review's John...

Within hours of its appearance, a glitzy trailer for Megalopolis has been withdrawn by distributor Lionsgate after its quotes from film critics were discovered to be made up.

Given how divisive Megalopolis’s Cannes premiere was, the decision to make its mixed reception a part of its marketing must have sounded like a bold one. The only problem was, mere hours after the latest trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s fantasy epic emerged on Wednesday (21st August), people began to notice that the quotes from critics included in it were almost entirely fabricated.

In response, Lionsgate has taken the unusual step of withdrawing the trailer from the web, and has even issued an apology for the whole situation.

“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” the studio wrote in a statement sent to Variety. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and...

Lionsgate is pulling the trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” that was released this morning after the internet observed that quotes about older Coppola films like “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” as attributed to film critics like Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Roger Ebert, and more, all appeared to be fabricated.

“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for ‘Megalopolis,'” a spokesman for the company said in a statement provided to IndieWire. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”

From the moment Lionsgate released the first trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” on Wednesday morning, online cinephiles began to suspect that something was amiss. The trailer attempted to lean into the film’s polarizing critical response by posting negative reviews from Coppola films like “The Godfather...

Update: That was quick. Lionsgate has decided to pull the trailer for Megalopolis due to the made-up quotes which appear. “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” said a Lionsgate spokesperson. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.“

— original article follows —

Lionsgate dropped the new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis earlier today. The trailer begins with quotes from negative reviews of Coppola’s previous movies, such as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, seemingly positioning Megalopolis as another future classic. That’s all well and good, except for the fact that the quotes appear to have been made up. Uh oh.

The Megalopolis trailer includes a quote from iconic critic Pauline Kael, who is cited as saying that The Godfather is “diminished by its artsiness.

In a highly unusual move, Lionsgate is pulling its new trailer for Megalopolis, unveiled early this morning.

The decision comes following controversy over critic quotes featured in the trailer, which digging by Vulture and other outlets revealed to be fabricated.

“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” said a spokesperson for the studio. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”

The quotes featured in the Megalopolis trailer highlight previous “criticisms” of Coppola’s now-iconic works, such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, by such famed critics as The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael and Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris. With reference to The Godfather, for instance, Kael is quoted as calling the film “diminished by its artsiness,” with Sarris referring to it as a “sloppy self-indulgent movie.

Francis Ford Coppola’s long-in-the-works “Megalopolis” finally hits theaters next month. A new trailer, released earlier Wednesday by Lionsgate, takes a more combative approach to the film’s marketing.

At the beginning of the video, apparent quotes from reviews of previous Coppola masterpieces like “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather” flash on the screen. It’s a way of getting ahead of the divisive response to “Megalopolis,” which left critics bewildered when it screened at this year’s Cannes. It’s also pretty funny. The only problem… as New York Magazine critic Bilge Ebiri pointed out, the quotes are all made up.

The question remains: what happened, exactly?

“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for ‘Megalopolis,'” a Lionsgate spokesman told TheWrap after the company pulled the trailer down. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process.

When Lionsgate released the second trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s epic film “Megalopolis” on Wednesday morning, it began with a litany of pans of his past work from several renowned critics.

In quotes attributed to their reviews of “The Godfather,” the trailer cites The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael as calling it “diminished by its artsiness,” and Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris as criticizing the “sloppy self-indulgent movie.” Other quotes from critics such as Roger Ebert, John Simon, Stanley Kauffmann, Vincent Canby and Rex Reed similarly flash across the screen, offering harsh critiques of Coppola’s work on masterpieces such as “Apocalypse Now.” The idea being these movies stood the test of times — their initial reactions, not so much. “Megalopolis,” which premiered at Cannes, was dismissed by many critics as indulgent and muddled. The new trailer aims to position Coppola’s latest film, as a work of art that will age well,...

Less than 24 hours after the trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s polarizing epic Megalopolis was released, the video was taken down for using fake negative quotes from film critics.

In a statement from a Lionsgate spokesperson, per Variety, the company said it was “immediately recalling our trailer for ‘Megalopolis,’” and apologized to “the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”

The pulled trailer took the offensive against the smattering of real, bad post-Cannes reviews,...

Update: The "Megalopolis" trailer was pulled by Lionsgate after it came to light that it included made-up quotes from critics. "Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for 'Megalopolis,'" a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety. "We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry." The rest of this article has been left as it was originally written.

Francis Ford Coppola may very well be our greatest living filmmaker, so the looming release of his first feature in 13 years would be a major cinematic event at any juncture in his career. That he is 85 years old and spent $120 million of his own money to finance it makes it a one-of-a-kind risk — one that, judging from the reviews out of last May's Cannes Film Festival,...

Kurt Russell-headlined thriller Breakdown is coming to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in the UK – more details here.

It took a fair amount of time between the film’s US and UK release for the movie Breakdown to land in cinemas over here. If memory serves, by the time it did – in an era of heavily staggered release dates – the film was already on video in the US. Still, Breakdown was absolutely worth the weight, arguably the high point in Kurt Russell’s run of 1990s hit movies.

Directed by Jonathan Mostow (and it’d be a film that’d prove a stepping stone to him getting the Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines job), Breakdown co-stars Kathleen Quinlan and J T Walsh (in one of his final roles), and the conceit is a simple one: a couple break down, the husband stays with the car, the wife gets a...

John Waters is still stirring things up at 78. A frequent Real Time guest of Bill Maher, the writer, actor, and filmmaker of such cult classics as Pink Flamingos and Cry-Baby can still zing with the best.

He started off with a brief discussion of this week’s biggest news, the Trump trial results in New York.

“If he gets home detention, you will hear Melania scream,” Waters said. Adding, “In jail, they pay guards for cell phones. He has to sneak in “Just for Men.”

The conversation took an abrupt turn when Maher brought up the Pope’s slur against gays this week, which prompted Waters to reminisce about the days of Glory Holes on both coasts. “God, I hope I didn’t blow Rex Reed!”

Fortunately for Walters, he claimed his films are “doing better than ever,” though he admits he lost every obscenity case he was ever involved in.

After his famed role as Don Draper on AMC’s critically acclaimed drama series Mad Men, Jon Hamm has experienced a particularly peculiar career transition in recent years. Also known for his work in Sucker Punch & Top Gun: Maverick, the actor, 53, has acted in both highly regarded film and TV roles during his career.

But did you know, nestled within his portfolio of work, there lies a film that has almost slipped through the cracks of cinematic memory?

John Hamm in Stolen | 2 Bridges Productions

In 2009, he took on the role in Stolen, a frequently overlooked chapter of Hamm’s life that true cinephiles may recall. Though the actor’s renowned charm and depth could elevate any role, this murder mystery remarkably stood as an endeavor that slipped past audiences and critics alike.

Reflecting on the Rotten Tomatoes Rating of John Hamm’s Stolen

Jon Hamm may be known for...

E.L. James' original "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy is undoubtedly the most successful piece of fanfiction ever published. James turned the teen-friendly romance between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen in Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular "Twilight" franchise into an erotic reverie explored by the mysterious (and quite wealthy) entrepreneur Christian Grey and college journalist Kate Kavanaugh. It was a Bdsm gateway drug that opened up a healthy portal for kink-curious young adults. You didn't have to feel like a freak for wanting to do what conservative society deemed freaky.

Was it good literature? Does it matter? James' novels have sold hundreds of millions of copies and been translated into 52 different languages. They are adored by people who never knew they wanted to see Bella and Edward engage in consensual sadomasochism. I am happy they have these stories in their lives. What matters, at least when it comes to my bailiwick,...

The domestic box office wasn’t the only thing saved by Barbenheimer last year. The odd coupling of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer also stands poised to at least momentarily resuscitate the notion that the Academy Awards can and even should operate in the same astral plane as popular tastes—that it’s not an exercise in futility to satisfy audiences, tastemakers, and skeptics alike without embarrassing everyone vis-à-vis, oh, the new Golden Globes category for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement.

One imagines the typical AMPAS executive, and every Disney-abc suit, nodding furiously in agreement with Chris Molanphy’s latest “Hit Parade” podcast episode, about how the Grammys have always been at their best when not bending over backwards to seem cool but, rather, just embracing the best of what also happens to be popular. It’s within that very un-election year-like context of four-quadrant coalescence...

Turns out, Christopher Nolan’s Peloton instructor is indeed an “Oppenheimer” fan, despite not enjoying “Tenet.”

Just two days after Nolan joked during the New York Film Critics Circle awards that his Peloton cycling instructor slammed “Tenet” in 2020, teacher Jenn Sherman officially responded in an Instagram video.

“I may not have understood a minute of what was going on in ‘Tenet,'” Sherman said. “That shit went right over my head. But I have seen ‘Oppenheimer’ twice and that’s six hours of my life I don’t ever want to give back.”

Sherman noted that her “Tenet” critique was said in a “dark time” of 2020 lockdown, and invited director Nolan to attend one of her classes now.

“Oppenheimer” auteur Nolan said while onstage at the 2024 New York Film Critics Circle awards that his Peloton instructor (without naming Sherman) “shit” on “Tenet.”

“I was on my Peloton. I’m dying,...

Auteur Christopher Nolan, who is known for ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy, ‘Interstellar’, ‘Dunkirk’ and others, narrated an incident when his instructor, Jenn Sherman dissed his film.

While accepting the award for Best Director from the New York Film Critics Circle, Nolan said: “I was on my Peloton doing a high-interval workout. I’m dying. The instructor started talking about one of my films (later discovered to be ‘Tenet’) and said, ‘Has anyone else seen this? Because that’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again’,” reports Deadline.

Nolan went on to use the anecdote as a way to tout the professionalism of the assembled film critics. “When (film critic) Rex Reed takes a s— on your film, he doesn’t ask you to work out,” Nolan joked.

“In today’s world, where opinions are everywhere, there is a sort of idea that film criticism is being democratised.

Christopher Nolan is opening up about the time he took a Peloton class and got dissed by the instructor in the middle of the workout.

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker, who is currently getting awards and acclaim for his movie Oppenheimer, released his film Tenet back in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.

While many people loved the movie, Peloton instructor Jenn Sherman was not a fan.

Christopher accepted the Best Director award at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards on Wednesday (January 3) and revealed how he felt about Jenn‘s diss in the middle of the class.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I was on my Peloton doing a high-interval workout. I’m dying,” he said during the speech, according to Deadline. “The instructor started talking about one of my films and said, ‘Has anyone else seen this? Because that’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again.

Christopher Nolan knows all about film critics in Hollywood, but it’s safe to say he didn’t expect to hear criticism during a workout class.

While accepting the award for best director from the New York Film Critics Circle on Wednesday, the Oppenheimer filmmaker recalled when a Peloton instructor caught him by surprise, sharing her critical thoughts on one of his films.

“I was on my Peloton doing a high-interval workout. I’m dying,” Nolan said during his acceptance speech. “The instructor started talking about one of my films and said, ‘Has anyone else seen this? Because that’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again.’” It was later discovered to be his 2020 film Tenet that the Peloton instructor was referring to, although she obviously didn’t know that the movie’s director was also in the class that day.

Though Nolan admitted that...

“Tenet” director Christopher Nolan is being showered with awards for “Oppenheimer,” but he revealed that he knows not everyone’s a fan of his films during an acceptance speech for Best Director at the New York Film Critics Circle on Thursday.

During a virtual Peloton class during the early Covid lockdown period, Nolan said, the instructor spent a chunk of the workout trashing one of his movies.

“I was on my Peloton. I’m dying. And the instructor started talking about one of my films and said, ‘Did anyone see this? That’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again!’” Nolan said.

He added, “When [film critic] Rex Reed takes a s–t on your film, he doesn’t ask you to work out! In today’s world, where opinions are everywhere, there is a sort of idea that film criticism is being democratized — but I for...

Unless you’re getting a shout-out from an instructor, chances are quite slim that you’ll hear your name mentioned during a Peloton session… unless you’re Christopher Nolan.

While accepting the Best Director award from the New York Film Critics Circle for Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan revealed he found an unlikely critic while using his Peloton. “I was on my Peloton. I’m dying. And the instructor started talking about one of my films and said, ‘Did anyone see this? That’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again!’” Nolan said. “When [film critic] Rex Reed takes a shit on your film he doesn’t ask you to work out! In today’s world, where opinions are everywhere, there is a sort of idea that film criticism is being democratized, but I for one think the critical appreciation of films shouldn’t be an instinct but it should be a profession.

You’ve heard of personal trainers. But how about a very personal trainer who disses your work while you’re exercising with her?

Christopher Nolan knows about the latter. While accepting the award for Best Director from the New York Film Critics Circle on Wednesday night, Nolan related one particularly unexpected broadside.

“I was on my Peloton doing a high-interval workout. I’m dying,” Nolan recalled in his acceptance speech. “The instructor started talking about one of my films (later discovered to be Tenet) and said, ‘Has anyone else seen this? Because that’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again.'”

Nolan went on to use the anecdote as a way to tout the professionalism of the assembled film critics.

“When [film critic] Rex Reed takes a s— on your film, he doesn’t ask you to work out!” Nolan joked. “In today’s world, where opinions are everywhere,...

Shared grievances can bind people together for life, which is why nothing brings people together quite like complaining. During a recent virtual workout on Peloton, one of the cycling instructors enacted this great bonding agent — but it came at the cost of inadvertently making one session attendee the subject of their grumbling: Christopher Nolan.

“I was on my Peloton. I’m dying,” the filmmaker recently recalled during an acceptance speech at New York Film Critics Circle, per Variety. “And the instructor started talking about one of my films and said,...

Christopher Nolan might be one of the most important and celebrated directors of his generation, but he's not for everyone. Even "Oppenheimer," which made almost $1 billion, becoming one of the biggest box office hits of 2023 and the highest grossing biopic of all time, had its detractors. Richard Brody of the New Yorker, for example, penned an insightful critique of Nolan's film that suggested the director had missed one crucial aspect of J. Robert Oppenheimer, namely that he was a "renowned aesthete." Whether you agree or not, the point is that even a major box office success and cultural phenomenon on the level of "Oppenheimer" isn't universally beloved.

Of course, Nolan has had much more to worry about in terms of critical response than Richard Brody and the New Yorker. His prior film, "Tenet," aimed for high-concept, big-budget sci-fi action but ended up bewildering pretty much anyone that watched, making it...

Everyone’s a critic — including Christopher Nolan’s very own Peloton instructor, apparently. At a ceremony for the New York Film Critics Circle, Nolan used his acceptance speech for the best director prize to comment on his appreciation for film criticism — and to share a hilarious anecdote.

Speaking on his “complex emotional relationship with critics and criticism,” Nolan highlighted the importance of film criticism as a profession in a world where seemingly everyone now has an opinion to share. The Oppenheimer director then cheekily brought up a moment in which a Peloton instructor canned one of his own films during a workout, apparently unaware that he was in the class. Nolan did not specify which film found its way onto the chopping block, but Paste Magazine movies editor Jacob Oller uncovered the clip in question: it’s of Jenn Sherman ripping Tenet.

“I was on my Peloton. I’m dying.

Christopher Nolan was awarded the best director prize this year from the New York Film Critics Circle thanks to his blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” and he used his acceptance speech to wax poetic on his appreciation for film criticism. He alluded to the fact that his love for the profession has only deepened in recent years as the rise of social media and other outlets have turned every casual moviegoer into a critic with a platform to express his or her opinion.

“Directors have a complex emotional relationship with critics and criticism,” he told the audience during the Jan. 4 ceremony at New York City’s Tao Downtown. “A question we’re always asked is: Do we read reviews? Let’s start with the fact that I’m British. A typical family gathering will involve relatives saying to me, ‘You know, Christopher. You probably shouldn’t open The Guardian today.'”

Nolan summed...

Infamy is a drama series created by Anna Maliszewska. The Netflix series follows the story of a 17-year-old girl, who dreams of becoming a hip-hop musician but the pressure from her family is getting in her way. Infamy is filled with brilliant emotional scenes with great music. So, if you loved the drama series here are some similar movies and shows you could watch next.

Secret Superstar (Not available in the US) Credit – Zee Studios

Synopsis: Secret Superstar is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language musical drama film written and directed by Advait Chandan, and produced by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao under the studio Aamir Khan Productions. The film stars Zaira Wasim, Aamir Khan, Meher Vij and Raj Arjun. The film tells the coming-of-age story of a teenage girl who aspires to be a singer, uploading videos on YouTube while disguising her identity with a niqab, and her relationships with her mother,...

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a supernatural horror film directed by André Øvredal from a screenplay by Bragi F. Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz. The film is based on a chapter titled “The Captain’s Log” from the 1897 book Dracula by Bram Stoker. The Lost Voyage of the Demeter follows the crew of a merchant ship named Demeter as Dracula picks them apart one by one.

The supernatural horror film stars Corey Hawkins (BlacKkKlansman) as Clemens, Javier Botet (Slender Man) as Conde Dracula, Aisling Franciosi (God’s Creatures) as Anna, Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) as Captain Eliot, and David Dastmalchian (The Boogeyman) as Wojchek.

Credit – Universal Pictures

While the critics are not actually loving the film, The Last Voyage of the Demeter could be a worthwhile watch for all the Dracula and gothic horror fans out there. So let’s find what the critics are actually saying about the supernatural horror film.

The effect of The Simpsons on pop culture can’t be overstated. In the early nineties, the show tapped into the cultural zeitgeist in a way few others had before. Indeed, no other cartoon show could reasonably emulate it- but Hollywood couldn’t help but try. Capitol Critters, Family Dog, and Fish Police were just a few of the shows that tried to be “the new Simpsons.” Still, the only one that really came close was ABC’s The Critic, starring the voice of Jon Lovitz as Jay Sherman, perhaps the world’s least-loved film critic and the subject of this Gone But Not Forgotten episode.

Unlike other wannabe animated hits, The Critic could boast a legit connection to The Simpsons, with it also being a production of James L. Brooks’ Gracie Films. At the same time, creators Al Jean and Mike Reiss had been showrunners on The Simpsons during...

This article contains spoilers

Superman is on the lookout for Lex Luthor. Even though the criminal mastermind only appears in public under one of his many wigs, Superman knows that Lex Luthor is bald. So when he sees a hairless man on the street, Superman accosts the pedestrian only to see not Gene Hackman’s menacing smile, but detective/lollipop enthusiast Theo Kojak, played by Telly Savalas. Superman pauses for a moment for the audience to roar in laughter when they recognize the popular television character, who pulls out his sucker to utter his famed catchphrase, “Who loves ya, baby!”

Granted, this scene did not make the final version of 1978’s Superman, the start of the first wave of superhero movies, but it was in one of the movie’s later drafts, and while Donner was able to limit the cameos in his movie to low-key appearances by Kirk Alyn...

Following her surprising (some thought shocking) Best Supporting Actress triumph at the Academy Awards in 1993 for her role in “My Cousin Vinny,” poor Marisa Tomei has been forced to endure a Mount Everest of disrespect. Her name has become literally Exhibit A for what’s wrong with he voting process, a punchline of outrage – the poster child of head-scratching awards season jokes. For years, she topped the list of “How the hell did this happen?” Oscar moments.

Forget the fact that in the years that followed her win, Tomei has generated another pair of supporting nominations – for “In the Bedroom” in 2002 (a Todd Field movie – hello) and “The Wrestler” in 2009. The presumption was that Tomei wasn’t nearly a talented enough actress to win, though they usually don’t find a whole lot of lousy performers generating three Oscar nominations. No matter. The prevailing wisdom was that she was a...

If you’re ready to relax with a new romantic comedy, this Netflix film has you covered. Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher star in Your Place or Mine as Debbie Dunn and Peter Coleman, one-time lovers turned long-distance best friends. When career training requires Debbie to spend a week in Peter’s home city of New York, he offers her his apartment and travels to her home in Los Angeles to babysit her son.

Recently Witherspoon met with Late Night host Seth Meyers to discuss the film that debuted on February 10. The interview quickly turned to memories of their shared experience on Saturday Night Live in 2001 and a special memento that Meyers still keeps in his office.

Reese Witherspoon and Seth Meyers | Lloyd Bishop/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Seth Meyers met Reese Witherspoon on his first day at ‘Saturday Night Live’

Meyers’ path to stardom began after graduation from Northwestern University...

It's not a secret that Hollywood has a really sordid history with the way transgender characters have been presented on film. While bigoted pundits like to pretend that trans people and trans representation in entertainment is somehow a new concept, films like "Myra Breckinridge" were shocking and subverting audience expectations over half a century ago. Unlike the transgender media of our current era that often put cis men like Jared Leto, Eddie Redmayne, and Jeffrey Tambor in drag, "Myra Breckinridge" instead chose to cast Raquel Welch, an international sex symbol at the time, in the titular role.

The film was an adaptation of Gore Vidal's controversial book of the same name, a title that was equal parts bestseller and banned text. It's one of the earliest known novels to feature a protagonist who has undergone gender affirmation surgery and dissects themes of feminism, gender performance, America's unhealthy relationship with toxic masculinity,...

The cliche "everyone's gotta start somewhere" is meant to be reassuring. In showbiz, however, getting that start requires a bit of good fortune in and of itself. Whether you're working in the mailroom at CAA or bopping from set to set as a background player, you've likely used a connection or two to get yourself in the figurative ballpark. Maybe your college buddy knew a guy at an agency. Perhaps you were bartending at a popular industry watering hole. Getting noticed is often a fluke. Taking the next step is a winning lottery ticket.

Take Clint Eastwood for example. He wasn't a natural-born genius like Montgomery Clift or Marlon Brando. He was a handsome, young, 6'4" swimming instructor at Ford Ord in Northern California when, according to his biographer Patrick McGilligan, he met a connected photographer named Chuck Hill. When Eastwood relocated to Los Angeles, Hill convinced his friend to...

Like many people passionate about movies, particularly those who grew up in the golden age of trash-talking critics like Pauline Kael, Judith Crist, Rex Reed, Gene Siskel, and Roger Ebert, Quentin Tarantino isn't shy about throwing an elbow or twelve when discussing cinema. He doesn't vacillate, nor does he spend much time discussing films that elicit a ho-hum response. You could say he likes to play contrarian, but that would suggest he's basically the Skip Bayless of film discourse. While you may vehemently disagree with Tarantino from time to time, he is anything but a full-of-it blowhard who spouts off inflammatory opinions to get a rise out of low-information fanatics. Tarantino knows his subject inside and out. If you want to enter his arena, you better come armed with ardor and a lifetime's worth of film knowledge.

This doesn't mean Tarantino can't be infuriating on occasion. This is, after all,...

Six weeks after its September premiere at the Venice Film Festival, “The Banshees of Inisherin” has been released in theaters nationwide. The picture was written and directed by Martin McDonagh, who won a Best Live Action Short Film Oscar for “Six Shooter” in 2004 and went on to receive three more bids for penning “In Bruges” (2008) and for both writing and producing Best Picture nominee “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017).

“Banshees” reunites McDonagh with his “In Bruges” stars, Golden Globe winner Colin Farrell and Emmy winner Brendan Gleeson. Farrell looks poised to receive his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor after taking home the prize in Venice. He plays Pádraic, a man shocked to find out his drinking buddy, Colm (Gleeson), no longer wishes to speak to him. Gleeson currently ranks second in our Best Supporting Actor Oscar odds, while McDonagh sits in sixth place for Best Director, third for Best...

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Late in 1971, a shaggy, 23-year-old college student and aspiring screenwriter was toiling away at his master’s thesis at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Born Feb. 2, 1948, in Waukegan, Illinois, David Ray Johnson displayed nothing particularly remarkable at first glance. He stood about 5-foot-7, had long brown hair and a thick mustache, and was “your basic Midwestern kid,” as one friend would later describe him.

But he was not entirely basic. Johnson was openly gay and rather flamboyant. He was entranced by drag queens. He spoke with a breathy, halting affectation. He’d often declare of things that met his approval, “What a hoot!”

And he was obsessed with Mae West.

The pioneering sex symbol was the subject of Johnson’s film studies thesis. The 72-page dissertation, “An Historical and Interpretive Analysis of the Development and Perpetuation of the Mae West Phenomenon on...

“ It‘s a big day for American cycling, to have two Americans beat an Olympic champ. You must feel some pride.”

Kevin Costner in American Flyers (1985) will be available on Blu-ray April12th from Warner Archive. It can be ordered in advance from the Warner Archive Store Here

“American Flyers,” Rex Reed wrote, “is a fine mixture of romance, humor, and tears with action sequences among the most exciting ever captured on film. It’s guaranteed to increase the viewer’s adrenalin.” Two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant star as brothers struggling to win a world-class cycling competition — and regain the respect and affection they once shared. The painful events surrounding their father’s death have caused a rift. To bridge the gap, both enter the Hell of the West, a grueling race through the Rocky Mountains. While training and racing together, each confronts the fear...

Sister Maria, a.k.a. La SexorcistaMovie-lovers!Welcome back to The Deuce Notebook—a collaboration between Mubi's Notebook and The Deuce Film Series, our monthly event at Nitehawk Williamsburg that excavates the facts and fantasies of cinema's most infamous block in the world: 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. For each screening, my co-hosts and I pick a title that we think embodies the era of 24-hour genre-hopping, and present the venue at which it premiered...This month, we welcome one of our favorite Deuce-regulars, Screen Slate contributor Madelyn Sutton, who’s taken the helm and commandeered us down a merciless spiral of nunsploitation… Check out her piece below for your fill of nuns gone wild!—The Deuce JockeysVanessa Redgrave in Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971)Naughty nuns: the appeal is obvious. Cloaked in the magnetic mystery of her thick twill tunic, the solid walls of the cloister,...

Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin has never devolved to listening to the haters, and there have several of them over the course of her long and lauded career. Most famously, critic Rex Reed called her 1987 Oscar win for “Children of a Lesser God” a pity award. Instead of giving any oxygen to such talk, Matlin has become one of the loudest advocates for not just hiring more deaf and disabled talent, but for including closed captioning on awards screeners. And she hasn’t slowed down.

When I brought up that closed captions aren’t included on screeners for shows and films sent to press, Matlin said (through translator Jack Jason), “Now I have another job to do!”

I didn’t realize what strides Matlin had made for the entertainment industry until I was involved in it and discussing the dearth of disabled representation. Before I became a journalist, Matlin’s name...

Raquel Welch made a name for herself as an international sex symbol, but also an accomplished thespian as her career progressed. But what are her greatest accomplishments? Scroll down to see Welch’s most notable movies ranked, plucked from a career spanning well over half a century.

After winning beauty pageant titles including Miss San Diego and Maid of California as a teen, she attended San Diego State College on a theater arts scholarship and performed in local theater productions. Then she was a weather forecaster at a local San Diego TV station. And in 1963 she started to pursue roles with movie studios. Welch had a small part in 1964’s “Roustabout” starring Elvis Presley, and she stood out in the beach movie romp “A Swingin’ Summer” in 1965 as a bookworm who eventually tosses her glasses, lets down her hair, heats up the screen and even sings a tune.

Welch’s...

While the Oscars and other awards bodies have all pushed events back on their calendar and expanded eligibility for what movies can be considered, the New York Film Critics Circle will only consider movies released in the 2020 calendar year for its annual awards.

The Nyfcc announced Friday it will vote for its 2020 awards on Dec. 18 and that only movies released in theaters or on digital platforms between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2020, will be considered.

Further, the date for the group’s annual Gala Awards dinner is still to be announced, and membership for 2020 members will be frozen this year, with all current members still eligible to vote, even as many critics’ jobs have been affected by Covid-19. No new members will be voted in this year.

“This is a year unlike any other in our lifetimes. But the world of movies hasn’t stopped, and already, even in this very strange year,...

The New York theatre community is normally all abuzz in June. The Tony Awards provide excitement at the start of the month, warm weather brings in major tourist dollars, and New Yorkers collect their rainbow studded Playbills to celebrate Pride. But the coronavirus had different plans for June of 2020: Broadway is shuttered, the Tonys are indefinitely postponed, and new safety measures have cancelled Pride events worldwide. So thank the theatre gods for the tonic that is the American Masters documentary “Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life.”

Terrence McNally sadly passed away in March due to complications from Covid-19, so it is only fitting that the life story of this pioneer playwright should roar loudly during Pride month. The film was completed before his death, with a premiere at the Tribeca Film festival in 2018. The documentary now reaches a wider audience with a celebratory Pride airing on Sunday June 14th,...

Editors’ Note: Todd McCarthy recently wrote about his layoff from The Hollywood Reporter. To commemorate the sense of collective loss we all feel for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival that would have started tomorrow but had to be scratched for safety reasons like everything else because of the Covid-19 pandemic, McCarthy writes about his long love affair for the singular event, and reveals what movies we would have seen and how, with theatrical moviegoing an uncertainty, some might wait to get their red carpet moment at the Palais in 2021 when Cannes comes roaring back.

I can feel it in my bones. When the pages of the year’s calendar fly off as in an old Hollywood montage to finally arrive at the beginning of May, I know it’s time to get ready for my annual date with the grande dame of all film festivals, the one that requires you—in...

When the critic John Simon died last weekend, at 94, virtually every piece written about him — one usually calls these pieces “tributes,” though in Simon’s case I’m not sure the word applies — dealt front and center with the quality that had made him a legend: his famous vitriol, the gleeful and reflexive nastiness that sloshed through the cartridge of his poison pen.

For Simon, toxic negativity wasn‘t a tool for reviewing an art form; it was the art form. At New York magazine, where he was ensconced as the theater critic from 1968 to 2005, and at the National Review, where he reviewed movies for decades, he pushed the role of critical hanging judge as far as it could go, to the point that it was the driving force of his identity. In 1967, he was fired from New York’s Channel 13 for writing reviews that were deemed too “misanthropic,...