Ray Gunn trailer. Brad Bird. Retro-futurism. Sam Rockwell. Christmas movie I can get excited about.

The 1986 animated film Transformers: The Movie has hit cinemas again as part of a limited re-release to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The film, which famously kills off a number of fan-favourite Transformers characters in a massive, opening battle, only made around $5.5 million during its original release against a $6 million production budget and was deemed a failure by Hasbro. However, the film has remained a cult favourite amongst fans thanks to its straightforward, action-oriented…

Family Matters was one of those sitcoms I watched constantly during the '90s but hadn't seen much of since. Recently, I noticed it was streaming again and decided to dive back in with the Winslows and Steve Urkel. What surprised me most was how grounded the show felt in its earliest episodes, before Steve Urkel completely took over the series. I haven't finished rewatching the first season yet, but with Halloween approaching, I decided to jump ahead and revisit the show's Halloween episodes. My…

Pirates Of Silicon Valley (1999)

Forgotten Island, DreamWorks latest animated feature, operates at peak creative levels, offering a parade of vividly colored, fantastical creatures that pop off the screen, often with boosts of comic energy. Beginning in the Philippines in the 1990s, the story -- written and directed by Joel Crawford and Januel P. Mercado (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) -- introduces two schoolgirls: rebellious Jo (H.E.R.) and studious Raissa (Liza Soberano). Mischief-prone best friends, Jo and Raissa constantly…

by Cláudio Alves Ever since its third edition, the Toronto International Film Festival has allowed its audiences to vote for their personal favorites. Back in 1978, Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends took the prize, and, to this day, remains in the minority of titles to win the TIFF public’s favor without scoring any Oscar nomination. Populist appeal reigns supreme in this honor’s storied history, as does Hollywood's overshadowing of world cinema in the mainstream mindset. Before this year, we need to…

There’s more of Iain and Hacker’s Summer Challenge nonsense at the start of today’s recording. Then it’s the final episode of Dinosapien – The Thunderbird. Aikens has Eno in a trailer. Eno pretends to be asleep to fool Aikens and escape, but he’s not quite fast enough and stays trapped in the trailer. Danny and Nelson watch all this from outside. They vow to save Eno. Back at the camp, Dr Slayton has discovered that Danny and Nelson are missing. Aikens has watched Lauren’s father’s DVD and used…

Robert Pattinson plays TV personality Chris Hansen in Primetime, a movie built around Hansen's To Catch a Predator, an NBC Dateline segment that ran through 2007. Dedicated to exposing and shaming pedophiles, Predator piled up huge ratings, even as some critics found it sleazy and exploitative. The always adventurous Pattinson becomes the wobbly centerpiece of a story that portrays Hansen as an ambitious, sometimes tormented careerist. Eager to attract viewers, Hansen pushed the taste envelope…

Charles de Gaulle was France’s president when I was born, but by the time I was paying attention to affaires internationales he was long gone, and apart from seeing his image on old stamps I never knew much about him. Since moving to Britain, I’ve flown into and out of the airport named for him, which seems to be the only time most people here think of de Gaulle nowadays, other than remembering him as the man who opposed the UK’s entry into the EEC. When I heard on social media a few days ago…

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom (2026) • View trailerFour stars (out of five); rated PG, for no particularly reasonAvailable via: Movie theatersBy Derrick BangIn a rare case of a supporting player overtaking the popularity of his former co-stars, Shaun the Sheep clearly has stolen the Aardman spotlight, since his unassuming debut in 1995’s Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit animated claymation short, A Close Shave. When one of the flock members accidentally grows a cauliflower, instead…

Haru (Rinko Kikuchi) and her Mexican husband Luis (Alejandro Edda) love ballroom dancing. They live in Tokyo where they dance in competitions. Haru takes them very seriously. Luis takes a more relaxed approach. Everything seems to be going well for the couple until Luis suddenly dies. A stricken Haru mires herself in grief. Her dance partner is gone. She refuses to leave the house. Such is the setup for director Josef Kubota Wladyka's Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, a showy blend of fantasy,…

Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under “Barbican Station”. This episode I talk with Scott from the SpyHards podcast about episode two, Daddy Issues. We talk about that cliffhanger ending, bad tv interviews and small text messages. Plus Scott offers his British food insights, what is Roddy keeping in his desk and River tries his hand at HR work? Finally, do we think all of the remaining Slow Horses will make it through this season? All that and more in…

NOTE: While I'm offline this week, here's another fall post to enjoy, this time from 2022.Happy Autumn!To celebrate, here's a sequel to last year's fall post, featuring a few autumnal movie magazine covers of the 1940s.Ginger Rogers, September 1946:Gene Tierney, October 1946:Olivia de Havilland, October 1947:Claudette Colbert, October 1940:Lana Turner, October 1944:Irene Dunne, October 1941:Shirley Temple, November 1943:And on the September 1943 edition of Movie Show, Rita Hayworth seems to be…

To Live and Die in L.A. is a movie I find remarkable in its ability to drown you with positive and negative qualities — so many of each, and so evenly matched, that the two perfectly balance out and leave you with a hangover. Consider the ledger: The character work is borderline incomprehensible — though I love Rick Masters altogether, and I love that his arc is left largely unresolved. The direction is beautiful (Friedkin! Müller!) and hamstrung by an atonal, often sitcom-esque pacing. The…

Hungarian artist István Orosz has directed fifteen short animated films to date, and co-directed three more, yet he’s known more for his drawings than his films, especially those works which follow MC Escher by combining a careful graphic technique with an exploration of optical illusion. Orosz’s artistic interests naturally extend to his animations which have never been easy to see online despite so many of them being relatively recent productions. A Kert (The Garden, 1993) is a recent arrival…

Ngozi Ukazu and Mad Rupert’s Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid (First Second, 2024) contains a classic string board. From contributor JJ Pionke.

Rebecca De Mornay from The Slugger's Wife (1985)Oh Jimmy, Little Red Corvette & Hey, Hey, My MyThe three tracks sung by Rebecca in The Slugger's Wife, a 1985 romantic comedy film about a baseball star who falls for a singer (Rebecca De Mornay). Written by Neil Simon, directed by Hal Ashby and produced by Ray Stark, the film stars Michael O'Keefe, Rebecca De Mornay, and Randy Quaid. Rebecca De MornayHer breakthrough film role came in 1983, when she starred in Risky Business. De Mornay is also…

A24 / YouTube: A documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING – In theaters October 16. Just a few weeks ago, You Can See Everything, the documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes by Nathan Fielder (Nathan For You, The Rehearsal) surprised audiences at the Telluride Film Festival with its debut. It then debuted a teaser trailer, that, beyond being unnerving, launched a thousand memes. Today, just weeks away from its theatrical debut, A24 has released…

Netflix / YouTube: Academy Award winner Brad Bird, the visionary director of The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and The Iron Giant, brings you a whole new world to investigate… In Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, private eye Raymond Gunn (Sam Rockwell) is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson). Watch Ray Gunn – in select theaters December 4 and on Netflix December 18. Ohhhhh boy am I excited for this…

Fashion icon, proud feminist, and a pig of many talents, Miss Piggy needs no introduction

Joe Otterson / Variety: The “Darkwing Duck” reboot has been ordered to series at Disney+, Variety has learned. You’re not wrong if you’re thinking you heard that this was coming ages ago — it was! The Seth Rogen produced project was announced to be in production years ago, and only now has been picked up. Here’s the concept for this one: For the last 35 years, Darkwing Duck has been trapped in his worst nightmare: an alternate world that’s never heard of his superhero exploits. Now a rebellious…

Alan Alda in The Four Seasons (1981) Vitals Alan Alda as Jack Burroughs, married lawyer Connecticut, Fall 1980 Film: The Four Seasons Release Date: May 22, 1981 Director: Alan Alda Costume Designer: Jane Greenwood WARNING! Spoilers ahead! Background The start of each new season this year tends to send me back to The Four Seasons for content. Written and directed by Alan Alda, this 1981 comedy follows three couples on their seasonal group trips as they navigate their own complicated…

Looks Unfamiliar with Mic Wright talking to Tim Worthington about the NatWest Piggies, Eerie. Indiana, Musical Chairs by Kinky Friedman, High On A Rocky Ledge by Moondog, the National Record Of Achievement and more...!

Dancing with the Stars 35's celebrities faced their first week of a speedier, 7-day schedule. How did they do? And whose holes need filling? Marshal Knight recaps for us!

John Ottman is one of those filmmakers whose résumé is almost ridiculously varied. As a composer, he’s probably best known for movies like The Usual Suspects, X2: X-Men United, Superman Returns, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Nice Guys, and Valkyrie. Horror fans will also recognize his work from Apt Pupil, Lake Placid, Eight Legged Freaks, Gothika, Hide and Seek, and Orphan. He even directed Urban Legends: Final Cut. In 2019, Ottman won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on…

1964 war, dir. Sidney Lumet, Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau: IMDb. Once the machinery of apocalypse has been started, do you even want to stop it?

Constantine (2005)

Today’s Soundtrack…

Big Brother's best winner and Twitch streamer Dan Gheesling is not handling criticism well for his participation in a live-streamed U.S. Army reality competition, e.g. propaganda.

by Eurocheese Heading into my screening of Elsinore on the last day of the festival, I had heard a number of mixed things on the ground. Some said the film pulls too readily at heartstrings without much plot. I’d heard rumblings that it was likely to win an audience prize, and it ended up taking the International People’s Choice Award before I saw it (yes, it’s eligible since it’s a UK production and La Bola Negra became automatically disqualified for the honor when it won TIFF’s general…