longform
The Jinxcould have been created to prove the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction. It told the story of Robert Durst, the black sheep of an obscenely wealthy New York real estate dynasty, who police connected to the mysterious disappearances or deaths of three different people: His first wife Kathy, his best friend Susan Berman, and his neighbor, Morris Black. Durst had even been tried for Black’s murder; he managed to beat the charge despite acknowledging, in open court, that he had chopped up the neighbor’s body in order to cover up what he had done (in self-defense, he claimed). Th...
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Week after week, X-Men ’97keeps exceeding all of my expectations. What could have been a hollow exercise in ’90s nostalgia has turned out to be a terrific show in its own right: Not just a fitting successor to X-Men: The Animated Series, not just a good cartoon but, at least through its first five episodes, one of the best TV shows Marvel has ever made. The original X-Men cartoon was good for its era, but it was never this good; not narratively, and certainly not visually. This week’s episode, “Remember It,” had everything you could want from an X-Men television series: Epic action, heart-wren...
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With the possible exception of James Dean, no actor left a bigger impact on the world of film in fewer onscreen appearances than Bruce Lee. While Lee headlined only four martial arts movies during his lifetime, those films — especially the fourth, Enter the Dragon, which Lee finished only a few months before his death — became so phenomenally popular around the world that they essentially created an international market for kung fu cinema that had not existed before. But there was a problem: Lee had shown there was an audience for his movies just as he passed away. That left a legion of fans h...
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The following post contains spoilers for the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale. What’s the deal with the word spoilers? Nothing here is spoiled! It’s not like the piece is going to give you food poisoning if you read it without watching the episode! The Curb Your Enthusiasmfinale may not have been perfect, but it had the perfect title: “No Lessons Learned.” From Curb’s season premiere earlier this year, it looked likely that its creator and star Larry David planned to — almost literally! — re-litigate the finale of Seinfeld, one of the most notorious television episodes in the history of the medium....
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Prequels are having a moment. 2024 sees the release of The First Omen (which, somewhat confusingly, is actually the sixth movie in The Omen franchise) as well as the first prequel from the Mad Max series, Furiosa. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of one of the biggest prequels in film history, Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. These are all high-profile projects, but prequels often mark the last, desperate act of a dying franchise. Having exhausted all other creatively promising options, and/or having lost key stars or filmmakers to other projects, they have no choice but to ...
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“I don’t want to end up being a nothin’.” American Movie premiered 25 years ago. I saw it for the first time when it played my college campus. Back then it almost felt a mockumentary, except its subjects were real people. I still remember the sound of the laughter erupting in the theater when American Movie’s subject, independent filmmaker Mark Borchardt, tried and failed to shove one of his actors’ heads through a cabinet door during the shooting of an ill-advised stunt for his horror movie, Coven. Mark calls action and then Bang! throws his poor star into the cabinet door. The door doesn’t b...
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“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Sets Franchise Record With Rotten Tomatoes Score,” the headlines screamed this week, as the latest Ghostbusters sequel debuted squarely in the rotten area of the Rotten Tomatoes ratings system. To be sure, I don’t take issue with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire going down in history as the worst-reviewed Ghostbusters (even if I personally would rank it slightly above the even more disappointing Ghostbusters: Afterlife). The part that bugs me is the observation that the previous holder of the record for the lowest Ghostbusters Rotten Tomatoes score was Ghostbusters II, ...
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If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? Chester Cheetah! (We’ll workshop that.) In the annals of popular culture, there has never been a crossover quite like this: The meeting of American’s favorite ghost incarceration service and America’s favorite jungle cat who enjoys the taste of corn meal enriched with ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid. (Have you ever read the ingredients list on the back of a bag of Cheetos? Yikes!) That’s right. Just in time for the new Ghostbusters: Frozen Empiremovie, there are now Ghostbustersbrande...
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Webster’s Dictionary defines a reboot as “the act or an instance of starting (something) anew or making a fresh start.” Which is actually not all that helpful for the purposes of figuring out how a reboot is different from a remake. What the hell, Webster’s? You’re supposed to define these things for us! It feels like the terms remake and reboot are used almost interchangeably these days, depending on which of the two is more in favor at any given moment. “Oh, did a high-profile remake just bomb at the box office? Well, my new movie is actually not a remake. It’s a reboot!” or “No, see, people...
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The only thing wilder than someone remaking Road House in 2024 is the fact that the original Road House from 1989 exists in the first place. In its day, the film — a Patrick Swayze vehicle about the world’s most badass (yet soulful) bouncer — was mostly a punchline. It was nominated for five Razzie Awards and grossed only $30 million in theaters, less than half the total of Swayze’s previous hit, Dirty Dancing. Today … well, okay, today it’s still a punchline. But it’s such an incredible, unbelievable punchline that Road House has accrued a large cult fanbase of appreciative viewers (like myse...
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