MovieFest

★★★★★ Few scenes in the history of film are as iconic as Norman Bates stabbing Janet Leigh to death in the shower. To audiences today, that famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s  Psycho  may seem somewhat standard (not me), but it’s hard to overstate how shocking it was to audiences in 1960. Not only was it unheard of to kill off your protagonist halfway through a film, but the decision to do so essentially changed the way we watch movies, with Hitchcock himself encouraging viewers to watch the film from the very beginning or risk ruining the experience. When it became clear that A&E’s  Bates Motel  was hurtling toward the same historic moment in its final season, fans started to wonder: Would the show subvert the shower scene, or fall under the weight of  Psycho ’s legacy? It turns out that series co-creators Kerry Ehrin and Carlton Cuse had a few surprises up their sleeves, playing with audience expectations and even transposing gender roles in a powe...

The next superhero to get her own movie will be  Batgirl , and there's reportedly some major talent set to helm the project. Joss Whedon is "nearing a deal" to serve as the film's writer, director, and producer, according to a new report by Variety. The move would see Whedon going from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he wrote and directed  The Avengers  and  Avengers: Age of Ultron , to working on a DC property. Addition to his work on the Avengers films, Whedon is also known as the creator of TV shows such as  Firefly ,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and  Agents of SHIELD . Variety states this only came together in the last month, and as such, no other producers are attached at this point. It would be DC's second standalone female superhero movie, following the upcoming Wonder Woman, which releases in June. DC is also at work on a  Gotham City Sirens  movie starring a number of female supervillains.

Stephen King ‘s  It  is probably the best horror novel ever written and the original television miniseries traumatized a generation. So the new film adaptation from  Mama  director  Andrés Muschietti  has some pretty big (clown-sized?) shoes to fill. Now that the first trailer for this long-awaited adaptation has arrived, we can start to adjust our expectations accordingly. Set in 1989 and adapting half of King’s 1,000 page-plus tome,  It  follows a group of kids who call themselves “The Losers Club” as they find themselves combatting a seemingly invincible, shapeshifting monster that terrorizes the town of Derry, Maine (one of King’s most evil locations) every 30 years. While the creature can take on the form of anything its victims fear, it often defaults to “Pennywise the dancing clown” (played here by  Bill Skarsgård ), a figure designed to lure young victims to their doom. If "it" succeeds, a sequel is already a definite ...

In a first look at Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, it was revealed that there's a modern twist to this well-known and much loved tale. At Sony's CinemaCon Panel (as reported by The Hollywood Reporter), Dwayne Johnson brought some footage to show fans of the new film. Be warned spoilers ahead! In the upcoming reboot, high school students stumble upon an old video game console which plays a game entitled Jumanji.  After picking characters, the teens then change into their various avatars where they are then teleported to the jungle. Once in their new bodies the juxtaposition of the preppy school girl in the body of Jack Black, and geeky kid suddenly a muscle-bound Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson leaves the teenagers having to come to terms with their new forms. This detail explains the first official image that was released on Dwayne Johnson's Instagram, revealing the main characters and how they fit in with this teenage adventure. Johnson also spoke ...

According to Bleedingcool.com, whilst at SXSW a couple weeks ago, there was a startling amount of panels, movies, and TV shows one could attend. Featuring films that aren’t going to be hitting theaters for months and panels with news on upcoming shows, there was a wealth of information to be found. One of the panels they went to was about the second season of AMC’s  Preacher . Weirdly, it was promoted as Inside The Making of Preacher, which in turn might be why many news outlets didn’t show up. Lo and behold, not only did they get to see a couple minutes of season 2, but showrunners  Seth Rogen ,  Sam Caitlin  and comic book scribe  Garth Ennis  appeared for a lengthy Q&A; some impressive and interesting news was revealed. The footage they did see featured Jesse, Cassidy, and Tulip, as played by  Dominic Cooper ,  Joseph Gilgud , and  Ruth Negga,  apparently driving and having a sing-along, all the while talking about how...

Not long ago Will Smith was thought to be the favourite to take the lead role, however it now looks like Colin Farrell is going to be locked down to play the lead character while it looks like Eva Green will also joined the cast as a Trapeze artist (yummy). The film would mark her third collaboration with Burton after  Dark Shadows  and  Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children . Danny DeVito is also reportedly in talks to join the cast. What little is known about Farrell's potential role so far is that he would play the father of children who fall in love with the titular elephant. Farrell has previous with Disney, playing the father of Mary Poppins author, P.L. Travers, in  Saving Mr. Banks. If Farrell does end up starring then the film will in all likelihood be part of a run of great success for the Castleknock native. His role in  The Lobster  saw him pick up a Golden Globe Nomination last year, while he also played the villain in ...

★★★☆☆ Legion  wants to convince viewers that it’s not a traditional superhero story (which it is not) by making bold stylistic choices and experimenting with narrative structure, but in the first season’s penultimate episode, showrunner Noah Hawley reveals just how heavily he’s sticking to an established superhero formula. There’s a malevolent outside force threatening to take over the world, and David and his band of mutant allies need to stop it. “Chapter Seven” finally reveals the true identity of the series’ villain, and as it dives forever deeper into  X-Men  comic-book mythology, it shifts into a storytelling mode that is more familiar to fans of that franchise. This episode is very heavy on exposition, answering big questions about the identities of David’s parasite and the father that gave him up for adoption. Oliver Bird is the first person to drop Amahl Farouk’s name during his conversation with Cary, and they’ve clearly had past encounters with the psy...

Well i have finally got around to catching up with Legion after wasting so much time on something so stupid which caused me some pain, which leads me onto this episode: For most of us, retreating into our thoughts or daydream is a way of coping with something bad or unpleasant. We can briefly pull away to recall something more pleasant to dull the pain, or mentally deliver the snappy retort or withering dismissal we’ve only just come up with. Some of us linger longer than others, but we always come back to face reality (unfortunately). But it’s been made abundantly clear that David Haller is not like any of us, and one of the ways that’s been demonstrated is by the fact that he’s always been reluctant to go into his “headspace.” That’s because he’s probably always known that there’s something even worse there—yes, something more disturbing or dangerous than Division 3, or The Eye and not-Rudy’s bullets. Another reason why hanging out in the nooks and crannies of David’s mind was t...

Walt Disney Pictures continued to expand their “live-action remake” franchise into a money-manufacturing enterprise with last week’s  Beauty and the Beast , which, as of this writing, has  made nearly half a billion dollars  globally in just one bloody week. However, Disney isn’t the only studio with popular films that could be rebooted for the early 21st century.  Consider, for example, the hysterical tale of  Doctor Dolittle , a veterinarian with the ability to talk to his animal patients. Before the 1990s, the most famous adaptation of  Doctor Dolittle  was almost certainly the 1967 film starring Rex Harrison, but in 1998, Eddie Murphy starred in a remake that led to four more sequels (mostly direct-to-video). That said, we learned this week that Robert Downey Jr. is now  attached to star  in  The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle , based on the character who first appeared in a series of 1920s children’s books by author H...

In the first full trailer for  Justice League ,  the world faces a new threat, and it’s up to Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince to bring together the various heroes to save the day. In the trailer, Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne tells Wonder Wonder Woman that there’s a threat coming, and that they have to be ready. They bring together Aquaman (Jason Momoa) The Flash (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) for what looks a movie loaded with plenty of action. There’s also some glimpses of Amy Adam’s Lois Lane and J.K. Simmons’ Commissioner Gordon. Directed by Zack Snyder, (who previously helmed  Man of Steel  and the derided and dour  Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Justice League  is the DC movie universe’s answer to Marvel’s superhero team-up film  Avengers . Fortunately, there’s moments in this new   trailer that seems to continue the trend from the first Justice League  teaser by bringing a much needed lighter and jus...

Teaching children the proper disrespect towards authority figures can be a truly difficult thing, but since 1997, Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series has been nothing less than a godsend. Now Dreamworks Animation is bringing Pilkey’s epic to the big screen, and parents around the world will have a new quiver in their bow. The film stars Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch as two prank-loving fourth graders who hypnotize their authoritarian principal (Ed Helms) into believing he is a superhero named “Captain Underpants.” This is basically the best possible outcome in fourth grader-principal relations, especially when, as the trailer reveals, there are supervillains around. In this case, Captain Underpants will face off against Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll), in a struggle that is all-too-familiar to our nation’s youngest children. David Soren directs from a script by Nicholas Stoller; Jordan Peele and Kristen Schaal round out the all-star cast. Captain U...

With the  Power Rangers  reboot now in theaters in the US, Saban finally saw its chance to tease one of the most beloved Rangers ever: the Green Ranger. Thanks to a tweet published last night, fans can now expect the evil ranger to make an appearance in the nigh-inevitable  Power Rangers  sequel. The Green Ranger is the alter ego of Tommy Oliver (Jason David Frank), who made his  Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers  series debut back in 1993 during the five-part “Green with Evil” miniseries. Originally conceived as an evil nemesis for the five original Rangers, the character eventually returned and joined the team as its sixth Ranger. He’d go on to become one of the most iconic Rangers in the entire franchise. Given his status among fans, Green Ranger’s arrival was almost certainly inevitable. And he’ll likely have plenty of opportunity to show off his skills (at least until the White Ranger shows up).   According to  Variety , producer Haim Saba...

★★★★★ In today’s saturated market, truly original films are now a relatively rare occurrence. Most genres have been done to death and there’s an insistence within the industry to focus on dazzling visuals instead of balancing aesthetics with storyline for a fuller filmic journey. However, don’t dismay,  Get Out  allows viewers to once more be wowed; it’s excellently made, clever, scary, funny and sadly poignant. Get Out  is the directorial debut by Jordan Peele, one part of the two-man comedy show  Key & Peele . It may not be the best film ever made but it sure makes it into my top 10, brilliant cinematography, excellent performances, it was just all so phenomenal in every way– and you can’t go wrong with high-pitched violins to keep you on tenterhooks. Technically it is well made but the two things that stood out for me were the subject matter and the film’s genre. Both are original, brave and full of impact, intellectually, emotionally and visually...