cinephellas
Review – Batman: The Killing Joke
The 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke is widely considered to be one of the best Batman comics of all time, and the definitive origin story of The Joker thanks to its look into the history of Batman’s most notable enemy, as well as the shocking turn where Joker shoots Barbara Gordon in the spine, crippling her, ending her career as Batgirl, and setting up the events that would lead her to reinvent herself as Oracle. When news broke that DC animation was adapting the novel for its own animated feature, as well as getting back the cast of the Animated Series – Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as Joker, Tara Strong as Batgirl – people were excited to see this defining novel come to life. Even more so when it was announced that for a single night on July 25th, the film would be shown in Fathom Events and Vue Cinemas across the US and UK (with a further 2 screenings on the 26th when demand became too much to handle). Not wanting to miss the chance offered to them, many fans – myself included – opted for the theatrical experience.
Review – Star Trek Beyond (2016)
by Henry Hill
Stringer Bell from HBO’s The Wire vs. Captain Kirk, who wins? We all do. This is my spoiler-free review of Star Trek Beyond.
Since J.J. Abrams gave us the fantastic 2009 reboot of Star Trek, we’ve all been reminded just how fun it can be to beam up into space and enjoy creator Gene Roddenberry’s space adventures. The new cast with Chris Pine at the helm as Captain James Tiberius Kirk have a great chemistry on screen together and they make you willing to follow them wherever they choose to boldly go. The sequel, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, solidified the staying power of the new crew and gave the Federation a worthy adversary in the form of Benedict Cumberbatch’s John Harrison (Or was it something else, hmm…).
Logan has even MORE feelings about The Walking Dead Season 7 trailer!
Logan has feelings about a few of the trailers shown at #SDCC
Review – Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
Independence Day: Resurgence continues 20 years since the events of the first movie and the Americans have been using alien technology to defend the world from aliens and the whole world has achieved world peace as a means to work together to avoid any future attacks on Earth. It turns out that the aliens are about to make another attack on Earth. Things seem to be going okay until signs of another attack begin to appear and it’s up to Bill Pullman’s former US President Whitmore, who’s been left traumatized by the aliens and Jeff Goldblum’s David Levinson, who’s now serving as an advisor as he investigates the recent signs appearing around the world.
PUT DOWN THE POKEMON GO and check out these fun things coming from Funko!
If you’re anything like us, you have a few (okay, a LOT more than a few) Funko Pop! collectibles in your possession. The good news is that there are a lot of new items rolling out of Funko Headquarters. The bad news is that you might not make your rent next month. But hey, basking in the glory of your new, massive Pop! collection is totes worth it.
Photos and details behind the cut.
We have a WINNER!
Run Away From Inferno!
by Logan Myerz
Tom Hanks is one of those actors that never stops working even after being in the business for over thirty years. He has numerous awards up his sleeve and not to mention two Oscars for films you may have heard of, Forrest Gump, and Philadelphia. While being an extremely diverse performer, his career and movie choices have changed quite drastically over the years: as a comedic actor in the 80’s to the honorable and serious roles that he crafted in the 90’s, to the peculiar and sometimes questionable roles in the 2000’s. Tom and director Ron Howard have an excellent dynamic chemistry that has been executed in several films, including Dan Brown’s trilogy: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and now Inferno. When The DaVinci Code was released in theaters, the book was on top of the world, and the movie was the greatest depiction from novel to film since Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. As the universe evolves, so does the movie business, and we have seen the pitfalls of continuous sequels being developed in a major motion picture. I really appreciated The DaVinci Code and what it had to offer in an original premise that made the audience think while Dr. Robert Langdon uncovered the secret to the Holy Grail. But as the sequel, Angels & Demons, was released, I had a hard time not looking at the film like it was Nicholas Cage’s hairpiece unlocking the debauchery of National Treasure.
Now with Inferno being released later this year and getting a glimpse of the new trailer, I 
can’t fathom that this movie was developed in the first place. Just imagine sitting in the writer’s room and crafting the script that would come off as a parody movie of an actual interesting mystery film. Yes, I said it, but damn this movie looks really bad, which is painful to me because I love Mr. Hanks and Felicity Jones, but it seems they are only in the film to collect a paycheck, sadly. With a disappointing year of Blockbusters thus far, I was really hoping Sony Pictures would develop a film that would stick out next to it’s opponents, but we are slapped in the face once again. How much more trouble can Dr. Robert Langdon, the symbologist crime fighter get into? Well we will have to wait and see in October of this year. If you can get past the absurdity of Inferno, you may have an enjoyable time at the movies, but I won’t be participating this time around!
Run Tom Hanks! Run!
Inferno hits theaters on October, 28th 2016.
Source: Sony Pictures
Review – The Man Who Was Thursday (2016)
Hearing that a film is based on an existential novel that’s over 100 years old, you should expect some level of confusion and indeed controversy. That’s what The Man Who Was Thursday delivers: it’s a film that examines themes of religion, anarchy, faith, dictatorships and metaphysical consequence and never allows its audience to get too comfortable with what is really going on. It’s a challenging piece and no doubt some of the elements will be controversial, but there’s still something interesting here that’s worth trying to crack open.
