Charles Bramesco
Chinese Theaters Cut Down on Cell Phone Use With Lasers, Shaming
China’s been ahead of the Western curve for some time now. The U.S. economy cowers before the might of Chinese manufacturing prowess, and some of Hollywood’s most popular blockbusters have catered to Eastern tastes. By 2025, we will all have a workable knowledge of Cantonese. But for now, China has made its latest leap forward in the field of etiquette, more specifically movie theater etiquette, and even more specifically, how to deal with a-holes who won’t stop using their cell phones during a movie. Polite whispered requests, chair-nudging, chair-kicking, and in-theater doxxing have all proven ineffective in the continuing war on America’s rudest audience members. China’s contrived a smarter, more futuristic mode of combatting these menaces.
‘Pee-wee’s Big Holiday’ Trailer Promises Fun, Antics, Wordplay
There are few TV shows as purely, innocently, and energetically delightful as Pee-wee’s Playhouse, the Saturday morning vehicle for Paul Reubens’ grey-suited man-child. An adult perpetually trapped at the stage of early boyhood in which kids mostly say funny nonsensical things and that’s it, Pee-Wee and his colorful gang of anthropomorphic pals brought a hefty dose of camp humor to the happy shiny
Sylvester Stallone Says ‘Creed’ Will Be His Final Appearance as Rocky
So, stop us if you‘ve heard this one before: it’s now 2016, yet another Rocky picture has dealt the box-office a swift uppercut, and Stallone is done, seriously, you’ll see, he means it now.
It Finally Happened, Someone Made a TV Miniseries for Instagram
In a development that sounds like something out of Infinite Jest (currently celebrating its twentieth anniversary!), it finally happened, someone has made a miniseries to be distributed via the popular photo-sharing social media platform Instagram...
Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs Issues Statement on Oscar Diversity
The greatest outrage stirred by last week’s announcement of the Oscar nominees was not the Best Picture snub for Carol or the absurd exclusion of Todd Haynes from the Best Director category, but rather the troubling homogeneity of the twenty men and women nominated in the acting categories. Specifically, many have taken issue with the fact that this year’s Oscar slate looks about as white as a Whole Foods before noon on a Sunday. The social media hashtag OscarsSoWhite resurfaced within minutes after the nomination announcement had finished, and Spike Lee has even called for a boycott of the ceremony as a response to the blatant lack of diversity in this year’s picks.
Channing Tatum, ‘Furious 7’ Declared Everyone’s Favorites at 2016 People’s Choice Awards
If the Oscars are like the electoral college, selecting the cream of the crop through an arcane and confusing process available only to an older, white, male elite population, then that makes the People’s Choice Awards the popular vote...
Armchair Film Critic Barack Obama Names His Favorite Movie of the Year
It’s hard enough for film critics without Barry O. snatching up our freelance gigs, but President Obama and the First Lady weighed in with their choices for 2015’s best film.
Check Out James Gunn’s Awesome ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Coffee Table
The director, a regularly active user of social media platforms Twitter and Facebook, took to the web last night to show off one his one-of-a-kind interior decor. Specifically, he posted a couple photos of his coffee table, a custom-made piece designed to look just like the Awesome Mix cassette tape so cherished by Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Jared Leto Thinks Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson’s Jokers Would Be Proud of Him
Jared Leto took to Twitter to reassure his 2.14 million fans that he had the situation well in hand. He did so by posting the following image:
Sight and Sound Names Best Films of 2015; ‘The Assassin,’ ‘Carol’ and ‘Fury Road’ Come Out on Top
The British Film Institute’s official publication brings a global perspective to their rulings, having polled 168 critics worldwide on their favorite releases of the past calendar year.
Emma Stone to Take the Court as Tennis Legend Billie Jean King in ‘Battle of the Sexes’
This larger-than-life story will form the basis of The Battle of the Sexes, a planned film with Emma Stone and Steve Carell in the starring roles. Variety reported on Stone’s involvement with the picture late last night, confirming that the star of Easy A and Aloha would replace Brie Larson (who had to drop out to star in The Glass Castle) for the Billie Jean King part.
George Lucas Explains Why He Would Never Want to Make Another ‘Star Wars’ Movie
George Lucas recently commented about why he walked away from Star Wars and it’s all your fault. In a new video interview for Vanity Fair, the Star Wars creator voiced some of his frustrations with the past of the franchise and his hopes for the future, yielding some uncharacteristically candid soundbites.
Val Kilmer Says He’s Officially Returning For ‘Top Gun 2’
Val Kilmer has taken to his personal Facebook page to post a Top Gun 2 status update with ramifications on a scale that we can only describe as tectonic.
Porsche Responds to Lawsuit, Says Paul Walker’s Death Was His Own Fault
Walker’s daughter Meadow filed a lawsuit against Porsche under the banner of “wrongful death,” attributing her father’s untimely death to numerous defects in the car’s design. Industry trade papers are now reporting that officials from Porsche have handed down a response to the lawsuit, claiming that the accident and any injuries sustained therein were ultimately Walker and Rodas’ “own comparative fault.”