Another superhero to arrive on the big screen, the Scarlet Speedster

“The Flash” is coming in 2018. As a fan of DC Comics over Marvel, that makes me happy. And, furthermore, as a lad who never had much zip to his running stride, the superhero who donned the Scarlet suit and zipped around in record time could capture my attention in a split second when The…

Duvall, Downey Jr. make love-hate relationship easy to judge

Some father-son relationships can never be mended. As the elder and the younger bicker and fight and squander every moment life affords them to look at themselves and each other through a different prism and, well, get over it, everybody around them tires of it all, throws up their arms, and wishes they’d just go…

Before there was Harry Potter, the wizard writer battled beasts

J.K. Rowling is writing a screenplay for Warner Brothers, and so the Harry Potter franchise shall live on. So says a story on Screen Rant this week. Except that, really, the movie titled “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is about the wizard who wrote the Hogwarts textbook that Harry and students studied. No…

‘Gone Girl’ will make you think twice about trust issues

“Gone Girl” is a great mystery. Thank you, Gillian Flynn. From her novel of 2012, Flynn also was the screenwriter for this 149-minute thriller of twists and turns of trust that chronicled what went so horribly wrong in the fictional life of Ben and Amy Dunne. I am not going to spoil it for those…

Are you game for movies based on ‘Tetris,’ ‘Angry Birds’ big screeners?

First off, I’ve never played Tetris. Not in the 1980s, not in a retro moment since. Nevertheless, my eyebrow arched at the sight of a Rolling Stone story that the Game Boy console game favorite from 30 years ago is being turned into a movie. An epic sci-fi movie. I’d heard enough talk about Tetris…

If you need to settle a score, call Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington runs around in “The Equalizer” vanquishing evil as if he should be wearing tights and appearing in a title put out by the Marvel Universe. Robert McCall starts out as a guy who wants to mind his own business in this action thriller, he really, really does. In fact, he’s trying to dodge…

Vin Diesel shares ‘Fast and Furious 7’ still photos with many millions of friends

I’m lagging a bit behind in my Facebook friend count. I found an interesting bit about Vin Diesel’s fan page while researching this week’s installmennt for my Film News blog over at the wonderful Syracuse New Times site. Mr. Diesel and the rest of the cast were given a preview of the trailer for “Fast…

In ‘This Is Where I Leave You,’ it takes a death to jump start a life

Judd Altman goes home to attend his father’s funeral in a stage of his life that, well, sucks really bad. He’s just caught his wife cheating on him. With his boss. So he’s wifeless and jobless. And now he’s forced to sit shiva with two brothers, a sister, in-laws, and a mother who wrote a…

Can ‘Galaxy’ make a star from the cutting room floor?

I am ever more impressed by the ways fans can tune in to “Guardians of the Galaxy.” The old songs brought the soundtrack to No. 1, and the box office success continued. Now writer/director James Gunn’s continued posting on his social media is including pictures and details about deleted scenes. A picture of a blue-faced…

‘The Drop’ takes us to a Brooklyn dark and tense

Read much of the work of Dennis Lehane? Seen “Mystic River,” “Gone Baby Gone” or “Shutter Island” perhaps? Well, the novels or movies from the mind of this Massachusetts crime-drama master are not requisite for enjoying “The Drop,” I don’t think, but being primed for his sort of tension surely helped me keep my wits…