Tentpole Trauma

Few filmmakers love Christmas as much as writer/director Shane Black; the holiday features heavily in many of the films that made him one of the highest paid screenwriters in Hollywood, from Lethal Weapon to The Last...

Hollywood had a hankering to return to the wonderful land of Oz following decades of the 1939 Wizard of Oz being a childhood staple. Many attempts were made, but none as traumatic as Disney’s 1985 effort Return to Oz, a...

Wrapping up a trilogy is always a tough pumpkin to carve -- a lesson director David Gordon Green learned with Halloween Ends, the climax of his otherwise financially successful Blumhouse "legacy" series that began with...

With video game adaptations raking in big coin at the box office, adapting the popular Borderlands series to screen seemed a no-brainer. But even pairing a puzzling high-profile cast—featuring Cate Blanchette, Kevin...

Following the commercial disappointment of the oppressively downbeat Alien 3, it stands to reason that 1997’s follow-up, Alien Resurrection, would attempt to recapture the fun, bug-hunt thrills of James Cameron’s...

The late 90s found Kevin Costner on a serious losing streak following high profile post apocalyptic flops Waterworld and The Postman, so it made sense that he would retreat to a sub-genre that had batted a thousand for...

After Scream made him a semi-household name, David Arquette was poised for leading man status. Unfortunately, the first film he chose to lead was Eight Legged Freaks, a comedic, atomic age horror throwback featuring...

The Universal Monsters franchise has seen numerous failed re-launches over the years, but after Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man hit big back in 2020, hopes were high that he could do the same for the Wolf Man. Sadly...

After the meteoric success of Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, director Sam Raimi was poised to deliver another knockout with the franchise’s 3rd entry. Sadly, despite incredible success at the box office, Spider-Man 3 was...

Despite the enduring popularity of Spider-Man, Sony’s attempt to build a universe around the character’s rogue’s gallery—without the inclusion of Spidey himself— has, Venom movies aside, been an unmitigated disaster...

Groundhog Day meets alien invasion seems a sure fire high concept pitch; add megastar Tom Cruise into the equation and you would assume a box office smash. And yet, despite this and a strong critical reception, Doug...

Todd Philips' 2019 Joker took the world by storm, earning over a billion in box office receipts and winning star Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar. A sequel seemed all but inevitable, so when one was announced, and with pop...

Expectations for a sequel were sky high following the monumental success of Tim Burton’s Batman, hype only exacerbated by the addition of Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito to the cast. And while 1992’s Batman Returns...

Less a directorial effort than a vehicle for his pop singer daughter, M. Night Shyamalan's latest high concept thriller, Trap, features Josh Hartnett in a cat and mouse game taking place at the concert of a Taylor...

M.Night Shyamalan’s career was in the dumpster after the release of 2010’s The Last Airbender, so hitching his spaceship to superstar Will Smith seemed a smart move for his next project, 2013’s After Earth...