Tag Archives: Woody Allen

News

Film & TV News: April 24

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News

  • Inhumans has been unceremoniously yanked from the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe slate, which means essentially nothing when all is said and done. Instead of waiting five or six years for the Inhumans movie, we’ll just have to bite the bullet and wait six or seven.
  • The 2016 Independent Film Festival Boston begins this week. Stay tuned for reviews of Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, the delightfully odd-looking Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and many more.
  • A drove of new trailers premiered this week, which is great news if you’re a lazy Motion Stater who can’t be bothered to assemble an actual News post. Check out our formidable copy-and-pasting below.

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News

Film & TV News: January 27

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News

  • Sundance 2016 is underway, with particularly good looks for Manchester by the Sea, The Birth of a Nation, Under the Shadow, Sing Street and Southside With You, among others.
  • Woody Allen will be starring alongside Miley Cyrus in an Amazon series he’s producing, allegedly a comedy, allegedly something watchable, but who knows. Maybe it’s a sequel series to Hannah Montana, with Allen playing an elderly Billy Ray? One can only hope.
  • A spread in Empire has teased yet another villainous presence in Batman v. Superman alongside Lex Luthor and Doomsday: Darkseid, the be-all-end-all, the Omega, the great undoer. We probably won’t actually see him in BvS, but expect hints and rumblings of him in every DC film from now ’til Justice League.

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Academy Awards, Take Two

Inside Out (2015): Pixar Goes to Therapy

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Our Take Two column offers second opinions and alternative angles on films and TV series reviewed elsewhere on Motion State. Head here for our original review of Inside Out.

The people have spoken. Original, well-written content is what they want, and they want it now! Down with all of these cliched remakes! I speak on everyone’s behalf when I say–what’s that? Ex-squeeze me? Jurassic World, of all movies, is breaking every box office record? Well then.

It’s hard to express how that makes me feel. I could scream and gag and cry and fall into a deep depression. And there’s no movie that can fix me. What’s that? Another off-screen interjection? I should look no further than Inside Out? So there’s hope after all… Continue reading Inside Out (2015): Pixar Goes to Therapy →

Director Series: Ron Howard

Night Shift (1982)

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The upgrade in quality from Ron Howard’s directorial debut Grand Theft Auto to his sophomore effort Night Shift is pretty remarkable. Howard did direct a string of TV movies in the interim (Cotton Candy, Skyward, and Through the Magic Pyramid) and had directed a few shorts prior to Auto, so it wasn’t like Night Shift was only the second time he touched a camera. He was also doing this really weird thing called “acting” on occasion.

Regardless of where it falls, Night Shift is a surprisingly hilarious addition to Howard’s early canon. Auto relied heavily on Happy Days cast members and members of the Howard Family to round out the cast and crew, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but could be a bit distracting at times. Speaking of distracting, Auto also had a funk-bass-porno soundtrack that served to bolster the overall feel of the thing as hastily-made. And most importantly, the character motives in Auto just didn’t make a whole lot of sense across the board.

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