Charles Bramesco

The Best Genre Films of 2018
Horror, thriller, sci-fi — these were the best of the best from the last year.

Holiday Movies on Netflix: What to Watch When You’re Bored Out of Your Mind at Home With Your Family
Home with your family this Thanksgiving? Here’s the best stuff to watch on Netflix.

Extra Credit: Five Movies to Stream After You See December’s Biggest Movies
After you see ‘All the Money in the World,’ ‘Phantom Thread,’ ‘The Post,’ ‘Molly’s Game,’ and ‘Downsizing,’ here are five movies to stream that nicely complement them.

Matthew Broderick to Voice Grown-Up Ralphie in ‘A Christmas Story’ TV Musical
He’ll play the narrator looking back on his boyhood years in Fox’s broadcast.

Johnny Depp Makes Surprise Appearance on ‘Pirates’ Ride at Disneyland
Johnny Depp needs some public image rehabilitation, and badly. When it came out last year that he had physically abused former spouse Amber Heard, a dark and sickly pallor was cast over the heretofore beloved actor’s profile. It isn’t helping that he hasn’t been in a good movie since 2011 (Rango, though Verbinski’s follow-up The Lone Ranger has its supporters), and hasn’t been in a really profitable one since 2014’s Into the Woods. The guy has to save a little face if he wants to secure his future in this business, and what better way to do that than to play to the only demographic unaware of his unsavory personal life: the youth!

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ Has Five (!) Post-Credit Scenes
While the post-credits scene was once a surprise specially afforded to those superfans with the dedication to sit through the final frames of a film, it’s now become par for the course, a de facto advertisement for whatever a franchise might have up its sleeve next. Marvel Studios has turned this into standard operating procedure, to the point where viewers expect nothing less than another tasty morsel of footage, the cinematic equivalent of the delicious fries waiting for you at the bottom of your McDonald’s bag. How to continue taking audiences off-guard, then? Marvel could do no post-credit scene at all, that’d certainly throw people for a loop. Or... they could do five.

Here’s Why There’s No ‘Fate of the Furious’ Post-Credits Scene
Audiences who stuck around after the end credits of newly released cinematic demolition derby The Fate of the Furious were disappointed to learn that there would be no bonus stinger scene, as has been customary in past installments of the franchise. (In addition to the pre-existing disappointment resulting from learning that Charlize Theron’s character is named Cipher.) It’s atypical for the series to refrain from teasing its next ride, and many fans are wondering what gives. Wonder no longer! Vin Diesel, as fate would have it, is reportedly to blame.

Check Out the New ‘Beauty and the Beast’ TV Spots, Go Ahead, Be Our Guest
Despite volumes of scholarship from feminist theorists on its undertones of spousal abuse and insidious romanticizing of male brutality, Disney‘s Beauty and the Beast has remained a cherished childhood favorite worldwide. Kids love talking furniture, go figure. The live-action remake starring Emma Watson and an unrecognizable Dan Stevens is hot on the way to its March 17 release, and Disney has now released two new TV spots to further amp up the anticipation. In the first, embedded above, the Beast implores lovely Belle to “think of the one thing you’ve always wanted, and feel it in your heart.” We get a glimpse of the timeless ballroom-waltz scene, some barroom carousing from Gaston, and yet another look at the deeply unsettling character designs for Lumiere and Cogsworth.

Latest ‘Secret Life of Pets’ Trailer Feels a Lot Like ‘Toy Story’ But With Animals
When Illumination Entertainment announced the basic premise for their upcoming The Secret Life of Pets — an animated adventure-comedy about the shenanigans our furry pals get into while we’re away at work for the day — it sure sounded an awful lot like Toy Story...

Nickelodeon Moves Forward With ‘Hey Arnold!’ TV Movie, Delighting Football-Heads Everywhere
Damn near everything popular between 1985 and 1999 has been rebooted, reimagined, reworked, or remade in the studios’ relentless efforts to wring every last drop of earning potential from existing creative properties. Some efforts have been more successful than others, but either way, Nickelodeon has moved to throw their own hat into the ring.

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.