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Taron Egerton of Kingsman plays Elton John in Rocketman

By Sreejith Kamalanayanan The kid from Kingsman franchise is playing legendary pop star Elton John in Rocketman . When I first saw Kingsman, I didn't give much importance to Taron Egerton even though he was the lead. Kingsman: The Secret Service had heavyweights like Michael Caine and Collin Firth. It was Firth’s performance that elevated the movie to a watchable experience. And who can forget the villain played by Samuel L Jackson? So I didn’t care for the kid named Taron Egerton in Kingsman. He was just another kid, I thought. Now, Egerton is playing Elton John in Rocketman movie and that’s interesting. As per reports, Rocketman will be focusing on Elton’s life in the rehab. It will also pay attention to his love and sex life. Rocketman will be a musical. And Elton is reportedly pleased with Egerton’s singing. The movie will  not shy away from showing intimate scenes. Rumours suggest that there’s even a gay sex scene in Rocketman .

Can Aquaman save the DCEU? Critics praise the James Wan, Jason Momoa movie after preview

I have not been waiting eagerly for Aquaman movie, as it comes from the DCEU. Compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC movies always sucked, except for one time thanks to Wonder Woman. It is in this background that Conjuring , Insidious franchise director James Wan made Aquaman with Jason Momoa playing the titular character. Today, surprisingly, a flurry of positive words have come from people who saw a preview of movie. They praised both Momoa and James Wan. The critics who saw Aquaman preview describe it as an underwater Star Wars. Well, I am not a great fan of Star Wars either. Anyway,  let's see if critics' downpour of positive reviews may resurrect the DCEU from sinking.

Blow Out: Brian De Palma's Classic suspense thriller from the '80s

By Sreejith Kamalanayanan The political paranoia prevalent in the 70's, after the Watergate scandal, seeped into the early 80's resulting in Blow Out (1981), a suspense thriller by Brian De Palma. The film is marked by the stylistic influence of Alfred Hitchcock and thematic influence of 1966 film Blow-Up directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Another influence is Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974). Like the paranoia thriller, The Parallax View (1974), Blow Out also features an assassination of a presidential candidate, which forms the focal point of the narrative. Blow Out's protagonist is a sound effects technician named Jack Terry (John Travolta), who works in sleazy B-movies. Terry gets an assignment from his director. He must find a realistic 'scream' sound to be used in a horror movie. Terry sets out into the night recording various sounds near a bridge. On a sudden, a car careen off the road and drown into the creek. Terry c...

McCabe&Mrs Miller: Robert Altman's classic anti-western from the '70s

By Sreejith Kamalanayanan McCabe&Mrs Miller (1971) is the second straight Warren Beatty film I watched recently. Though Beatty impressed me with his performances in Parallax View and McCabe , he wasn't the reason I watched McCabe&Mrs Miller --it's for Robert Altman, the maverick director. Before starting to talk about the revisionist western McCabe and Mrs Miller, I feel impelled to look at the style and vision of Altman. The first Altman movie I ever watched was The Long Goodbye (1973). I bought the DVD thinking it's a detective movie. Yes, It was a detective movie, but I didn't get the kind of pleasure that I was expecting from a detective movie. It doesn't  mean The Long Goodbye disappointed me, but I got a different kind of enjoyment out of it. Director Robert Altman This first experience with Altman precisely sums up what to expect when you go to watch an Altman movie , "EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED." If you give a script of a g...

The Parallax View: One hell of a conspiracy thriller from the '70s

By Sreejith Kamalanayanan The Parallax View (1974) is the second installment in the Paranoia trilogy of the late Hollywood director Alan J Pakula. Klute (1971) and All the President's Men (1976) are the other two movies in the trilogy. I have seen the other two movies in the Paranoia trilogy; watched  Klute first and All the President's Men second and rounded off with The Parallax View. It didn't bother me that I watched the great trilogy breaking the order. After all, all of the movies can stand on its own. Upon finishing the trilogy, it occurred to me that Pakula is a master in absorbing you into his movies, making you believe in the conspiracy theory and let you immersed in the sense of paranoia of the film. He presents the conspiracy theory with a sort of realism and we would fall for it. In The Parallax View, the assassination of a presidential candidate is the center of the plot. The assassination opens the movie. He was shot by a waiter who falls in...

Cult horror Classic you should watch: Pet Sematary (1989)

By Sreejith Kamalanayanan More women filmmakers are breaking out into the disreputable genre of horror movies, bringing along some innovative twist to the genre conventions.  Jennifer Kent with The Babadook, Anna Biller with her visually stunning retro masterpiece The Love Witch and Aislinn Clarke with her found footage horror thriller The Devils Doorway brought some new innovation to the genre. Before all these new breed of filmmakers, there was Mary Lambert who believed in pure horror. Lambert directed Pet Sematary in 1989, an adaptation of the 1983 Stephen King novel of the same name. Pet Sematary is not a masterpiece but it has a good devoted cult of followers. The movie adheres to conventional filmmaking method which was in vogue in the late '80s and early '90s ,yet it has some unique creepy moments that owe a lot to its director Mary Lambert. The premise of Pet Sematary is typical of Stephen King's creepy fictional world...

Netflix shows: Legendary Video game Diablo coming to Netflix, writer Andrew Cosby confirms

Yes, it isn't a rumor anymore. Diablo is coming to Netflix in the form of an animated series. The Netflix adaptation of the video game will be written by Andrew Cosby. Andrew Cosby in a tweet has confirmed he is in final phase of discussion with for writing the Diablo series. He will probably be the show-runner too. And much to the relief of Diablo fans, Cosby confirmed the Netflix series will be R rated. Andrew Cosby Cosby is the co-founder of Boom!Studios, an award winning comic book publishing firm. He will write the screenplay for the upcoming superhero movie Hellboy: Rise of the Blood , which is a reboot of the Hellboy franchise. Cosby is also known for co-creating Eureka , a hit TV series on SyFy channel. He is also the producer of 2013 action comedy movie 2 Guns starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. Diablo is an action-role playing video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment.The game was first released on December 31, 1996 and the latest install...