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Legendary British actor Sir Michael Caine recently shared his memory of meeting a young Tom Cruise over 40 years ago, offering insight into the dedication that has fueled Cruise’s success. In a new interview promoting his memoir, Caine recounted an encounter with Cruise around 1983 after the premiere of Caine’s film “Educating Rita.”

At the time, Cruise was just breaking out with his role in “Risky Business” but was remarkably humble and inquisitive. “I turned around and there was this polite young actor asking me questions about avoiding being a one-hit wonder,” Caine said. While he can’t recall his exact advice, Caine remarked it clearly served Cruise well as his star rose quickly.

Even early in his career, Caine saw Cruise’s special qualities. “He had a great attitude and self-assurance for someone just starting out,” Caine observed. Today, Cruise remains one of the few true movie stars people...

Michael Caine has shared that a young Tom Cruise asked him for career advice when the pair first met 40 years ago.

Double Oscar winner Caine, now 91, has penned his memoir called “Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over” and in an interview with The Sunday Times newspaper he revealed that he met the future superstar at an event for Caine’s film Educating Rita, back in 1983.

The British actor recalled:

“I turned around and there was this young actor, very polite, asking questions about how not to be just a flash in the pan. That was Tom, probably around the time of Risky Business.

“I can’t remember what I said, but it obviously didn’t do him any harm! There was something special about him. He had a great attitude, this sense of poise. What interests me is that he is really one of the last true stars in movies.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Donald Trump has been spending the final weeks of his campaign cosplaying as people who actually work for a living. First it was a visit to McDonald’s, and then yesterday, he decided to put on a reflective vest and ride around in the passenger’s seat of a garbage truck as it slowly circled an airport tarmac next to Trump’s private plane. You know, typical garbage collector stuff.

He followed it up by appearing at a rally while still wearing the vest. Why? Because a staff member told him it made him “look thinner.”

The ridiculous stunt was Trump’s way of trolling Joe Biden for referring to his followers as “garbage,” in response to Tony Hinchcliffe’s recent Trump rally stand-up set. If it seemed so goofy that it could have been the plot of a sitcom, that’s possibly because...

It’s Halloween, and you know what that means: It’s the perfect time to watch horror movies. Vampires, serial killers, haunted houses, the month that precedes Halloween is the prime time to watch scary movies, but not every scary movie is a Halloween movie… and not every Halloween movie is scary.

So it is with great relish that we present the 31 best Halloween movies ever, exclusively featuring films that actually take place on Halloween, or at least during the Halloween season. The point is, if Halloween doesn’t play a major part in the movie it’s not fair to call it a “Halloween movie,” and as long as Halloween shows up in some important way, it doesn’t matter where the film is frightening, funny, or even just for little kids.

We’re narrowing the field down to theatrically released features and shorts and feature-length TV movies. Halloween specials deserve their own list,...

In the early nineties, Chevy Chase was at a crossroads. He’d headlined a series of comedy hits in the eighties, including the National Lampoon’s Vacation films, two Fletch movies, and a few others, but he had some brutal flops, too. Funny Farm (underrated) and Caddyshack 2 did poorly, but Nothing But Trouble in 1991 was a nearly career-ending disaster for all involved. Suddenly, Chase’s future as a leading man looked bleak. Rather than double down on another comedy, he opted to stretch, signing on to star in a comic thriller in the vein of one of his first big hits, Foul Play, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, which was to feature cutting-edge special effects, and sports direction by one of the biggest genre directors of the time, John Carpenter.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man is based on a book by H.F Saint – his only novel in fact – which became...

On Sunday, October 27, 2024, Clint Eastwood will premiere his fortieth feature directorial effort, "Juror #2," at the American Film Institute Festival. This feels like a landmark number. It's certainly a landmark achievement, given that Eastwood is 94 years old, an age at which most people are interred. So it's frankly despicable that Warner Bros-Discovery, headed by noted enemy of cinema David Zaslav, has chosen to unceremoniously dump "Juror #2" on 50 screens over its opening weekend, with no plans for expansion or an awards campaign.

While it's possible the film is not, in the eyes of its studio, an awards contender, it has a commercially viable hook (as evidenced by its compelling trailer) and a killer cast headed up by Nicholas Hoult. Moreover, it's a film by Clint Eastwood, a man whose films have earned WB loads of money over the last 50-plus years. He's had an office on the lot for nearly as long,...

Mark Cousins has long established himself as one of film’s most thoughtful commentators, crafting illuminating documentaries that uncover new layers of understanding. In his latest, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock, the director works his analytical magic on one of cinema’s true legends. What makes this film especially fascinating is the innovative format—it plays like an evening spent chatting with Hitchcock himself.

Through the skilled vocal impersonation of Alistair McGowan, the droll yet perceptive Master of Suspense acts as our guide. He walks us through his own vast body of work, bringing a personal touch lacking in other analytical profiles.

Cousins has divided the film into thematic chapters, with Hitchcock pointing out recurring motifs and ingenious techniques. We cover topics like escape, desire, loneliness, and the tantalizing effects of suspended time.

By imagining this lively dialogue with Hitchcock across the ages, Cousins keeps the late director’s mystique alive while offering fresh insights.

“My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock” is Mark Cousins’ latest cine-essay, and it’s legitimately a film that can make you see the Master of Suspense’s work in a new way. Working not chronologically but thematically, Cousins finds connections among films made decades apart around the ideas Escape, Desire, Loneliness, Time, Fulfillment, and Height.

This is no Wikipedia-like film documentary as all too many are made these days. This is genuinely a film about looking: About seeing things you didn’t see before in some of the most watched films ever made. It’s a sensory and cinematic experience, and I wrote, when it premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival, that it’s “what film documentaries should be.” And it’s all the more unique for having it feel like Hitchcock himself is narrating this, with impressionist Alistair McGowan delivering a remarkable voiceover performance that makes you think the director,...

It’s the late great Carrie Fisher’s birthday, as the Star Wars icon and prolific writer would have turned 68 today. Fisher is obviously best known for playing Princess Leia, but her long list of acting credits also includes the “Mystery Woman” from The Blues Brothers, Marie from When Harry Met Sally and “Bianca Burnette,” the washed-up actress who accuses George Lucas of sexual misconduct in Scream 3.

Less high up on Fisher’s list of accomplishments is the 1981 comedy Under the Rainbow, a notorious turd about the making of The Wizard of Oz, also starring Chevy Chase. Inspired by possibly apocryphal stories involving the hotel hosting the “drunken” Munchkin actors, Under the Rainbow also threw in a wacky espionage plot line about Nazi spies, which is why Hitler gets heil-ed in the balls just five minutes into the movie.

It seems that the only positive aspect of starring in...

These days, every time I see a relatable, character-driven comedy about actual human beings I think, “Wow they sure don’t make ’em like this anymore.” It is like a shock to the system that someone managed to get one made and released. It makes me sad since this was once a popular genre with with major studios regularly filled theaters. Now at best it is left to streamers, or an occasional example that somehow sneaks onto a studio release schedule, or, in the case of writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s exceptionally smart and endearing Goodrich, it is being delivered to theaters by an independent (in this case Ketchup Entertainment) and sporting an endless list of “executive producers” (I counted 24 with that title) who put up enough money to get a deserving film on the screen against all odds.

I also find it heartening that Meyers-Shyer, the daughter of two of...

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Put yourself into a 1987 state of mind, and imagine you're using the computer from "Weird Science" to create the perfect young actor. You want it all: A hunk with legitimate performing chops who can do finely composed drama as easily as he does zany comedy. He can be the world's sexiest man and its biggest blithering idiot. He's also got an athletic frame onto which you can pack layers of muscle. Can he sing and dance? Probably, but we're not trying to take roles away from our underserved musical theater stars, so let's not get greedy. All the other stuff you want a star to do, however, he does it.

So feed your snipped-from-magazine clippings of Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and the like into the computer, and who do you come up with? Lorenzo Lamas?? You've got yourself a virus,...

Alfred Hitchcock: The Iconic Film Collection will collect six of the Master of Suspense’s classics on 4K Ultra HD + Digital: Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds.

Releasing on November 26 via Universal, the six-disc set is limited to 5,150. It’s housed in premium book-style packaging featuring artwork by Tristan Eaton along with photos, bios, and trivia.

In 1954’s Rear Window, “A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.”

It’s written by John Michael Hayes (To Catch a Thief), based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story “It Had to Be Murder.” James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, and Raymond Burr star.

Rear Window special features:

Audio commentary by Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made Film author John Fawell Rear Window Ethics – 2000 documentary Conversation with Screenwriter John Michael...

Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! It’s been nearly four decades since everyone’s favorite bio-exorcist played by Michael Keaton erupted onto movie screens in 1988, and audiences have eagerly awaited his return ever since.

I recently caught part of another spirted film about mischievous ghosts, the Cary Grant classic “Topper” (1937), which is one I’ve enjoyed a few times over the years. I love a good ghost movie — scary, funny or even a little of both. With the 2024 release of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” I started thinking about the best Funny ghost movies — those that might offer a little bit of a scare, but are mostly about the inconveniences and embarrassing situations those who have trouble leaving this realm cause the earthly beings they haunt.

These aren’t film that reign supreme on Oscar night, although there are a few nominations and a couple of wins in the group. In 1946, “Blithe Spirit” took the statue for Best Visual Effects,...

It hardly needs repeating, but director John Carpenter is known for making multiple horror classics, including "Halloween," "The Fog," "Christine," "The Thing," "Prince of Darkness," "In the Mouth of Madness" and "Vampires." Although Carpenter doesn't have a notable, recognizable style or motif in his filmography (apart from recurring actors) he does seem to possess a subtle, natural mastery of filmmaking craft that makes all his films, even the bad ones, imminently watchable.

Carpenter loves horror, of course, but oddly, he's not a horror guy at heart. He possesses an old-world workman's attitude when it comes to filmmaking, just sort of sussing out, by instinct, how to shoot a scene, regardless of genre. Carpenter has given multiple interviews where he's talked about monster movies and sci-fi flicks that inspired him, but moreso, Carpenter talks about the films of John Ford and Howard Hawks, two American filmmakers best known for their high-profile Westerns.

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jeff Pope (“Philomena”) and Xavier Marchand of “Nautilus” producer Moonriver TV are teaming up on “Castle of the Eagles,” a six-episode limited series based on the true story of Allied POWs who staged a daring prison break from a fortified Italian castle during World War II.

The duo will be presenting the project to an industry audience in Rome during the Mia Market, which runs Oct. 14 – 18.

Written by Pope and based on the book of the same name by Mark Felton, “Castle of the Eagles” is produced by Marchand for Moonriver and Pope for his production label Etta Pictures, which is part of ITV Studios. “Harry Potter” star Jason Isaacs, who played Cary Grant in the four-part ITV biopic “Archie” written by Pope, is attached in a lead role.

The series begins in 1943, with war raging across Europe and some two dozen Allied soldiers and officers imprisoned in Castello Vincigliata,...

Warner Bros. is bringing two cinematic classics to a new physical media transfer this Thanksgiving season. Blu-ray.com has announced the 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-ray releases of Alfred Hitchcock‘s spy thriller North by Northwest and Mel Brooks‘ irreverent western satire Blazing Saddles. Both releases will be hitting retailers on November 19.

North by Northwest stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, and Leo G. Carroll. The description reads, “Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers. While leaving New York’s Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of standing just as the name “George Kaplan” is paged–starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him–and by police who suspect him of murder.

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Outside of established IP, there are few sure things in Hollywood filmmaking. There was a time when John Wayne astride a horse was a license to print money, ditto Clint Eastwood (who also packed 'em in whilst brandishing a shield and a hand cannon). And there was that remarkable decade-long run where Rob Reiner standing behind the camera meant guaranteed critical, if not full-on commercial success.

Hot streaks don't just happen like this, so when it looks like a shooter is heating up, studios line up to place the heaviest of bets on their next roll. Such was the case with the team of star Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld after the blockbuster breakthrough of 1997's "Men in Black." This was Smith's first smash outside of an ensemble (one he almost turned down), and Sonnenfeld's fourth box office hit after "The Addams Family,...

North by Northwest (65th anniversary) will be released for the first time on 4K Ultra HD and Digital on November 19. North By Northwest Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers. While leaving New York’s Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of raising his hand just as the name “George Kaplan” is paged–starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him–and by police who suspect him ... Read more...

Miguel Gomes’s Grand Tour takes its title from an established travel itinerary known as the Asian Grand Tour, a popular option with Westerners seeking a broad but surface-level introduction to the continent in the early 20th century. Proceeding from Mandalay to Rangoon (present-day Yangon) to Singapore, and then on through Bangkok, Saigon, Manila, and Osaka, before ending in Shanghai, the tour was ideally designed to satisfy the era’s popular taste for Eastern exoticism in an efficient, tourist-friendly package.

It’s easy to see the appeal for Gomes, a director for whom boundaries of space and time have always been ripe for cinematic manipulation. Grand Tour retraces the steps of the journey with the imagination and playfulness of his best work, indulging its globetrotting impulses while casting a satirical eye on its uncomfortable basis in colonial conquest.

Gomes’s film actually takes its titular tour twice, utilizing a diptych...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Toony Terrors Figures from Neca

Neca’s latest wave of Toony Terrors, dubbed “Silver Screen,” features black-and-white versions of Nosferatu, Vincent Price, Vampira, and They Live’s Alien in Suit.

Nosferatu comes with a rat. Vincent Price includes a cat, skull, and interchangeable hand. Vampira has a skull. Alien in Suit features a piece of propaganda.

Modeled in the style of classic Saturday morning cartoons, each 6” scale figure comes on blister card packaging with a cutout backdrop. The set of four is available for $64.99.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space Neon Sign from Spirit Halloween

Spirit Halloween has added several neon signs to its arsenal this spooky season, including Killer Klowns from Outer Space‘s cotton candy gun.

Linda Gray wants to transform Southfork Ranch and produce a holiday movie for Dallas fans. The actress who played Sue Ellen Ewing is executive producing a holiday movie that will give her one more chance to revisit this special place. Most of all, she wants to also star in this movie along with one of her former castmates.

Here are all the details.

Used with permission by Lifetime Linda Gray Is Executive Producer Of Dallas-Inspired Holiday Movie

On Friday, Michael Fairman TV reported that “Dallas star Linda Gray signs on as executive producer of a proposed holiday-themed TV movie to shoot at Southfork.” The insider reports that Gray wants to return to Southfork to film a movie “with a major twist.” Describing this as a love letter” to the fans of the evening soap, this is a “lighthearted Christmas comedy.”

Co-starring with her would “potentially” be Patrick Duffy, who portrayed Bobby Ewing.

Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for its 65th birthday: more on the release here.

Something that’s occasionally forgotten when talking about the work of Alfred Hitchcock is just how big and mainstream his films were. Because he’s now such a revered movie director, he tends to get boxed in towards art house classics sections, when actually, so many of his films are very, very broad churches.

Which leads me to North By Northwest. It took me a while to get to the film for the first time, but this is in its own way a big, broad, blockbuster film. Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason star, in a film that’s got some ambitious set pieces in it. And, well, it’s just a hell of a rollercoaster, that really holds up. Not bad for a movie that’s celebrating its 65th birthday.

“Good bye, Twitter.”

That was John Cleese’s foreboding message to his 5.5 million followers on Twitter, er, X.com last night. Given that this post was Cleese’s 67th since Labor Day (that’s about 10 tweets a day if you don’t want to get out your calculator), it will be interesting to see if his tweet was truly a final bon voyage or more in line with those “we mean it this time!” Monty Python farewell reunion tours.

What set Cleese off enough to make him (maybe) leave the platform? After all, users regularly get his goat, setting off Tweet flurries as he argues with fans over who really understands Monty Python comedy. Yesterday’s offender seems to be none other than the big boss himself, Elon Musk, who had shared a “100” emoji in response to a slam on presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Musk has tweeted worse, but Cleese...

Any kid who ever dreamed of striding the boards, meticulously prepping for their glamorous on-camera close-up, or adorning the walls of teenagers all over the world as the most fetching heartthrob on the planet, did not entertain for a second that steady work as less-than-studly screen presence like M Emmet Walsh could be its own gloriously gruff reward. If you were born with a face that looked like it went 12 rounds with Sonny Liston before exiting the birth canal, or walked in heels like they were a pair of Carhartts, you're probably destined to be a working stiff like the rest of us for the remainder of your life.

And there is dignity in this. There is meaning. And not to get your hopes up too high, but if you can strut across the stage like you were born to it, hold the gaze of a camera, or fire off one-liners with buffoonish aplomb,...

Jennifer Lopez might have begun her career on TV, but now she is one of the most recognized actresses and singers around the world. Apart from revolutionizing Latin Pop and the Pop genre in the music industry, Lopez is also a pretty talented actress.

Credits: Jennifer Lopez via ABC News

However, there was once a time when Lopez was offered only ‘maid’ roles, which made her fight her way through to the top. Soon, her determination bore fruit, when she was considered too pretty to be cast alongside Matthew McConaughey in her first romantic comedy, The Wedding Planner.

Jennifer Lopez was Considered Too Pretty to be in The Wedding Planner Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez in a still from The Wedding Planner | Credits: Columbia Pictures

When Jennifer Lopez was cast in the 2001 film, The Wedding Planner, she had already made quite a name for herself. Her debut album and other...

Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! It’s been nearly four decades since everyone’s favorite bio-exorcist played by Michael Keaton erupted onto movie screens in 1988, and audiences have eagerly awaited his return ever since.

I recently caught part of another spirted film about mischievous ghosts, the Cary Grant classic “Topper” (1937), which is one I’ve enjoyed a few times over the years. I love a good ghost movie — scary, funny or even a little of both. With the 2024 release of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” I started thinking about the best Funny ghost movies — those that might offer a little bit of a scare, but are mostly about the inconveniences and embarrassing situations those who have trouble leaving this realm cause the earthly beings they haunt.

These aren’t film that reign supreme on Oscar night, although there are a few nominations and a couple of wins in the group. In 1946, “Blithe Spirit” took the statue for Best Visual Effects,...

Ben Stiller just got his comedy mojo back in the most unexpected of places.

Nutcrackers, the official opening-night film of the 2024 Toronto Film Festival, is not the kind of movie you expect to see at serious film festivals, which tend to go for darker or less obviously commercial fare. So it is a bit of a surprise to see TIFF launching with a purely entertaining and heartwarming family holiday movie that will make you laugh, cry and walk out feeling good. Nothing wrong with that.

This is the kind of movie Hollywood used to deliver all the time but has clearly forgotten how to make — until now. Among the inspirations for director David Gordon Green were The Bad News Bears, Six Pack, Uncle Buck and Overboard. You might expect John Hughes was back from the dead, along with this genre. I would go back even further to the ’50s and ’60s,...

Jennifer Lopez co-starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in one of her most popular films The Wedding Planner. But according to the film’s director, she had a lot going against her before she was cast in the romcom.

How Jennifer Lopez ended up in ‘The Wedding Planner’ Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey | Columbia Pictures/Getty Images

Lopez was far from the first choice for the 2001 feature The Wedding Planner. She hadn’t quite reached her superstar status back then just yet, so Lopez was only tested for a limited set of roles.

“When I started in the industry, I remember we talked about that I would always go in for what they would call the maid, the dishwasher. I was like, ‘I don’t want to do that,’” Lopez told ABC News. “I had to kind of break out of that, and convince somebody to put me in the first romantic comedy,...

Oxford grad Hugh Grant has outgrown most of his romantic comedy ticks from his early years – flopsy-mopsy hair, fluttery eyelashes and charming stutter – and has matured into an exceptional and versatile actor. Not that he has lost his sense of humor. Anyone who chuckled over his villainous turn in this year’s “Paddington 2” as a pompous, cravat-wrapped actor who frames his cuddly ursine co-star for a crime he didn’t commit can testify to that Then there was his finely tuned scoundrel turn in the BBC miniseries, “A Very English Scandal,“ in which his Parliament member Jeremy Thorpe plots the botched murder of his male lover.

Grant began his acting career in the ‘80s as secondary player in both British period pieces — some good (“Maurice”) and others faintly ridiculous (“The Lair of the White Moon”) – and Hollywood comedies (the gangster farce “Mickey Blue Eyes”). But any hopes that he...

Image source: Paramount Pictures We love recommending movies that you may not have seen or thought of in a long time, and this week’s pick is a true classic: the 1978 comedy Heaven Can Wait. It’s the perfect choice for a cozy evening in, filled with laughter, heartwarming moments, and a touch of fantasy. Prepare to be charmed by the star-studded cast of Heaven Can Wait, led by the multi-talented Warren Beatty, who not only stars but also co-wrote and co-directed this gem. You’ll also enjoy the company of Julie Christie, James Mason, Jack Warden and comedy legends Charles Grodin and Buck Henry. The plot follows a Los Angeles Rams quarterback who is prematurely taken from his body, only to find himself reincarnated in the body of a millionaire. This hilarious and heartwarming film blends fantasy and romance, promising a delightful cinematic experience. Fun Facts: (Via IMDb) Believe it or not,...

Exclusive: Everyone knows Studio 54, the iconic New York nightclub that flourished in the 1970s. But the West Coast claimed its own magnetic hotspot in that era – a place that attracted celebrities and the gay community for a wild time of dancing, drinking and debauchery.

Studio One Forever, directed by Marc Saltarelli, documents a discotheque and cabaret that welcomed the likes of Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Elton John, and Chita Rivera, future notables like writer Bruce Vilanch, and hot young things in skimpy shorts. Gravitas Ventures today announced it has acquired North American distribution rights for the documentary, with plans to release it theatrically in Los Angeles on September 13 and on VOD beginning October 8. Watch the film’s trailer below.

The film includes new interviews with Melissa Rivers, Roslyn Kind, Lance Bass, Thelma Houston and more “as they recount their experiences at Studio One, and what...

Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief is making its 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray debut in the UK this autumn – more details here.

Here’s a very welcome treat for collectors of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. The 1955 Alfred Hitchcock thriller To Catch A Thief will be arriving on the format for the very first time this autumn, and in a rather spanking looking set.

The movie – which is liberally doused with romance – sees Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, a string of burglaries and a whole lot of fun. Because it’s Alfred Hitchcock and nearly 70 years old, To Catch A Thief is now filed as a posh slice of cinema, and perhaps it is. But just like something such as North By Northwest (which is due on 4K disc later this year too), this is a tremendous amount of fun, a blockbuster movie in vintage clothes.

Paramount holds...

There have been several successful filmmakers in Hollywood, but talents like Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg are a rarity. The two are cemented as the epitome of class and creativity, and stand tall in their respective genres.

Jack Nicholson in The Shining| Warner Bros

However, the two greats did not always agree with each other’s opinions, but the difference only led to something greater. Kubrick, being the pioneer in film adaptations of several written works, once gave an important lesson to Spielberg with the help of his movie, The Shining.

Steven Spielberg didn’t like The Shining on his first watch

Steven Spielberg is counted among the legends of the film industry today. In his career spanning decades, he has learned from some of the best in the field, including Stanley Kubrick, an expert in the psychological thriller genre. The Shining is often considered his magnum opus in that field.

A casual glance at Chiwetel Ejiofor’s upcoming lineup of films — spanning a superhero franchise (“Venom: The Last Dance”), a beloved rom-com return (“Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy”), a Stephen King adaptation (Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck”) and an A-list directorial debut (Scarlett Johansson’s “Eleanor the Great”) — hints at an insanely hectic work schedule for the actor.

But even while being busy in front of the camera, the Brit — best known for roles in films such as “12 Years a Slave,” “Love, Actually” and “Doctor Strange” — has somehow managed to carve out time behind it. Six years on from his well-received directorial debut, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” he returns with sophomore feature “Rob Peace,” released Friday with Paramount’s Republic Pictures.

Adapted by Ejiofor from Jeff Hobb’s 2014 book “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace,” the film tells the true story of...

by Cláudio Alves

Since last month, the Criterion Channel has hosted a curated collection of screwball comedies, spanning the subgenre's pre-Code genesis to its postwar decline. Among the many screwy delights, you'll find The Awful Truth, Leo McCarey's 1937 classic, and a Best Director Oscar winner to boot. Indeed, the movie was most beloved by the Academy, scoring five additional nominations, including for Picture, Actress, and Supporting Actor. According to contemporary publications, that last honor was a relative surprise, especially since the movie's leading man was left off the ballot altogether.

You would think a major star associated with such an awards juggernaut would have an easy time nabbing themselves a coattails nomination, but Cary Grant was out of luck in 1937. Well, when it comes to the AMPAS, he was often unfortunate, only ever getting their seal of approval in the early 40s with a couple of dips into melodrama-land.

A flighty caper is pinned down by the chemistry between its legendary leads: Hepburn has arguably never been funnier, with Grant in his silver fox era

Equal parts romcom, spy film and Givenchy showcase, Charade has remained one of cinema’s frothiest romantic thrillers for more than 60 years.

At its centre is a luminous Audrey Hepburn, cast against her typical onscreen persona in her first suspense film (though still draped in lavish custom outfits). No longer the wide-eyed ingenue introduced Roman Holiday (1953) and Sabrina (1954), she plays Regina “Reggie” Lambert, a jaded woman looking to end her loveless marriage – until her husband suddenly turns up dead, having taken a coveted $250,000 fortune (inflation!) to his grave. Reggie soon finds herself pursued across Paris by a gang of scenery-chewing ex-cronies, as well as Cary Grant’s Peter Joshua, a silver fox who offers a sturdy shoulder to cry on (and his own covert...

Alfred Hitchcock has long been revered as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. He also holds the unfortunate distinction of being one of Oscar’s biggest losers, with five Best Director nominations and no wins. Still, who needs an Oscar when you’ve impacted world cinema as significantly as “Hitch” has? Let’s take a look back at 25 of his greatest films, ranked from worst to best.

Known as “the Master of Suspense,” Hitchcock cut his teeth directing silent movies in his native England. With films like “The Lodger” (1927), he gained a reputation for helming tense and stylish psychological thrillers. With the invention of sound came an added element to Hitchcock’s work: a sly sense of humor.

He moved to America in 1940 to direct two films that earned Best Picture nominations: “Foreign Correspondent” and “Rebecca,” which took home the top prize. Hitchcock competed for directing “Rebecca,...

Blake Lively’s latest Vogue cover story photoshoot has taken the internet by storm. Styled in retro looks by Baz Luhrmann, she appears stunning and poses alongside Hugh Jackman, the co-star of her husband Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine.

The photoshoot includes a noteworthy Easter egg for desi fans: actor Ali Fazal is spotted in the background of a picture where Blake, dressed in a golden outfit, leans against a casino table. Ali Fazal, recognized for his roles in Furious 7, Victoria & Abdul, Death on the Nile, and Kandahar, is seen wearing a golden sherwani.

Lady Deadpool’s look revealed in Deadpool and Wolverine trailer; Fans divided between Taylor Swift and Blake Lively as Lady Deadpool

She captioned her post, “This article feels like, if I was able to attend my own funeral & leave happy, & alive. Thank you @asgreer for your time & gift of words. You met me...

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When his Twisters co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones declared that this was decidedly “a Glenn Powell summer,” well, she wasn’t wrong. It seems like everyone from X/Twitter film bros to casual movie-goers agree that Glen Powell officially brought Hollywood summer blockbusters “so back” with his irresistible tornado wrangler character, Tyler Owens. Or maybe it was his rescue dog Brisket taking over the junket circuit and the T-shirt made...

Like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese before him, Jon M. Chu is sharing his TCM Picks from their upcoming lineup. The director of “Crazy Rich Asians,” “In the Heights,” and the upcoming “Wicked” is following in Guillermo del Toro’s footsteps in highlighting a great film that sometimes doesn’t get as much love as it should. Watch Chu’s picks in the video below.

Del Toro picked Alfred Hitchcock’s “Suspicion” among his favorites. It’s one of IndieWire’s as well, and we put it at #10 on our list of Hitchcock’s greatest movies. But that film is often overlooked, even by Hitchcock fans.

Similarly, movie musical lovers sometimes overlook Henry King’s 1956 adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Carousel,” starring Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae. The people who love it, though, fiercely advocate for it, and Chu is among them.

“I’ve loved ‘Carousel’ since I was a kid,...

When IndieWire recently ranked the 25 best films of Alfred Hitchcock, it was probably no surprise to anyone that “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” the director’s sole attempt at a light romantic comedy, didn’t make the cut. Even Hitchcock himself tended to underrate the film, as when he told interviewer François Truffaut that “since I didn’t really understand the type of people who were portrayed in the film, all I did was photograph the scenes as written.” From a filmmaker who regularly dismissed movies he considered uncinematic as mere “photographs of people talking,” this was the ultimate self-directed insult.

Yet even a casual reappraisal of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” newly available in an exquisite Blu-ray special edition from Warner Archive, undermines Hitchcock’s claims about his own movie. While it would be a bridge too far to declare the film a masterpiece on a par with “Psycho” or “Rear Window,...

When putting together a list of the 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, it’s like plunging into a spectacular alternate universe of wit, verve, and style. The director of “Rear Window,” “Vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” and “Psycho” has a body of work so deep there are endless ways you can parse it: Maybe you could focus on his obsession with mothers, his approach to time, or the way food and painting pop up throughout his films.

But on a basic level, you also run into a challenge with Hitchcock you face with few other filmmakers, full-stop: The Master of Suspense is one of the rare directors to have a filmography with both the volume and the quality to credibly field a Top 25. With what other filmmakers can you do that? John Ford, certainly (Ford had the most films in our recent list of the 100 Greatest Westerns). Godard or Fassbinder perhaps? They...

This week sees the release of Twisters, the second entry in the Twister saga that no one really wanted or needed. I mean, the first movie came out so long ago that audiences were positively blown away at the sight of a CGI cow flying through the air, as if it were something from Avatar or a train pulling into a train station.

While the co-writer of Twister, the late Michael Crichton, may have gone to great lengths to create the plot lines for novels like Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain and The Great Train Robbery, for the tornado-based blockbuster he admitted that he borrowed heavily from a TV documentary and a classic screwball comedy.

Reportedly, Crichton became “fascinated” with tornadoes after seeing them discussed in an episode of Nova, the long-running PBS science show. But while he and his wife Anne-Marie Martin, who co-wrote Twister, discussed the possibility of...

Over the 96 years of Academy Awards history, over 900 men and women have been honored with acting nominations. On July 4, 2024, the oldest surviving acting winner (or nominee) has turned 100 years old. Our research shows that Eva Marie Saint joins a very short list of centenarians who received Oscar acting nominations, with four winning the award.

A star of stage, radio, TV and film, Saint won the Best Supporting Actress statue in 1955 for her debut movie performance in “On the Waterfront;” she is also the earliest surviving acting winner, and one of the last stars of the Golden Era. She later starred alongside Cary Grant in one of Alfred Hitchcock‘s most acclaimed films, “North by Northwest” (1959), and became known to a younger generation as Clark Kent’s adoptive mother in “Superman Returns” (2006). Although she’s never received another Oscar nomination, she’s earned five Emmy nominations, winning Best Miniseries Supporting Actress...

Before Ayo Edebiri broke out in “The Bear” and “Bottoms” or even as a voice on “Big Mouth,” she was a huge Letterboxd influencer, offering a mix of hilarious and thoughtful commentary on a wide range of cinema. She has largely tempered her posting, still contributing a brief review from time to time, but is now returning to the film criticism forum with some recent Criterion Closet picks.

“I be on these sales. I’m on these sales. I’m getting 50 percent off these DVDs just like you are, so I’m very excited to be here,” Edebiri said as she scoured shelf upon shelf of classic cinema.

Edebiri’s first pick was Akira Kurasawa’s pulpy crime drama and the inspiration for Spike Lee and Denzel Washington’s latest collaboration, “High & Low.” Discussing the film, Edebiri said, “I’ve been seeing this popping off Letterboxd, which I think...

Venice Classics will screen restorations of Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Night and Vittorio De Sica’s The Gold Of Naples as part of an 18-film programme at the 81st Venice Film Festival (August 28-Septemer 7).

The Night, a 1961 black-and-white drama depicted a day and night in the life of a disillusioned novelist and his alienated wife, will play in the 100th anniversary year of the birth of its lead actor Marcello Mastroianni.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

De Sica’s 1954 The Gold Of Naples is formed of six episodes inspired by Giovanni Marotta’s short stories, and plays...

This article contains spoilers for "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F."

Actors almost never become movie stars overnight. Even the born-to-dazzle likes of Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, and Paul Newman needed a bit of runway to soar to that rarified Hollywood air. Eddie Murphy, however, needed just one moment in his first movie to become a generational showbiz phenomenon.

That moment arrived 38 minutes into Walter Hill's 1982 action-comedy hit "48 Hrs.," when Murphy's furloughed criminal Reggie Hammond convinces Nick Nolte's Detective Jack Cates to let him shakedown a redneck bar's racist patrons for information on the whereabouts of a cop killer. Reggie, tired of Cates insistence that it takes "bullls*** and experience" to successfully interrogate suspects, invites the officer to "Come on in and experience some of my bulls***." Armed with nothing but Cates' shield and his mouth, Reggie bullies cows a saloon full of hostile white folks into terrified silence.

Just as most young actors who headed to New York post World War II, Eva Marie Saint was a staple on live television. In fact, her first TV appearance was in 1947 in a production of “A Christmas Carol” starring John Carradine as Scrooge. Saint, who celebrates her 100th birthday on July 4, told me in a 2013 L.A. Times interview that she didn’t appear on screen in her first TV gig that same year on NBC’s “The Borden Show.” She was hired to simply supply applause off-camera and called her parents to tell them the good news. “After the show, they called me and mom said, ‘Honey, we just love the show, and Dad thinks he heard you applauding.”’

Doing live TV got the lithe blonde actress a lot of exposure. One time it was way too much exposure. Between 1950-52, Saint appeared as the daughter of a high-powered San...

Spirited AwayImage: Gkids

Now that we’re used to HBO Max shedding the best part of its name to become just Max, we can concentrate on what really matters: the movies. Max’s impressive library includes most films released by Warner Bros., along with HBO original movies, plus titles from...

While each actor has their own unique approach to the work they do and their own specific strengths, it's not uncommon for TV and movie stars to look to each other for inspiration. Even the most acclaimed stars sometimes need the help of their co-stars in times of need.

As a result, the most popular TV shows are often intertwined in more ways than viewers may realize. While you may think there is nothing connecting The CW's hit Supernatural and one of CBS' most successful franchises, NCIS, the stars of the show would beg to differ.

Is NCIS’ Tony Dinozzo Based on a Real Person?

Speaking of establishing his character at the very beginning of NCIS, Michael Weatherly had many people to thank for keeping up with his ever-changing mind. The clear vision of Agent Dinozzo didn't come to him right away. In fact, the actor had to spend some...