Todd Gilchrist
Talking ‘Kon-Tiki’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 5′ With Directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Ronning
A nominee for Best Foreign Film at the 2013 Academy Awards, Kon-Tiki not only roused audiences with its sweeping tale of Thor Heyerdahl’s journey across the Pacific, but earned the kind of widespread acclaim that could make its directors’ careers. But Espen Sandberg and Joachim Ronning, the team responsible for the adventure, have been working steadily for years around the world, debuting with the
‘Insidious: Chapter 2′ Interview: James Wan and Leigh Whannell on How to Make a Sequel Even Scarier
Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell are responsible for one of the biggest horror franchises of all-time with the 'Saw' movies. Since then, they've created yet another horror franchise as 'Insidious: Chapter 2' opens in theaters this Friday. We caught up with Wan (who also directed this summer's 'The Conjuring') and Whannell to talk about creating the follow-up and how exactly you make a
‘Riddick’ Review
It should have been called ‘No Homo: The Movie.’
Vin Diesel, whose entire career feels like homage to the musclebound machismo of the 1980s, has possibly reached the peak – by which I mean, nadir – of his search for the meaning of virility. ‘Riddick,’ the overdue, and largely unwanted, third installment in Diesel’s first big film series, is so full of tough-guy overcompensation that it makes the ‘
‘Smurfs 2′ Review
'Smurfs 2' is pretty much unbearable, but then again I am a guy with no children whose favorite 2013 so far is a toss-up between 'Stoker' and 'Only God Forgives.' To paraphrase Roger Ebert, I’m as sure of the fact that there is an audience for this sequel as I am that I’m not a member of it, but does that excuse how overmodulated and mind-obliteratingly stupid Raja Gosnell’s sequel is? It seems li
‘Only God Forgives’ Review
'Only God Forgives' feels like a merciless practical joke played upon followers of Nicolas Winding Refn’s career, fans of Ryan Gosling, and perhaps most of all, moviegoers who flocked to their first collaboration, 'Drive.' It has the same glossy visual sheen as its predecessor and the same sort of impenetrable main character, but it’s almost nothing like that film, unless a throughline of deeply d
Charlie Day Interview: From ‘Always Sunny’ to ‘Pacific Rim’
Brilliantly manic but decidedly unimposing, Charlie Day doesn’t seem like the most obvious actor to be cast in a sweeping sci-fi opus like 'Pacific Rim.' But in Guillermo del Toro’s new film, Day is perfectly cast as a fanboy scientist who is as fascinated by the gigantic monsters that are attacking humankind as he is determined to stop them. He not only serves as some much-needed comic relief in
Guillermo del Toro Interview: The ‘Pacific Rim’ Director Talks Creating the Ultimate Summer Blockbuster
Leave it to a foreigner to make possibly Hollywood’s most archetypical American film of 2013, 'Pacific Rim.' Although Guillermo del Toro borrowed from Japanese monster movies and anime for his basic idea, set much of the film in foreign countries, and assembled a cast of characters that more or less defines "multiethnic" and "multicultural", he celebrates the West’s great melti
‘The Way, Way Back’ Interview: Stars Sam Rockwell and Maya Rudolph
"Marky Mark and the Fun Bunch." Precisely how Maya Rudolph came to incorrectly remember the name of Mark Wahlberg’s former music group is just one of the highlights of this great interview with her and Sam Rockwell, the two stars of 'The Way, Way Back,' the directorial debut of the writing team of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. In the film, Rockwell and Rudolph play employees of a water park wh
‘Man of Steel’ Interview: Producer Chuck Roven
Although his more recent work has stolen the hearts of fanboys over and over again, Chuck Roven is a remarkably unpredictable producer. All three of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, not to mention 'Man of Steel', were produced under his auspices, but so was 'Twelve Monkeys.' 'City Of Angels.' 'Three Kings,' among many more. Roven is a proven commercial powerhouse whose calling card is, unlike con
‘Man of Steel’ Cast Interview: Why Superman Had to Be Reinvented For a New Generation
Although this summer has been full of highly-anticipated blockbusters, 'Man of Steel' may be the one that has worked fans into the biggest tizzy. The long-overdue follow-up to Bryan Singer’s 'Superman Returns,' conceived as a reimagining of the character from the ground up, promises the kind of moral complexity of the last three Batman movies, while still retaining the energy and frenetic action o