To be charitable, Connery’s attempt at an Irish lilt was no more convincing in 1959’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People than it would be three decades later for his Oscar winning turn in The Untouchables. Nevertheless, there was something charming, beguiling even, about both performances, with the musical one proving strangely important to Connery getting the role of Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007. That might be in large part because Dr....

The Long Song is the first miniseries featured in PBS Masterpiece’s 50th Anniversary season, and it’s U.S. arrival nearly three years after airing on BBC One is highlighting themes that some viewers may not be ready to process but that remain incredibly important. The show is an adaptation of Andrea Levy’s 2010 novel recounting the story of how Jamaican slaves gained their freedom in the 1830’s. Levy worked with white screenwriter Sarah Williams on the script for The Long Song before her death in 2019....

But the real key to The Queen’s Gambit appeal is its focus on one of the world’s oldest and most popular games: chess. Thanks to the show (and also probably the global pandemic), chess is having a bit of a moment right now. According to eBay, the retail site saw a remarkable 273% surge in sales of chess sets in the first 10 days of the Netflix series’ release. This makes some sense given how The Queen’s Gambit is able to make the classic game feel fresh, kinetic, and damn near sensual....

Hulu’s list of new releases for April 2022 is highlighted by FX limited series Under the Banner of Heaven. This adaptation of the non-fiction book by John Krakauer stars Andrew Garfield as a Mormon police detective whose faith is shaken when investigating a murder involving the church. It’s not all just FX on the TV side of things for Hulu this month, however. The streamer is debuting second seasons of its series The Hardy Boys (April 6) and Woke (April 8)....

For such a joyous fantasy of a movie, there’s a curious hint of melancholy which hangs over In the Heights. From the word go, the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical is unapologetically a love letter to Washington Heights and the largely Latinx community who live there. Yet that’s not where the movie begins; we open on Anthony Ramos’ Usnavi and his megawatts smile seemingly living a million miles from home....

With his roles in Star Wars and Blade Runner seemingly concluded, Ford now turns to his other iconic character: Indiana Jones. Indeed, 14 years on from the release of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the 78-year-old actor is now filming what could very well be his final outing as the whip-cracking archaeologist and pulp adventurer. Production is kicking off in the UK, at Bamburgh Castle, a fortress located in the northeast coast of England that dates back to the 11th century....

Having met his servants in ‘The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge’ and ‘The Harrowing’, it was only a matter of time before Old Scratch turned up on Inside No. 9. This series has always had one cloven hoof dipped in the fantasy-horror genre (‘Séance Time’, ‘Tempting Fate’, ‘Dead Line’, ‘Death Be Not Proud’, ‘The Stakeout’), so it’s ripe for a visit from the devil himself. ‘How Do You Plead?’ was a choice vehicle, both for the character, and for Sir Derek Jacobi, whose guest performance was perhaps the best this show has had....

Horror films have made a spiritual ghetto out of the universe which lies between dream, sleep and death. They focus on the malevolent realm of incubi, succubae and the Red-Lipstick-Face Demon. The map to the Further is not limited to shadowy studies. Many mystical practices are divided into black and white magic out of fear and superstition, but there can be room for both. Insidious starts off like a fairly typical haunted house movie....

Based on recent events, however, the pair have their work cut out for them. Before they can even start to produce and release the films and TV shows that they are developing, there are still four more DC movies on the schedule for 2023. And that’s where the trouble seems afoot. Online movie ticket seller Fandango released a survey conducted among users of the top 10 most anticipated blockbusters (of course, that’s assuming they make “blockbuster” money) of next year....

Make no mistake, Phoenix hasn’t quite gone the post-Spectre Daniel Craig, “I’d rather slash my wrists” route regarding the possibility of reprising his Joker title role. In fact, he still seems somewhat intrigued by the notion of tackling a prospective Joker 2, which was the center of conflicting late 2019 trade reports about a studio green light, which were subsequently debunked by director Todd Phillips. However, with sequel rumors having been recently revived, the star’s latest comments on the matter, made to The Playlist at this week’s New York Film Festival, seem to belie the possibility… at least for the immediate future....

Prior to the recent interview, Fisher began drawing public attention in July to what he has called a toxic work environment on the Justice League reshoots. And he singled Whedon out as “gross, abusive, and unprofessional” on the set. This week though, he gave his first anecdotal example of questionable behavior when he told Forbes he heard this summer from another source that Whedon “ordered that the complexion of an actor of color be changed in post-production because he didn’t like the color of their skin tone....

Killing Eve Season 4 Episodes 7 and 8 Killing Eve ends its four-season run in a double-episode finale that is so entirely out of step with the final three minutes that it’s hard to even consider them together. In the end, the finale will be remembered for the rushed, half-baked ending that many fans will see as a betrayal as it takes the easy way out. Using death and trauma as a stand-in for prestige and seriousness of purpose is pervasive issue in the era of Peak TV, but it’s especially pernicious where it intersects with tropes that are harmful toward marginalized groups, like “Bury Your Gays....

When I tell Jed Mercurio that I felt bereft after the end of Line of Duty, he thanks me and jokes “Well, we do aim to leave people disappointed.” I’m talking about missing the communal viewing experience and frenzy of fan theories between episodes; he’s talking about a well-publicised outcry from some viewers that the finale’s ‘H’ mystery reveal was a let-down. Speaking on Zoom three weeks after Line of Duty concluded – perhaps for good – Mercurio has answered the finale’s critics his way....

You could say we’ve taken this too far. You could be right. You could also say that, for a Line of Duty fan attempting to solve the many mysteries of series six, it’s useful to have the hard facts at hand. How does the newly revealed “Fourth Man” suspect Marcus Thurwell fit into the timeline as we know it? What prompted him to take early retirement two years after he conspired to suppress the investigation into the racist murder of Lawrence Christopher?...

“Expectations for this weekend were low, but it still feels like a disappointment as it dropped 34% from last weekend and became the year’s third lowest grossing at the box office. Despite three wide releases, the overall box office dropped to $52.1 million, making this the worst weekend since January and the first weekend since May 2021 where no film grossed over $10 million. The newcomers failed to spark and the top film from last weekend took a massive plunge in the final weekend of August, and while the month outperformed August 2021 (which had a $418 million cume compared to this month’s $451 million with still a few days to go), September may bring us to box-office lows we haven’t seen since the late May 2021 summer kickoff....

“The special will see Gonzo the Great and Pepé the King Prawn survive a night spent at the titular mansion after an invitation from the Ghost Host (Will Arnett). The rest of the Muppets appear as ghosts within the mansion, and Miss Piggy takes on the role of Madame Leota’s floating head in the crystal ball.” Read more at The Mary Sue Did Star Wars: Visions create a multiverse within Star Wars?...

“Earning more than $1 billion USD at the global box office, Top Gun: Maverick was no doubt a cinematic success, but despite its popularity, there’s no sign of a sequel coming to the already sequel 1986’s Top Gun. Luckily for fans, it seems some of the movie’s main cast members would be keen to continue on with more films.” Read more at HypeBeast Did you know the late James Caan turned down a number of huge Hollywood roles, including Han Solo and Superman?...

Up until this point, most of the films released last year were filmed in 2019 or earlier, creating among them a bizarre alternate reality where these stories existed on screen. There was no COVID in their 2020, nor shutdowns, and certainly not a global economy standing still. And barring a few low-budget (but appealingly ambitious) “Zoom” horror movies, that’s the way things went until Doug Liman announced he was filming Locked Down in September: a romantic dramedy that Steven Knight wrote as a dare over the summer....

In the end, Lovecraft Country was all about legacy. The show follows Atticus “Tic” Freeman from estranged son and war vet to literal Magic Negro, and heir to a magical birthright. Tic, his father Montrose, friend-then-lover Letitia “Leti” Lewis, and her sister Ruby Baptiste become entangled with magic and the racist white folks who wield it. Tic seeks to understand and utilize the power inherent in his blood, and in doing so, is forced to face horror after horror in pursuit of his goal....

So where does the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen go next? At this point, there’s no clear word about the new show being a continuation of the Netflix series or a hard reboot. Likely, Marvel will split the difference. If so, the new Daredevil series could retain the cast and continuity, while eschewing its predecessor’s darker tone. If that’s the case, then comic books may be the best guide for future Daredevil stories…...