EDITORIAL: Hearing Fear: Why Music is Half the Battle in Horror Movies

Horror films rely heavily on sound and music to set the tone. The film score and soundtrack of a horror movie can make or break its capacity to strike fear into the hearts of audiences. The catharsis of a horror film—the death of an antagonist or the sudden revival of a monster—is nothing without the protracted, eerie build up throughout a film. Music matters in horror arguably more than it does in any other film genre. If you want to get over a movie that traumatized you in the past, try watching it with the sound muted. But if you want to keep the fear alive, brace yourself and turn the volume all the way up.

2019, Column, Editorial, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 15, 2019Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Peanut Butter Falcon

The Peanut Butter Falcon doesn’t just tell a good story. It tells a great one worthy of attention, praise, and undying appreciation. The purifying freedom that churns throughout this movie could cultivate even the most barren heart. This little lovable film, winner of the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award from the SXSW Film Festival, is the kind of experience that makes one rethink how their own story is going. That is a mighty, motivating accomplishment for something that couldn’t stand out more from the usual summer blockbuster fare.

MOVIE REVIEW: Blinded by the Light

Hell no, you don’t have to be a superfan of Springsteen to enjoy Blinded by the Light, but it sure helps. Even if The Boss is not your ideal vibe, the sprightly emotions on-screen cannot help but target and trigger your own matching passionate feelings for whatever you revere that answers the questions of Lesson #1. Following the affable and lovingly-composed musical worship recently achieved by Yesterday earlier this summer, welcome to your next toe-tapping crowd pleaser to close the summer of 2019.

REWIND REVIEW: Avengers: Endgame

Arriving on home media this week from Disney and Marvel Studios is their colossal blockbuster coda Avengers: Endgame starring everyone who’s everyone from the collective Marvel Cinematic Universe that has been built with tidy and patient blueprints since 2008. Time travel tropes aside, you couldn’t have asked for a better swan song of satisfaction than this big finish. Watch for it arriving in physical media form on store shelves Tuesday, August 13th after an extremely successful theatrical run. This is a pretty customary disc release, and one has to think Disney has something more complete, expansive, and expensive planned someday.

2019, 4 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on Demand, VIDEO REVIEW, DISC REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 13, 2019Avengers: EndgameComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Luce

The enigmas revealed by the spiraling escalation of manipulative confrontations are incredible in Luce. Through the masterful mystery of folding facades written by director Julius Onah and playwright/writer J.C. Lee of How to Get Away With Murder, there is a feverish anticipation of who’s going to turn, who’s going to crack, who’s going to fall, and who’s going to rise. The tension present is unpredictable and captivating.

2019, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 10, 2019Music Box TheatreComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" YouTube channel talking "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood"

Huge kudos go out to Ian Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast for diving into the realm of YouTube! Enjoy Ian, David Fowlie of Keeping It Reel and Emmanuel Noisette of E-Man’s Movie Reviews, and swim across the 1960s and your very screen talking about Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. It’s Ian’s inaugural YouTube round table. If you’ve always thought our podcasts sounded fun with us picking on points and each other, now you get to watch our obnoxious repartee. Enjoy this new video!

Media Appearance, Podcast, Social Media, SPECIAL, 2019Don ShanahanAugust 8, 2019Music Box TheatreKicking the SeatComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Brian Banks

As simple and well-tuned as it is, Brian Banks absolutely works as a fitting and crowd-pleasing source engaging inspiration. This is director Tom Shadyac’s first feature film in 17 years and rare foray into serious fare after a career built as the man who launched Jim Carrey to stardom. There is a steady maturity of craft and tone here that suits this kind of story without heavy melodrama. The sports movie cliches are absent to examine the life of a person before the redemptive fame. The result is a timely film of worthy importance.

2019, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 8, 2019Comment

VINTAGE REVIEW: Medium Cool

When Medium Cool reaches its history-witnessing climax at the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests in Chicago, two crowd chants take over the urban soundscape. The first is a defiant “Hell no! We won’t go!” and the second is “The world is watching.” The observant cameras and microphones used by filmmaker Haskell Wexler preserved that spirited defiance for cinematic immortality. Fifty years after its release, the echoes of those unified shouts in Medium Cool still ring with relevance and importance today. We’re not going anywhere, and people still fix their eyes on this film with shock and awe.

INFOGRAPHIC: Which British Actors Guarantee Box Office Success?

British actors are making a name for themselves by starring in some of the most popular Hollywood releases. But, with all of the leading roles they take, what makes one actor more successful than the other? Which British actor guarantees box office success? The good people at Money Guru have crunched the numbers, analyzing which British actors offer the best Return On Investment (ROI) based on their box office sales as a leading actor and the respective film budgets. These are the stars that offer the biggest earnings, and the results will likely surprise you.

2019, Column, Editorial, Infographic, LIST, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 7, 2019Comment

GUEST EDITORIAL: 10 Mistakes to Avoid While Writing a Movie Review

by Daniela McVicker

Movie review writing mistakes can be very sneaky. They can slip into great movie reviews and can happen even to the best writers. A seemingly irrelevant mistake can corrupt a perfectly good movie review. If you want to write something that stands out and gives the reader relevant information, you should stay away from common mistakes and clichés. Knowing the following mistakes to avoid will make it easier for you to create an amazing movie review.

2019, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 7, 2019Comment

INFOGRAPHIC: Who is the Most Villainous Actress of All-Time?

Bellatrix Lestrange, Mystique and Cruella de Vil. All familiar names with movie buffs and filmgoers alike due to their cunning, cruelty and villainousness. One of the greatest female baddies, Maleficent, is due to return to cinema screens in October in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Played by Angelina Jolie, her character is a powerful fairy who curses the King’s daughter. That got the folks at Casino Kings thinking, who is the most villainous actress of all time? To find out, Casino Kings have trawled through over 1,000 movie bios and storylines to find the most villainous movie actress of all-time.

2019, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Infographic, LIST, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 7, 2019Comment

INFOGRAPHIC: Disney Originals vs. Live-Action Remakes: Which is better?

We love our animated Disney classics—but the live-action interpretations have been met with mixed feelings. A more cynical person might say Disney is afraid to get creative with new stories, and these films are a terrific money-grubbing ploy. But at HowtoWatch.com, we wanted to see how fans and critics felt these remakes live up to the originals. HowToWatch brought in fan ratings from IMDb and critic ratings from Metacritic for the original animated films and their live-action reimaginings. After giving fan and critic ratings equal weight, here’s how the movies compared.