Matt Singer is the editor and critic of the website ScreenCrush.com. For five years, he was the on-air host of IFC News on the Independent Film Channel, hosting coverage of film festivals and red carpets around the world. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, he’s been a frequent contributor to the television shows CBS This Morning Saturday and Ebert Presents At the Movies, and his writing has also appeared in print and online at The Village Voice, The Dissolve, and Indiewire. His first book, Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular, is on sale now.
Matt Singer
The ‘Spider-Verse’ Sequel Will Be a Miles Morales/Gwen Stacy Romance
Plus there are new details on the cast of the all-Spider-Women spinoff.
The ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ Post-Credits Scene Explained For People Who Haven’t Wasted Their Life Reading Hundreds of Spider-Man Comics
Who is that mysterious character? Who’s he talking to? What is he up to? If you haven’t spent your life reading Spider-Man comics, we explain it all!
The ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Trailer Is the Most Viewed Trailer in History
After 24 hours, it had been viewed 284 million times.
ScreenCrush’s 2018 Holiday Gift Guide For Movie and TV Nerds
If you need a gift for the movie or television lover in your life (or yourself) here are 10 can't-miss ideas.
‘Creed’ Review: An Old Franchise Flies High Again
“The way I imagine it, after the fight, he’s riding home in a cab, with the roar of the people chanting ‘Rocky!’ still in his ears. And he just drops over dead. In other words, he has achieved everything possible and he dies when he’s on top. I don’t think people want to see Rocky when he’s 80.”
Netflix Is Raising Their Prices…Again
Chill, Netflix.
The cost of a Netflix subscription is getting a 10% hike. In the short term, only new subscribers are affected; they’ll now pay $9.99 for the standard monthly streaming plan, up a dollar from the previous $8.99 price...
First ‘Incredibles 2’ and ‘Cars 3’ Posters on Display at D23
Disney’s annual convention dedicated to itself, D23 (named, I assume, after the number of dollars you have left in your bank account after you go and buy lots of cool Disney swag), kicks off today, so expect plenty of news and announcements coming out of Anaheim all weekend...
‘Vacation’ Review: This Sad Sequel Truly Is a Road Trip from Hell
Full disclosure: I missed the last 10 minutes of Vacation. Last night’s press screening started 20 minutes late, then began without any sound, which lead to a 10 minute delay to correct the technical difficulties. With an unbreakable engagement elsewhere, I had to sneak out right before the very last scene. So take this review with as many grains of salt as you’d like. If you think those final minutes might recontextualize everything that came before to transform a generally miserable comedy into a beacon of transcendent hilarity, so be it. Having sat through the previous 90 minutes, I’m of the opinion that nothing short of the long-lost missing footage from Orson Welles’ Magnificent Ambersons could have redeemed this dreadful film.
The BBC Names the 100 Greatest American Films of All Time
What is the greatest American film of all time? According to BBC.com, who just released a brand new ranking of more than a century of great U.S. cinema, the old favorites are still the best; perennial pick for best film ever, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, came in first in a poll of “62 international film critics ... from the United Kingdom and continental Europe to South America, Australia, India, and the Middle East” and the United States as well.
Disney Bans Smoking in Youth-Rated Movies
If you’re a fan of Disney baddies like cigar-smoking Bill Sykes from Oliver & Company (and really, who isn’t a fan of Bill Sykes from Oliver & Company?), this news is relevant to your tobacco-stained interests: The Walt Disney Company has banned all depictions of smoking from all of its films from all of its child-oriented labels (including Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm) rated G through PG-13. Via a press release:
New Netflix Instant Releases: July 2015
July is almost upon us and it’s going to be a good month for Netflix users, as the streaming service is adding a whole slew of new movies and TV shows, including a bunch of exclusives. Cult comedy fans are eagerly awaiting the debut of the return of Wet Hot American Summer as a new series featuring the original cast, and standup fans will get a brand-new special from Rush Hour star Chris Tucker. Plus, there’s a whole slew of recent hits from television and cinemas (The Guest!). Read on for your guide to the new Netflix Instant releases arriving in July.
Christopher Lee, ‘Dracula’, ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ Actor, Dead at 93
After a staggering career that spanned more than sixty years actor, Christopher Lee has died. He was 93 years old. The BBC reports he passed away on Sunday “at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, after being hospitalized for respiratory problems and heart failure.” The legendary actor appeared in over 240 movies.
Clint Eastwood to Direct Movie About Heroic Pilot Chelsey ‘Sully’ Sullenberger
On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 was struck by a flock of geese during takeoff from LaGuardia Airport. The plane’s captain, Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger, successfully brought the plane down in the Hudson River, where all 155 passengers and crew members were evacuated and survived. It was an incredible story, one that played out in real time on the news; I vividly remember being at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and watching the whole rescue play out on television.
‘Jaws’ Is Coming Back to Theaters For Its 40th Anniversary
On June 20, 1975 a movie about an angry fish opened in about 500 theaters around the country. It was called Jaws, it was directed a guy named Steven Spielberg, it was scary as hell, and it changed the world forever. Its unique release strategy (wide instead of limited), intense television marketing campaign, and record-breaking box office essentially created the summer movie season (and made Spielberg a household name). 40 years later, regardless of its impact, Jaws remains a masterpiece, and a much better and more interesting movie than the vast majority of so-called summer blockbusters that it birthed.
‘Poltergeist’ Review: A Decent Remake Haunted By the Spirit of the Original
Everything that goes wrong in Poltergeist stems from an act of desecration; the building of a cookie-cutter housing development on top of an old cemetery. Some might find the sheer act of attempting a remake of Poltergeist similarly disrespectful; the 1982 original is something of a masterpiece of suburban terror. But if viewers can look past the sheer audacity of attempting another Poltergeist, they’ll find a solid modernization, the cinematic equivalent of a decent cover version of a great rock song. It’s totally superfluous, and not nearly as satisfying as the original, but well-performed and effective in its own way. It’s nice (or, in this case, deeply unsettling) to revisit an old classic in a new arrangement.
‘Amy’ Trailer: A New Documentary Goes Back to the Rise and Fall of Amy Winehouse
If you’ve been tracking the goings-on at the Cannes Film Festival this week, you know that one of the best reviewed films of the fest so far is Amy, a documentary on the life of the late singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse. The film, which is directed by Senna filmmaker Asif Kapadia, has gotten near-universal praise. It’s currently at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with lots of other positive reviews out there that haven’t been added to the site yet (like a glowing rave from former ScreenCrush critic Jordan Hoffman at Vanity Fair).
Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger Act Out All His Films in Six Minutes
Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t take himself too seriously.
25 Incredible Movie-Inspired Tattoos
I don’t have any tattoos. I have trouble committing to a pair of shoes in the morning; committing to something that would stay on my body for the rest of my life would be impossible. Maybe that’s why I’m in awe of movie tattoos, and the lengths some folks go to to show their love of film. Forever! You’ve got to be a pretty big fan of a movie to plaster it across your chest for eternity. What if your tastes change? When I was 14, I was really into Police Academy. Can you imagine if 20 years later my wife woke up every morning to this etched into my back?
Prepare For Binging: A List of All the Netflix Originals Premiere Dates for 2015
Netflix has come a long way from those little red envelopes full of DVDs. Today the movies-by-mail rental company is a full-fledged movie and television studio with an impressive slate of original films, documentaries, mini-series, and cartoons. And they keep adding new content constantly; a week after Season 3 of the acclaimed series House of Cards, they unveiled Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt from Tina Fey; two weeks later they debuted Bloodline starring Friday Night Lights’s Kyle Chandler.
Watch 40 Years of Vintage Movie Toy Commercials
It’s a common complaint about modern movies: “They only made this to sell toys.” And sometimes, that’s actually true. But there was a time, not that long ago, when that concept didn’t even exist, and toys based on movies were barely an idea, much less a guarantee. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane (and by memory lane, I mean YouTube) and watch movie toys (and movie marketing) evolve through 40 years of vintage movie toy commercials, from Planet of the Apes to The Avengers.