The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Great Odin's Raven! Early Reviews Suggest 'Thor' Is Actually Kind Of Decent

By Oliver Lyttelton
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April 18, 2011 1:02 AM
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5 Comments

The summer of superheroes is about to kick off, and it's only a matter of days until the world gets its first look at "Thor," Marvel's latest piece of an insanely ambitious five-film plan building towards next summer's team-up movie, "The Avengers." And for some time, it looked like the film had an uphill battle ahead of it -- last year's "Iron Man 2" was, at best, a disappointment, and early looks at "Thor" had veered from the underwhelming to the silly. But ahead of its release in some parts of the world next week, and the States on May 6th, the film has now screened, with the world premiere taking place in Sydney last night, and critics there, as well as in London, where the film unspooled last week, and L.A, where a very select group of geek press were shown the picture, have weighed in. So, what's the word?

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 4, 2011 8:44 AM
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3 Comments

Where there's smoke, there's fire, and The Weinstein Company must have seen the smoke. Deadline reports that bidding for the upcoming book "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown had fierce competition between publishers Viking and Random House with bids going up to $750,000. Well, the Weinsteins know a hot project when they see one as they've snatched up the film rights and it's already attracted a director.

By Oliver Lyttelton
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March 3, 2011 10:32 AM
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8 Comments

So, yes, you know the drill by now: we've done Best Picture for 2012 and we've done our Actor and Actress picks. Now, we're turning our hand to the ever-undervalued supporting players.

By Edward Davis
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February 18, 2011 12:12 AM
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18 Comments

At this point in the super hero tentpole sweepstakes of 2011, Kenneth Branagh has his work cut out for him and is playing catch up. When the venerable director was first announced as the helmer for Marvel's live-action adaptation of their Asgardian hero “Thor,” many of us discerning filmgoers presumed Branagh was going to class up the joint in a big, big, way.

By The Playlist
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February 7, 2011 1:13 AM
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3 Comments

At this point, we're not holding out judgement on any of these kinds of films, hell, these are :30 second Super Bowl spots. The idea is definitely: have a beer, lean back and enjoy yourself, right? But, gotta say, the trailer for Kenneth Branagh's "Thor" is definitely less impressive than "Captain America," "Battle: Los Angeles" and hell, even "Transformers 3."

By Kevin Jagernauth
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February 3, 2011 2:49 AM
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5 Comments

After toiling away on the big budget comic movie "Thor," it looks like director Kenneth Branagh and actor Anthony Hopkins -- who seem to have got on smashingly -- are looking to scale things back a bit for their next project together.

By Oliver Lyttelton
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November 26, 2010 2:05 AM
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2 Comments

Actress Talks Taking On Iconic Role For whatever reason (perhaps a sudden influx of late-night cable repeats of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"...), Marilyn Monroe is somewhat in vogue. For instance, Andrew Dominik is working on an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' Monroe-centric novel "Blonde," with Naomi Watts. That's a few years off yet, as the director's first heading for crime thriller "Cogan's Trade," but another take on the legendary star has just wrapped in the UK -- "My Week With Marilyn."