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The Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from February 19 to March 26, 1945, was a key battle of World War II. The Japanese Army had two fortified bunkers there, which the American Army aimed to capture. The casualties were heavy on both sides, with the Americans ultimately suffering more losses than the Japanese. The island of Iwo Jima was eventually taken, and many Americans are familiar with the photograph (taken by a journalist named Joe Rosenthal) of American soldiers raising a flag at the top of Mount Suribachi. The photo was used as a model by sculptor Felix de Weldon to fashion a statue used at the Marine Corps War Memorial at the Arlington National Cemetery. 

The battle is well-remembered by war historians, and taught extensively in history classes. The Battle of Iwo Jima has also been a popular subject for filmmakers, and many features have been devoted to the war effort. Perhaps most famously,...

When you've worked as a film journalist for 25 years, you get used to people asking you to name the greatest movie all time. I always inform the inquirer that my default answer is Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff." A masterpiece that pretty much destroyed The Ladd Company, it's a soaring, hilarious, uplifting film that celebrates the best parts of the U.S.' cowboy mentality. It's also a brilliant combination of formats, a masterclass in the use of optical visual effects, and the shortest 192 minutes you'll ever spend watching a movie. Once I get this out of the way, I'll add, "But it depends on the day. Catch me walking out of a screening of Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing,' or Ernst Lubitsch's 'To Be or Not to Be,' and that might be my answer."

Sometimes,...

Jackie Chan reenacted his role in Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” at Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival.

Chan played a small part in the iconic film. In the past, he admitted Lee accidentally hit him with a stick during a scene – but that didn’t stop him from completing the take.

“I’m no Superman. I am scared,” he admitted. “Before a stunt, I go: ‘Am I going to die this time’?”

During a masterclass at the Swiss fest, he talked about his beginnings.

“That’s a long, long story,” he said. “I was lazy, naughty, I didn’t want to study – that’s why my father sent me to martial arts school. I liked fighting when I was young. Later, he asked: ‘Did you like the school?’ Yes, very much. I could kick the teacher, punch someone – whatever I wanted,” he joked.

Chan started out as a stuntman,...

"Mad Men" was not a television ratings sensation when it debuted on July 19, 2007, nor was it the rapturously praised critics' darling it would become over subsequent seasons. While it wasn't under-promoted, AMC was best known at the time as the anti-TCM, i.e. an airer of popular contemporary films broken up by commercials. It was a big hit with dads craving casual weekend viewing from the comfort of their couch.

While I was aware of "Mad Men" during its first season, I didn't feel compelled to add it to my Peak TV diet of "The Sopranos," "The Wire," "The Shield," and a handful of other shows. But a few months later, when I saw the season 1 DVD marked way down at a Barnes & Noble, I bought it on a whim. If nothing else, I'd probably enjoy a stylish drama set in the New York City advertising world of the 1960s.

In 1982, we got the “Vietnam veteran pushed too far” action classic First Blood. The following year, James Cameron was hired to write the sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II, which would be about the Rambo character heading back to Vietnam to rescue POWs. Star Sylvester Stallone then reworked Cameron’s script and the film made its way out into the world in 1985 – a year after Cannon Films released the action war movie Missing in Action, which starred Chuck Norris as military officer Colonel James Braddock, who returns to Vietnam to find American soldiers who were listed as missing in action. Even though Missing in Action was released first, it has been accused of being a rip-off of Rambo: First Blood Part II, as it was suspected that Cannon got their hands on the Cameron script in ’83. If you’ve ever wondered if Missing in Action did rip off Rambo, Missing...

Adam Driver’s Journey From Humble Roots To Hollywood Fame (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Adam Driver has had an impressive career growth. From playing supporting characters on the network to transitioning into a lead role on a popular franchise like Star Wars, he has embarked on quite a journey. He has made quite a lot of money from the projects he has taken on over the years and has established himself as one of the wealthiest actors. Apart from minting money, he earned consecutive Academy Award nominations in 2019 and 2020.

The driver has mastered acting and is known for his quirky behavioral patterns. With his fine acting skills, he has never struggled to find work. His estimated net worth might be envied by many. Scroll ahead to learn more about his fortune.

Adam Driver’s Career Highlights & Net Worth

Adam Driver didn’t begin his career as an actor. He has seen it rough,...

Image Source: Sony Pictures

Thirty-nine years ago, on August 8, 1986, Stand By Me, a cinematic masterpiece directed by Rob Reiner, was released in theaters and forever changed how we view friendship in films. Based on Stephen King’s emotional novella The Body, this coming-of-age film isn’t just about four friends on an adventure; it’s a deeply emotional exploration of childhood, loss, and the bonds that define us. Stand By Me captures that one unforgettable summer with your best friends, an experience that stays with you forever.

A Journey Through Time in 1959 Castle Rock, Oregon

Set in the nostalgic year of 1959, Stand By Me follows four boys—Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern, from the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon. What begins as a morbid adventure to find the body of a missing boy transforms into a deeper journey about friendship, personal grief, and growing up. Over the course of two unforgettable days,...

Dutch photographer, filmmaker, and music video director Anton Corbijn will be presented with the Icon Award at the annual Abbey Road Music Photography Awards.

Corbijn has photographed numerous notable subjects over the course of his 40-plus-year photography career, including Tom Waits, David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, Clint Eastwood, Bryan Adams, Cameron Diaz, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Joni Mitchell, Robert De Niro, Gerhard Richter, Ai Weiwei, and Lucian Freud. He is considered to be the house photographer for U2 and Depeche Mode, and has shot both artists for several decades.

Image Source: Warner Bros

Happy 33th Anniversary to Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning masterpiece that redefined the Western genre. Released on August 7, 1992, Unforgiven remains one of the most powerful and enduring films of its kind, a raw, emotional tale of redemption, regret, and revenge that still rides tall more than three decades later.

Unforgiven: Clint Eastwood’s Final Ride Into the Genre That Made Him a Legend

This wasn’t just another cowboy movie. Unforgiven was Clint Eastwood’s love letter and farewell to the genre that made him a Hollywood icon. He didn’t just star as the haunted William Munny — he also directed and produced the film, waiting until he was “old enough” to do the character justice.

The result? A raw, emotional, and brutally honest take on the Old West that redefined what a Western could be.

A Cast of Legends Brought It to Life

You...

Mike Colter is headed back to CBS for a reunion with the creators of Evil. He's set to star in Cupertino, a new legal drama from showrunners Robert and Michelle King. The series is on track to premiere during the 2026-27 broadcast TV season. According to reports, the series has not yet been formally greenlit by the network, but is still racing ahead on production.

Cupertino is described as a David vs. Goliath legal drama. Colter will star as a lawyer working for a Silicon Valley start-up company who gets unjustly fired, allowing his employers to cheat him out of his lucrative stock options. Looking to strike back, he joins forces with another lawyer in similar circumstances to represent those victimized by today's tech titans. The series is named after Cupertino, California, a city in Silicon Valley that is home to the headquarters of a number of tech firms; it...

Francis Ford Coppola provides a hopeful health update. The 86-year-old director has been working in the industry for decades, and is among one of the most celebrated directors of all time. He is known for seminal movies like The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and The Conversation.

Despite approaching 90, Coppola is still working today. Last year, he released his notoriously fraught movie Megalopolis, which was met with intense responses. The movie bombed at the box office and received enough criticism to even warrant Razzie nominations and "wins." Nonetheless, Coppola is still touring the country with the film.

Speaking on Instagram, Coppola provides a health update after a recent scare. The director said that he was "fine." He said "I am well" and noted that he is under good care.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Francis Ford Coppola (@francisfordcoppola)

He explained that he is "taking an opportunity while in Rome...

At Locarno Film Festival on Friday, Emma Thompson will be honored and her latest film, Brian Kirk’s thriller “The Dead of Winter,” will have its world premiere. Variety spoke to the co-chiefs of Augenschein, which produced the film alongside Stampede Studios, about its slate of star-led, director-driven English-language films.

Locarno has a special place in the hearts of Augenschein’s founders, Jonas Katzenstein and Maximilian Leo, as it was there that their company first demonstrated that it had undergone a transformation.

Brian Kirk’s thriller “The Dead of Winter” world premieres Friday at the Locarno Film Festival. Courtesy of Augenschein

Up to that point, the German production company was known for foreign-language arthouse films, such as Berlin Silver Bear winner “Ana, My Love,” but all that changed with the 2019 Locarno launch of Patrick Vollrath’s plane hijacking thriller “7500,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. From that point on, English-language, director-driven, star-led,...

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Clint Eastwood is a Hollywood institution all on his own, having directed and starred in so many iconic films. A list of Eastwood's best roles is bound to leave a few on the cutting room floor even though they're definitely still worth a watch, and that's the case with 2002's "Blood Work."

Eastwood directs the film based on Michael Connelly's novel of the same name. Eastwood also plays the lead character of special agent Terry McCaleb, who's a serial killer profiler who gets on a case where the murderer leaves behind taunting messages for him. It's essentially Eastwood's version of "Se7en,"and honestly, it's better than you might be thinking. It holds a 51% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but plenty of critics had something nice to say about it, like the Austin Chronicle's Marjorie Baumgarten: "The movie is nevertheless...

Francis Ford Coppola, the five-time Oscar-winning filmmaker, recently gave everyone a health scare when reports surfaced about his admission to Policlinico Tor Vergata, a public hospital in Italy, on Tuesday morning. Turns out, he was hospitalized for an operation related to heart issues, and his meeting had long been scheduled.

Mr. Coppola went in for a scheduled update procedure with acclaimed Dr Andrea Natale, his doctor of over 30 years, and is resting nicely,” his representative said in response to reports about the director’s hospitalization, adding “all is well.”

Initially, local media reports claimed that the mastermind experienced a mild cardiac arrhythmia before the operation, and that the doctors had placed him under observation, per The Guardian. However, his representative specifically disputed these reports as “not true,” saying,

There was not an emergency. He went to the hospital in a car.

Notably enough, just a few days before these reports,...

Clint Eastwood debuted his final film last year with Juror #2, but nearly 10 years before he hung up his director’s camera for the final time, he helmed a critically acclaimed docudrama that’s returned to streaming charts. In 2016, Eastwood directed Sully, the disaster biopic starring Tom Hanks (Greyhound) and Aaron Eckhart (Olympus Has Fallen) that tells the story of Chesley Sullenberger, the famous pilot who landed his plane on the Hudson River to save the lives of his passengers and crew. Sully is currently streaming on HBO Max in the United States, but globally, it’s become one of the most popular movies on VOD nine years later. Sully earned scores of 85% from critics and 84% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and it grossed $243 million at the box office against a $60 million budget.

Clint Eastwood has one of the most iconic and enduring filmographies of all time, and Sully will live...

Few stars were more synonymous with the glitz and glamor of Hollywood in the 1990s than Julia Roberts. There were better actresses around, such as Oscar-winner Jodie Foster, and plenty of other big hitters challenging for the limelight like Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Sandra Bullock, and Meg Ryan. Despite this, Roberts still dominated the decade with her grace, style, and sheer charisma, seemingly unable to do any wrong (that dodgy Irish accent in "Mary Reilly" aside) between her massive breakthrough role in "Pretty Woman" and her only Oscar win to date for "Erin Brockovich." 

Best known for illuminating the '90s rom-com boom, she was also captivating in glossy thrillers like "Sleeping with the Enemy" and "The Pelican Brief," and even managed to turn very mediocre flicks like "Dying Young" and "Something to Talk About" into commercial successes. One thing she has never been known for is the Western, and...

I always loved the classic scene at the end of "A Fistful of Dollars" when Joe (Clint Eastwood) wanders back into town for a final shootout with the chief baddie and his henchmen. Ramón (Gian Maria Volonté) repeatedly guns him down, only to watch with disbelief as he rises again and reveals an improvised bulletproof vest beneath his poncho. That's a neat metaphor for the Western genre as a whole –- every time it gets consigned to Boot Hill, it staggers to its feet and keeps on shooting.

After a moribund previous decade, Hollywood Westerns were enjoying a rude burst of health in the early-to-mid-'90s after the Oscar-winning successes of "Dances with Wolves" and "Unforgiven." During this period, Gene Hackman seemingly sauntered from his juicy role in the latter to play a very similar villain in Sam Raimi's "The Quick and the Dead," a playful homage to Sergio Leone...

Clint Eastwood's 2021 Western "Cry Macho" is set in the year 1979 and centers on Mike (Eastwood), an elderly ex-rodeo star who is hired by his boss Howard (Dwight Yoakam) to travel to Mexico and retrieve Howard's 15-year-old son Rafo (Eduardo Minett) from his wicked ex-wife (Fernanda Urrejola). Because Mike is so old, however, he can travel without being interrupted. When he finds Rafo, though, he quickly discovers the boy is at risk. Indeed, Rafo is already heading down a dangerous path, even participating in a cockfighting ring. Thus, Mike convinces Rafo to come back to the United States with his prize rooster, Macho, in tow. 

Like many of Eastwood's films, "Cry Macho" is gentle, calming, and reassuring, with Mike serving as a grandfather figure to Rafo. The movie barely played in theaters as many venues were still closed because of Covid-19, and it was simultaneously released on HBO Max, all with little fanfare.

It’s been 20 years since Morgan Freeman won his first and only Oscar for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, but another older classic from the star that earned him an Oscar nomination has returned to streaming glory. Freeman stars alongside Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 critically acclaimed prison drama following a banker convicted of killing his wife who forms a friendship with other inmates after being sent to prison. The Shawshank Redemption is currently streaming on Peacock in the United States, where it’s become one of the most popular movies for the streamer, sitting at #5 on the platform at the time of writing. The film earned impeccable scores of 89% from critics and 98% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, but it grossed only $29 million at the box office against a $25 million budget.

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert reviewed The Shawshank Redemption five years after its release,...

The Fugitive was released in 1993 and marks its 32nd anniversary in August this year. It is easily one of the best action-thrillers of all time, with Harrison Ford playing the lead role of Richard Kimble in the Andrew Davis-directed movie based on the 1960s TV series of the same name.

Before Ford was selected for the lead role, several A-listers of the time, including Michael Douglas and Kevin Costner, were considered for The Fugitive. However, Ford’s casting was undoubtedly the perfect choice given his performance alongside Tommy Lee Jones. Here’s who could’ve starred in The Fugitive instead of Harrison Ford.

Michael Douglas, Kevin Costner, and More Almost Played the Lead Role in The Fugitive

The Fugitive stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, who is framed for his wife’s murder but escapes from custody to prove his innocence. The movie emerged as a critical and commercial success,...

Clint Eastwood directed Angelina Jolie in one of his most somber movies, the 2008 crime drama Changeling. In the movie, Jolie plays Christine Collins, a woman who reunites with her missing son only to realize the latter is an impostor. It was inspired by true events and is based on the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop murders.

The movie is an extremely tragic tale of a mother’s love for her son, with a twist of a serial killer, which makes it one of Eastwood’s most unique films. However, that might also be the reason it is one of Eastwood’s weakest films as a director. Instead, it needed David Fincher in the director’s chair, and here’s why.

The Reasons Clint Eastwood’s Angelina Jolie-led Changeling Deserved David Fincher as Director Angelina Jolie in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling (Credit: Universal Pictures).

Changeling is a 2008 movie directed by Clint Eastwood and...

Clint Eastwood almost ran his career, along with that of Charlie Sheen, into the ground with a film titled The Rookie that neither flaunted his macho, gunslinger arc as an actor nor touted his Oscar-winning potential as a director.

In the 1980s, Clint Eastwood found it difficult to park his talents in an industry that was, on one hand, filled with big franchise sequels (T2: Judgment Day and Indiana Jones 3) and, on the other, sci-fi blockbusters (E.T. and Blade Runner). Consequently, he stepped into the ’90s with a buddy-cop flick that was supposed to be easy enough to impress the audience.

Instead, The Rookie has been branded as one of the worst Eastwood movies and an insult to his long-standing career as an auteur and award-winning filmmaker /Film].

Clint Eastwood’s Buddy-Cop Parody Nearly Ended Charlie Sheen’s Hollywood Career The Rookie (1990) starring Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen [Credit: co0026840 autoWarner Bros.

Superman Worldwide Box Office (Photo Credit – Instagram/Prime Video)

Both Brad Pitt’s Formula One sports drama F1 and James Gunn’s Superman are still performing well at the global box office, currently ranking among the top ten highest-grossing films of 2025. As it stands, Superman is narrowly ahead of F1 in worldwide earnings. The reboot, featuring David Corenswet as the iconic superhero, has already surpassed several major 2025 releases, including Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines, and 28 Years Later.

And now, Superman has outgrossed a critically acclaimed war drama starring Bradley Cooper and directed by legendary Oscar-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood. Can you guess the movie’s name? Yes, we are talking about the 2014 film American Sniper. Read on to learn what the film is about, how much it earned compared to Superman, and where you can stream it online.

Superman Vs American Sniper Worldwide Box Office...

While many production companies are trying to figure out how to bring in big bucks with new ideas, an easy way to bring in money has been to re-release classics in theaters. Although they can't market these productions as new, a great way to get people to visit the theaters to re-watch something they saw years ago is to highlight the anniversary of its release. The latest classic film to get its second dose of theater time is the 1995 ghost comedy Casper. The film, which starred Christina Ricciand served as Brad Silberling's feature film directorial debut, will be available to watch once again on the big screen during the Halloween season.

According to Bleeding Cool, the month of October is known for ghosts and everything spooky, and now it'll be Casper's month too, as the movie celebrates its 30th anniversary. Although the film debuted in May 1995, there's nothing...

In Brad Silberling's 1995 ghost comedy "Casper," Kat Harvey (Christina Ricci) and her widowed father James (Bill Pullman) move into a large, spooky mansion haunted by cartoonish, playfully destructive spirits. Casper (Malachi Pearson) is a friendly ghost, but his ghostly roommates Stretch (Joe Nipote), Fatso (Brad Garett), and Stinkie (Joe Alaskey) are more sinister, able to scare, harm, or bodily possess any interlopers. 

In order to scare him out of their home, the ghostly trio attack James, chasing him around the house, using their supernatural powers to creatively terrify him. In a standout sequence, James stares into a mirror, and the ghosts transform his face into other people's. James looks up from the sink, and he suddenly looks like Clint Eastwood. Then his face morphs, and he looks like Rodney Dangerfield. Then he morphs again to look like Mel Gibson. Finally, and most terrifying, he morphs to look like the...

Clint Eastwood's 2008 film "Changeling" is based on the real-life case of Christine Collins. In 1928, Christine Collins' nine-year-old son Walter was abducted from the streets of Los Angeles while he was on the way to the movies. Collins called the police, and the subsequent investigation received a lot of press. Despite the publicity, the LAPD was unable to locate Walter, so the case went cold. Five months later, though, Walter was found in DeKalb, Illinois. He was reunited with Christine, but something was amiss: It wasn't actually Walter. Christine protested, but a police captain named J.J. Jones said that she should take the boy home anyway to "try him out," as he put it. Just to clear up the matter, dental records were taken, proving that the boy wasn't Walter.

To save face, though, Jones declared that Collins had indeed been reunited with her actual son but had experienced a mental breakdown,...

Having completed three full weeks of release in theaters worldwide, Superman recently passed the $300 million mark domestically, which puts it ahead of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. Directed by James Gunn, Superman serves as the first film in the newly-launched DC Universe, which succeeds the divisive DC Extended Universe founded by Snyder over a decade ago. The new movie debuted to excellent reviews, and has been largely successful, with some even suggesting that it puts the Dcu in a better position than its rival Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is experiencing major difficulties.

With over $315 million domestically and another $225 million from overseas markets, Superman hasgrossed a total of $551 million worldwide. Produced on a reported budget of $225 million, the movie will fall short of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films, although it has long since overtaken the filmmaker’s previous DC project, The Suicide Squad. That film was released during the pandemic,...

We watched a lot of war films in our household when I was a kid. My granddad served in the Royal Air Force in Africa during World War II, and my dad loved action movies, so we tended towards classics like "Ice Cold in Alex" and brawny men-on-a-mission adventures such as "The Great Escape," "Von Ryan's Express," and "The Dirty Dozen." Low on grit and high on derring-do, these flicks were rousing stuff that celebrated stiff upper lips and cool heads under fire, stirring up pride in our nation's part in victory over the Third Reich. My favorite was "Where Eagles Dare;" I was left absolutely breathless when I first saw it and it gave me all the things I wanted from a war movie back then: suspense, double-crosses, explosions, and plenty of Nazis getting what's coming to them. Plus it had cinema's greatest cable car scene and Clint Eastwood...

Michael Bay‘s Bad Boys II, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, became a critical disaster upon its release, and despite grossing over $273M (via The Numbers), nearly double that of the original, the movie failed to turn a profit. This had to do with its massive budget of $130M, which makes sense, as the movie looks and feels expensive, which is standard for any Bay production.

Although the movie never developed a strong following like some of Bay’s other works, including The Rock, its sheer insanity makes it the perfect contender for cult status, especially in the current era of streaming.

Michael Bay’s Unapologetic Approach To Bad Boys II Makes It a Cult Classic in the Making

Bad Boys II feels like a culmination of Michael Bay’s early years in the realm of blockbusters, as all of his tropes, whether it’s the over-the-top comedy, the low-angle shots,...

Long before making the 2025 “The Naked Gun” reboot, writer/director Akiva Schaffer was a student of the original spoof films, “Airplane!” (1980), “Top Secret”(1984), and “The Naked Gun” (1988). There were rules to those Zaz films, one of which was casting classically trained dramatic actors — but acting wasn’t the only thing they played straight.

“This whole thing that they invented with ‘Airplane’ — I might be wrong, maybe someone did it before them — but what Zaz was doing that was so special was all dramatic actors and the dramatic story, and then treating everything – wardrobe, lighting, sets — as the dramatic version,” said Schaffer. “That’s tpart I was definitely taking with me into this one.”

When Schaffer was on this week’s episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, he explained how leaning into the gravitas (and persona) of Liam Neeson, seemingly unaware of the absurdity of what he was saying or doing,...

The afterlife's friendliest ghost is officially about to haunt theaters once again. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the fantasy comedy classic, 1995's Casper is making its return, complete with a new trailer reflecting on the adorable little spirit's adventures in Friendship, Maine, with a new coat of paint. Hailing from Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, it's packed with some big-time talent, including Bill Pullman as ghost therapist Dr. James Hardy, Christina Ricci at the height of her Addams Family fame as his daughter Kat, who desperately wants a friend, and Malachi Pearson as the titular Casper, who's more than willing to be that pal. The film will kick off the spooky season for the whole family on October 3 and run through Halloween on October 31.

Casper the Friendly Ghost was no stranger to theaters before Casper, but the film was the first proper feature outing for the pop-culture icon created...

Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment announced today that they will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the beloved family blockbuster, Casper, with a nationwide rerelease beginning October 3 and running through Halloween, October 31, 2025.

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Brad Silberling, the film stars Bill Pullman (Independence Day and Equalizer franchises) as Dr. Harvey, a ghost therapist, and two-time Emmy nominee Christina Ricci as his daughter Kat.

When they move into a drafty old mansion so that Dr. Harvey can exorcise the home’s otherworldly inhabitants, they meet a friendly but lonely young ghost named Casper (voiced by Malachi Pearson), who’s just looking for a friend, and his outrageous uncles Stretch (Joe Nipote), Stinkie (Joe Alasky), and Fatso.

The film stars a powerhouse comedic cast including Garrett, Academy Award nominee Cathy Moriarty (Raging Bull), Monty Python icon Eric Idle, and Ben Stein (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), as well as appearances from vintage TV...

When Quentin Tarantino talks about movies, people in the film world listen. The Oscar-winning director is known for his deep knowledge and strong opinions on cinema. He often shares his favorite films, and his choices carry weight with fans and filmmakers alike. Because of his respected status, his personal movie rankings often create buzz.

Tarantino’s own films, like “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight,” show his love for the Western genre. His unique style often pays tribute to the movies that influenced him. So, when he names the best film trilogy ever, it’s no surprise that it comes from a genre close to his heart. He has praised one particular series as a towering success in filmmaking history.

The director has named Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” as the greatest film trilogy ever made. This series of Italian-made “Spaghetti Westerns” includes three iconic movies starring Clint Eastwood. The...

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, except in the entertainment industry, where it’s usually recognized as copyright infringement. No matter how much you love a fellow filmmaker’s idea, that idea is their intellectual property and therefore protected under copyright.

Despite clearly drawn boundaries regarding matters of copyright, plenty of filmmakers have been accused of borrowing from an existing IP without consent from the rights holder. A number of epic films have faced accusations of copyright infringement. The Cabin in the Woods and The Matrix, to name just a few. In both of those cases, the suits were dismissed; however, things don’t always work out that way.

As it turns out, co-writer/director Sergio Leone played fast and loose with intellectual property laws when he made the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars, and he paid the price. Celebrated filmmaker Akira Kurosawa took in the...

It was Alfred Hitchcock's last movie, and this is your last chance to stream it on Netflix. Family Plot, Hitchcock's final stint in the director's chair, is leaving Netflix at the end of July. The suspense thriller with a pseudo-supernatural twist stars Bruce Dern and Karen Black. An adaptation of Victor Canning's 1972 novel The Rainbird Pattern, Family Plot reunited Hitchcock with screenwriter Ernest Lehman, who had previously penned North by Northwest for the director. The two clashed over the screenplay: Lehman wanted a darker film, while Hitchcock preferred it to be more comedic.

It was also the only time that Hitchcock worked with another Hollywood legend: John Williams composed the score for the film. Hitchcock encouraged the composer to take a light touch with the score, telling him, "Mr. Williams, murder can be fun." While the film is not considered to be one of Hitchcock's masterpieces, critical...

Neal McDonough, seen in Band of Brothers, Minority Report, and Western series such as Yellowstone and Tulsa King, has addressed his recent distancing from the industry. Despite some prominent roles in big productions from Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg, McDonough's career has taken a hit; today, he's mostly featured in smaller projects, but it isn't for lack of trying. The actor says that due to one of his contractual requests, "Hollywood turned on him." The specific request? If the script includes a moment of intimacy, he refuses to participate with anyone who isn't his wife.

McDonough was recently invited to Nothing Left Unsaid, the podcast hosted by Troy and Tim Green whose previous guests include industry figures like Nic Pizzolatto. McDonough talked about his career, his faith, and getting "blackballed" over the contraction stipulation mentioned above, saying, "It was very difficult, that's for sure, to go through what I went through.

It was the last movie Clint Eastwood ever made with the man he considered his directorial mentor, and next month, you'll be able to see it for free. 1979's Escape From Alcatraz, the final collaboration between Eastwood and Don Siegel, is coming to the free, ad-supported streaming service Pluto. You'll be able to stream it starting on August 1. Siegel was legendary for directing action-adventure films with tough, individualistic leads; he and Eastwood were a match made in heaven. They made five films together: the neo-Western Coogan's Bluff, the seminal cop thriller Dirty Harry, the revisionist Western Two Mules for Sister Sara, the Civil War drama The Beguiled, and, finally, the fact-based prison thriller Escape From Alcatraz.

As an aspiring director, Eastwood modeled himself after Siegel, and gave the veteran director a cameo role in his own directorial debut, the suspense thriller Play Misty for Me. However, there's a reason Escape From Alcatraz...

Those looking for a bit of Western flair in the next season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon are in for a treat. Over the weekend, during the Sdcc festivities, Collider’sSteve Weintraub sat down to speak with the five folks closest to the production —Scott M. Gimple, David Zabel, Greg Nicotero, Norman Reedus, and Melissa McBride — and received some intriguing intel regarding the formatting structure of what will serve as the title’s penultimate set of episodes. Eager to share his love for what he referred to as a “f***ing great” season, Reedus was the first to liken the next part of Daryl (Reedus) and Carol’s (McBride) journey to “a Western.”

Happy to fully break down what the leading star meant, series creator Zabel opened up about the influences that he and his fellow writer and producer, Jason Richman, used as their northern star. With the...

Clint Eastwood stepped into the early years of the 21st century with an unpopular hot take on Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky franchise. In Lillian Ross’s article, Nothing Fancy (pub. 2003), the multi-hyphenate filmmaker called out Stallone for failing to improve upon his filmography, saying: “I hear he’s going to do ‘Rocky’ again… it would look like you’re doing it for a paycheck.”

Call it jaded celebrity ego or a half-hearted attempt at gaining some relevancy, claims about Rocky 6 being a cash-grab opportunity sound tone-deaf, to say the least, coming from a man who helmed not one, not three, but five whole Dirty Harry films, each more problematic and controversial than the last.

Clint Eastwood Dishonors Sly Stallone’s Oscar-Winning Legacy, Calls It a Cash-Grab Franchise Rocky Balboa (2006) [Credit: MGM, 20th Century Studios, Columbia Pictures]

Only Clint Eastwood can build an entire career out of Westerns and then proceed...

Sandra Bullock starred in the 1995 action thriller film The Net, directed by Irwin Winkler. It recently completed thirty years of release and has aged surprisingly well, given its depiction of the internet and all its pros and cons. As a result, The Net feels like a lost episode of Black Mirror.

The movie warns us of the internet’s downside with surprising accuracy, as it explores a very early iteration of the internet with Bullock playing Angela Bennett, a freelance systems analyst, whose life takes a drastic turn after her identity is slowly being erased. Here is why you need to rewatch The Net.

Why Watching Sandra Bullock’s The Net Feels Like a Black Mirror Episode Today

The Net is a 1995 action thriller movie that marks one of Sandra Bullock’s first solo lead roles after scene-stealing performances in movies such as Speed and Demolition Man. It follows Angela Bennett,...

Harrison Ford has always had issues with "Blade Runner," and time hasn't made him any fonder of the film. But it should have, because despite it being a box office flop upon its 1982 release, it has since become accepted as one of the most important and influential sci-fi movies ever made. Of course, Ford has never let popularity convince him of anything (he never really cared about "Star Wars" despite its overwhelming success), but you'd think he'd be glad that his movie is thought of so highly — especially since he was just one of many stars who could have fronted the film.

Hampton Fancher, who co-wrote the "Blade Runner" script with David Peoples, certainly had a different vision in mind when he first set about bringing the movie to life. He'd actually performed on-screen during the 1960s while under contract with Warner Bros. but had left acting behind in the...

Long before Clint Eastwood became the legendary gunslinger of American cinema, his off-screen life was already marked by passionate turns. His private life was already filled with complex relationships, including a 14-year-long affair with stuntwoman Roxanne Tunis. It began in the early 1960s during the rocky start of his marriage to Maggie Johnson and led to the birth of their daughter in 1964, though the public has been unaware for years.

The source shared (reported on Radar Online):

Roxanne was one of Clint’s true loves. He maintained a healthy relationship with Roxanne until the end, and is devastated by the loss and for his daughter Kimber.

Eastwood also discreetly fathered two children with former flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves. Let’s take a closer look at the many women who walked through Clint Eastwood’s life.

1. Maggie Johnson A still from Gran Torino | Credits: Warner Bros.

Clint Eastwood crossed paths...

After John Wayne was cast in 1969's "True Grit," some strict rules were put in place on-set. Specifically, director Henry Hathaway established a set of guidelines that would ensure Wayne was left mostly unbothered by the cast and crew, most notably forbidding any discussion of politics at what was a fraught time for the U.S. These were hardly the first ever rules ever established when it came to John Wayne, however.

The Duke had plenty of personal rules, telling the BBC (via The Express) about which roles he would and wouldn't accept. Anything "mean and petty" was, for example, off the table, with Wayne adding, "I think I have established a character on the screen that may be rough, cruel, may have a different code than the average person, but it has never been mean or petty, small." That's a fair enough assessment of the man's own oeuvre, although...

Ari Aster’s “Eddington” is here.

The movie, which pits a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) against his mayor (Pedro Pascal), set during the early days of the global pandemic, is fierce and raw. Considering this is from Aster, the director of “Midsommar,” “Hereditary” and “Beau is Afraid,” it is also confrontational and strange and deeply funny, with the action set at the precipice of the complete breakdown in communication that accompanied lockdown. (Indiewire called it “the first truly modern American Western.”)

And if you come out of “Eddington” looking for more offbeat westerns to watch, we’ve got seven that should fill that void nicely.

Paramount “Bad Company” (1972)

In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a slew of what were referred to as “acid westerns” – westerns that were set in the distant past but that embraced the counterculture of the period, including, of course, recreational drug use. (Hence the “acid” in “acid western.

If you recall '80s and '90s music videos as vividly as I do, you must remember they were big on promoting movies (and their main characters) if the songs were specifically made or used in them. Who could forget Will Smith's banger for "Men in Black" or Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" that helped turn "The Bodyguard" with Kevin Costner into an unlikely hit? Hell, before the internet came around, I often learned about new films by watching MTV and VH1 for hours after school. But those days are long gone; music TV channels aren't really a thing anymore, sadly -- YouTube replaced them once and for all.

Music videos that featured scattered scenes from films throughout basically have disappeared entirely. What stuck around to some extent, however, is beloved and big-time Hollywood actors appearing in silly, heartfelt, and sometimes beautifully heartbreaking music videos...

To quote Roger Ebert, even if Clint Eastwood had never acted a day in his life, he'd still be a Hollywood legend. As a director, Eastwood is one of the industry's more prolific, having made 40 feature films since his debut, "Play Misty for Me" in 1971. His most recent film, "Juror #2," was released in 2024, meaning he was 93 when he completed work on it.

On screen, Eastwood's films tend to be mellow and slow-moving. He prefers a naturalistic aesthetic, paired with cloudy, ethereal photography. He works in all genres, from cop dramas to Westerns to romances to musicals (although few enjoyed his film adaptation of "Jersey Boys"). As an actor, Eastwood is best known for playing gun-toting badasses like The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry. As a director, his films tend to be mellower and more sensitive. In many cases, his films don't so much climax as gently crest. He...

Today's Hollywood action stars have nothing on the ones who came before them in the '70s and '80s. It's not their fault, really, as everything from audience tastes to the new streaming reality has shifted the idea of what action movies are these days, but once upon a time it was character and charisma that ruled the day over pretty faces and social media follower counts. From Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood to Chuck Norris and Steve McQueen, action on the big screen used to be more interested in tangible thrills and personality.

Charles Bronson was a member of that class, and after kicking off his film career in the early '50s, he saw his star rise dramatically in the decades that followed playing cool as hell characters who knew that action speaks louder than words. He delivered more than a few genre gems, action hits, and...

Many films are considered some of the best of all time but one of them stands out: The Shawshank Redemption. The epic prison drama is based on Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and is widely singled out as the best adaptation of his works.

The Shawshank Redemption premiered in 1994, with Frank Darabont writing and directing. The movie starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, and although it has received critical acclaim for its message of perseverance and hope, it flopped in theaters when it came out. It has since become one of the most beloved films, and fans will get a chance to watch The Shawshank Redemption again soon as it's heading to Peacock on Aug. 1.

The prison drama film based on King's 1982 novella follows banker Andy Dufresne (Robbins), who is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover,...

Back in 2012, when the future of film criticism looked particularly bleak in the wake of the Associated Press' decision to limit entertainment writers to 500 words, Roger Ebert wrote an impassioned defense of the profession to which he'd dedicated his life. In "Death to film critics! Hail to the CelebCult!," the esteemed film critic argued against the idea that critics were there to simply reflect the views of readers. "A newspaper film critic should encourage critical thinking," he wrote, "introduce new developments, consider the local scene, look beyond the weekend fanboy specials, be a weatherman on social trends, bring in a larger context, teach, inform, amuse, inspire, be heartened, be outraged." Throughout his career, he certainly adhered to those principles, and while there are innumerable reviews that exemplify this commitment, perhaps the best is his effusive appraisal of "Lakeview Terrace" (though Ebert's negative take on a certain Oscar-winning '90s crime...

On July 25, It's time to head back to the links — and the 1990s — with Adam Sandler. The star is picking up his golf clubs again for Netflix's Happy Gilmore 2, a belated follow-up to the 1996 golf comedy that propelled him onto Hollywood's comedy A-list. It's the first time that Sandler has revisited one of those vintage comedies; to date, his only live-action sequels to previous successes have been Grown-Ups 2 and Murder Mystery 2.

Interestingly, Happy Gilmore 2 is arriving on Netflix one month ahead of Sandler's latest seriocomic turn; the actor will be starring alongside George Clooney in Noah Baumbach's Venice-bound feature Jay Kelly. And the two actors will likely be joined at the hip throughout awards season as Clooney positions himself for his first Best Actor nomination since The Descendants way back in 2013. (He won a Best Supporting Actor statuette in 2007 for Syriana.)

Meanwhile, Jay Kelly...