News

Ya know that feeling when you watch something dumb, and even though you know it’s stupid, you can’t help but laugh and enjoy yourself? The 1980s are full of comedies like that. Yeah, we know they’re dumb and not especially clever, but whatever, man, every now and then, you’re in a bad mood, and you want to turn your brain off. That’s why they made seven Police Academy movies. No one thought they were good, but we watched them anyway because they were stupid in a pleasing way.

This brings me to this rare comedy-focused episode of The Best Movie You Never Saw, about a movie I loved as a kid that doesn’t super hold up forty years later, but it is still kinda fun – Johnny Dangerously. A gangster comedy in the vein of Airplane, Johnny Dangerously is probably a movie many younger viewers...

In 1985, Amy Heckerling was one of the most promising comedy directors working in Hollywood. Although most critics didn't get it at the time, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was one of the defining teen comedies of the era. Her follow-up, "Johnny Dangerously," also missed with critics, but thanks to a high-wattage star turn by Michael Keaton and an uproariously profane performance by Richard Dimitri as the English-mangling mobster Roman Moronie, it has stood the test of time as a gloriously silly goof on gangster movies.

Heckerling had more than earned a shot at a high-profile studio comedy, and Warner Bros. gave it to...

The post Why Amy Heckerling Hated Working on National Lampoon's European Vacation appeared first on /Film.

Richard Citron, aka “Rusty,” who was a marketing key to the revival of film interest in Marvel Comics properties and a personal manager for many big names, died Dec. 16 at age 68 from complications of Lewy Body Dementia.

He had been living at his home in Encino until September 2021, and was then in a memory care facility in Calabasas, Calif., according to longtime friend Don Barrett.

Citron started his career as a page for The David Frost Show in New York when he was 16 years old (he lied about his age to get the gig). For that humble start, he became recognized as a leader and innovator in the global marketing of motion pictures, television, online digital media, consumer products and philanthropy.

He led the team that revitalized Marvel Comics and the franchise of classic characters developed by Stan Lee. Over the course of his career, he guided and was responsible...

Richard “Rusty” Citron, a leading movie and television marketing executive and personal manager, died on Dec. 16 at the age of 68. The cause was Lewy body dementia.

Citron’s career in show business spanned more than four decades and saw him rub shoulders with prominent artists and creators from across the spectrum of the entertainment industry while overseeing the theatrical marketing of more than 200 motion pictures. As a marketing executive, Citron worked at 20th Century Fox, LucasFilm, Marvel, Walt Disney, MGM, Sony Pictures and Universal Studios. His tasks included everything from designing national mall promotions for George Lucas’ “Return of the Jedi” to creating buzz for the Rocky franchise.

His professional life began after the then 16-year old Citron lied about his age to get a job as a page for “The David Frost Show.” Early in his career, Citron was a personal manager and represented Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Dom DeLuise,...