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 ‘Jurassic World’ Sequel Is Coming in 2018, With Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard
Sequels, like evolution, are inevitable. Like genetically-modified dinosaurs, they cannot be stopped. When Jurassic World becomes the third highest-grossing movie of all time (not this year, not this decade; ever) you could bet your dino DNA that Universal was going to make another one. And now it’s official: an as-yet untitled Jurassic World sequel is coming to theater on June 22, 2018.
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.
The 50 Coolest Pixar Easter Eggs of All-Time
The wizards at Pixar Animation Studios are known for a few things. They’re famous for producing thrillingly original and innovative computer-animated movies. They’re known for cartoons that please adults as much as (or sometimes more than) they please children. And they’ve become even more beloved in nerdier circles for their inexhaustible dedication to Easter eggs.
‘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.
Bestflix: The Best New Netflix Instant Titles to Watch in March 2015
ScreenCrush is proud to present Bestflix, our new monthly web series and a companion to our regular column of Netflix recommendations.
‘Jupiter Ascending’ Review: The Wachowskis Descend Into Sci-Fi Silliness
Episode 415 of ‘Seinfeld’ was called “The Movie,” and it ended with Jerry delivering a monologue about the guy in every group of friends who can’t follow the plots of films and invariably spends them whispering confused questions to their seatmates (“Why did they kill that guy? I thought he was with them? Wasn't he with them? Why would they kill him if he was with them? Oh, he wasn't with them. It's a good thing they killed him!”) ‘Jupiter Ascending’ turned me into that guy. If you can explain the plot of this baffling movie in all of its intricacies, you are either a genius or one of the Wachowskis who wrote and directed it. It’s hard to believe that a movie that contains this much exposition could also be this confusing, but it does and it is. Something went horribly wrong here.
SXSW 2015 Film Lineup Includes New Films From Will Ferrell, Amy Schumer, Melissa McCarthy and More
The dust has barely settled from the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and already we’ve got a look at the lineup for the 2015 South by Southwest Film Festival. After an initial announcement that included opening night film ‘Brand,’ about comedian Russell Brand,’ things have filled out really nicely with a ton of promising-sounding selections.
‘Project Almanac’ Review: Found Footage Goes Back to the Future
Woe be unto humanity if teenagers discover time travel. That’s the main takeaway from the entertaining new found-footage thriller ‘Project Almanac,’ in which a quintet of adolescents find a time machine, and do exactly what a bunch of adolescents would do if they found a time machine: Party, prank, and screw around with no thought to the consequences of their actions. These kids know and cite ‘Looper’ and ‘The Terminator,’ but the movie they should have paid attention to was ‘The Butterfly Effect,’ because they seem caught off-guard when their innocent misadventures in the timestream begin to ripple out in dangerous ways.
Kevin Spacey To Star in Film About a Man Who Becomes a Cat
An afternoon update from our We Swear We’re Not Making This Up Desk: TheWrap reports that Kevin Spacey, Oscar-winner for ‘The Usual Suspects’ and ‘American Beauty,’ will next appear as the star of a comedy called ‘Nine Lives.’ The “high-concept comedy” is described thusly (and, again, we didn’t make this up):
Production Begins On Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Hateful Eight,’ Full Cast Revealed
After stops and starts and leaks and reversals, Quentin Tarantino’s 70mm Western ‘The Hateful Eight’ is now, finally, officially, definitively, happening. The Weinstein Company announced today that production has begun in Telluride, Colorado.