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The foul mouthed holiday film is now, more or less, a cinema tradition. From Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation to Harold Ramis’s The Ice Harvest, there are plenty of these anti-Christmas yet still kinda Christmas movies across all genres. Smart-ass action movies like Die Hard, most of the work of Shane Black, but also gruesome slasher pictures like Black Christmas, edgy Amblin' movies like Gremlins, and even Stanley Kubrick’s unclassifiable psychodrama Eyes Wide Shut. There is something about subverting that supposedly wholesome and giving holiday spirit into some alternate kind of energy that filmmakers keep coming back to. Dito Montiel’s effervescent yet surprisingly violent black comedy noodles around in this this space, to mixed effect. It is set in the...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Greedy People is a dark comedy crime mystery film directed by Potsy Ponciroli from a screenplay by Michael Vukadinovich. The 2024 film is set in a small town and follows two cops as they try to investigate a murder scene where they find a large sum of money and decide to keep it, but their peaceful lives get filled with chaos because of their one bad decision. Greedy People stars Himesh Patel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead roles with Lily James, Traci Lords, Joey Lauren Adams, and Simon Rex starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the dark comedy, moral ambiguity, and absurd characters in Greedy People here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Fargo Credit – MGM

Fargo is a dark comedy crime thriller film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The 1996 film follows Jerry, a down-and-out sales manager in a lot of debt to some dangerous people.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Promising Young Woman” were among the film winners at the 23rd annual Costume Designers Guild Awards Tuesday night. TV winners included “The Queen’s Gambit” (Netflix) and the filmed version of “Hamilton” (Disney+).

Broadcast online, the awards celebrated the best in film, TV, and short-form costume design in eight categories that spanned fantasy, contemporary, and period works. Streamed live on Twitter, the virtual ceremony was hosted by Lana Condor (“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”).

Oscar frontrunner Ann Roth’s work on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” bested other period film nominees at the CDG Awards, heading toward a likely Oscar win, beating “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “One Night in Miami,” and two other Oscar nominees, “Emma,” and “Mank.”

The 89-year-old Roth (an Oscar winner for “The English Patient”) bolstered Viola Davis’ powerful performance as the trailblazing ’20s blues singer. Davis, who picked up a...

Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is (as his film title suggests) a Nobody. He’s a schlub who gets up for the same soul-deadening routine each day: he drinking his coffee, forgets to take the garbage out, and sits at his boring desk job. He then comes home to kids who barely tolerate him and a wife who literally makes a barrier of pillows between them in their bed. When he fails to protect their house against a home invasion–even though he clearly could have–the sense of disappointment from his family is palpable.

But the incident awakens something long dormant in Hutch: a set of skills and a primal anger that served him well in a former life and career defined by violence. Hutch has to give that repressed rage an outlet, which unfortunately brings him into the sights of a deadly Russian crime boss, even as it reawakens...

Nominees for the 23rd annual Costume Designer Guild Awards (to be livestreamed April 13 on Twitter @CostumeAwards at 5:30 pm Pt / 8:30 pm Et) include Oscar frontrunner “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and other period contenders “Emma,” “Mank,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” and “One Night in Miami.”

Contemporary nods went to “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn),” “Da 5 Bloods,” “Promising Young Woman,” and “The Prom.” And the sci-fi/fantasy nominees included “Dolittle,” “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey,” “Mulan,” “Pinocchio,” and “Wonder Woman 1984.”

Netflix was the big winner with five nominations, followed by Warner Bros. and Universal/Focus Features with three. Disney scored with “Mulan,” Amazon with “One Night in Miami,” Lionsgate with “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” and Roadside Attractions with “Pinocchio.”

And it’s a great display of diversity with five Black-themed films.

The costume designers responsible for the frocks in “Emma.,” the suits in “Mank” and the ’70s duds in “Judas and the Black Messiah” have been nominated for the 23rd annual Costume Designers Guild Awards, the guild announced on Thursday.

Those three films will be competing against “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “One Night in Miami” in the Cdga’s Excellence in Period Film category, one of three feature-film categories honored by the guild.

In the Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film category, the nominees are “Dolittle,” “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey,” “Mulan,” “Pinocchio” and “Wonder Woman 1984.” The Excellence in Contemporary Film nominees are “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” “Birds of Prey,” “Da 5 Bloods,” “Promising Young Woman” and “The Prom.”

Television nominees include “The Mandalorian,” “Snowpiercer,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” “I May Destroy You,” “Emily in Paris,” “Bridgerton,” “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit.”

In recent years,...

The Costume Designers Guild has stitched together the nominees for its 23rd annual CDG Awards for film, TV and shortform. Winners in the eight categories will be announced during the virtual trophy show on Tuesday, April 13, which be streamed on Twitter for the first time.

Read the full list of nominees below.

The designers behind Dolittle, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, Mulan, Pinocchio and Wonder Woman 1984 will vie for the Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film nod.

The Contemporary Film hopefuls are Barb and Star Go to Del Mar, Birds of Prey, Da 5 Bloods, Promising Young Woman and The Prom.

Up for the Period Film trophy are Emma, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mank and One Night in Miami.

“I would like to congratulate all of the nominees of the 23rd Costume Designers Guild Awards,” said Salvador Perez, President of the guild, IATSE Local 892. “We...

The star and the writer/director of Sea Fever talk about a diverse array of influential films in a double episode.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sea Fever (2020)

Soldier (1998)

Unforgiven (1992)

Blade Runner (1982)

Gladiator (2000)

The Ice Harvest (2005)

Wonder Woman (2017)

Ordet (1955)

Ditte, Child of Man (1946)

Frances (1982)

The Accused (1988)

The Deer Hunter (1978)

My American Uncle (1980)

8 ½ (1963)

Ikiru (1952)

Heaven’s Gate (1980)

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Europa (1991)

Diva (1981)

The Sacrifice (1986)

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

The Party (1968)

Westworld (1973)

The Searchers (1956)

Alien (1979)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Contagion (2011)

Idiocracy (2006)

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Mona Lisa (1986)

King Kong (1933)

Arrival (2016)

In The Cut (2003)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Mandy (2018)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Dune (1984)

Dune (2020… maybe)

Bright Star (2009)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Innerspace (1987)

American Gigolo (1980)

Thelma and Louise (1991)

Wild Things (1998)

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Life of Pi (2012)

Hulk (2003)

Die Hard (1988)

The Hurt Locker (2009)

Psycho (1960)

1917 (2019)

Shane (1953)

Other Notable Items

Brendan McCarthy

David Peoples

Kurt Russell

Lars Von Trier

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Bjarne Henning-Jensen...

Happy Holidays from The B-Side and The Film Stage! Here we talk about movie stars and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between. Today we break precedent and talk genre, baby.

As we round out 2019, Conor and I decided we’d chat about a few B-Side holiday movies we love and a few we… do not like as much. These include the top-notch dark comedy The Ice Harvest, the weird-as-heck The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and the new Disney+ film Noelle.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at @TFSBSide. We’re also now available on our own feed! Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher. Enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Subscribe below:...

Had I not recently revisited Don Siegel’s dusty, nail-hard crime thriller Charley Varrick, in fact just the night before seeing Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Three Times, it stands to reason that I probably would not have found myself thinking about the Walter Matthau-starring crime thriller midway through the Taiwanese director’s film. After all, Siegel’s tale of morally ambivalent “heroes,” scabrous, misanthropic villains, and the various levels of grime and corruption to be waded through and scraped off on the way toward accidentally absconding with three-quarters of a million dollars in laundered mob money would seem to have little in common with Hou’s deliberately paced, exquisitely mounted collection of three love stories, each from a different time, each told in a manner most rewardingly compared to the elliptical style of a short story on the page.

And yet, as the first episode of Three Times, “A Time of Love,...

As we head into the holiday season, Wamg brings you our list of the Best Non-Traditional Christmas Movies to watch after the Holiday ham, pretty presents, and multiple viewings of White Christmas, Home Alone and Miracle On 34th Street are a thing of Christmas Past.

Our choices are filled snarky mistletoe carnage and crafty comedy – Geek style. Santa Claus is coming to town in these “More Naughty Than Nice”. films.

We’ve made a list and checked it twice with our lineup of not just the 20 Best holiday films but the Top 21 Non-Traditional Christmas Movies. After the success of Krampus, we just had to add it!

We kick off our list with our Honorable Mention –

Jingle All The Way

Christmas; It’s the most magical time of the year. High powered businessman Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is hard at work taking last-minute orders from customers to whom he just can...

Warren Beatty’s new romantic comedy “Rules Don’t Apply” follows an aspiring actress, a lovable driver, and the eccentric Hollywood legend Howard Hughes (played by Beatty himself) as they struggle with each other’s own idiosyncrasies. Set in Hollywood in 1958, small town beauty queen and Baptist virgin Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins) arrives to Los Angeles to work under Howard Hughes. At the airport, she meets her driver Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), a religious Methodist who’s engaged to be married to his middle school sweetheart. Soon they fall for each other, and their attraction puts their respective religious convictions to the test, and also places them in violation of Hughes’ #1 rule: No employee will have a relationship with a contract actress. But as Hughes’ behavior becomes more erratic and strange, it intersects with Marla and Frank’s lives in challenging, compelling ways, leaving no one unchanged. The film also...

Despite its rampaging monster approach to the holiday season and the imposing, sort-of terrifying giant horned goat-man who provides its title, Krampus isn’t, at heart, an anti-Christmas picture-- it has at least one bloodshot eye pitched toward seasonal classic status. The movie’s story is centered on a family at war with itself—semi-sophisticated suburbanites Adam Scott and Toni Collette and their kids hosting a clan of boorish, right-wing Walmart-warrior relatives headed up by David Koechner and Alison Tolman— who finds itself besieged by the impish and deadly forces of Krampus, the flip-side of holiday cheer, Darth Vader to Santa’s Obi-wan. When the only child left in the family who still clings to his belief in Santa Claus has the last vestiges of Christmas spirit (here so defined as the will to make sacrifices for the good of others) derided out of him, he tears up his last...

We rarely see great Christmas movies. We’ve only had a few notable ones in the past ten or fifteen years, including Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, The Ice Harvest, Catch Me If You Can, and Bad Santa — and two of those titles aren’t really even about the spirit of Christmas. But there are three Christmas movies coming out in the next two months […]

The post ‘Christmas Eve’ Trailer: Patrick Stewart Wishes You All A Merry Christmas appeared first on /Film.

The Writers Guild of America, West has chosen late screenwriter-director-actor-producer Harold Ramis to receive its Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, awarded to a Writers Guild member who has advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screenwriter. Erica Mann Ramis and family will accept the award on Ramis’ behalf at the Writers Guild Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 14. Harold Ramis passed away on February 24, 2014 at the age of 69. From today’s announcement:

“Harold Ramis changed the face of comedy. His death last year deprived us of his unique way of seeing the world, at once hilarious and wise. From his early work with National Lampoon and Sctv through Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, and Ghostbusters, Ramis’ voice was strong, clear, outrageous in all the best ways. His unrealized projects – an adaptation of Confederacy of Dunces, a biopic about Emma Goldman – leave us aching with...

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman May 19th 2014

Australian Terry Hayes began his career as a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald, when as foreign correspondent in the Us he covered Watergate and President Nixon’s resignation, among many major international stories. He then went on to become a successful screenwriter, having written the screenplays for The Road Warrior, Dead Calm, Payback, and From Hell. He lives in Sydney with his wife and four children.

On Wednesday, June 4th, 7:00pm at the Mad Art Gallery (#2727 South 12th Street, St. Louis, 63118), St. Louis-area book lovers will be treated to an arresting evening of espionage, murder and mystery writers. Terry Hayes joins St. Louis crime novelist Scott Phillips for an on-stage discussion of Hayes’ debut novel I Am Pilgrim followed by an audience Q&A and book-signing. Attendees will also be treated to free gifts, door prizes and free parking while supporting...

Billy Bob Thornton has played some devilish characters, but never one as frightening and fascinating as Fargo’s Lorne Malvo. Malvo is a mysterious grim reaper of sorts who lives by a strict code of malevolence — one that has a way of rubbing off on the innocent souls around him. In the premiere of FX’s new series, which airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. Et, a chance encounter with pathetic pushover Lester Nygaard (Sherlock’s Martin Freeman) leads to some very bad things in the small town of Bemidji, Minn.

The two actors — whom you may remember co-starred in Love Actually,...

I made plans late last week to feature Groundhog Day as my next Commentary Commentary title, and immediately discovered that I didn’t own a copy of the film. A quick trip to a nearby video store graced me with a used Blu-ray which I brought home, watched, and fell in love with all over again. It’s that rare, near-perfect movie where everything seems to fall beautifully in place, a film that never weakens on repeat viewings, and one that says more about humanity than many examples of far more serious cinema. Harold Ramis died this past Monday, and while it’s a tragedy for his wife, children, and friends, it also leaves a void for the millions of fans who’ve loved much of his work over the years. Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Ghostbusters, Back to School, Groundhog Day, The Ice Harvest… all fantastically fun films that wouldn’t have been the...

Actor, writer and director who changed the course of Us film comedy with movies such as Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day

The writer, director and actor Harold Ramis, who has died aged 69 from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, was responsible for one masterpiece and several influential smash-hits. In each of his creative capacities, he was the eternal quiet man. In front of the camera, his blithe and undemanding presence often disguised his comic skill or made it appear effortless; he seemed happy to hang back and surrender the limelight to more demonstrative and dynamic collaborators, such as his Ghostbusters co-stars Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. In his writing and directing he was adept at capitalising on an audience's love of coarseness without resorting to cruelty or sacrificing his compassion.

Much of his work – including National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), Meatballs (1979) and Ghostbusters (1984), all of which he co-wrote, and Caddyshack (1980), which he co-wrote...

Actor-director Harold Ramis died on Monday at the age of 69.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Ramis was surrounded by family when he died at 12:53 a.m. from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels, his wife Erica Mann Ramis said.

He played Ghostbuster scientist Egon Spengler and Bill Murray’s Army recruit buddy in “Stripes. He co-wrote and directed “Caddyshack,” ”Groundhog Day,” and “Analyze This.” He helped write “Meatballs,” ”Ghostbusters” and ”Stripes.”

Murray, who collaborated with Ramis on a number of projects, issued this statement to Time through his lawyer: “Harold Ramis and I together did the National Lampoon Show off Broadway, Meatballs, Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. He earned his keep on this planet. God bless him.”

From the AP:

His death rattled a modern comedy world Ramis helped build. His legacy as a father figure to generations of...

Comedy legend Harold Ramis has passed away at his Chicago-area home from complications related to an autoimmune disease, a condition he battled for the past four years. He was 69 years old. Ramis is likely best known for his acting roles in "Ghostbusters" and "Ghostbusters II," both of which he co-wrote. He also co-wrote "National Lampoon's Animal House," "Stripes," "Caddyshack" and "National Lampoon's Vacation," directing the latter two films. He co-wrote, produced and directed other comedy classics like "Groundhog Day," "Multiplicity" and the Billy Crystal-Robert De Niro films "Analyze This" and "Analyze That." He directed 2005's "The Ice Harvest," starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. Most recently he wrote, co-produced and directed 2009's "Year One," starring Jack Black and Michael Cera. Before his death, he was involved with "Ghostbusters III." Bill Murray commented on his friend's death, stating: "He earned his keep on this planet. God bless him.

There are very few perfect films. Part of what makes films so beautiful and rich and rewarding is that they are the result of a sort of mass insanity that happens when you have all of these people all pushing to create something tangible, something that moves us to some sort of real emotional place. It's easy to forget that movies are ultimately a bunch of people standing around playing make-believe, but with a crew there to capture it all. Considering how many moving pieces there are in any film, it's almost miraculous when they actually come together coherently, much less in a way that manages to make us genuinely lose ourselves in what we're watching. Harold Ramis made a perfect movie. "Groundhog Day" is one of the few mainstream comedies that I think actually grows and gets richer and more wonderful the more you revisit it, something which seems...

We are truly sad to share the news that writer, director, producer, actor and all-around comedy champion Harold Ramis has passed away at the age of 69.  As a director, Ramis gave the world Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day, Multiplicity, Analyze This, Bedazzled, The Ice Harvest and several more. As a writer he gave us Animal House, Stripes, Meatballs, Armed and Dangerous, and Sctv. As an actor, outside of his own films, he stole scenes in Knocked Up, Orange County and As Good As It Gets. Basically, if you were alive and watching movies from the early '80s onward, Harold Ramis taught you a new master class in comedy and character every few years-- and those lessons become mainstays that you could watch over and over and over without losing a drop...

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We are truly sad to share the news that writer, director, producer, actor, and all-around comedy champion Harold Ramis has passed away at the age of 69.  As a director, Ramis gave the world Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day, Multiplicity, Analyze This, Bedazzled, The Ice Harvest, and several more. As a writer he gave us Animal House, Stripes, Meatballs, Armed and Dangerous, and Sctv. As an actor, outside of his own films, he stole scenes in Knocked Up, Orange County, and As Good as it Gets. Basically, if you were alive and watching movies from the early '80s onward, Harold Ramis taught you a new master class in comedy and character every few years-- and those lessons become mainstays that you could watch over and over and over without losing a...

Read More...

Harold Ramis, one of film’s most celebrated and influential writers and directors, died early Monday morning at his Chicago home at the age of 69. Ramis was the noted director of comedy classics such as Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Analyze This. According to his wife, Erica Mann Ramis, he died from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that he began to struggle with in May 2010.

Ramis wrote or co-wrote many of the most iconic comedies of his generation, including Ghostbusters, Stripes, Meatballs and National Lampoon’s Animal House. He began as a performer and was the first head writer for Second City Television (or Sctv) in Chicago during the late 1970s. There, he was a part of a comic ensemble that also featured Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner. He worked on Sctv from 1976 to 1979 and also popped up in various acting roles,...

News Simon Brew 24 Feb 2014 - 17:30

Harold Ramis, of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day fame, has died at the age of 69.

Oh, this is horrible, horrible news. Harold Ramis has died, at the age of 69.

The same Harold Ramis that was one of the key parts of the Ghostbusters team (as co-star and co-writer). And the same Harold Ramis who went on to build a career in directing, including the already all-time classic Groundhog Day. If you get a chance, check out Danny Rubins' excellent book on the film, where he talks about the impact that Ramis had on improving the screenplay. Ramis was integral to reworking the wonderful script.

It's being reported that his death was due to "complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis", reports the Chicago Tribune. He had been fighting illness for the last couple of years.

He leaves behind an incredible career. As well as the films mentioned above,...

Last year Wamg brought you our list of the 15 Best Non-Traditional Christmas Movies to watch after the Holiday ham, pretty presents, and multiple viewings of White Christmas, Home Alone and Miracle On 34th Street were a thing of Christmas Past.

Minus the warm and fuzzy, our choices are filled snarky mistletoe carnage and crafty comedy – Geek style.

We made a list and checked it twice with our new lineup of the Top 20 Non-Traditional Christmas Movies. You better believe that Santa Claus is coming to town in these “More Naughty Than Nice”. films.

We kick off our list with our Honorable Mention -

Jingle All The Way

Christmas; It’s the most magical time of the year. High powered businessman Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is hard at work taking last-minute orders from customers to whom he just can’t say no; like his son, Jamie (Jake Lloyd), asking for the hottest...

Scott Phillips, the author of "The Ice Harvest" that was made into a movie starring John Cusack with a screenplay by Oscar winner Robert Benton, has written a new novel, "Rake." It's about an actor who plays Dr. Crandall Taylor on a daytime soap opera star, who travels to his beloved Paris where his latest American soap, "Ventura County," watched by the loneliest and horniest housewives, is being broadcast on primetime. "Crandall" (Phillips never gives our badass antihero a name other than his name on his soap) is a star not...

Few actors draw us back like John Cusack – we can't get enough of that humble, sincere, over-articulate character he plays so well. So, Carole Cadwalladr asks the star of Say Anything and High Fidelity, why all the psychopaths?

Yesterday he was in Australia. Or was it tomorrow? John Cusack is confused. He's just returned from the Gold Coast, where he was filming his latest movie – Hard Drive, a heist thriller – and there's a brief interlude before he heads off again. Somewhere in between he saw the so-called "super moon", last week's fuller-than-normal full moon, but where?

"I was flying all day, so I saw it the second day," he says. "I was in the future, then I had to fly back to the past because I was a day ahead. It was day in Australia and then I flew all the way back, and it was daylight the entire time...

“Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money – and a woman – and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?”

Cold-blooded, brutal, and stylishly directed by Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity is a prime example of The Film Noir genre and remains highly influential in its look, attitude and story. The 1944 crime drama set the pattern for that distinctive post-war genre: a shadowy, nighttime urban world of deception and betrayal usually distinguished by its “hard-boiled” dialogue, corrupt characters and the obligatory femme fatale who preys on the primal urges of an ordinary Joe hungry for sex and easy wealth.

Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as planned, but after the couple’s passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other’s motives. The plan...

Now that you’ve had your fill of peppermint, presents, and multiple viewings of AMC’s White Christmas and Miracle On 34th Street, how about a little snark to go along with that special Holiday movie – sans the warm and fuzzy. It’s time for some mistletoe carnage and crafty comedy Geek style. In our gift to you, Wamg presents our list of the 15 best non-traditional films. Lovers of It’S A Wonderful Life can consider yourselves excused cuz Santa Claus is coming to town in these “More Naughty Than Nice”. movies.

Black Christmas

Black Christmas (the 1974 version of course), generally acknowledged as the forerunner of the ‘slasher’. genre, is so graphic in its imagination that you don’t even need to see any gore or murder. Black Christmas, which holds up spectacularly well after almost 40 years, tells the tale of a group of sorority sisters that are hounded and...

Title: Thin Ice Director: Jill Sprecher Starring: Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Billy Crudup, Lea Thompson, Bob Balaban, David Harbour A kind of mash-up, slightly more poker-faced version of some of the same snowy ethical dilemmas faced in “A Simple Plan,” “Fargo” and “The Ice Harvest,” crime dramedy “Thin Ice” delivers a winning, if rather drolly underplayed, black comedy that tosses its protagonist into a pit of moral quicksand, and then chronicles his flailing attempts to extricate himself. Mickey Prohaska (Greg Kinnear) is a small-time Wisconsin insurance salesman whose ability to coast on his looks and smooth-talking charisma seems to have finally hit an end. With his business struggling and attempts at reconnecting with...

Amy Heckerling: Amy Heckerling directed the starting point for a generation of brilliant high-school films, Fast Times at Ridgemont High before moving on to the stellar European Vacation. In 1989 and 1990, she hit a creative stumbling block, directing the successful but excruciating Look Who's Talking films before bouncing back in 1996 with Clueless. Unfortunately, it was soon after that success that she crapped out, directing Night at the Roxbury, Loser, and most recently, the straight-to-dvd clunker, I Could Never Be Your Woman, with Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer. She does have another film in the works, Vamps, with Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter, but the movie (pictured below) seems unlikely to save her directing career.

John Landis: One of the very best comedic directors of the 1980s, Landis hit an unprecedented successful streak, starting with Animal House and ending with Coming to America. In between, there was Spies Like Us,...

While you may not see much of John Cusack at your local megaplex, he’s still very much one of cinema’s more intriguing actors. Be it films like The Ice Harvest or the shockingly solid thriller 1408, Cusack will see quite an upswing in projects, with films like The Raven and Dictablanda, a film that he’s also written. And you can add yet another project to that slate.

Read more on John Cusack taking over for Tobey Maguire in The Paperboy...

It's not too long since we last lamented the state of John Cusack's career: long one of our favorite actors, the decade or so since "High Fidelity" has seen at best, enjoyable-but-flawed movies like "Runaway Jury," "The Ice Harvest" or "1408," through to films that were barely released, like "Grace Is Gone" and "The Contract," to, at worst, pictures that were never released, like "Shanghai" and serial killer thriller "The Factory," both shot in 2008, and still sitting on the shelf. But signs are good for a comeback: he's playing Edgar Allan Poe in next year's period thriller "The Raven,"…...

Variety reportedly said John Cusack’s starring in a new feature called Dictablanda (Soft Dictator), a screwball slapstick comedy of manners including an international conspiracy and intrigue.

Cusack co-wrote the script with entertainment attorney Kevin Morris, as well as actor Paul Hipp (”The Funeral,” “Face/Off”), who will also play in the film, and plus Alejandro Agresti. The latter, Agresti, the Argentine director of Valentin and The Lake House, is helming the lens. Production is already ongoing in Argentina, with sponsorship from local Pampa Films, and will continue through April.

The working title of the movie is “People don’t die, they get killed.”

John Cusack has just preoccupied playing Edgar Allan Poe in a period thriller called The Raven, inspired by the life and mysterious death of a magnificent American poet.

Cusack has been blessed enough to enjoy more than one period of career soaring. He had the top...

Ever since falling deeply in love with "Grosse Point Blank" as a twelve-year-old (followed swiftly by exposure to "Being John Malkovich" and "High Fidelity"), this writer has been firmly in the lifelong-fan-of-John Cusack camp. But being a Cusack fan has become deeply frustrating in recent years. His best performances ("Grace is Gone," "The Ice Harvest") go unsung, his paycheck roles get more and more depressing ("2012," "Hot Tub Time Machine") and his two most recent films, "Shanghai" and "The Factory" haven't been released at all, despite both filming way back in 2008. And that's without even mentioning his Twitter feed,…...

The Factory

Opens: 2011

Cast: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Ksenia Solo, Mae Whitman, Sonya Walger

Director: Morgan O'Neill

Summary: An obsessed cop is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, New York. When his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any pretension and professional restraint he might have to get the killer.

Analysis: Shot almost three years ago now, Dark Castle had originally planned to release this thriller back in late 2009. However for reasons unspecified, it has been sitting on a shelf for some time and keeps getting delayed. In cases like these, the most obvious reason is usually the correct one - it stinks (eg. "Case 39"). The company certainly has had its fair share of box-office duds lately including "Whiteout," "Ninja Assassin," "The Losers," "Orphan" and "Splice".

Yet Cusack generally has good taste in projects, his last venture into horror was the surprisingly effective Stephen King...

The Factory

Opens: 2011

Cast: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Ksenia Solo, Mae Whitman, Sonya Walger

Director: Morgan O'Neill

Summary: An obsessed cop is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, New York. When his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any pretension and professional restraint he might have to get the killer.

Analysis: Shot almost three years ago now, Dark Castle had originally planned to release this thriller back in late 2009. However for reasons unspecified, it has been sitting on a shelf for some time and keeps getting delayed. In cases like these, the most obvious reason is usually the correct one - it stinks (eg. "Case 39"). The company certainly has had its fair share of box-office duds lately including "Whiteout," "Ninja Assassin," "The Losers," "Orphan" and "Splice".

Yet Cusack generally has good taste in projects, his last venture into horror was the surprisingly effective Stephen King...

It’s that time of year again; it’s dark at 4pm, the air is crisp and often below freezing, lights twinkle from every crevice and you’re already sick of hearing Mariah Carey warble “All I Want for Christmas is You”… Yes, it’s Christmas time again and as the festive period draws ever closer, avoiding succumbing to the cheer and joy is a daily battle you’re sure to lose.

Now I’m not a Grinch – in fact I’m far from it, the lead up to the big day is one of my favourite times of the year (I think inside, I’m actually still about 6 and three quarters!) – but the gloss and exaggerated schmaltz of the period can certainly become tiresome very quickly.

Now I don’t want to belittle the sickly saccharine taste of holiday romantic comedies (Love Actually is a classic), the formulaic overcoming...

Scott Phillips is a man who has his hands in many hats. He directs, writes, produces and even edits films and then on top of that he occassionally finds the time to put out a book. He also has worked in the sound department, make-up, and even acts occassionally. Is there anything this man hasn't done?!? Scott Phillips mergered erotica and horror with The Stink of Flesh for Tempe Entertainment. He then followed that with Gimme Skelter, a film produced for under $5000! He also wrote Horrorvision and Cryptz for Full Moon Pictures. With this interview, we took a look back at his career and the many hats has worn. Here is what he had to say.

Who is Scott Phillips and what are you all about?

Well, I'm not the Scott Phillips who wrote The Ice Harvest, or the Scott Phillips who made Meadowoods (that guy needs a middle initial...

If watching John Cusack navigate through the apocalypse in 2012 is too much for you, perhaps you'll enjoy the latest Moviefone Mash. This video looks back on some classic Cusack scenes, specifically those in which the actor gets rained on. Certainly not the end of the world, but linked together the clips show us that he's pretty much synonymous with gloomy weather. Whether he's just been dumped or he's just popped out of John Malkovich's head, there's always a storm cloud with Cusack's name on it.

Moviefone deduces that because of all this caught-in-the-rain stuff, Cusack's characters are collectively akin to Bad Luck Schleprock from the Flintstones cartoons, and other examples of that comic trope. Or, maybe Cusack is like the character Rob McKenna from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, who can't get away from rain because he is, unknowingly,...

As with any year in Hollywood, there were a lot more bad movies than there were good. If there was one particularly unusual trend in seriously awful movies this year, however, it was not only in how well they did at the box office, but level of cultural impact several of these movies had in 2009. It's one thing to be an awful movie that falls on its ass at the box office and vanishes from our collective consciousnesses -- see My Life in Ruins, Battle for Tera, The Collector, Whiteout, New in Town, Dance Flick, or The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard -- but the Golden Pajibas are more interested in heinous cinematic butt nuggets (or anal bon mots) that not only made an impact at the box office, but commanded a lot of attention. These are bad movies that blew up in our faces and took big bloody hunks...

John Cusack, action star? In the 1980s, the actor appeared in such beloved comedies as Sixteen Candles, The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer and Say Anything. In the ’90s, he branched out in such disparate films as The Grifters, Bullets Over Broadway, Grosse Point Blank and Being John Malkovich. And in the past decade, the versatile thespian has appeared in Max, The Ice Harvest, Grace Is Gone and 1408. But action star? Ok, so Cusack was in Con Air, but action star?

The actor plays everyman Jackson Curtis—an aspiring Sf writer who tries to protect his family as the world’s end nears—in 2012. Roland Emmerich’s latest disaster flick was a change of pace for Cusack, who outruns earthquakes, floods and other cataclysmic events as the film’s family man of action. “The swimming I did, but the driving, not so much,” Cusack says of the...

Tracy McKnight has been named vice president of Film Music for the music arm of Lionsgate.The appointment is paired with the recent promotion of Russell Ziecker to head Lionsgate's television music operations. McKnight will work on numerous major film projects for Lionsgate's feature film slate in her new role, including Five Killers, starring Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl, Warrior, starring Nick Nolte, and The Winning Season, with Sam Rockwell and Emma Roberts.McKnight's film credits include studio films as The Ex, Friends With Money and The Ice Harvest, ...

Year One is the newest movie directed by Harold Ramis, who comedy lovers (and, hell, just about anyone) probably know as the director of Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, Multiplicity, Bedazzled, Analyze That and under-watched character film, The Ice Harvest. Ramis isn’t too shabby at coming up with compelling comedy scripts either, with writing credits on Animal [...]...

by John Constantine

Directing comedy is as delicate as writing it. You need to ease your performers into exactly the right rhythm, get them to react to each other just so. Otherwise your movie won’t be funny. It’ll just be ridiculous. Chemistry and timing are key.

That’s the reason you see so many comedy creators directing, writing and starring in their own work. It means complete control over the act, ensuring maximum hilarity. Harold Ramis has certainly written and/or performed in far more than he’s directed, but the former (soon-to-be current!) ghostbuster has nonetheless shouldered plenty of directing gigs. In honor of his latest stint as the helmer of “Year One,” I give you five classic chestnuts from his ever-growing catalog.

“Caddyshack” (1980)

Ramis’ directorial debut was easier than it was for some artists. He was surrounded by experienced, enormously talented performers — not to mention his...

Seen on: June 17, 2009

The players: Director: Harold Ramis, Writers: Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg, Harold Ramis, Cast: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Hank Azaria

Facts of interest: Ramis also directed "The Ice Harvest," "Groundhog Day" and "Analyze This."

The plot: Jack Black and Michael Cera play two idiotic cavemen who are banished from their village and embark on a long voyage to dangerous places.

Our thoughts: Jack Black and Michael Cera travel back in time in Harold Ramis’ latest comedy “Year One,” but sadly enough, their big-screen journey across ancient times isn’t exactly as hilarious as it sounds. The recurrence of cheap, brainless humor and the lack of a proper story line cause plenty of damage to the plot, putting the film’s chances to score with large audiences in serious jeopardy.

Harold Ramis, as Adam, and Jack Black in The Year One, which Ramis directed.Would it be presumptuous to call Harold Ramis' new comedy, Year One, a "classic" before most people (including this writer) have seen it? No, actually, it wouldn't. In case you've forgotten, Harold Ramis is responsible for everything cool in the universe. He co-wrote and/or directed movies like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Animal House, Groundhog Day, Stripes, Vacation, Analyze This and The Ice Harvest, among many others. He was a head writer for the cult 70s sketch show Sctv, a frequent director for NBC's The Office, and a writer/actor for the National Lampoon back when the National Lampoon wasn't an assembly line for all things crappy. If it made you laugh and was created in the last four decades, odds are that Ramis had a hand in it or at least inspired it. (Admittedly, Ramis has also given us some stinkers.

The folks over at /Film recently posted a first picture from Harold Ramis' upcoming comedy "The Year One," which stars Jack Black and Michael Cera. Check out the still below (via Entertainment Weekly):

In the film, Black and Cera play a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers who are banished from their primitive village and set off on an epic journey through the ancient world. Scheduled release date is June 19, 2009.

Olivia Wilde, David Cross, Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria co-star. Ramis' directing credits include "The Ice Harvest," "Groundhog Day" and "Analyze This" (and its sequel).