Across India, a three-day festival celebrated the centenary of the original showman of Indian cinema, Raj Kapoor. To commemorate his 100th birth anniversary, as many as 101 theatres in 34 cities screened seven of his most popular movies, including Awaara (1951), Jagte Raho (1956), Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960), …
Read More »War, fatalism, even some heavy drinking: Here are the modern movies you should watch to understand the mysterious ‘Russian soul’
‘Russian longing,’ fatalism, existential reflections, intellectual conversations on abstract and eclectic topics, kitchen conversations – all this is an integral part of the international image of Russian culture, perhaps most amplified by the success of the country’s 19th century literature. Today, Russian cinema is enjoying a renaissance. Eternal themes which Leo …
Read More »Beijing says UK watched ‘too many 007 movies’ amid spy row
Beijing has strongly denied claims that Christine Lee was working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to interfere in UK politics by infiltrating the country’s parliament, accusing MI5 of “smearing and intimidation.” Responding to the claims made public on Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in London hit back at …
Read More »‘No Time To Die’ is the latest in a long line of James Bond movies supported by the UK & US military
The new James Bond adventure ‘No Time to Die’ features a C-17 aircraft and a naval destroyer, courtesy of the British Ministry of Defence (MOD). The Royal Air Force and Royal Navy lent their support to the action thriller, in the latest act of government sponsorship of the Bond franchise. …
Read More »Let ‘woke’ horror movies die: ‘The Forever Purge’ begs for liberal praise by devolving into anti-Trump fanfiction for CNN viewers
There is no questioning the success of the ‘Purge’ franchise. The 2013 original was part of a wave of micro-budget horror flicks that helped the now-juggernaut studio Blumhouse stand out. Now, with four movies behind it (plus two seasons of a show already forgotten by most), ‘The Purge’ barely reflects …
Read More »The aliens are coming: Here’s what the movies tell us we should expect from the Pentagon’s UFO report
On Friday, the Pentagon is scheduled to release its highly anticipated report on UFOs, or as the government now calls them, UAPs – unidentified aerial phenomena. Similar to Richard Dreyfuss in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, I’m a long-time, self-confessed, tin-foil hat-wearing UFO enthusiast/fanatic. As such, I’m delusionally hoping …
Read More »Monsters & the military: How ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ follows a long tradition of US meddling in the movies
Godzilla vs Kong has debuted to a gargantuan box office and critical response, but overlooked in the excitement over a genuine tentpole release – something that has been missing during the pandemic – is the tale of the Pentagon’s involvement in monster movies. It is not a natural or easy …
Read More »Lights, Camera, Cancelled! 10 Movies that were never made because the US government didn’t like them
J. Edgar Hoover wasn’t partial to Federal Dick The FBI was the first agency to lay the smack down on movies. In the 1930s, J. Edgar Hoover insisted on total control of the FBI’s public image and monitored the development of all movie projects about the Bureau. In February 1935, …
Read More »‘We’ve learned nothing from sci-fi movies’: Boston Dynamics’ advanced dancing robots both amuse & scare
The video – which showed off two robot humanoids, one robot dog-like creature with an extendable snake head, and a tall robot on two wheels doing a group dance – went viral on social media, with users both praising and condemning the robotic advancements. Described by some as “uplifting and fantastic,” and …
Read More »Johnny Depp fans call for boycott of Netflix after star’s movies seemingly deleted from platform
After Depp launched and lost a libel case against the Sun newspaper in November over an article calling him a “wife beater,” some studios began distancing themselves from him. As a reaction to that, his fans banded under the hashtag ‘Justice for Johnny Depp’, believing that the actor was a …
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