Tentpole Trauma

Following the commercial disappointment of the oppressively downbeat Alien 3, it stands to reason that 1997’s follow-up, Alien Resurrection, would attempt to recapture the fun, bug-hunt thrills of Ja…

The late 90s found Kevin Costner on a serious losing  streak following high profile post apocalyptic flops Waterworld and The Postman, so it made sense that he would retreat to a sub-genre that had b…

After Scream made him a semi-household name, David Arquette was poised for leading man status. Unfortunately, the first film he chose to lead was Eight Legged Freaks, a comedic, atomic age horror thr…

The Universal Monsters franchise has seen numerous failed re-launches over the years, but after Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man hit big back in 2020, hopes were high that he could do the same for the …

After the meteoric success of Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, director Sam Raimi was poised to deliver another knockout with the franchise’s 3rd entry. Sadly, despite incredible success at the box offic…

Despite the enduring popularity of  Spider-Man, Sony’s attempt to build a universe around the character’s rogue’s gallery—without the inclusion of Spidey himself— has, Venom movies aside, been an unm…

Groundhog Day meets alien invasion seems a sure fire high concept pitch; add megastar Tom Cruise into the equation and you would assume a box office smash. And yet, despite this and a strong critical…

Todd Philips' 2019 Joker took the world by storm, earning over a billion in box office receipts and winning star Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar. A sequel seemed all but inevitable, so when one was announc…

Expectations for a sequel were sky high following the monumental success of Tim Burton’s Batman, hype only exacerbated by the addition of Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito to the cast. And while 199…

Less a directorial effort than a vehicle for his pop singer daughter, M. Night Shyamalan's latest high concept thriller, Trap, features Josh Hartnett in a cat and mouse game taking place at the conce…

M.Night Shyamalan’s career was in the dumpster after the release of 2010’s The Last Airbender, so hitching his spaceship to superstar Will Smith seemed a smart move for his next project, 2013’s After…

After successfully resurrecting “The Shape” for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers in 1988, producer and overlord Moustapha Akkad demanded a sequel the following year. The resulting film, boast…

Jan de Bont’s remake of the 1963 Robert Wise classic promised to take The Haunting of Hill House into the new millennium, boasting state of the art special effects and an A-list cast. Unfortunately i…

Riding high off of their Lethal Weapon partnership, filmmaker Richard Donner and star Mel Gibson had every reason to believe their high concept action thriller Conspiracy Theory would be a success. A…

Fans of the 20th Century Fox mutant superhero series were anxious to see the backstory of fan-favorite character Wolverine explained, so Gavin Hood’s prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine landed with a bo…

Based loosely on an 80s TV series, David Leitch’s stunt driven action rom com The Fall Guy was positioned to catapult Ryan Gosling’s post Barbie heat into the superstar stratosphere. But despite a wi…

Before Marvel’s Avengers became a household name, there was the quirky 1960’s British spy series made popular by the presence of Diana Rigg in a cat suit. More than thirty years past the show’s prime…