Monte Hale Centennial

James Dean with Monte Hale on the set of "Giant"

Who? Listen we're not huge western devotees but nevertheless we tip our imaginary cowboy hats today to the bygone tradition of singing cowboys on film. (You know the kind if only from watching Alden Ehrenreich work such charismatic wonders as one of 'em in the Coen Bros Hail Caesar!). Monte Hale, born on this day 100 years ago in Oklahoma, was among the last of such stars...

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Links: Madonna, Ghostbusters, James Bond, Emmy Campaigns, etc...

• EW six different cover stars for Entertainment Weekly's "50 Years of Gay Pride" issue: Wilson Cruz, Anderson Cooper, Melissa Etheridge, Janet Mock, Neil Patrick Harris, and Ruby Rose
• Coming Soon Sigourney Weaver confirms that the original cast will return for a Ghostbusters 3
• Travel + Leisure a movie theater in Switzerland has beds instead of seats now for movies. Want

More after the jump including Emmy campaigning, Madonna's "Dark Ballet" and Brad Pitt's honorable cease & desist...

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Posterized: So many Godzilla movies

For this week's monster-themed Posterized, we're doing things a bit differently. In ye olden times, the Godzilla franchise was a mess, internationally speaking, with some films reedited, retitled, and rereleased or out of order. The original Godzilla (1954) actually has three separate versions: Japanese (1954), American (1956), and Italian (1976) and each one of them have different scenes and shapes (the Italian one is colorized) with only the American version adding in the Raymond Burr subplot. Even when the movies weren't chopped up and reconfigured they were sometimes called different things. For instance Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), which I loved on TV as a kid is also called Godzilla vs. The Thing and that "Thing" of the title ISN'T Mothra so it's all very confusing.

3 very different versions of the same movie for Japan, America, and Italy

Essentially there are 32 live-action Godzilla movies. So we've listed them and then collected some noteworthy Godzilla posters that we found online, whether or not they were official posters. How many of these 32 pictures have you seen?...

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Review: The Secret Life of Pets 2

by Ben Miller (who has small children)

What do we want from a film when it is obviously not for us? If I'm watching an indie about a life experience that's in no way relatable to my own, I can still admire the artistry and the humanity. If I’m watching a film about talking pets specifically aimed at children, I can enjoy it... but what am I supposed to get out of it? Films like The Incredibles, WALL-E or Wreck-It Ralph are “for” kids, but non-children can enjoy them on a number of levels beyond the bright colors, fart jokes or action sequences.  Those films dug deep into issues about family, loneliness and friendship and had an overarching theme to bring everything together in a coherent way.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 is not one of those films and doesn't try to be...

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Birthday-Month Fundraiser

We met Marcia Gay Harden last year during Birthday Month. What joy awaits this year? Happy birthday to us! (The royal "us" but also to our fellow twin Geminis!) The only thing we want for the birthday this year beyond good health (which only God or whatever Higher Power there is can grant without health insurance) and a new love interest (where are they?) is for The Film Experience to stay afloat.

Last week when we were down for a couple of days due to a hosting platform glitch, it felt like a miniature existential crisis in mini: Who are we without this website?

If you read the site daily, please consider a donation which can go along way towards stability / sanity.  For those of you who don't like the idea of monthly tips, please consider a one time donation (either option is available via the dropdown). It's difficult to monetize joy but put a dollar figure on what you get from TFE and then, um, subtract until you can afford it? (We're not greedy, just poor). And if you'd like to support a particular series you can do that this way. SO MANY OPTIONS xoxo

And if you're too poor this year and counting dimes with precision to pay bills, we wish you a sudden windfall (we've been there) and thank you again for reading even if you can't donate.