On this day: Best Actress Tie, Lincoln Assassination... and a Tarzan and Jill Marriage.

On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...

1865 President Lincoln is assassinated. He's surely the President that's hit the movies the most often, most successfully in Steven Spielberg's fantastic Lincoln (2012)

1894 The first commercial motion picture house opens using Thomas Edison's "kinetoscope" device. You had to look through a peephole though so it was only one viewer at a time, though the venue had 10 of the machines. Coincidentally Thomas Edison will be played by Benedict Cumberbath in this year's Oscar hopeful The Current War which is about Edison's battle with George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) over sustainable electricity in America...

1904 Sir John Gielgud, one of the great British actors, was born. He won the Oscar for Arthur (1981) but his filmography stretches all the way from the silent era through Elizabeth (1998)

1925 Oscar regular Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront, The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night) born

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Say What? Tom Cruise Stunting for "M:I 6"

Chris here. Now that filming has commenced on Mission: Impossible 6, we can start anticipating what stunt queen master Tom Cruise is prepping for our amazement. How can he top hanging from a giant skyscraper or strapping himself to a flying plane this time? Time will tell but we have already been told that Cruise has been prepping for a year on the showstopper. Maybe new costar Henry Cavill can get in on the fun?

Cruise was recently filming a more low-key feat on the Paris streets, crashing a motorcycle and somersaulting over a car on a wire. By comparison of several hundred feet, this stunt is positively quaint. But what's Tom got on his mind as he breezes through the air? Tell us in the comments!

Michael Ballhaus (1935-2017)

by Nathaniel R

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. The 81 year old artist was a crucial figure in making me the movie maniac that I am today. Michelle Pfeiffer on the piano top in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) -- hell the entire movie -- being a defining image in my life, after which I went from enthusiastic regular moviegoer to celluloid-devouring obsessive.

Ballhaus had retired after Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) making only one German movie in the last decade of his life and we had hoped each year that he'd be announced as an Honorary Oscar recipient. His three scant nominations -- The Fabulous Baker Boys, Broadcast News, and Gangs of New York -- do no justice to his long and gorgeous career. That's because they don't feel representative of his career as a whole and because, apart from his crowning glory (Baker Boys -- which ought to have walked away with Cinematography in just about any year, let alone 1989) aren't even his best work.

Ballhaus and Fassbinder worked together all through the 70s

Ballhaus got his start as a young man of 24 in German television but quickly graduated to features...

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Jack Linker

TIFF on the need for female film critics
The Guardian The Rock reveals he was turned down for the role of Jack Reacher in favor of Tom Cruise. Which puts that original quote that they couldn't find a tall enough actor to play the 6'5" fictional character to shame! (It's like when producers say "we couldn't find someone who can sing and dance for this musical"... it's just code for: 'we didn't really try because we liked Star A even though they were wrong for it' 
The Retro Set a look at Fred Astaire defying gravity in Royal Wedding for director Stanley Donen's birthday

Coming Soon after terrific 3rd season Grace & Frankie is renewed, will add Lisa Kudrow for a guest arc
/Film another disruption from Netflix. They're planning to focus more on Los Angeles as home for their productions. Might Hollywood follow suit and return home?
EW does a big promo push for Snatched with Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn
The New Yorker a profile of "the prophet of dystopia," Margaret Atwood as The Handmaid's Tale gets the miniseries treatment
Esquire 50 quote movie buff quiz. Listen and guess. I thought I'd get 100% but I missed a few toward the end. I especially liked the multiple choice quiz being difficult for once, like a Scarlett Johansson's elsewhere voice over a choice of three ScarJo movies and a fourth choice of a bunch of hazy blondes
MNPP Jude Law for Young Dumbledore. This opens up so many dirty thoughts 
Mother Jones a brief history of men getting credit for women's accomplishments
Variety The Magicians renewed for a third season at Syfy
Tracking Board has a series called "The Runway" in which they review all the pilot scripts and make bets as to what will make it to series. But first, a look back on what last year's winners were and what the hot trends look to be like this year
Tracking Board Aquaman's cast keeps growing Dolph Lundgren joins as the villainous King Nereus 

The Fast and I'm Furious: Ranking every film in the franchise

by Spencer Coile 

Dating back to 2001 with the premiere of The Fast and the Furious, the Furious franchise has become something of a centerpiece of the action genre. Watching the shenanigans of Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and company across the span of seven films in sixteen years is quite the rollercoaster ride of quality. Ranging from the good, the bad, and the ugly, it is especially interesting to note the progression of the film series; they initially started as mindless entertainement to... well, even more mindless entertainment, but with some awe-inspiring action sequences with a blatant theme of family and togetherness. Even after the death of Paul Walker, the franchise continues. 

In preparation for the latest foray into the canon, the eigth film (they aren't all numbered) The Fate of the Furious, I decided to sit down with each of the seven preceding movies and evaluate each on their own merits, but also how they function in the series as a whole. I'd seen a whopping zero of them before this marathon! How many have you seen?

Ranking the Fast and the Furious Franchise...

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