Review: "The Dark Tower"

by Chris Feil

The Stephen King resurgence continues with his epic genre mashup series The Dark Tower finally coming to the screen from director Nikolaj Arcel, and with the powerful Idris Elba in tow as the enigmatic gunslinger Roland Deschain. But this one isn’t likely to come ahead of the King-idolatry of Stranger Things or the upcoming adaptation of It, as it barely resembles his creation or any of the elements that make him one of our foremost pulse-quickeners.

The Dark Tower centers on Jake Chambers, a troubled teenager with visions of otherworldly cataclysm centered around the evil Man in Black, played with nonchalance by Matthew McConaughey. Jake flees across dimensions into Roland’s world and the two pair up to stop the Man In Black from destroying the titular Dark Tower and with it all of existence. When the film immediately forces its hero Roland Deschain to the background for its first two acts (and without building a mythos to capitalize on once he emerges), it’s the first sign that something is majorly amiss in this adaptation...

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Beauty Break: Idris Elba

It’s looks like the best thing to come out of making The Dark Tower into a movie, is having Idris Elba out and about promoting it. From magazine covers to late night TV couches he’s been looking very sharp. Here are 6 photos from the press tour to brighten your Friday.

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Thoughts I Had... "The Mountain Between Us" First Look

Chris here. Summer is heating up, but feast your eyes on the wintery skies of The Mountain Between Us. The film stars Kate Winslet and Idris Elba as two strangers who must band together when their plane crashes in the mountains, forcing them to trek hundreds of miles to safety. The film arrives October 20, which puts it in prime Oscar season should the lead stars and film itself deliver the goods. Here is the first image of the film and some thoughts after the jump...

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Thoughts I Had... "The Dark Tower" Poster

Chris here. With the long (lonnnnnnnnng) road to production, reshuffling of realease dates, and confusing messages on a spin off series, I can't blame you if you've lost track of Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower. The franchise hopeful has tradeed hands from Ron Howard to A Royal Affair's Nikolaj Arcel, and lost a few potential stars along the way. But with a looming summer release, it's about time to start seeing some of the goods (even if those set photos of a leather-clad Idris Elba should have kept this at the top of our minds). At long last here is the first poster, with some thoughts after the jump...

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No mountain between them at the moment...

Remember this past summer when we first heard that Kate Winslet and Idris Elba were making a romantic drama together? Here they are making out on the set of The Mountain Between Us

The 20th Century Fox movie about a man and a woman who survive a plane crash and have to trust each other to survive in the mountains, is directed by Hany Abu-Assad (who is best known for directing two Palestinian Oscar nominees: 20015's Paradise Now and 2013's Omar), is due in late October so basically we can expect it at the festivals...

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