Beauty vs Beast: From Ape To Eternity

Jason from MNPP here with a new round of our "Beauty vs Beast" series! I haven't had a chance to see War of the Planet of the Apes yet but I have heard the near unanimous praise so I'll make it soon - until then let's tackle the classic original film from 1968 this week, because who doesn't love to see Charlton Heston shackled and abused for whatever reason. Opposite his amusingly bombastic astronaut George is Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), who gives that movie's simians a sweet heart - something that the new series of films has really run with.

PREVIOUSLY Last week we wished blad icon Yul Brynner a happy birthday with some King of Siam action but it was his dancing partner who swept y'all off your feet - Deborah Kerr won 67% of the vote. Said Pam:

"I always pick the lady in a gentleman vs lady competition. Plus Deborah Kerr gets higher marks for looking glorious in period dresses and Technicolor. And how easy and natural her chemistry seems with all of her male co-stars, even if she detested them IRL. (But according to some sources, she had dalliances with more than a few...but Yul was not one of them)"

Trailer Leftovers: "Alien", "Snatched", and "Apes"

Chris here, still nursing our holiday hangover. To go with the massive amount of films descending upon the multiplexes at the holiday season, there is always an equally large amount of trailers to catch up to. Let's revisit the gluttony by reheating some trailer leftovers we've yet to discuss here, including Goldie Hawn's comeback vehicle Snatched, the hyperviolent & NSFW first look at Alien: Covenant, and the next installment of those damn dirty Apes!

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On this day: Billy the Kid, The Dark Knight, Hello Nasty

Happy Bastille Day! Isn't it weird that violent/bloody days often become holidays later on?

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

Howard Hughes The Outlaw (1943)

1862 The Artist Gustav Klimt is born. Later Dame Helen Mirren will fight for custody of one of his most famous paintings in the bad movie Woman in Gold (2015).
1868 Explorer Gertrud Bell is born. Nicole Kidman played her in an ill-fated unreleased Werner Herzog movie Queen of the Desert
1881 Outlaw Billy the Kid is shot and killed outside Fort Sumner. Numerous stars have played him in movies including Roy Rogers (Billy the Kid Returns), Kris Kristofferson (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), Emilio Estevez (Young Guns), and Paul Newman (The Left-Handed Gun). The most famous film version of his story may well be The Outlaw (1943) the Howard Hughes film which starred Jack Buetel as Billy and Jane Russell, in her star-making role, as his girl. You'll probably remember the funny scenes about this scandalous film (and Jane Russell's controversial cleavagae) within Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004)

more after the jump including Harry Dean Stanton's 90th birthday...

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Six Alternate Cinematic Realities More Desirable Than Trump's America

Daniel Crooke here. Just in time for the newest season of Game of Thrones, Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich’s presidential aspirations are officially, swiftly deceased – leaving the door open for a brave new world even more horrific than some of the worst doomsday scenarios we’ve seen on the big screen. Now that Donald Trump has ostensibly become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, science fiction has officially become reality. When you consider the inherent havoc in a candidate who makes light of civilian casualties, discards women, ensures bigotry and violence, and endorses straight-up rights snatching – not to mention his microscopic, ahem, vocabulary – many cinematic dystopias and alternate realities once thought to be cataclysmically dreadful begin to sound imminently habitable if he were to actually be elected. Next to the fascist plunder-land of Trump’s America, living in these broken worlds would be downright nirvana.

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

If a clown is going to be elected president, let’s make sure it’s Peter Sellers.

The Duke of Burgundy

Whether BDSM knocks your boots, a world full of lesbians is bound to involve less literal dick-measuring than this one.

Mad Max Fury Road

We’re already well on our way to oppressive weather patterns – from vicious sandstorms to severe drought – and the faux-chismo of Immortan Joe will already inhabit the Oval Office, so let’s wait it out in the desert until Furiosa starts her noble reign and maybe get to know a member of the Vuvalini along the way. Note: null and void if Hillary wins – we’ll have our own shiny, chrome leader and mediocre Trump will go the way of the People Eater.

Battlefield Earth

Better hair.

Children of Men

Trust me. Despite the governmental meddling, guerilla warfare, and international class struggles, living in a world with no children is much more hopeful than passing on Trump’s to the next generation. Plus stoned Michael Caine is exactly the kind of deadbeat loosuh we should keep around.

Planet of the Apes

Fictional tyrannical orangutan > real tyrannical orangutan.

Which otherworldly filmic universe would you rather inhabit than a planet of Trump?

Linkwire

• Film Grimoire bookmarking this "on location" series since I'm going to London soon and there's lots of fun places from famous movies
• You Must Remember This Karina Longworth researches Hollywood's first openly gay star William Haines (way back in the silent era) 
• The Guardian on Spear, the "Australia's first indigenous dance film" - we wanna see
• Quartz a photographers new project "edits" out smartphones showing us our lonely new world of disconnection

 

• Variety checks in with sales of Mexico's Oscar hopeful 600 Miles feat. Tim Roth
• ICYMI <-- we previously covered the foreign submissions w/ recognizable stars like Roth
• Buzzfeed Dreamboat Aaron Tveit sings stripped-down "Defying Gravity" from Wicked
• Playbill looks at Broadway's oldest living leading ladies: Lansbury and Rivera aren't the only ones
• AV Club childhood memories of Willow (1988) and an adult revisit
• i09 the first image from The War of the Planet of the Apes looks familiar 
• i09 on the superheroes that should get TV series rather than movies. Okay, I'd watch She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel.
• i09 Captain America is outraging conservatives again, who forget that he's always been a political character
• Variety The 33 and Where to Invade Next added to growing AFI Fest. Nathaniel and Anne Marie will cover this last minute Oscar nom -seeking festival for you as usual. 
• Forbes YouTube's highest earning stars. I feel so removed from this wing of showbiz that it always startles me to realize that a) there are famous people that I wouldn't recognize even if they were standing right in front of me screaming their name and b) those same people are NOT from sports or reality television... the other areas to which I am blind

Lukewarm Off Presses
• Page Six I somehow missed this story of Daniel Craig getting in hot water with Sony execs with his repeated groaning about having to play James Bond again. But I like it. (It sucks when you have to work once every three years for shitloads of money, right). In related 'anything else!' news, Craig has signed on for a new production of Othello on the stage. He'll be playing Iago to David Oyelowo's Othello.

Celebrity Pic o' the Day

A photo posted by garret dillahunt (@garretdillahunt) on Oct 17, 2015 at 7:09pm PDT

An excellent idea, prolly.

Garret Dillahunt is a marvelous actor and though Hollywood likes him best as a sinister possibly dim psycho (The Road, Amazon's Hand to God), he's just as good at decent if ineffectual lawmen (Winter's Bone and No Country For Old Men) and has proved his comedy bonafides on television in Raising Hope and The Mindy Project and also does stage work. In short: we are fond of him and he has more range than the roles he's offered. This great selfie he posted yesterday is exactly how it feels to watch him in his most unnerving roles, though. Love his caption "An excellent idea, prolly" Heh!