Since Tom Clancy’s death in 2013 we’ve seen his Jack “Ryanverse” come to the screen twice, first on the big screen in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) with Chris Pine as Ryan, and later on the small screen in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (2018) on Amazon Prime with The Office’s John Krasinski stepping into the role of Ryan previously handled by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October (1990), Harrison Ford in Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), and Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears (2002). In Clear and Present Danger, the second major Ryanverse character arrived in Willem Dafoe’s John Clark, later reprised by Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears. As was first done with Ryan in The Sum of All Fears, and later with Pine and Krasinski, the franchise is taking another step back in into the Clancy timeline for the next movie–a prequel, a direct-to-Amazon Prime feature adapting Clancy’s 1993 novel Without Remorse. That book and its new movie adaptation Without Remorse focuses on the origin of the John Clark character (initially introduced as John Kelly, as explained in the novel/movie), this time played by Creed and Black Panther’sMichael B. Jordan. Check out the trailer for the movie below.
Over the past decade I have reviewed most of the books from publisher Running Press chronicling Turner Classic Movies’ in-depth research into the best of classic and genre films. Yesterday I looked at the 2016 book TCM’s The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, by film historian Jeremy Arnold. Today I’m reviewing and previewing a new volume in what has become a film library for the film historian. It’s the second volume pulled from the 2001-2020 TCM series The Essentials, TCM’s The Essentials: 52 More Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, a very different look at film than the first volume, with some interesting features–and great movies. We have a peek inside the book for borg readers below.
If you’d happened to watched last year’s crime noir film Motherless Brooklyn and not known the screenwriter or director, I wouldn’t fault you if you expected to see Francis Ford Coppola’s name in the credits, or you figured Martin Scorsese finally made the perfect New York picture. But that’s not what you’ll find, because it not only stars Edward Norton, but he wrote and directed the film–his first director effort. And it’s an exciting, stunning, gritty film. The fact that Motherless Brooklyn is even worthy of comparison might be praise enough for the film and its creator, but it goes a step further and surpasses a film it’s frequently been compared to–Roman Polanski’s Chinatown. The fact that Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and The Irishman were nominated for best film at the Oscars this year, but this wasn’t? That’s a real head-scratcher–or that Norton’s performance as a Tourette’s syndrome-affected private detective trying to find the guys that killed his boss wasn’t even nominated for best actor? Movie lovers and fans of crime noir who missed it should catch its home release. It’s as good as it gets.
In February’s Super Bowl barrage of commercials viewers saw their first look at Tom Cruise’s next outing in the American version of the James Bond movies. The sixth Mission: Impossible film, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, showed Cruise returning as Ethan Hunt, along with returning cast Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Sean Harris, and Alec Baldwin, plus some surprises.
Three months later Paramount released the next trailer for the film early this morning, showing more action and more disasters for Ethan Hunt. And that includes more Cruise doing many of his own stunts.
Superman Henry Cavill is the latest leading man to share significant screen-time in an M:I mission with Cruise. Plus Black Panther’s Angela Bassett looks to be a key force in the film. Vanessa Kirby and Rebecca Ferguson also co-star. In advance of the new trailer, Cavill announced a new poster for the movie (above).
Here is the new trailer for Mission: Impossible – Fallout:
In addition to the eagerly awaited first look at Solo: A Star Wars Story, today’s Super Bowl game included a look at Tom Cruise’s next go at the American version of the James Bond movies. The sixth Mission: Impossible film, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, has Cruise returning as Ethan Hunt, along with regulars Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Alec Baldwin, plus some surprises.
Also look for appearances by Henry Cavill and Angela Bassett. As with the past entries in the series, that’s Cruise performing many of his own stunts.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is playing a father with a prosthetic leg trying to save his family in Skyscraper, the next big action flick featuring the blockbuster star. Johnson continues to pile up box office wins, most recently in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (reviewed here).
Have a look at new trailers for Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Skyscraper:
It’s been a long time since most audiences last saw Emilio Estevez. For most fans the last film was 1993’s Judgment Night, where Estevez led a great cast that included Denis Leary in his big breakout year, Cuba Gooding, Jr. just after his stint in A Few Good Men, and Jeremy Piven first showing audiences that smarm charm we’d later see a whole lot more of in Entourage (if you haven’t seen Judgment Night, it’s a thriller worth seeing). Usually a good guy and straight arrow, we’d also see him as suave and cocky as he became a household name and stayed that way for an entire decade, from 1982 to 1993.
Estevez starred in a memorable movies likeTex, The Outsiders, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Maximum Overdrive, Stakeout, Young Guns, Freejack, and The Mighty Ducks. He then took the reins as writer, director, and actor twelve years ago in a lesser known film, a biopic of the Bobby Kennedy assassination called Bobby, and he’s finally back–performing the filmdom triple threat again in the independent drama The Public. The first trailer for the film is out and it looks great. A film chock full of genre greats, The Public will see Estevez exploring issues such as homelessness, mental illness, and drug addiction as a group of homeless people in downtown Cincinnati take shelter after hours in the public library when extreme winter conditions strike. Who hasn’t asked the question, why some government program couldn’t be arranged to use a few public buildings after hours to help the homeless?
Estevez plays Stuart Goodson, the head librarian, Alec Baldwin (Mission: Impossible series, The Departed, Malice, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Hunt for Red October, Beetlejuice, Knots Landing) plays a crisis negotiator for the Cincinnati police department, Jena Malone (The Hunger Games series, Sucker Punch, Into the Wild, Pride & Prejudice, Donnie Darko, Ellen Foster) plays the assistant librarian, Jeffrey Wright(James Bond series, Westworld, The Good Dinosaur, Lady in the Water, Syriana, The Manchurian Candidate, Shaft, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Homicide) plays Mr. Anderson, Richard T. Jones(Event Horizon, Collateral, Phone Booth, Godzilla, Super 8, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Judging Amy) is Chief Edwards, Gabrielle Union(Deep Space Nine, Life, Night Stalker) plays a local reporter, Michael Kenneth Williams (Assassin’s Creed, Ghostbusters, Boardwalk Empire, RoboCop, Community, Law & Order, The Wire) plays a homeless man who leads the sit-in, Taylor Schilling (Argo, Orange is the New Black, Dark Matter) plays Angela, Christian Slater(Mr. ROBOT, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Young Guns II) plays the assistant district attorney, and Jacob Vargas (Luke Cage, Medium, Psych, Burn Notice, Death Race, Flight of the Phoenix, Crimson Tide) is the head of security at the library.
Check out this trailer for Emilio Estevez’s The Public:
This weekend in theaters across the country you could see some exciting previews of coming movies, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Everest (as well as some that look like duds, which shall go unnamed). One of the best was this behind the scenes look at Mission: Impossible–Rogue Nation, which hits theaters this weekend.
The marketing folks for this fifth entry in the modern Mission: Impossible reboot series have been parading this poster of Tom Cruise hanging from the side of an airplane for months. For any other movie we’d yawn and note it as another action sequence in what has really been a solid action series. Each film has Cruise doing some physical maneuvers. Who can forget Cruise in the 1996 original film, hanging by two cables as he hacks a CIA computer after lowering himself from a ventilation duct into a secure facility room from after bypassing a laser grid.
But this movie has something different.
Check out this preview and behind the scenes look at Cruise’s airplane stunt. (Trust us, it looks pretty incredible on the big screen):
After Tom Clancy’s passing this week, fans of his biggest character, Jack Ryan, have been introduced to a new phase of the movie incarnations of his geopolitical thriller novels with this weekend’s release of the first trailer for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Last December we at borg.com listed Jack Ryan as one of the ten characters to watch in 2013, and we included Jack Ryan, the movie, as one of the 24 films we predicted would be worth seeing in 2013.
Since last year’s announcement of Chris Pine taking on the lead, the title was changed to add the subtitle Shadow Recruit, replacing the prior subtitle Shadow One (we think Hollywood really needs to work on their subtitles). The role of Jack Ryan was, of course, first played by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October in 1990, followed by Harrison Ford in Patriot Games in 1992 and Clear and Present Danger in 1994. Ben Affleck then played a younger Jack in the 2002 prequel film The Sum of All Fears. All four of these movies were based on bestselling Clancy novels, The Hunt for Red October often being listed as one of the best thrillers of all time. Likewise, The Hunt for Red October is one of the best, and most exciting, movies of all time, with Alec Baldwin’s performance still the standard for future Ryans to be measured against.
With last night’s episode of the TV series Dallas on TNT, “The Furious and the Fast,” J.R. Ewing was shot while talking to his son on the telephone. Shot again, that is. And with the real-life passing of Larry Hagman eerily timed with this season’s wrap-up of J.R., there’s no bringing back J.R. this time around. Viewers who watched Hagman play J.R. and Major Anthony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie among other series and movies, will say a final goodbye to both Hagman and J.R. with the funeral of J.R. in next Monday’s episode, “J.R.’s Masterpiece.” The mayor of the city of Dallas, in real life, has declared next Monday “Larry Hagman Day.”
The reboot of Dallas has brought back many original actors from the 1978-1991 series, the most interesting of which is spin-off Knot’s Landing star Ted Shackleford returning as brother Gary Ewing in last night’s episode. But along with Shackleford we’ve seen Patrick Duffy return as Bobby Ewing along with Linda Gray as Sue Ellen Ewing and Brenda Strong as Ann Ewing, all as series leads. Then they added the classic series’ antagonist Cliff Barnes, played by Ken Kercheval, as a major plot twist, and even Charlene Tilton returning as Lucy Ewing and Steve Kanaly as Ray Krebbs. What other series could you do something like this with and actually pull it off? Magnum, P.I.?
If there is a constant as we look ahead to movie franchises and other entertainment properties in 2013, it is the sequel, spin-off, and remake. We’re sure someone will provide new content and stories for us for movies and TV from entirely new characters and worlds in 2013, but just take a look at the 24 biggest genre movies coming out next year and it is obvious that Hollywood is following the “tried and true” model of investing in current properties rather than investing money in “the new”.
So with that in mind, what are the big characters to watch out for next year–the characters we already know that seem like they can only get bigger?
10. Jack Ryan. Back in the 1980s and 1990s it seemed like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan was everywhere, first with Alec Baldwin taking on the role in The Hunt for Red October, then mega-star Harrison Ford in two sequels, followed by a big break and then Ben Affleck in the prequel Sum of All Fears. With Star Trek star Chris Pine bringing us yet another prequel effort next December, we think a wide audience will come back again to see what this CIA agent has been up to.
9. Wolverine. I’ve always thought Wolverine should be Marvel Comics’ key property. Spider-man always relied on Peter Parker (well, until recently) who seemed pretty planted in the psyche of the past. The Avengers seemed too cartoony with characters with too little in common to really be a huge property (happily I was wrong!). But Wolverine has a certain modern grittiness that readers, especially young readers, would seem to really attach to. Audiences seem to like Hugh Jackman’s take on the character and his incredible fifth outing as Logan/Wolverine in July, titled The Wolverine should tell us if this will be the end of a big-screen Wolverine for a while or whether he will only get bigger.
