It looks like Harry Potter got a new pair of glasses. Sony Pictures Classics released the trailer for Kill Your Darlings, which casts Daniel Radcliffe as the young Allen Ginsberg. Radcliff is still in school but he’s ditched his robes and most of his accent. Kill Your Darlings is based on the true story of the 1944 murder of David Kammerer and Allen Ginsberg’s connection to it.

The Kill Your Darlings trailer looks like a romantic, gay, coming-of-age murder mystery. Set in the forties, Radcliffe’s Ginsberg is a questioning student who can’t catch a football. He’s involved with one of those people he really shouldn’t be involved with and doesn’t heed the warnings. Kill Your Darlings looks like it has the whole Columbia University literary gang that changed the way people wrote without writing a word.

Kill Your Darlings was directed by John Krokidas and also features Ben Foster as William Burroughs (I’d recognize that voice anywhere), Jack Huston as Jack Kerouac, Michael C. Hall as David Kammerer, Dane DeHaan as Kimmerer’s killer, Lucien Carr and Elizabeth Olsen.

Kill Your Darlings premiered at Sundance and the producers hope it might spark a “Beat Generation” revival. Radcliffe told reporters "There's a tendency to really hold these guys up on pedestals as they became giants of American literature, and there's a tendency to be, I think reverential toward them. That's not what we were interested in doing. We were interested in showing them just running around having a great time in New York when they all first met."

Kill Your Darlings will hit theaters on Oct. 18.

SOURCE: THR

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Noting that he hadn’t made a movie in three years, yesterday Radarmagazine reported, in a small piece based on unsubstantiated and unattributed third-party information, that Jack Nicholson was stepping away from the big screen for good, due to his fast-deteriorating short term memory. If true, it would mean Nicholson would join the ranks of other aging and increasingly forgetful actors like Gene Hackman and Sean Connery, both of whom chose to quietly retire from the acting business with their dignity still intact.

Despite the shaky nature of the source info, the story went viral, picked up by virtually every major news outlet in the country without question. It took nearly 24 hours before anyone bothered to, you know, ask Nicholson’s people about this.

When someone finally did, the response from the Nicholson camp was that the rumors were “just plain kooky.”

Gotta admit, though, that I found the denial a little disappointing. When I first heard the rumor yesterday, I reacted more than anything with a sense of relief. Can’t say as I would have blamed him if he was calling it quits. In fact I can’t say as I would’ve blamed him had he retired 25 years ago.

Nicholson has had one of the strangest and most respected careers in Hollywood history, beginning with a long string of films at American International, where he appeared in crime films, goofy comedies, existential Westerns and low-budget horror films before establishing his countercultural cred with biker and drug films. Then in 1969 he drove the nail home and cracked it big with Easy Rider. After that it was on to American classics like Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, Cuckoo’s Nest, The King of Marvin Gardens, hell, from the late ‘60s to the late ‘70s his filmography is a jaw-dropping collection of remarkable performances in amazing films, and along the way he worked with every great living director imaginable, from Kubrick and John Huston to Antonioni, Ken Russell, Roger Corman and Roman Polanski. He even tried his hand at directing himself, with the Vietnam-era college basketball drama Drive, He Said, and the baffling and insane Monkees feature, Head.

Both on and offscreen he was the coolest of hepcats, moving through the world with a sly grace, able somehow to maintain his solid countercultural icon status while at the same time winning the fawning, slobbering respect of the usually braindead Hollywood establishment.

Then came his leering, over the top performance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. I still love that performance, but somehow after that everything changed. By 1979 he’d already proven everything he needed to prove, and after “Heeeere’s Johnny!” he began the slide into self-parody. He stopped being an actor and became simply Jack Nicholson. It seemed all anyone wanted him to do was reprise his Jack Torrance shtick, and he seemed happy to oblige, flapping his arms and bugging his eyes. Oh, there were a few scattered great roles after that, like his turn as a Depression-era bum in the brilliant Ironweed and his quiet, even sinister take on Eugene O’Neill in Reds, but those are mostly long forgotten now, buried beneath all his howling and hamming in crap like The Witches of Eastwick, Batman, and lord help us all, Wolf.

By the late ‘90s it was as if he’d given up altogether. He even left the cartoon Jack Nicholson behind for the most part, shuffling through lackluster films simply as himself— a pudgy, aging beatnik who didn’t need to prove a damn thing to anyone, and didn’t feel much like trying. His performances were still praised, but I always wondered why. It seemed he was being praised simply for being Jack Nicholson, because he sure wasn’t doing much of anything else. Granted, being Jack Nicholson was still pretty fucking cool by anyone’s standards, but he wasn’t turning out films like The Passenger and The Last Detail anymore—he was in lazy romantic comedies and, lord help us again, Anger Management. Even his Whitey Bulger doppelganger in The Departedseemed a tired walk-through.

Even if I haven’t given a rat’s ass for much of anything he’s done these last 25 years (I’ll give him up through Ironweed), I still have the greatest respect for him, and always will. He’s Jack Nicholson, for godsakes, and it’s not like he’s going to be remembered for As Good as It Gets. Part of me would like to think that maybe, just maybe, he hasn’t made a film in three years simply because he was tired of making such useless crap. He’s always been cool enough and independent enough to make a decision like that, right?

Still, even if his memory is sharp as ever (in spite of his well-documented history of youthful experimentation), maybe he really should consider following the honorable and respectable examples of Cagney and Cary Grant, both of whom chose to step away gracefully before the ugly whispers started. like those two, there’s no one else like Jack Nicholson, and certainly no one to replace him. If he does decide to retire, my hat’s off to him. If he makes another film just to further squash the rumors, well, I suppose I’ll hold my breath, hope for the best, and pray it’s not About Schmidt 2.

Now if someone could just convince Robert DeNiro to retire because, Christ, that’s just sad.

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Nobody is making more major superhero and comic book movies than Marvel Studios right now. The firm has effectively committed to two major movies a year, but aside from Scarlett Johansson's recurring role as Black Widow, and the evolution of Gwyneth Paltrow's character in the Iron Man films, its big screen superheroes to date have all been male. Certainly the headline ones have all been. It does seem, however, that Marvel wants to do something about that.

"There's obviously a drumbeat that is banging louder and louder that we want a female lead superhero", Marvel's Louis D'Esposito told Coming Soon. D'Esposito has directed the short Agent 47 and Agent Carter pieces for Marvel, and significantly, has produced Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers.

"We have strong female characters in our films from Black Widow to Pepper Potts to Peggy Carter and you never know. Maybe there's an offshoot movie with one of them. Or Captain Marvel, you know?", he added.

[related article: 5 Female Marvel Superheroes Who Need Solo Films]

D'Esposito did concede that a female-led superhero movie would take time, though. "We do two films a year. To get those two films done to do them right takes a lot of work and manpower. And female-power, obviously. To add a third movie and to just put it in the slate right now is difficult. We have these next three, four, five films coming out and that's what we're really concentrating on".

Hmmm.

Arguably, there's no studio in a better position to put a woman front and center of a major superhero movie right now, and why the studio would need to add a third movie to its slate in a year to accomodate that is a puzzle. Marvel's slate is known through to the end of 2015, when Edgar Wright's Ant-Man is coming out. Might it be too much to hope that, in 2016, the studio that's proven it's willing to go its own way rather than follow what experts tell them about the market can have the confidence and courage to really go for a female-led superhero movie? Ideally one without Halle Berry in bondage gear? We wait and see.

The interview with Coming Soon is here.

The grand tradition of scenery chewing is vital for cinema. Whether it’s the most over-the-top acting, a performance of genuine talent and ability, or something truly awful, scenery chewing is a broad church. In this list you’ll find all of the above – a performance qualifies as scenery chewing if the actor is demonstrating to you that they are acting, and that you need to feel the power of their acting.It’s amazing stuff, and all of our favourite thespians are guilty of it, even during what are considered their best performances. So enjoy the below, and suggest some more below..

50. Christopher Lee – Count Dracula (1970)

Let’s start with a man who's chewed scenery with aplomb for decades. Whether as the Prince of Darkness, Scaramanga, Count Dooku, or Saruman, Lee has imbued all his roles with a power that only the very finest can achieve. He has two lines in the above clip, but that’s the only two lines you’ll care about. Which really, is what scenery chewing should be about – making an impression and making sure everyone else knows you’re acting your socks off.

49. Crispin Glover – River’s Edge (1986)

For a large part of my life, I only really knew Crispin Glover as mild-mannered George McFly. So it came as a surprise when I first saw his infamous Letterman interviews, and then followed that up by checking out his song Clowny Clown Clown (watch it here if you dare). It was then I knew this man was a special talent, and luckily I was rewarded after I discovered this bravura performance in River’s Edge. Thank you, Crispin.

48. Ashton Kutcher – The Butterfly Effect (2004)

Ashton Kutcher is definitely one to watch in the years to come. I hear whispers of a good performance as Steve Jobs in Jobs, and coupled with his obvious ability to over-act when needed, it suggests that he’ll probably get some sort of Oscar nomination in a few years' time. But the important thing to remember is to start young. You must practice your scenery chewing in order to hone it into something beautiful. This is a good start, but it’s only a start.

47. David Caruso – CSI: Miami (2002-2012)

This man was paid to just utter endlessly shit one liners at the end of every show. He made a genuine living from scenery chewing week in week out. How can you not respect that? It’s incredible. Oh Caruso, I like that you knew better than to attempt anything else.

46. Donald Pleasance - You Only Live Twice (1967)

Well how can we not have the ultimate Bond villain? Every line he delivers oozes a theatrical menace, and even with his limited screen-time you know he’s the biggest bad there’s ever going to be in the Bond universe. Which is pretty incredible when you think about it. Although portrayed by several actors over the years, it is Donald Pleasance’s perfectly pitched OTT performance that wins the day and earns him a spot on this list.

45. Johnny Depp – Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)

Sometimes, scenery chewing just results in something terrible. Here’s a prime example of that. Depp was clearly going for ‘wacky’, but sadly his shtick in Tim Burton movies started to wear thin at exactly this point. No amount of zany posturing from an increasingly manic eyed Depp could help what was an actor struggling to find a performance in an over-acting role. Full marks for trying Johnny, but come back next time.

44. Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained (2012)

I had an absolute blast with Django Unchained. Some may point out that it’s a little too long, and they’d have a point. It also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on closer inspection (just why did they need such an elaborate plan to rescue Broomhilda? Hmm, maybe I should have put this in my plot holes article…) but for pure enjoyment it’s hard to beat.However, one small bit of scenery chewing had me baffled, although it’s hard to forget. And that’s Tarantino’s bizarre turn as the LeQuint Dickey Mining Co employee. It’s a performance that’s so at odds with everybody else I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. Is he meant to be that bad? Where the hell is that accent from? Is he purposely trolling us? This scene above sadly cuts off most of his lines, so it’s well worth getting a hold of the full film and checking it out.

43. Hayden Christensen – Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones (2002)

Reading the list of actors who auditioned for Anakin is a bit like being told, ‘here’s what you could have won’ after missing out on the main prize in a game show. Poor Hayden, hamstrung by both a lack of decent script and poor direction, he nevertheless still failed to convincingly sell Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side, leaving you annoyed that Darth Vader was such a snotty little kid. But it wasn’t for lack of trying, whether he "Wishes he could wish away his feelings" (my personal most hated line in the film) or getting really, really angry about murdering sand people – a scene that on paper read powerfully, but here, not so much.

42. Colin Farrell – Alexander (2004)

Maybe it was the blonde wig. Maybe it was the unadulterated Irish accent. Whatever it was, it’s ensured that Colin Farrell’s magnificently barmy performance as Alexander the Great was always going to be a focal point of Oliver Stone’s misfiring epic. He literally gives it his all, and it’s a valiant effort. I’ve always had time for Farrell. But this was never the right role for him, and no matter how much scenery chewing he does, he was never going to be great. Ha, did you see what I did there?

41. Tom Hanks – Forrest Gump (1994)

Tom Hanks took an unusual tack when portraying the simple Forrest Gump in Robert Zemeckis’ well loved movie. If he’s not doing an almost comedy southern accent, he’s spitting out metaphors for life, saving lives, meeting famous people and changing history, and just being Forrest. It’s a role which required Hanks to go big, otherwise it wouldn’t have worked. It verges on the border of being heartfelt and believable, and ridiculous and slightly offensive. Which is just what all good scenery chewing should aspire to be.

40. Elizabeth Taylor – Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1962)

Lost among all the talk and tales of her personal life is the fact that Dame Elizabeth was an absolutely superb actress, who could lift any scene and more than match the magnetism of Richard Burton as they sparked off each other. Key to this was her ability to turn a script into something more than words being recited. That wasn’t enough for her - everything had to be more. Even if it’s just seeing someone’s place for the first time and eating a bit of chicken, she’s decided that it’s going to be the most intense chicken eating ever.

39. Michael Shannon – Premium Rush (2012)

I was late to the Premium Rush party. It’s the type of film that truly belongs in the 90s, and not just for its weirdly out-of-date cycle courier hero. In fact, I didn’t even know that Michael Shannon was in it. So imagine my surprise when he popped up, as a truly bonkers baddie. This was the same guy who’d be quietly rising to character acting prominence and known for his ‘serious’ roles (see Take Shelter for a superb example of this). But here he was, being an absolute loon. My favourite part is the ambulance sequence, with his brilliant laugh. Sadly though, finding clips online is a bit tricky – so instead here’s the NYC car chase. Shannon gets a few good bits in it though, and you can see why Zack Snyder thought he’s make the perfect General Zod – a role made for scenery chewing.

38. Marlon Brando – The Island Of Dr Moreau (1996)

It was a real toss-up between young Brando and old Brando. Young Brando showed his scenery-chewing class in A Streetcar Named Desire, stealing every scene before it was cool to do so. But the trouble with it is that the performance hovers too close to being flawless – he pulls it back when needed to create a genuinely believable character. It would take until old Brando before he could fully unleash his true over-acting power – with the incredible Island Of Dr Moreau providing a final curtain call on his talent. Here he is being savaged by his out of control beast-men.

37. Cate Blanchett – Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

I didn’t think Cate Blanchett had it in her. She always seemed so nice. So colour me surprised when she produced this epic performance as Galadriel. Of course we should have seen it coming – you can’t exactly play an immortal elf queen who’s seen world shattering wars without being a bit over-the-top. But she knows exactly when to chew the scenery and when to pull back. Her temptation by the ring scene is almost comical, which is exactly what the best scenery chewing should be. Almost too much, but just enough to leave you impressed.

36. James Stewart – Harvey (1950)

How can you convincingly portray a man whose best friend is an imaginary giant rabbit? By dialling up your acting several notches. Jimmy Stewart was never an actor to be afraid of a role, but in Harvey he attacks what should have been an impossible task with gusto. It’s sheer brilliance, and one of the finest pieces of acting in cinematic history, but there’s no getting away from the fact that he’s chewing the scenery a bit on order to sell the concept of the rabbit as a real character.

35. Jeff Bridges – Iron Man (2008)

Jeff Bridges is best loved for his under-acting masterclass as The Dude. It’s an iconic role, and shows just how much you can do by not doing much. However, maybe he felt a little left out when he saw how much scenery was getting chewed up by his compatriots. And is it just a coincidence that he finally won his Oscar after letting loose in Iron Man, and screaming about Tony Stark building an Arc Reactor in a cave? No, I think not. Proof positive that we love over-acting. In fact we demand it in our best.

34. Gerard Butler – 300 (2007)

"Hey Gerard, we need you to play Leonidas, the King of Sparta. Just one thing though, we need you to basically roar your entire way through the film. Sound good?" Sounds amazing.

33. Anthony Hopkins – The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

He’s on-screen for an apparent 16 minutes (although please feel free to correct me) and won an Oscar for his troubles. It’s held up as the greatest villainous performance in the history of cinema. Yet in reality, it’s just a huge exercise in scenery chewing. Oh yes, it’s scenery chewing of the highest order, but watch Hopkins gobble up all that script - yum, yum, yum. It’s skills he would later demonstrate in Thor, as the mighty Odin, but here his talents lie in darkness. Enjoy.

32. John Travolta – Battlefield Earth (2000)

Simply magnificent. He really believed in this film, and that makes this bit of acting all the more impressive. He was trained to conquer galaxies while you were still learning to spell your name by the way.

31. Jennifer Jason Leigh – Single White Female (1992)

Now this is the type of brilliantly unhinged performance I can get behind. In fact it made the film so well known, that the term single white female entered popular culture to mean crazy psycho stalker. Jennifer Jason Leigh is purely responsible for this, with her wild eyed threats, accusations, and sobbing remorse all in one scene. She’s acting for all she’s worth, and it’s beautiful to behold.

30. Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike (2012)

Now he’s been fully rehabilitated as a movie star in recent years, and will headline Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, it’s clear to see that we were fools for not appreciating the scenery chewing of Matthew McConaughey over the years. He wasn’t just a bad actor; he was in fact just acting on a totally different level to his fellow thespians. But finally proof was delivered to us in Magic Mike, as he grabs the throat of the film with a truly outrageous execution of a role. It’s just glorious.

29. Ian McDiarmid – Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (2005)

The thing I like best about the prequels (yes, I like other things too. Umm, I can’t quite remember them right now…) is that Ian McDiarmid is clearly acting in a completely different film series to everyone else. He obviously decided to disregard the notes from Lucas about stilted and restrained performances, and just go for what he felt was right – and boy does it really lift the film. Whether or not he’s cackling with evil glee, or practically winking at the camera to let us know that ‘yes, it’s me who’s the baddie!’, there’s never a moment where you don’t wish he was back on-screen. Thank goodness he wins.

28. Russell Crowe – Les Miserables (2012)

Can you call singing in a musical film scenery-chewing? Well bugger it, I have – and as it’s my list you’ll have to accept it (or call me out in the comments below). Anyway, Les Mis is a not particularly good film unfortunately, but totally rescued by Russell Crowe’s barnstorming big performance as Javert. He knew he was up against triple-threat Hugh Jackman, so decided he would out-bellow him, and anybody else, any chance he got. Spectacular work Mr Crowe.

27. Jim Carrey – Batman Forever (1995)

It’s almost too easy to put this one in here. It’s a purposely over-the-top performance in an over-the-top film. He’s wearing a green lycra suit with bright red hair. He’s Jim Carrey! However, in a long list of ‘zany’ Carrey performances, this is the one where he not only steals the film, but steals it from a desperately mugging Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face. The final act may as well just have been them too shouting in each others faces for all the notice you took of, y’know, Batman. It’s glorious, and if the Nolan bat-trilogy was missing one thing, it was a villain in a lycra suit.

26. Jeremy Irons – Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

While I’ve tried to defend scenery chewing in this article, and tried to point out that it’s often quite necessary to make what we consider an iconic performance, sometimes it’s just a well-regarded actor taking a pay cheque and putting on a pantomime level of acting as they ham it up. Here’s Jeremy Irons doing just that.

While I didn't see the new Lone Ranger movie, the reviews I've read and word of mouth I've heard all say the same thing: the movie is a mess, but the explosive final act almost redeems it. There are a lot of movies like that. Flicks that are pretty bad, but have that one or two moments that really shine. It could be a really cool action scene, a really stylish sequence, or maybe something outright funny. Think about how Scary Movie 4 was hard to sit through, but that Saw parody intro with Shaq and Dr. Phil was kind of hilarious. Maybe how Legend of the Fist: Return of Chen Zen is a plodding bore, but the fight scenes will blow you away. Or how while the animated G.I. Joe movie was kind of average, the first four minutes were pure excellence.

I wanted to have an entry for "every single scene in Street Fighter" but my editor said that didn't make a lick of sense. Anyway, here's the Top Ten Most Awesome Scenes from Bad Movies.

10. Superman Saves the Plane
Superman Returns (2006)

Superman's been known to be the main character in some stinkers, but for my money, Superman Returns is the worst of them. It's the most misguided member of the franchise and somehow makes Superman less likeable than he was in 2013's Superman Kills Everyone: The Movie. At least we have this sequence where Lois Lane is on an airplane hooked up to a space shuttle. It goes horribly wrong and Superman proceeds to make his first public appearance in years by coming to the rescue.

This part is where the movie really comes alive, if even for a moment. The iconic theme kicks in and Superman starts it easy by tearing off the unmanned space shuttle and throwing it into space, where it won't harm anyone. Then things get hairy. Superman's in no physical peril here, but those people on the plane – which includes Lois Lane bouncing around like a pinball – are doomed. His strength doesn't give him the easy win here, as pulling on a wing only tears it apart. He uses more care to save all those people and does so in the middle of a baseball field, surrounded by cheering fans. Then Superman enters the plane and greets everyone with cheesy rhetoric about how airliners are still the safest way to travel.

9. Avengers vs. the Hulk
Ultimate Avengers (2006)

The direct-to-video animated movies Marvel used to put out weren't very good. They were 95% dull on the whole and only really became worth checking out when they did the Hulk Versus features. Even before that, Hulk was making the animated Avengers movies watchable, whether he was busting up Ultron in the future or clashing with the Avengers in the present.

Ultimate Avengers is a loose adaptation of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Ultimates and one of the big differences (outside of Thor's lack of beard) is the ordering of threats. In the comic, the Ultimates fight the Hulk and later use him as an attack dog against the alien invasion. In this movie, they instead fight the aliens first and then Hulk gets a little too rowdy in the face of victory. That's when things get fun. Hulk proceeds to take on all of the Avengers, giving us such awesome moments as Hulk brutally haymakering the side of Giant Man's kneecap and Cap straight up running up to Hulk and punching him in the face, despite being thrown around like a ragdoll thrice over.

Even though the Hulk fight is everyone's favorite part of the movie, they somehow decided that Hulk needed a whopping twenty seconds of screentime in the sequel. Go figure.

Country Bears is a movie I watched with great reluctance. My friend got it for me for Christmas as a gag and after a long, long time of begging off, I finally decided to give it a watch and get it over with. It's just as bad as you think. Think of the Muppets, right down to the same storyline, only without the charm. That is, unless you're talking about the movie's villain Reed Thimple, as played by Christopher Walken's hankering for a paycheck. Walken makes any scene he's in, but there's one that really takes the cake.

The story is that he's planning to destroy the Country Bears' concert hall unless they can come up with the money to save it. He's so into the idea of destroying it that we see him in his office, crushing a scale model of the building with a giant weight like something out of a cartoon. But that's not enough! He clears his desk and puts ANOTHER scale model on the table! Then that gets crushed! Rinse, repeat! This would be crazy enough, but the icing on the cake is that while he's wearing a buttoned shirt, tie and vest, he's also not wearing pants. He's just sitting around in his boxers, having the grandest time. For a minute, so was I.

I don't think I'm overstepping my boundaries when I say that people weren't too fond of the Star Wars prequels, especially how they turned menacing killing machine Darth Vader into a whiny rube. Despite all the mistakes of the movies, at least we got the Tusken Raider massacre in the least popular of the trilogy. Anakin went back to his home world of Tatooine to save his mother. Although she spent the last few years in happiness with a loving husband and step-children, she was kidnapped by sand people. She's been kept alive for the sake of torture and...probably some stuff that doesn't really belong in a Star Wars movie.

Anakin comes to rescue her and upon their tearful reunion, Shmi Skywalker dies in his arms. Despite criticism of Hayden Christensen's acting in these movies, he has this perfect distraught and confused "why did this have to happen?" glare on his face as she dies and once the music starts to kick in, it becomes an angry scowl. With lightsaber in hand, he stalks into the Tusken Raider camp and proceeds to decapitate two guys and slices through another, utterly pissed off. To keep from a harsher film rating, it cuts away and we hear the ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn screaming at Anakin to stop...to the point that even Yoda hears it light-years away. That totally rules. Instead of being a victim of politics and all that crap, Anakin has a total Frank Castle moment to drive him towards being a genocidal maniac and it's especially hard to blame him.

That is, until he angrily explains to Padme that he also slaughtered the women and children because they're no better than animals. That's pretty messed up. To take the movie back to mediocrity, Padme responds to this revelation with, "No, that's cool. It happens," and moves on.

6. The Burly Brawl
Matrix Reloaded (2003)

I feel that while the first Matrix stands on its own as a self-contained entity, but the second one doesn't really work because it's build-up for the third movie. Had Revolutions been good, Reloaded would have been good in retrospect. Revolutions wasn't, therefore Reloaded wasn't. Still, it had the kickass Burly Brawl fight.

Neo's doing his own A-plot stuff when Agent Smith shows up. This is rather shocking to Neo, considering he killed him at the end of the first movie. Smith plays it off as, "Whatever, I'm back. Deal with it." Turns out he has the ability to transform people and agents into copies of himself and he's been spreading through the Matrix like a virus. Unlike the others, Neo is able to resist and has a big, honking fight with his computerized rival. More and more Agent Smiths enter the fray and Neo fights them off. Using his kung fu skills, super strength and other bells and whistles of being The One, Neo holds his own. Soon there are over a hundred Smiths coming at him and even though Neo explosively shrugs off their dogpile, he still chooses to get the hell out of there. He can't destroy Smith and Smith can't keep Neo down. It's a stalemate.

Not only is it a cool fight (obvious CGI towards the end notwithstanding), but it's foreboding. Neo may master the Matrix more and more over time, but the threat of Smith is only going to get worse by the minute. The entire civilization within the Matrix is in peril. Then again, the scene also made much of Neo's following action scenes dramatically pointless because how do you expect random goons to do what a legion of the first movie's big bad couldn't?

5. Bluto Sings "I'm Mean"
Popeye (1980)

The Robin Williams Popeye movie is one of my guilty pleasures, but I cannot in good conscience call it good. It's a drab, muted cartoon world that leaves me scratching my head more often than not. One of the more memorable parts of the movie is the soundtrack by Harry Nilsson, which is just...odd. Not especially good and not especially bad, but...odd. For instance, one song features the lyrics, "Everything is meat, meat, meat! Better watch what you put on your feet!" What in the hell?

Everything comes together when Olive's family is holding a party to celebrate Olive's engagement to Bluto, who runs the town with an iron fist. Bluto – played by Paul L. Smith (who I'm pretty certain is a time-traveling Mark Henry in white-face) is steamed that Olive's flown the coup. He proceeds to grab whatever he can get his hands on and annihilates the house from the inside as all the partygoers pray for survival. All the while, Bluto sings "I'm Mean", a song that's been stuck in my head for decades. Just to give you an idea of what kind of lyrical madness was going on in Nilsson's head, here's the one and only verse:

I'm so mean that I had a dream of beating myself up!
I broke my nose!
I broke my hand!
I wrestled myself to the ground and then!
I choked myself to death and broke the choke and woke up!
AAAARGH!

A nice touch with this scene is how right before Bluto blows his top and goes on his rampage, fearsome boxer and Popeye's mid-boss for the movie Oxblood Oxheart is led away from the house by his mother because they're smart enough to know that he doesn't want any of that.

4. The First-Person Sequence
Doom (2005)

When he wants to make a joke about bad career choices, the Rock's go-to movie is Doom, and for good reason. Considered a failure, the one section of the movie that everyone seems to dig is the cheeseball first-person sequence. For five minutes, Karl Urban's Reaper sneaks through the facility and we see everything from his point of view. It becomes a pure live-action facsimile of the game's style as he constantly guns down all the zombies and demons that try to sneak up on him. He goes through a variety of weapons and fights all sorts of creatures, until taking on a scientist that mutated into a doglike beast. Using a chainsaw, Reaper makes short work of him and continues on his journey.

Really, the only thing that could have made this better was if he was constantly shouting the dialogue from the legendary Doom comic book. "YOU ARE HUGE! THAT MEANS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS! RIP AND TEAR! DYNAMITE!"

I've heard of the opening minutes of X-Men Origins: Wolverine described as a broken promise. Sounds about right. After young James Howlett kills a man with his newly-grown bone claws, his half-brother Thomas (Sabretooth) tells him that they need to run off and stick together. Without dialogue, much is said through this montage as we see the two take part in various wars. The two fight valiantly on the North side of the Civil War. In the first World War, we see Sabretooth take a rifle shot to the chest and not go down. In the second World War, Wolverine is a bit unnerved when he sees Sabretooth gleefully shoot up a nest of enemy soldiers. Then in Vietnam, he has to go out of his way to keep Sabretooth from blasting everything in sight.

It's a beautiful sequence, especially with the sweet, primal way Sabretooth pounces through the battlefield. 

Rocky V is so bad that Stallone made Rocky Balboa sixteen years later just to make sure that it wasn't the final chapter. The movie is all build-up as promising, young boxer Tommy "Machine" Gunn becomes Anakin Skywalker with boxing gloves and turns on his mentor. In order to prove to the world that he's the true champion, Gunn goads Rocky into a street fight by hitting Paulie. The fight is as one-sided as you'd expect for a young world boxing champion fighting a past-his-prime has-been with brain damage. Rocky's life starts flashing before his eyes, mainly in the form of nightmarish memories.

Just when all hope seems lost, his departed trainer Mickey shows up inside his head, glaring down at him and barking orders. While everyone else sounds miles away, Rocky hears Mickey clearly. "He's no machine! I didn't hear no bell! Get up, you son of a bitch, 'cause Mickey loves you!"

To the sound of his epic theme song, Rocky gets to his feet and repeats to Gunn, "I didn't hear no bell!" The fight continues and goes all knock-down-drag-out until Rocky takes out Gunn and gets a little revenge on the Don King stand-in George Washington Duke. It takes sitting through the whole movie, but it's worth it for the pure catharsis.

1. Introducing RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2 (1990)

RoboCop 2 isn't the worst movie. I mean, it's followed by RoboCop 3, after all. It's still a huge letdown, but it has one scene in there that's absolutely perfect. It's dark, humorous, horrific and builds up our hero without even showing him. OCP notices that they're a bit short-handed on the crime-fighting front, so they try to make a newer model of RoboCop to lend a hand. Two models are brought in. Both are portrayed through stop-motion animation, which brings a perfect jarring effect.

The first one is a stocky cyborg with a hologram human face on a monitor. He proceeds to shoot two scientist bystanders, then shoots himself in the head. The second one is sleeker, but after stepping out to the audience of OCP suits, he tears his helmet off to reveal a screaming skull attached to wires and keels over.

The bigwigs are mad at the millions this cost them, but it's explained that the effect of realizing what they've become has caused the human hosts to become horrified to the point of suicide. Apparently Alex Murphy's been experiencing those feelings all this time, but he powers through because he's THAT dedicated to his duty to keep the peace and fight for justice. It's a situation that happens in comics a lot, where they have to show that the "hero" is more important than the "super" and it's showcased on the money thanks to this grotesque cyber parade.

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Avengers producer Louis D'Esposito (and director of the Agent Carter short film that will grace the Iron Man 3 home video release) thinks the time is right for a female superhero to take a starring role in a Marvel film. "There's obviously a drumbeat that is banging louder and louder that we want a female lead superhero" D'Esposito said. This echoes a statement made by Kevin Feige at the CapeTown Film Festival on April 30th, when he addressed the possibility of a Marvel film that would focus on a solo adventure for a female superhero. “We have a number of candidates from the comics and from the movies we’ve already made," said Feige, "It’s just a matter of finding the right storyline, the right filmmaker, the right time.”

While this wouldn't be the first time a female superhero has gotten the spotlight in a solo film, previous efforts, like 1984's Supergirl and 2005's Elektra are best forgotten. However, those films were ill-advised spin-offs of franchises that may have already been on shaky creative and critical ground, while the modern crop of Marvel movies continue to shatter box-office records and fan expectations. If ever there was a time for a female superhero to step into the spotlight, it's right now, so we've picked five who could make the jump from page to screen with little difficulty and maximum impact. While Warner Bros. is still scraping away trying (and failing) to get a Wonder Woman movie off the ground, Marvel can remain way ahead of the curve by bringing one of these women to the big screen!

BLACK WIDOW.

This one's easy. Audiences are already familiar with Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of Black Widow thanks to her supporting role in Iron Man 2 and the ass-kickings she dished out in Avengers. A Black Widow film could be less a superhero flick and more of an espionage/action thriller, complete with international intrigue, false memories, and a host of Bond-like gadgets. In other words, Black Widow: The Movie would be a little less like Iron Man and a lot more like Jason Bourne. What's more, Black Widow's solo flick could be used to flesh out the inner workings of S.H.I.E.L.D. on a scale that the upcoming Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television show might not be able to on a TV budget. Since it looks like Black Widow will get a substantial amount of screen time in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier film, she might be ready for her own movie sooner rather than later!

LADY SIF.

If you would have told me ten years ago that Sif would make it to the big screen before Wonder Woman, I'd have laughed you right out of the room. But that was before the Marvel movie universe, and before Thor brought the realm of Asgard to the movies, and along with it, Jaimie Alexander's Lady Sif! Asgard is already established in the minds of audiences, and it looks like Asgard will be even more central to the plot of Thor: The Dark World, so there shouldn't be too much explaining to do. Sif has already stepped out on her own in the pages of Marvel's critically acclaimed Journey Into Mystery (which wouldn't be a bad title for the movie, to tell you the truth), so she's building the name recognition necessary to carry her to box-office success. If Marvel gets this one right, then WB's Wonder Woman could come off looking like a feeble attempt to cash in on the success of Lady Sif!

SHE-HULK.

Alright, terrible name aside, Jennifer Walters is a terrific character. And you know what else she's got going for her? She's already got Kevin Feige in her corner! At the same Q&A where Feige mentioned the possibility of a solo film for a female Marvel hero, and audience member shouted, "She-Hulk!" to which Feige replied, "She-Hulk would be pretty great." Shulkie is still kind of a long shot, though (although she ALMOST got a TV movie back in 1989 starring Brigitte Nielsen, but that's an article for another day). Marvel has yet to prove that ANY cinematic iteration of Hulk can be a runaway box-office success, so they might be reluctant to roll the dice on Bruce Banner's cousin. On the other hand, She-Hulk has always worked best as a somewhat irreverent character, free of the soul-searching and angst which defines her more famous male counterpart. A She-Hulk movie would have a completely unique tone if done right, and could allow audiences to see what happens when someone gets bigger, stronger, and greener...and decides they are actually better off that way. 

SPIDER-WOMAN.

Still waiting for Sony to throw those Spider-Man rights back to Marvel? Don't hold your breath. But allow me to introduce you to Jessica Drew, who (despite the similar arachnid-themed name) is anything BUT a "female Spider-Man." In fact, she's got absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Peter Parker and his crew. If ever there was a superhero completely rooted in what has built the Marvel cinematic universe, it's Spider-Woman. Brainwashed by HYDRA before rebelling and becoming an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Spider-Woman has a pretty standard power set consisting of super-strength and durability, but her "venom blasts" (which are like little laser beams of biokinetic energy) are something we haven't seen from any of our Marvel heroes yet. Seriously...with all of these superheroes running around, where are the people shooting laser beams out of their hands??? This is important stuff, people! A tweak or two to her origin and Jessica can show up as a minor antagonist in Black Widow's film before breaking out in time to star in her own movie. And then, of course, there's always Avengers 3, but I'm getting way ahead of myself here...

CAPTAIN MARVEL.

This is the big one. Carol Danvers was saddled with the unfortunate moniker of Ms. Marvel for decades, not to mention an equally unfortunate skimpy costume. That all came to an end in 2012, when she took over the "Captain Marvel" name, got her own title (brilliantly written by Kelley Sue DeConnick), and a costume makeover courtesy of Jamie McKelvie. Carol's new costume is just about the coolest new superhero design on the stands today, and would translate brilliantly to the big screen. An origin story based heavily in the Avengers' interplanetary foes, the Kree, would lend itself quite well as a starting point as Marvel builds to any of their many Avengers sequels.

Oh yeah...and her power set is unmatched. Captain Marvel can fly, manipulate energy and gravity, take and dish out all kinds of punishment, and thanks to her Air Force background, she can outwit, outsmart, and outstrategize the bad guys. Carol Danvers could probably give the cinematic version of Thor a run for his money, and in terms of raw power and physical spectacle, she'd be a perfect box-office answer to WB's Superman. As an added bonus (if you care about this sort of thing), a Captain Marvel movie would cement Marvel's hold on the "Captain Marvel" name in the public's mind once and for all. Forget Avengers 3 (or 4, or 5, or...whatever) put Joss Whedon on Captain Marvel and watch her become the most powerful superhero at the movies! And...if somebody could convince Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff to take the part, we wouldn't complain.

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