Flickering Myth

Film & TV News, Reviews and Features

David Tennant joins Marvel’s A.K.A. Jessica Jones as The Purple Man

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Last week some audition tapes for A.K.A. Jessica Jones surfaced online (although they’ve since been taken down), which appeared to reveal that the main villain of the upcoming Marvel / Netflix series would be Zebediah Killgrave, a.k.a. The Purple Man. Well, as it happens, The Purple Man is indeed the villain, and now we know […]

Are the days of the big name headliners disappearing?

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Tom Jolliffe looks at whether the days of the superstar headliner are disappearing with audiences more drawn to franchises or film concepts than the stars attached… You could say it started in Hollywood’s classic era. The movie star. The big name. They were in some ways manufactured, or at least their image was. Rock Hudson […]

A dose of Venom for the worldwide box office and an end to blaming critics for failure?

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Tom Jolliffe takes a look at the surprising worldwide commercial success of Venom… Earlier in the year the first trailer for Venom dropped. It looked pretty awful, not least about 15 years out of date (particularly the initial trailer’s CGI polish). A few more trailers followed and fanfare seemed fairly low. Then came the reviews. […]

Reboot, Reset, Mulligan, Ad Nauseam: The Ever-Increasing Frequency of Reboots

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Tom Jolliffe looks at the ever-increasing frequency of reboots… This won’t come as any surprise but the notion of the reboot, remake, or whatever you call it is nothing new. We’ve all seen three live action Spider-Man incarnations in just 10 years from Tobey Maguire’s final fling, through Andrew Garfield, to Tom Holland who is […]

How Seven Samurai created the blueprint for this year’s biggest film Avengers: Endgame

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Tom Jolliffe takes a look back at Seven Samurai and its influence on modern action cinema, including the film event of the year, Avengers: Endgame… When everyone in the world within 50 miles of a cinema runs off to see Avengers: Endgame (myself included), I’d like you to bare something in mind; That is a […]

The B to Z of Movies: How B Movies Ruled the Cinema

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In this short series of features, Tom Jolliffe will look at the humble B Movie and everything below. From the golden period of B cinema, to the rise in popularity of the B picture, to the underground mavericks making films on a shoe string from the 50’s right up to the present. To begin with, […]

What are the Box Office Expectations for Marvel’s Phase Four?

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Tom Jolliffe looks at Marvel’s Phase Four, and what the box office expectations might be… In the wake of the announcement of Marvel’s next phase of superhero movies, and off the back of a run of billion dollar home runs (including the two gargantuan grosses of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame) what can the […]

Are audiences on an Avengers come down right now?

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Tom Jolliffe looks at the post Avengers come down… Every year brings about the big event movies. Some years are more blessed than others of course, and it seemed for a number of years between The Lord of the Rings ending, and Marvel kicking into full go (along with the return of Star Wars) that […]

The Martin Scorsese/Marvel Debate

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Tom Jolliffe on the Martin Scorsese and Marvel debate… One of cinemas greatest living directors, with around 50 years of crafting artistry behind him caused a storm recently with his comments dismissing Marvel films as ‘not cinema’ and ‘theme parks.’ Quite a few fired back (with plenty of politeness it should be said) who have […]