Fall Back Spring Forward: Top 5 Most and Least Anticipated Fall 2016 Films
Fall is almost upon us! Here's the list of Kevin Sampson and Robert Winship's most and least anticipated fall 2016 films of the "Fall Bakc Spring Forward" segment from the recent Picture Lock Radio episode. This marks the first seasonal themed countdown. Check out the list and let us know if you agree or disagree with any films.
Some of these quotes read as though we're not film critics, but you can listen to the podcast discussion here to hear them in context! :)
FALL BACK (SKIP IT!)
Kevin #5. Inferno [10/28]
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Ben Foster
Kevin says, “Tom Hanks looks like he’s asleep at the wheel picking up a check.”
Robert #5. Nerve [previously released 7/27]
Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Starring: Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Emily Meade
Robert says “I just don’t see this movie transcending the bounds of a teen, digital-era flick.”
Kevin/Robert #4. Bridget Jones’s Baby [9/16]
Director: Sharon Maguire
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Dempsey, Colin Firth
Kevin says, “I don’t care about Bridget Jones' story at all at this point.”
Robert says, “Sixteen years later, I don’t know who’s clamoring for it.”
Kevin/Robert #3. Rings [10/28]
Director: F. Javier Gutierrez
Starring: Vincent D’Onofrio, Laura Wiggins, Aimee Teegarden
Kevin says “It doesn’t look like it’s exploring anything new.”
Robert says, “Twenty dollars says someone is crawling out of a laptop.”
Kevin #2. Boo! A Madea Halloween [10/21]
Director: Tyler Perry
Starring: Bella Thorne, Brock O’Hurn, Tyler Perry
Kevin says, “It’s one of those things that I’ll watch with the wife…we’ll have a couple laughs and then say “what’s for dinner?” It’s nothing we’ll talk about the next day.”
Robert #2. The Bye Bye Man [12/9]
Director: Stacy Title
Starring: Douglas Smith, Lucien Laviscount, Cressida Bonas, Doug Jones
Robert says, “Despite the considerable talents of Doug Jones, this movie looks terribly mediocre.”
Kevin #1. Friend Request
Director: Simon Verhoeven
Starring: Alycia Debnam-Carey, William Moseley, Connor Paolo
Kevin says, “There’s been a lot of great horror to come out this year in the genre, but I don’t think this will be one of them.”
Robert #1. The Space Between Us [12/21]
Director: Peter Chelsom
Starring: Carla Gugino, Britt Robertson Asa Butterfield, Gary Oldman,
Robert says “A movie about sad, space teens that will likely waste the efforts of both Carla Gugino and Gary Oldman”
SPRING FORWARD (SEE IT!)
Kevin #5. The Magnificent Seven [9/23]
Director: Anton Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt
Kevin says, “This is a racially diverse cast…and I’m really excited about seeing Denzel.”
Robert #5. Snowden [9/14]
Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley
“At least is going to have a powerful fist of political action.”
Kevin #4. Arrival [11/11]
Director: Dennis Villeneuve
Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner
Kevin says, “Based on the short story The Story of Your Life…it’s gonna be a pretty awesome mystery, sci-fi film.”
Robert #4. Blair Witch [9/16]
Director: Adam Wingard
Starring: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid
Robert says, “It could fail, but it’s got to fail in a big way because there I so much to how we now experience cinema [that we owe to the Blair Witch Project].”
Kevin #3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story [12/16]
Director: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen
Kevin says, “It just looks amazing…Everything looks intriguing.”
Robert #3. The Handmaiden [10/21]
Director: Chan-wook Park
Starring: Min-hee Kim, Kim Tae-ri, Jung-woo Ha
Robert says, “It’s rare to see a movie that is able to keep its graphic tendencies in check with beauty and I think that Park Chan-wook is able to do that.”
Kevin #2. Moonlight
Director: Barry Jenkins
Starring: Mahershala Ali, Shariff Earp, Duan ‘Sandy’ Sanderson
Kevin says, “The fact that it’s an all African American cast, and that it’s a subject that in the African American community is not always talked about. I think it’s going to be very interesting.”
Robert #2. The Salesman [12/9]
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Karimi
Robert says, “Early reviews look positive and I am on board for any foreign film centering on a Henry Miller reference.”
Kevin #1. The Birth of a Nation [10/7]
Director: Nate Parker
Starring: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Mark Boone-Junior
Kevin says, “This is one of those films that as a kid I was like “this would be so cool to make a movie about Nat Turner”, but I never thought it would happen because of the subject matter.”
Robert #1. Paterson [12/28]
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Helen-Jean Arthur
Robert says, “A quiet-looking movie from the often brilliant Jim Jarmusch also offers Adam Driver in the titular role. What’s not to like?”
Top 5 Most Anticipated 2016 Summer Movies
Summer is here and so are tentpole movies, popcorn flicks, and more! I recently visited the set of Let's Talk Live to talk about my most anticipated movies. My list is by release date, starting with the closest to the latest. Here's what I had to say:
Top 5 Reasons Why Denzel Can Never Come on DWITGAOATP Podcast
If you don’t know about Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor of All Time Period podcast, then you just might not be a true Denzel fan! I kid. I pride myself on the fact that Denzel Washington has been my favorite actor since my youth, and I just recently found the podcast. No worries! Part of the fun is going back into the archives and listening to old episodes.
So what’s the podcast about? Comedians W. Kamau Bell and Kevin Avery sit down with guests on a weekly basis to discuss why Denzel Washington is the greatest actor of all time. They generally cover a film by themselves or with a special guest and then rank Denzel’s performance using lines from his speech in Malcolm X.
As I said before, I’ve been a huge Denzel fan since I was a kid. Glory was my introduction to the civil war, and one tear cemented his legacy in my mind. The Preacher’s Wife was the new Christmas movie in our household for a minute! (The Soundtrack was fire! RIP Whitney) I was in high school when I saw Remember The Titans in the theater and watched it on DVD so many times I still know the lines, and mannerisms verbatim. I thought I was going to be an actor in high school and you better believe I did the Denzel walk out on stage when I played a role! It was a conversation about Training Day during a film class that bonded me and one of my best friends, Pierce Cook, in college. I haven’t even gotten into being old enough to go back and catch Devil In A Blue Dress finally (in high school). That’s just a part of my story. (Tell me yours in the comment section) Point is, Denzel has been entertaining, inspiring, and bringing people together for years, so it’s no surprise that this podcast does the same thing!
So I love the podcast and here are my top 5 reasons why Denzel can never come on the show (unless it's the end):
#5 You Have to Cover All Denzel Films First
As long as the brotha is starring in, producing, and directing films and TV episodes, there will be a plethora of things to cover. With films like The Magnificent Seven and The Equalizer 2 (Check out my Equalizer review) there will always be something new to cover, because Denzel will always be in something. I mean, let’s face it Denzel will never leave this Earth! He’s got too much to give, and we Denzealots have too much to demand.
As it currently stands, the guys haven’t gotten through Denzel’s entire current catalogue, and that’s quite alright! That means that there is more material to cover, more laughs to be had, and more great insight to learn about Denzel. So Denzel can’t come on the show until all of his catalogue has been covered by the podcast, because it would be downright disrespectful not to hash out all of his great work before that day, right?!!
#4 Closet Denzealots
Quite frankly, the podcast is such a niche subject that if you’re a true fan it feels like you’re apart of a club that only few know of and understand. So when Bell and Avery bring celebrity guests on, it’s either a mouth watering, sippin’ tea session that gives fans an inside perspective on classic films we love (like the Spike Lee or David Allen Greer episodes) or it’s a “I ain’t know Ava DuVernay, Ryan Coogler, Issa Rae, fill in the blank, loved Denzel too!” communion fest!
Either way, you can’t loose with each podcast. Part of the fun is finding out who the guest will be from week to week (if there is a guest…it’s still fun when it’s just Bell and Avery), because it shows the love and respect that other celebs have for Denzel. It truly brings out the closet, industry Denzealots, and makes them a fan like us for an episode.
#3 No More Guests: It’s Chess It Ain’t Checkers!
If you have Denzel on the show…who else would you talk with? There’s no need to talk to anyone after the GOAT! Is someone going to say something about a film he was in that he couldn’t say better? Talk about getting into character better than him? Tell his life better than him? Walk better than him? (OK, I added that last one in for jokes, but you get me.) It’s Denzel! If he comes on the show, than everything after is going to be about when Denzel came on the show.
If this show is going to last (which honestly it can’t go on forever in my opinion, but it’s got a nice shelf life left), they have to play the long game. The long game is not bringing Denzel on until you’ve talked to all the guests that would add good seasoning to the conversation.
#2 The Daydream Will Be Fullfilled
Having Denzel on the show is like talking about what you’d do if you won the lottery. It’s fun to dream about it, talk about it, but if it happened…game changer. I mean, you gotta change your number, move, get an accountant, get financially astute. In the same way, talking about if Denzel came on the show is much more fun in theory, but if it happened, game over! On a recent episode, the guys talked about their ideal Denzel man date. It was funny, and even they cracked up about what they’d do if it actually happened...but it hasn’t, so the dream can keep going.
#1 The Show is Over
Back in the day Rap City: Tha Basement was huge on BET (1999-2004). One of the running jokes was that host Big Tigga’s momma was upstairs. While we occasionally heard her call down from upstairs, we never saw her. In the final episode, momma Tigga came downstairs and it was Patti Labelle. It was an incredibly memorable moment as Tigga’s reign as host came to an end on the final episode. The mystery was put to bed and it was an enjoyable episode.
In the same way, if the show has to come to an end, what better way to end it than spending time with the man himself? As I already have outlined, Denzel’s presence is everything. He is the purpose of the podcast. So if he decides to come on, that’s the note you go out on. On top! Nothing more will need to be said or done. You can start that Meryl Streep podcast guys. You did it! We (denzealots) made it! It’s the pinnacle! Thanks for the entertainment!
With those 5 reasons, I rest my case.
Make sure you check out the website and podcast! Follow the show on Twitter! The guys do a decent amount of interacting with fans.
My name is Kevin Sampson, and I’m a Denzealot!
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Top 5 African American Fathers in Film
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Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there! What an honor and a privilege it is to be a dad! In honor of you, I've come up with my top 5 Father's Day Movie List. Let me know your thoughts, and don't forget to subscribe on Youtube! Thanks for watching!
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