Disney is making good money these days and it’s primarily from merchandising. Ahead of the release of upcoming Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar films, they release memorabilia that can be found at nearly any and all retail outlets known to America. If you have shopped at a Disney store in the mall, then you know that they really need to expand their square footage just to make room for their newer properties.

2011, 2012, and 2013 were great sales years, and 2014 is nearly a done deal. It will be a good year for Disney products, as the sales have grown year over year. Snatching up Marvel…

Transformers 5, along with G.I. Joe 3, Paranormal Activity 5, Hansel and Gretal 2, and Beverly Hills Cop 4 are slated for release in 2016. Color me skeptical about all of the above, since the films in these franchises leave much to be desired. If you’re into these films, you and I would have some serious disagreements.

Why are we already hearing about these films anyway? Some of them haven’t started production—not so much as the first sentence has been typed for their scripts.

I think the reason is that the studios are beginning their marketing early because they cost bookoos to make. They…

If you had to put your money on an investment in the latest summer blockbuster, or the latest startup of Silicon Valley, which would you choose? Which appears to be a more worthy or risky venture?

Nick Bilton asked this question on NYT’s Bits:

“Hollywood and Silicon Valley really exist because of a few big successes,” Mr. Strebulaev said. “If you take a random movie, it loses money. Hollywood makes money from its big hits. The exact same is true with Silicon Valley; the average investment loses money.” He said both were considered “alternative investments.”

Still, in some ways, the…

June of 2012, TJ Draper and I were hard at work to create our cool podcast about movies. At the time, we found a decent sponsor (Liberty Alliance) and felt we were set to run the talk show for years to come. Forty-nine episodes later, as TJ’s co-host, I have said “goodbye” for the last time on the live show.

You know how it works. You create something new to you and for a moment you feel like it might be the last thing you ever create. It will be your magnum opus. But that is rarely how it works for us creative people. Give yourself a little time, as long you stay true to yourself, you…

This morning I read one of those movie reviews that gives me an upset stomach; a review so pathetically ridiculous that it warrants criticism for its misleading tropes and arrogant close-mindedness.

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky at RogerEbert.com:

If nothing else, “Oblivion” will go down in film history as the movie where Tom Cruise pilots a white, sperm-shaped craft into a giant space uterus. The scene is more interesting to describe than it is to watch. Cruise’s sperm-ship enters through an airlock that resembles a geometrized vulva. He arrives inside a massive chamber lined with egg-like…

A team of amateur organized baseball players stop at a gas station for a fill-up. Jackie Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman), one of the African American ball players, is refused entry to the washroom. The team says they’ll find another gas station so the attendant allows Jackie to use it to keep their business.

As Robinson comes out of the washroom, a baseball scout for the Dodgers approaches him and asks Robinson to join him for a trip to Brooklyn.

Branch Rickey (played by Harrison Ford), the general/executive manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers, is looking for a new first baseman.…

We have said a lot about Roger Ebert this week. Considering his wealthy contribution to movie reviews, it’s no wonder how much we appreciated his expertise. He has been some of the inspiration for my own reviews.

So, I find it very fitting that Roger’s last published movie review would be for Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, a soul-searching drama that explores some spiritual matters pertaining to life and death itself.

A more conventional film would have assigned a plot to these characters and made their motivations more clear. Malick, who is surely one of the most romantic and…

Tim Burton is going to direct Big Eyes, starring Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams.

Waltz, who’s coming off another Oscar turn in Django Unchained, and Adams, nominated for The Master, will play Margaret and Walter Keane, whose paintings of large eyed children became one of the first mass marketed art sensations in the 50s and 60s. Those prints sold in gas stations and every five and dime store across the country. While Walter was the marketing genius, he also took the bows for doing the brush work. He was a full fledged celebrity, a regular on the TV talk show circuit. His shy wife was the…

If you aren’t in the loop, here is where you can catch up on all the upcoming Marvel movies. “Phase Two” as the studio is calling it, continues the adventures of the quintessential Avengers and introduces new super-heroes to cinemas, like Ant-man, and this suspicious-looking, gun-carrying raccoon. If my guess is right, the animal is a character in Guardians of the Galaxy, and I haven’t the faintest idea what that story is about besides what it implies.

Ant-Man comes to theaters November 6th, 2015. The film is directed by Edgar Wright.

Iron Man 3 comes to theaters May 3rd, 2013 and…