Short version for those of you who won’t read all this: The MovieByte Podcast will continue, but I’m taking a break from writing.

The written portion of MovieByte is going on hiatus. I really hate to do it. I love writing reviews, and finding news to make witty and/or sarcastic comments about, and I love doing MovieByte in general. But in all candor and honesty (which I always strive for) I have not been able to get any traction with the site. Readership is lower than it has ever been. In fact, I doubt many will read this and even fewer will care. The most visitors the site had last week was…

So this is a trailer, or whatever. Honestly, nothing about any of the trailers for Insurgent have interested me much. The first film was passable, I expect this to be a hot mess.

Great, as always. Look, I loved X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it was not without it’s plot flaws. Most of the great movies have plot holes you could drive a semi-truck (or three) through. The good ones just make you not care, and I didn’t care when I was watching the film.

I do love how HISHE is becoming a self-aware parody of itself with the super cafe. Great stuff.

I’m back to thinking that this is not going to be a great film. This trailer really makes it look formulaic and like it has nothing to add to the lore of the Cinderella story. As such one wonders why it is being made. I enjoyed the re-telling of Sleeping Beauty from Maleficent’s perspective far more than I thought — but that is chiefly because the film surprised me and was not (as) formulaic as it might have been. I don’t think we’re going to end up getting the same thing here. And the modern song underscoring the entire trailer was very unpleasant. If that’s the way the music for the film…

The most trusted name in fake news is preparing to walk away from his desk. During the taping of tonight’s The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart told his studio audience that he will be leaving the show. Tweets from those who attended the taping first spread the word, and Comedy Central quickly followed with an official statement. Read that below.

This is disappointing, but not entirely a surprise. Stewart has been at this a long time.

I’m not being (very) facetious or satirical when I ask the question: where will be turn for real news and fearless reporting.

Oh, I know! I know! We’ll get our…

The term “space opera” gets thrown around every time a big-budget fantasy set in space rolls into theatres, but Jupiter Ascending actually earns the title: whatever you may think of it, there’s no denying that it’s pretty damn operatic. There’s a pure-hearted earnestness here which might have felt run-of-the-mill thirty years ago but feels fairly bracing in 2015. It’s a movie filled with flying dinosaur soldiers, shape-shifting aliens, genetic splicing, bonkers performances, grandiose concepts, political statements, royalphile bees, anti-gravity roller blades, Brazil references and a metric…

Marvel boss Kevin Feige and soon-to-be-ex-Sony-boss Amy Pascal will be co-producing thew new Spider-Man venture and after the character makes his introduction in the MCU, he’ll get his own movie on the release date previously held by Thor: Raganarok. To fit it in, Marvel’s Phase 3 plans – as announced in October 2014 – have now shifted back to accommodate the change with the exception of the third and fourth Avengers installments which will hold their summer opening dates in 2018-19. Four movies change dates.

Here’s a screen shot of the previous release dates timeline, followed by a…

Marvel’s Kevin Feige to Produce Next Installment of the Spider-Man Franchise with Amy Pascal

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Studios announced today that Sony is bringing Marvel into the amazing world of Spider-Man. 

Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio…

Some of these old “making of” documentaries are so great. While Return of the Jedi is easily the least of the three original Star Wars films, it’s still quite good. Among the good things is the fact that they just didn’t have access to modern CGI filmmaking and so were forced to do things that were physical, and in my opinion, more real. In fact, in this documentary, they say that even at the time, George Lucas wanted to use CGI but they just couldn’t do it because of the limitations of the time. He was unhappy with the look and the puppetry. Well, I have to tell you that Jaba looks the most…