BEYOND THE MARQUEE

MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep 2.01: Shadows (season premiere review)

September 25th, 2014

Steven D'Arcangelo

Joss Whedon’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuted last year with “must see live” hyperbole sprinkled all over it. After some lackluster episodes, the hype devolved into “must see days later via D.V.R.”, followed by “If you have nothing else to do, you may as well watch S.H.I.E.L.D.” Several juvenile episodes later and Marvel Entertainment’s first foray into T.V. had seemingly bottomed out at “save your D.V.R. space for Wipeout” status.

That all changed, however, with the spring release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The film’s twisty S.H.I.E.L.D.-centric plot had serious repercussions throughout the M.C.U., nowhere more so than in the lives of Agent Coulson and his team. Suddenly the series had again become the topic of water cooler talk, but not in a “can you believe how sucky last night’s show was” manner. By the time the game-changing season finale rolled around, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had finally lived up to all of the “must see” hype, and then some.

Now the show is back for its sophomore season.

“The Boxtrolls” a Fun Family Film that Rocks (Film Review)

September 25th, 2014

John Delia

A nice surprise for youngsters The Boxtrolls has ended the drought of animated family features for 2014. The sweet film takes youngsters on an adventure like never before. From a story based on the graphic novel “Here Be Monsters” by Alan Snow, the movie version can’t come at a better time on the eve of the month of trick or treat revelry (It’s an easy costume to make). Creative, bold, exciting and offering values that should leave lasting ideals, the movie tugs at the heartstrings while entertaining family audiences.

“The Equalizer” Denzel gets Bold and Brutal (Film Review)

September 25th, 2014

John Delia

Returning to the screen with a very pervasive performance, Denzel Washington stars as a vigilante marauder in The Equalizer. Providing a character with high intensity the movie conjures up memories of the violence in Safe House, Man on Fire and Training Day, three of Washington’s most fierce portrayals. There’s not much comedy to lighten the load in this thriller, but those who like it fast and brutal are sure to get an adrenaline rush.

We Explore the Illustrated Motion Picture Posters within THE ART OF JOHN ALVIN (Book Review)

September 25th, 2014

Steve Czarnecki

The Art of John Alvin (Book Cover)

Among the movie poster legends of the last century, artists such as Bill Gold, Drew Struzan, Tom Jung, Saul Bass, Bob Peak and Reynold Brown have all helped in some way to create movie posters that have endured for decades and have gone just beyond a movie marketing campaign, but have become memorable pieces of motion picture art that are instant throwbacks to our favorite films.

One movie poster artist/illustrator in particular, John Alvin was instrumental in creating some of the most iconic art for the motion picture industry in the last 40 years. Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, FOX, Lucasfilm, and many other studios were just a handful of the clients that hired on Alvin to create visually imaginative worlds to aid in the promotion and marketing of movies.

In The Art of John Alvin, a new book from TITAN Books, a collection of Alvin’s finest work as well as previously unseen comprehensives and in progress sketches fill all of it’s 160 pages.

We were fortunate to get a copy sent to us by Andrea Alvin, John’s widow and we explore the art, imagination and creativity of John Alvin’s work in our review below.

BTM Ghostbusters Week CONTEST & GIVEAWAY (3 days left!)

September 24th, 2014

Beyond the Marquee

Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary

The End is Near! Did you know you only have three days left to enter Beyond the Marquee’s ‘Ghostbusters Week’ Contest & Giveaway?

Beyond the Marquee is celebrating GHOSTBUSTERS WEEK in addition to the 30th Anniversary of Ghostbusters. Because of the overwhelming response and great feedback to our daily Ghostbusters postings last week, what better way to celebrate than to have a Contest and Giveaway for great Ghostbusters prizes!

Visit the Beyond the Marquee Facebook page and Click on the GHOSTBUSTERS GIVEAWAY TAB. ‘LIKE’ our page and you will be able to enter a trivia contest about our three Ghostbusters Week videos which you can see featured on our YouTube Playlist at this link.

(NOTE: Entering on a mobile device may not work. Please enter via PC or Mac using the link above. Thank you!)

Answer a few trivia questions about our Ghostbusters-related Web-Series episodes and enter to win some spectacular Ghostbusters prizes from us and our good friends at Sony and Mattel!

We Recap & Review FOX’s GOTHAM Pilot Episode

September 23rd, 2014

Cody Thompson

After months of the presses waiting to see the pilot that moment had finally arrived.

Warning this post will include spoilers and tidbits about the Caped Crusader and the events and people that lead to his evolution into becoming the Dark Knight or more commonly known as Batman.

After months of hype, speculation, and outright anticipation for the release of the Gotham pilot episode, in many respects for me as a huge Dark Knight fan it lived up to expectations. Having known the production players and casting talent involved, I thought they could deliver on the promise to etch out the city of Gotham, and for me the aesthetic, the acting, and every production element in between did just that.

The opening shot of them panning through the city just oozed with the dark mysterious nature of Gotham, and from there the creators of the shows were off to the races to placing key figures within the Batman anthology in the tracks of our leading man, Detective James Gordon. Over the course of the show they brought in such key future villains as Carmine Falcone, Fish Mooney, Catwoman, the Penguin, Poison Ivy, and even the Riddler and in doing so showed how each of their geneses were occurring long before the coming out party for Bruce Wayne as Batman.

Click ahead for our recap and review of the pilot episode of FOX’s Gotham!

TRAILER TUESDAY: The Judge, Big Eyes, The Interview, Low Down, Red Army and MORE!

September 23rd, 2014

Beyond the Marquee

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

Instead of bouncing around the net trying to find the latest trailers for the hottest films, just drop by Beyond the Marquee on TRAILER TUESDAY and we’ll load you up with what you need. Whether it’s the latest Hollywood blockbuster movie or mind-provoking independent film, we always have a fun mix of the best of what’s to come.

So click ahead to check out this week’s trailers …