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[Blu-Ray Review]Shyamalan’s ’Glass’ Splits Mythologies

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M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass, the sequel to Split and Unbreakable, is a very demanding film for the viewer. Glass, which is the final installment in the Unbreakable trilogy, probably contains more character connections and cryptic references than any other genre film from the past decade.

Glass certainly does not lack ambition.  Opening in the aftermath of Split, Glass brings together the characters of David Dunn (Bruce Willis), Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), AKA Mr. Glass.  In the film, the three characters are being held in a mental facility and studied by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), a psychiatrist who specializes in treating patients who believe that they possess superpowers.

While Glass was a commercial success, grossing nearly $250 million at the worldwide box office, the film was a critical disappointment.  Many critics and viewers felt that Glass contained too many ideas and too much plot than the film had time to deal with.

Maybe there was simply too much to digest in a single viewing.  This is the impression that’s left from deconstructing Glass through the film’s Blu-Ray release from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.  The Blu-Ray, which will be released on April 16, contains the following features:

  • The Collection of Main Characters – A look at all of the main characters from the films and how they fit into the overall Unbreakable universe.
  • Bringing the Team Back Together – The cast and crew of Glass talk about what it’s like to work with Shyamalan.
  • David Dunn vs. The Beast – A close look at the battle between David Dunn and the Beast.
  • Glass Decoded – Shyamalan discusses the secrets of continuity and style that are contained within the Unbreakable trilogy.
  • Connecting the Glass Universe – Shyamalan talks about the stylistic approach he brought to the trilogy and how he sought to make, with Glass, a comic book film that was grounded in reality.
  • M. Night Shyamalan: Behind the Lens – The cast and crew of Glass talk about Shyamalan’s approach to directing.
  • The Sound of Glass – composer West Dylan Thordson discusses his use of string instruments for the film’s score and why recording the film’s score on location enhanced the tone of the film.
  • A Conversation with James McAvoy and M. Night Shyamalan – McAvoy and Shyamalan discuss how they wanted to take an original approach with Glass.

While it would have been helpful and interesting to be able to listen to an audio commentary from Shyamalan and his collaborators, which doesn’t exist on the Blu-Ray release, the features on the Blu-Ray do an effective job of detailing Shyamalan’s vision of the film, while a careful second viewing of the film reveals a much more deeper and fascinating film than was apparent upon the film’s theatrical release.

There’s a very good film buried within Glass, and the challenge of trying to uncover it makes the Blu-Ray release a worthwhile purchase for fans of the Unbreakable trilogy.  Quite simply, Glass gets better, and reveals more surprises, with every viewing, which is the sign of an interesting film.  The Glass Blu-Ray can be bought here.

 

 

 

 

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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