Matthew Monagle

Oh, Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. When are those two crazy kids ever going to get together? There’s is a love story we can all relate to: she, the inexperienced college student and would-be journalist, and he, the millionaire Seattle playboy, willing to teach her in the practice of love. Would their shared appreciation for BDSM be enough to overcome their differences and help them find true love? I don’t know for sure, but based on this first teaser trailer for Fifty Shades Freed, I’m going to venture that the answer to that question is yes.

As we head deeper into September, two things have become pretty clear about 2017 box office numbers: one, Hollywood desperately needs to bounce back a little bit from the doldrums of August, and two, whoever decided to hedge their studio’s bets with a September release date for a movie about a killer clown is looking like a [profanity] genius right about now. We’ll get to all of that in a moment, but first, here are the box office numbers as of Sunday afternoon:

If you’ve never had the pleasure of encountering Halo Top ice scream, I’ve got some world-changing news for you: no longer will you need to feel bad for eating ice cream by the pint! The California ice cream company, which recently passed Ben & Jerry’s and Häagen-Dazs to become the highest-selling ice cream in grocery stores, is the current zeitgeist of low-calorie sweets. Sure, maybe the flavor is a little more bland than you’d prefer, and sure, maybe eating ice cream by the pint  —  regardless of its constitution —  is probably not the best idea, but at only 240 calories a pop? You could do a lot worse with your stress-eating.

With the Toronto International Film Festival in full swing this weekend, studios are giving us our first good look at a handful of films and documentaries due to hit theaters this fall. One such film is One of Us, a new documentary from the filmmakers of Jesus Camp that also tries to expose the way a community’s religious requirements affect believers and non-believers alike. And if the film is anything like its first trailer, it’s not going to be a particularly easy watch.

While there are probably those who would describe Daniel Radcliffe as an actor who has never amounted to much after the Harry Potter franchise, I’ve found his decisions over the past few years to be breathtakingly daring, a risky collection of screw-you titles that could only come from a place of supreme financial security. From Horns to Swiss Army Man and everything in between, Radcliffe has proven himself a gifted performer with a voracious appetite for genre films, becoming something relatively unique in the horror genre: an A-list actor with B-list tastes.

Today the world of comedy lost one of its brightest stars. Jerry Lewis was no stranger to controversy during his decades-long career, but his impact on both Hollywood and comedy in general cannot be denied. From his early days as Dean Martin’s partner-in-crime to his career-capping turn in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy  —  and countless box office success in the interim  —  Lewis’s impact on Hollywood will be a source of much discussion for years to come.

Over the weekend, DC Comics (via Heroic Hollywood) released another version of the same character designs, this time ramping up the Alex Ross influence by having our favorite superheroes standing in profile together. It also aligns pretty well with that Comic-Con trailer, emphasizing both the Flash and Wonder Woman and downplaying (a little) Batman. All part of your lighter, brighter, and funnier Justice League, right?

If you’d told me back in 2004 that James Wan, then-director of Saw, would become the architect of horror’s more important cinematic universe a decade later, I would’ve thrown my hands up in the air and declared the the end of the genre. So I’m as happy as anyone to see that Wan’s The Conjuring universe continues to impressive (and improve!) with each subsequent entry. Coming off the heels of The Conjuring 2, one of the better haunted house movies of the last couple of decades, Annabelle: Creation shows that the franchise shows no signs of slowing down… at least not until we’ve explored every item in the Warren’s Raiders of the Lost Ark-esque trophy room.

Say what you will about Warner Bros., but they’ve always saved some of their best Justice League footage for Comic-Con. Last year we were treated to our first extended look at the DCEU entry; this year the studio has raised the stakes, giving us some actual footage of the Justice League villain in action. Oh, and this trailer also seems to emphasize the heck out of the world of Wonder Woman - including a scene set entirely in Themyscira - indicating that they know exactly who their most popular superhero is going forward. It’s probably not a coincidence that there’s more Gal Gadot in this trailer than anyone else.

This just isn’t fair. Only hours after we found out that horror icon George Romero has passed away, we’ve also learned that the world has lost veteran character actor Martin Landau at the age of 89. According to an article in The Hollywood Reporter, Landau passed away unexpectedly after a short illness, leaving behind a legacy of television and film work that any actor would be proud to call their own. From his breakout role in North by Northwest to his regular work with Tim Burton, Landau has been a versatile

While Disney might be holding back some of its best stuff for Comic-Con this year, that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few Star Wars: The Last Jedi teasers that they could share at this past weekend’s D23. Just yesterday, we were treated to a new featurette that went behind the scenes of the production; right on the heels of that comes these new character posters, a beautiful new mix of familiar faces and bright colors. It’s not exactly the brand new trailer that some were hoping for, but it should keep us occupied until the next opportunity presents itself.

While the unholy war between DC and Marvel movies continues unabated on the internet, fans of the former certainly seem to have a leg up when it comes to animated movies. DC Animation, the animated branch of their comic book empire, has confidently been churning out high-quality animated movies while the movie franchise is discussed ad naseum, leading some fans to suggest that DC Animation, not DC Films, is the true powerhouse of the comic book company’s film market. DC Animation is so prolific - and often so much fun - that we even tackled a comprehensive ranking of all the movies released through 2016. Spoiler alert: Batman: Year One is still the best.