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As one of the final motion pictures made by the Duke in the early 1970s, Big Jake is a great film. While many may emphasize the film's particularly violent tone, one of the things that makes this Western particularly unique is that it stars John Wayne opposite not just one of his sons, but two of them. In fact, the entire picture was a family affair, and while Big Jake may have been forgotten by many in comparison to other films such as The Searchers, True Grit, or the Duke's final movie, The Shootist, it was a production near and dear to the star's heart.

Violence and the Western genre often go hand-in-hand, but not every horse opera is an excessive mess of blood, guts, and gore. In general, John Wayne pictures are pretty lax when it comes to violence. Even though gunshots reign supreme in most of the Duke's Westerns, they rarely feel as bloody or violent as the films of Sam Peckinpah, Clint Eastwood, or Quentin Tarantino. But in Wayne's later years, the Western star was a bit more willing to get downright gruesome, particularly in his 1971 offering, Big Jake. While not on the same level as some of the aforementioned director's films, this Western outing — where the Duke plays Jacob "Big Jake" McCandles — surprised even critics with its unforgiving displays of violence.

John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara are two legends of Hollywood’s Golden Age who starred in five movies together, the most acclaimed of which is John Ford’s 1952 classic The Quiet Man. Wayne and Irish actor O’Hara first worked together in Ford’s Western romance Rio Grande two years earlier, when their on-screen chemistry quickly became apparent. But it was only with follow-up collaboration The Quiet Man that their acting partnership really came into its own.

The film features a rare comic turn from Wayne as Irish-American boxer “Trooper Thorn” Thornton, who moves to rural Ireland to manage his family’s homestead. O'Hara plays Thornton's love interest, whose brother he must fight in one of John Wayne's best fight scenes to win her hand in marriage. The Duke trades in his usual Stetson hat for a peasant’s flatcap, and his whiskey flask for “one of those black beers,...

Paramount has announced the lineup of movies, TV shows and live sports coming to the Paramount+ streaming service in January. The Paramount Plus January 2025 schedule includes CBS winter premieres, Henry Danger: The Movie, the NFL on CBS, Star Trek: Section 31, and more.

Get ready for an exciting lineup of CBS winter premieres this January. Paramount+ subscribers can stream the new series Hollywood Squares and Watson, plus the return of The Price Is Right at Night, Raid the Cage and NCIS: Sydney.

Star Trek: Section 31

The new year brings new adventures on Paramount+, including the premiere of the action-packed original movie Star Trek: Section 31, starring Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, and Henry Danger: The Movie, based on the hit Nickelodeon live-action series.

Football fans can also catch all the action on the field with the NFL on CBS‘s coverage of the NFL Playoffs, including Super Wild Card and AFC Divisional Round matchups,...

When John Wayne named his personal favorite top five out of the movies he’d starred in, he left out the classic that finally earned him an Academy Award: 1969’s True Grit. Over the course of his legendary, decades-long film career, Wayne starred in some truly great movies. He starred in hits like Big Jake and El Dorado and appeared alongside fellow screen legends in the sprawling ensembles of classic epics like The Longest Day and How the West Was Won.

So, when Wayne was asked to name the best movies he’d starred in, he had a lot of gems to choose from. Wayne co-starred with Jimmy Stewart in the character-driven western drama The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. He made Rio Bravo, one of the greatest hangout movies ever made, as a response to the cowardice displayed by Gary Cooper in High Noon. But surprisingly, when Wayne named his top five,...

John Wayne got a great send-off in his final movie, The Shootist, but a different late-career western 1972s The Cowboys would've been an even better swansong for the Hollywood icon. There are plenty of legendary actors who put their stamp on the western genre, from Clint Eastwood to James Stewart, but no actor is more intrinsically tied to the western than Wayne. Wayne starred in such classic westerns as Red River, Rio Bravo, and The Comancheros. Wayne initially made his name playing clear-cut heroes who spring into action and take down the bad guys without a moments hesitation.

But as his career went on, Wayne increasingly stepped outside his comfort zone and took darker, more dramatically challenging roles in movies like True Grit and The Searchers. As he got older, he began to reckon with his legacy and appeared in movies that would act as a fitting farewell to the...

The iconic Western that made John Wayne a movie star gave him an all-timer character introduction. John Wayne fronted 80 Westerns throughout his career and became inextricably tied to the genre. This typecasting was perfectly fine with Wayne, who still led everything from romantic comedies to war movies in between his "Oaters." Wayne may have evolved into one of the biggest stars of his era, but it took him a long time to get to that point. In fact, Wayne's The Big Trail set his career back a decade, despite marking his first leading role.

This 1930 Western was an expensive bomb, and Wayne spent years making Western B-movies in the aftermath. It was his collaborations with John Ford and Howard Hawks that transformed his career, and there was a time when Wayne appearing in a film all but guaranteed its success. John Ford and John Wayne Westerns are considered some of...

Of all the incredible acting collaborations seen throughout the history of Hollywood, the pairing of John Wayne and Maureen OHara stood as one of cinemas greatest. With Waynes reputation as perhaps the best leading man of classic American cinema, and OHaras talent for portraying dynamic and passionate heroines, the two were a match made in heaven and to see them starring opposite one another was always a treat. Wayne and OHara collaborated with legendary filmmaker John Ford on three separate occasions which only added to the legacy of their work with one another.

The movies that starred both Wayne and OHara vary greatly and included fantastic Western team-ups, an idyllic rural romance, and even a slice-of-life laugh-out-loud comedy. Wayne and OHara played to each others strengths and their onscreen chemistry cemented their reputations as box office draws who teamed up five times for more than 20 years. With classic movies together,...

Robert Weatherwax, a second-generation Hollywood animal trainer and the son of Lassie co-creator Rudd Weatherwax, has died. He was 83.

The late trainer’s son Robert Jr., who has also continued in the family business, announced his father’s death on Friday with a throwback photo of the two of them and one of the rough collie descendants of the original Lassie dog actor Pal.

“It is with great sorry that I announce the passing of my legendary dog training father,” wrote Robert Jr. in the post. “He was born exactly one year after my grandfather’s MGM Lassie – ‘Pal’. I’m proud to be the last representative of the greatest dog training family in history.”

Rudd created Lassie for CBS in 1954 with producer Robert Maxwell. Robert Weatherwax Sr. joined his father on the show in the early ’60s, continuing to carry on the Lassie legacy after Rudd died at 77 in...

Bob Weatherwax, who trained dogs who played Lassie as a member of the famous family that also taught Hollywood hounds a thing or two in The Thin Man (Asta), The Wizard of Oz (Toto) and Old Yeller (Spike), has died. He was 83.

Weatherwax died Thursday at a Veterans Administration facility in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, his son, Robert Weatherwax, a former animal trainer for films and television shows, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Bob Weatherwax was the son of Rudd Weatherwax, the original owner and trainer of Pal, the collie introduced to moviegoers in the MGM classic Lassie Come Home (1943), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowall.

His grandfather, W.S. Weatherwax, was an actor and animal trainer in the silent era, and his cousin, Ken Weatherwax, played Pugsley Addams on The Addams Family.

Bob Weatherwax served as an animal trainer under his dad on the CBS/syndicated Lassie series that aired from 1954-74 and...

The Cowboys from 1972 is seen as one of Wayne's last great Westerns and has been praised for its authenticity. Wayne's death in The Cowboys shocked audiences, and was a rare occurrence for the iconic star. The film received positive reviews for its blend of adventure and drama, with a bittersweet ending that resonated with viewers.

John Wayne's The Cowboys has been praised for its authenticity and also provided its star with one of his best moviemaking experiences. Despite fronting romantic dramas, war epics or cop movies, Wayne will forever be remembered for his Western roles. John Wayne fronted 80 Westerns during his long career, ranging from evergreen greats like The Searchers to lesser outings like Rio Lobo. Even as the genre's fortunes waned moving into the 1970s, Wayne was one of the few stars still fronting Westerns, including his final film, The Shootist.

It's interesting to track how the genre...

John Wayne co-helmed his goriest Western, Big Jake, due to director George Sherman's ill health. Big Jake marked John Wayne's final time working with Maureen O'Hara and featured his sons Patrick Wayne and Ethan as his on-screen family. Due to disliking violent films, Wayne insisted humor balance the violence in Big Jake, which turned out to be a mistake.

John Wayne made arguably his bloodiest Western in 1971, and the film is even more interesting when a certain making of detail is taken into account. John Wayne fronted 80 Westerns during his career and was still cranking them out at a steady pace during the 1970s. Despite the genre being in decline, most of the actor's output from this era like The Cowboys or Wayne's only sequel Rooster Cogburn turned a profit. Unfortunately, most of his final films like Howard Hawk's Rio Lobo are underwhelming, and the star was starting to show his age.

John Wayne made a lot of movies with a lot of actors, starring alongside the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Maureen O’Hara, Kirk Douglas, and Katherine Hepburn, and that barely even scratches the surface of the stars he worked with. Despite this, Wayne’s best co-star is actually a horse named Dollor, who was with him in all of his Westerns from 1971’s Big Jake until his retirement. Their partnership culminated in Don Siegel’s The Shootist in 1976, when Wayne insisted on script changes so that he could call the horse by its name, finally passing Dollor on to a young Ron Howard.

Daryl McCormack as Colman and Ruth Wilson as Lorna in ‘The Woman in the Wall’ (Photo Credit: Chris Barr / BBC / Showtime)

Paramount+’s January 2024 lineup includes the series premiere of Sexy Beast, a prequel to the critically acclaimed, award-winning drama released in 2000 and starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone. The streaming service’s also kicking off the new year with the debut of The Woman in the Wall, a six-episode series starring Ruth Wilson (His Dark Materials) and Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters).

June Carter Cash is the focus of June, a feature-length documentary directed by Emmy Award-winner Kristen Vaurio (Going Clear: Scientology & The Prison of Belief) arriving on January 16. January 2024 also sees the return of SkyMed, a medical drama set in the world of medics and pilots who fly air ambulances in Canada, for its second season.

Coming to Paramount+ on January 1

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Dean Smith, who won a gold medal as a sprinter at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics before becoming a top-notch Hollywood stunt performer who worked on a dozen films starring John Wayne, has died. He was 91.

Smith died Saturday at his home in Breckenridge, Texas, after a battle with cancer, his friend Rob Word told The Hollywood Reporter.

Smith, who got into the business with help from James Garner, appeared in seven Paul Newman films, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Sting (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974).

The tough Texan, who loved to say he could “ride, run and jump,” doubled for good friend Dale Robertson on the 1957-62 NBC series Tales of Wells Fargo, the 1964 film Blood on the Arrow and the 1966-68 ABC series Iron Horse.

He also did the dirty work for Ben Johnson...

Given the legacy of the actor, the best John Wayne movies rank among some of the most influential movies of all time. Known as “The Duke,” he was one of the top box office draws for three decades during Hollywood’s Golden Age of cinema. He appeared in over 150 movies during his career. He was iconic in countless roles. Whether he was playing a cowboy, a colonel, or a marshal, “The Duke” was always the hero. Wayne’s legacy continues today, even several decades since his death in 1979. Fans still love his films, and the best John Wayne movies continue to be heavily revisited.

Few actors in the history of movies have reached the kind of iconic status as Wayne. He helped define a certain type of hero in movies in his era and there is still a certain influence from Wayne that can be found in modern movies. Though...

Andrew V. McLaglan's 1963 film "McLintock!" is a loose Western adaptation of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (c. 1592), a problematic play to say the least. The story of Shakespeare's play involves a willful and bitter young woman named Kate who refuses to settle down and get married. This upsets Kate's younger sister Bianca, as she will not be permitted to marry until Kate is married. A man named Petruchio is hired to, as the title says, tame the shrew, transforming an outspoken and willful woman into a dutiful wife. By the end, he does. One can easily see the play's misogynist leanings. Critically speaking, one might be able to see a satire at play, however. Or perhaps it's merely sexist. 

"McLintock!" is equally tetchy, with John Wayne playing the Petruchio role, and Maureen O'Hara playing Kate. The story was altered somewhat to explain that Kate and Petrucho, called G.

As the 1960s drew to a close, John Wayne's macho, man-of-few-words act was wearing thin. Though some of the movies were pretty good (namely "The Sons of Katie Elder" and "El Dorado"), they were tonally and aesthetically indistinguishable from his '50s work. And this was a problem because the Western was undergoing a metamorphosis via the Spaghetti antics of Sergio Leone's "Man with No Name" and the bloody revisionism of Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." If Boomers were going to check out an oater, they weren't going to bother the outmoded, out-of-step-with-the-times Wayne.

The Duke exacerbated his situation in 1968 by making the jarringly jingoistic "The Green Berets," which sought to boost domestic morale for the Vietnam War. The best that can be said is that it was too outlandishly stupid to be taken seriously on any level, but it most certainly harmed Wayne's image. He was...

The enduring legacy of actor John Wayne, America’s ultimate cowboy, will be celebrated this month, fittingly enough, by the Cowboy Channel in association with the John Wayne: An American Experience museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The “Duketober” celebration is a month-long airing of classic John Wayne movies via broadcast and streaming. It will culminate with a 50th anniversary live panel discussion on Nov. 3 in remembrance of Big Jake, the 1971 movie that bought Wayne together with sons Ethan and Patrick, who will participate in a discussion about his films and career. Wayne’s legacy has taken a few hits in the last couple of years. A 50-year-old Playboy magazine interview outlining some of his controversial views on race surfaced, sparking his USC alma mater to remove an exhibit on him. There’s also a movement to remove his name from the Orange County airport. So far, that action has failed to gain ground.

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By Tim McGlynn

$70,000 is hidden somewhere on the Fleagle family farm and everyone wants to find it. Kino-Lorber has released a Blu-ray of the madcap comedy Murder, He Says from Paramount in 1945 wherein a wild cast of crazies will do just about anything to find the loot.

Fred MacMurray plays pollster Pete Marshall who is searching the highways and byways of rural Arkansas looking for a fellow employee of his company, Trotter Polls. After he gets lost on a dark road one night he meets the Fleagle family led by the whip-snapping matriarch Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson (Marjorie Main). Aided by her twin sons Mert and Bert (Peter Whitney), Mamie believes that Pete knows where the booty from a bank holdup that their sister, Bonnie Fleagle (Barbara Pepper), hid on the grounds before she landed in the slammer. Add in Elany (Jean Heather...

A version of this article originally appeared on EW.com.

Thanksgiving has arrived and with it comes bingeing of all kinds — but mainly food, shopping and TV. We’ve rounded up all the movie and TV show marathons airing over the long holiday weekend so you can watch your favorite while digesting on the couch.

There’s something for everyone to enjoy, whether you’re a Parks and Recreation fan and just want to spend time with your favorite Pawnee residents or a horror fan looking for a scare-fest like those on IFC and Syfy. Perhaps you’d prefer to...

Drum and bass producers are certainly no strangers to quirk, but I can’t think of a track quite like this one. Leeds-based Fox Stevenson has been capturing the brighter end of the drum and bass spectrum for several years, but “Saloon” marks his first song that pays homage to the Wild West.

Accompanying the uptempo, syncopated drum pattern in a couple sections of “Saloon” is a sample of one of John Wayne’s monologues from the 1971 spaghetti western “Big Jake.” Harmonica samples counterbalance the reverberant sawtooths on the high end without detracting from the signature Fox Stevenson sound.

I don’t anticipate that Fox Stevenson‘s “Saloon” will mark the birth of a drum and bass subgenre unto itself, but it certainly fits his well-known penchant for musical tomfoolery.

After checking it out in the SoundCloud player above, make a trip down to the comments section and let us know what you think.

Maureen O'Hara: Queen of Technicolor. Maureen O'Hara movies: TCM tribute Veteran actress and Honorary Oscar recipient Maureen O'Hara, who died at age 95 on Oct. 24, '15, in Boise, Idaho, will be remembered by Turner Classic Movies with a 24-hour film tribute on Friday, Nov. 20. At one point known as “The Queen of Technicolor” – alongside “Eastern” star Maria Montez – the red-headed O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons on Aug. 17, 1920, in Ranelagh, County Dublin) was featured in more than 50 movies from 1938 to 1971 – in addition to one brief 1991 comeback (Chris Columbus' Only the Lonely). Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne Setting any hint of modesty aside, Maureen O'Hara wrote in her 2004 autobiography (with John Nicoletti), 'Tis Herself, that “I was the only leading lady big enough and tough enough for John Wayne.” Wayne, for his part, once said (as quoted in 'Tis Herself): There's only one woman who has been my friend over the...

From the AP:

Maureen O’Hara, the flame-haired Irish movie star who appeared in classics ranging from the grim “How Green Was My Valley” to the uplifting “Miracle on 34th Street” and bantered unforgettably with John Wayne in several films. She was 95.

O’Hara died in her sleep at her home in Boise, Idaho, said Johnny Nicoletti, her longtime manager.

O’Hara received an Honorary Award at the 2014 Governors Awards.

“She passed peacefully surrounded by her loving family as they celebrated her life listening to music from her favorite movie, ‘The Quiet Man,'” said a statement from her family.

“As an actress, Maureen O’Hara brought unyielding strength and sudden sensitivity to every role she played. Her characters were feisty and fearless, just as she was in real life. She was also proudly Irish and spent her entire lifetime sharing her heritage and the wonderful culture of the Emerald Isle with the world,...

Maureen O'Hara movies: 2014 Honorary Oscar for Hollywood legend (photo: Maureen O'Hara at the 2014 Governors Awards) In the photo above, the movies' Maureen O'Hara, 2014 Honorary Oscar recipient for her body of work, arrives with a couple of guests at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 2014 Governors Awards. This year's ceremony is being held this Saturday evening, November 8, in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. For the last couple of years, Maureen O'Hara has been a Boise, Idaho, resident. Before that, the 94-year-old movie veteran -- born Maureen FitzSimons, on August, 17, 1920, in Dublin -- had been living in Ireland. Below is a brief recap of her movies. Maureen O'Hara movies: From Charles Laughton to John Wayne Following her leading-lady role in Alfred Hitchcock's British-made Jamaica Inn, starring Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to play the gypsy Esmeralda opposite Laughton in William Dieterle...

Recent hot cinema topics such as the portrayal of the Mandarin character in Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 and speculations about what classic Star Trek villain Benedict Cumberbatch’s character in J.J Abrams’ Star Trek: Into Darkness was modeled after leading up to the film’s release, among others, underline the importance of great villains in genre cinema.

Creating a great cinematic villain is a difficult goal that makes for an incredibly rewarding and memorable viewer experience when it is achieved.

We’ll now take a look at the greatest film villains. Other writing on this subject tends to be a bit unfocused, as “greatest villain” articles tend to mix live-action human villains with animated characters and even animals. Many of these articles also lack a cohesive quality as they attempt to cover too much ground at once by spanning all of film history.

This article focuses on the 1970’s,...

This article is dedicated to Andrew Copp: filmmaker, film writer, artist and close friend who passed away on January 19, 2013. You are loved and missed, brother.

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Looking at the Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the film year 2012, the one miss that clearly cries out for more attention is Liam Neeson’s powerful performance in Joe Carnahan’s excellent survival film The Grey, easily one of the best roles of Neeson’s career.

In Neeson’s case, his lack of a nomination was a case of neglect similar to the Albert Brooks snub in the Best Supporting Actor category for the film year 2011 for Drive(Nicolas Winding Refn, USA).

Along with negligence, other factors commonly prevent outstanding lead acting performances from getting the kind of critical attention they deserve. Sometimes it’s that the performance is in a film not considered “Oscar material” or even worthy of any substantial critical attention.

Harry Carey Jr., the son of legendary Western movie actor Harry Carey, has died from natural causes at age 91. Although the younger Carey never became a star, he worked steadily over the decades as a reliable character actor. He was the last surviving member of the so-called John Ford "Stock Company", a reference to the mercurial director's penchant for working with the same actors on many films. He also appeared in numerous films starring his good friend John Wayne, who idolized Carey's father, who he also made several films with. It was Ford and Wayne who gave Carey Jr. his most memorable screen roles in films such as Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Wagon Master and The Searchers. After Ford's death, he appeared with Wayne in the popular Westerns The Undefeated, Big Jake and Cahill: U.S. Marshall. A younger generation of directors were respectful of Carey's...

We’ve made a list and checked it twice, and here it is – your rundown of Christmas week TV!

We’ve got the classics (The Sound of Music, How The Grinch Stole Christmas), new episodes of your favorite shows (Family Guy, Doctor Who), a few season — and series! — finales (Rizzoli & Isles, Leverage) and some offbeat choices (cowboy movies, Oddities) to make your week merry and bright. Enjoy!

Sunday, Dec. 23

7 pm The Sound of Music (ABC) | How do you solve a problem like Maria? We hear curtains-turned-into-lederhosen and some edelweiss helps….

9 pm Chained to My Ex (MSNBC) | Series premiere: Emmy-winning Intervention...

On "Swamp People" (Thu., 9 p.m. Et on History) alligator hunters Joe Lafont and Tommy Chauvin were on the trail of the beast known as "Big Jake."

The fearsome gator had chased all the others out of his patch, severely injuring some of them in the process.

When the hunters caught up with Big Jake Tommy shot it dead-on, but it didn’t stop the gator, so Tommy had to shoot it again.

"Swamp People" continues on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. Et on History.

TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and amazing moments - and delivers them right to your browser.

On "Swamp People" (Thu., 9 p.m. Et on History) alligator hunters Joe Lafont and Tommy Chauvin were on the trail of the beast known as "Big Jake."

The fearsome gator had chased all the others out of his patch, severely injuring some of them in the process.

When the hunters caught up with Big Jake Tommy shot it dead-on, but it didn't stop the gator, so Tommy had to shoot it again.

"Swamp People" continues on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. Et on History.

TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and amazing moments - and delivers them right to your browser.

Gary Oldman as Jackie Flannery in State Of Grace (Phil Joanou, 1990, USA):

Long considered one of the most talented actors in cinema, it’s very strange that his outstanding acting as the younger brother of Ed Harris’ local crime boss in this underrated film doesn’t get talked about nearly enough when discussing Oldman’s body of work. This is a must-see performance for all Oldman fans. For the record, State Of Grace is a far better Irish mob film than The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006, USA), primarily because it contains much better acting across the board. Oldman was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011, UK/France).

Other notable Gary Oldman performances: Prick Up Your Ears (Stephen Frears, 1987, USA), Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992, USA), True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993, USA), Leon: The Professional (Luc Besson, 1994, France), Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997, USA), The Contender (Rod Lurie,...

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The Duke's head gear from The Green Berets and The High and the Mighty.

By Roland Schaefli

“This is crazy”, Ethan Wayne whispered, as the bids in the auction started to climb way over the estimates. The youngest son of movie legend John Wayne and other members of the Wayne clan were present at the Beverly Hills auction on Oct 6th, announcing that this would be the once in a lifetime shot for fans to get a piece of the Duke, “and we’re not going to do it again” – and still, they could not imagine that the fans would dig so deep in their pockets to collect their father’s artifacts. The total of the two day sale eventually exceeded $5.4 million, a portion of the proceeds of which will fund the John Wayne Cancer Foundation.

Hat from Big Jake

Only weeks...

Below you will find a list of movie that Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright has never seen. Not long ago Wright went out and asked his friends and fans to recommend some movies they thought he may have missed over the last thirty years of his life. He got recommendations from Quentin Tarantino, Daniel Waters, Bill Hader, John Landis, Guillermo Del Toro, Joe Dante, Judd Apatow, Joss Whedon, Greg Mottola, Schwartzman, Doug Benson, Rian Johnson, Larry Karaszeski, Josh Olson, Harry Knowles and hundreds of fans on this blog.

From these recommendations, Wright created a master list of recommended films that were frequently mentioned. The director now wants the fans to choose which of the films on the list he should watch on the big screen.

Wright is holding a film event at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles called Films Edgar Has Never Seen.

Edgar Wright's latest epic project [1] has him partnering with Quentin Tarantino, Judd Apatow, Joss Whedon, Bill Hader, Guillermo Del Toro, Joe Dante, Greg Mottola, Harry Knowles, Rian Johnson and, probably, several of you. Like all of us, Wright has a bunch of classic and cult films he's never seen. Unlike all of us, he has the means to see them for the first time on the big screen and will do just that in December [2] at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles during Films Edgar Has Never Seen. The director of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World asked both his famous friends (some of which are listed above) and fans to send in their personal must see lists and, from those titles, Wright came up with one mega list from which he'll pick a few movies to watch December 9-16. After the jump check...

An auction of John Wayne memorabilia has fetched $$5.4m (£3.5m). A selection of the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance star's personal mementos went on the block at Heritage auction house on Friday. The green cap that Wayne wore in The Green Beret netted $$179,250 (£114,573) and the cowboy hat he donned for Big Jake took in $$119,500 (£76,382). Wayne's driver's license and his eye patch from the original True Grit were among more than (more)...

By Kim Palacios

hollywoodnews.com: Roughly thirty-two years after his death, more than 700 of legendary actor John Wayne’s possessions were auctioned off. Receipts totaled upwards of $5.4 million dollars, said Heritage Auctions on Friday, which handled the estate sale on behalf of Wayne’s family.

Among big ticket items were the beret Wayne wore in his 1969 film, “The Green Berets,” which sold for $179,250; a cowboy hat that was worn in two films (1971’s “Big Jake” and 1972’s “The Cowboys”) commanded $119,500. Other predictable western movie memorabilia (including the belt and holster from the film “El Dorado” and the “True Grit” eye patch) were auctioned off alongside other items of a more personal nature, such as Wayne’s 1981 Driver’s License.

Wayne participated in 181 films between 1929 and 1976, with as many as 40 of his appearances uncredited (per IMDb). His most recognized fim was “True Grit” for which he won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.

John Wayne holds a very dear place in my film fandom – it was his films, and his Westerns particularly that I remember most from my very early childhood. Watching them with grandfathers on a Sunday afternoon, I’d come to welcome films like The Searchers, Shane and True Grit as part of my life, and I still count The Quiet Man as one of my favourite of all time, and I continue to base my idealised vision of male heroism on his wide shoulders.

A lot of Wayne’s films will forever be cruelly classified as too similar, and I suppose there is a very pressing argument that you know what to expect from Wayne, especially in his Western work. But that isn’t to say they aren’t still great film experiences.

Two of the great man’s lesser known films – Rio Lobo and Big Jake – have just been released on blu-ray,...

Hitting movie theaters this weekend:

X-Men: First Class – James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence

Movie of the Week

X-Men: First Class

The Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence

The Plot: In 1963, Charles Xavier (McAvoy) starts up a school and later a team, for humans with superhuman abilities. Among them is Erik Lensherr (Fassbender), his best friend, and future archenemy.

The Buzz: The film’s preliminary reviews have been solid, with 41 favorable reviews to 1 unfavorable, as of today at Rottentomates. The cast is really strong too. However, I personally have zero interest in this film, as it looks to have zero style (other than the standard nerdy film-version X-Men vibe), but perhaps this will be the first good X-Men film? I loved the comic books, was a pretty big reader for awhile there, and I’ve always felt like, of all the Marvel films, the X-Men films have fallen the furthest from their book.

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Barry Lyndon and Lolita I can't tell you how happy I was to learn Amazon was exclusively selling the Barry Lyndon and Lolita Blu-ray singles. Warner Home Video wasn't sending out review copies of the two Blu-rays and I already own the rest of Stanley Kubrick's available films on Blu-ray so it made no sense for me to order the "Essential Collection" which I'll detail below. So, last night, I ordered these two from Amazon and the order ended up totaling just over $30. Worth it in my opinion even though Lolita is the only Kubrick film I have never seen... something I will be remedying very shortly. Stanley Kubrick: The Essential Collection If you don't already own Stanley Kubrick's films on Blu-ray then you should look long and hard at this collection or ask someone to...

The National Film Preservation Foundation announced today that the next volume in their invaluable series of DVD releases will be Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938. The 10-hour, 3-disc box set celebrates "the dynamic, gender-bending, ethnically diverse West that flourished in early movies but has never before been seen on video."

The full lineup is here and today's announcement plucks out a few of the highlights: "Among the 40 selections are Mantrap (1926), the wilderness comedy starring Clara Bow in her favorite role; Ws Van Dyke's legendary The Lady of the Dugout (1918), featuring outlaw-turned-actor Al Jennings; Salomy Jane (1914), with America's first Latina screen celebrity Beatriz Michelena [image above]; Gregory La Cava's sparkling Old West–reversal Womanhandled (1925); Sessue Hayakawa in the cross-cultural drama Last of the Line (1914); one-reelers with Tom Mix and Broncho Billy, Mabel Normand in The Tourists (1912), and dozens of other rarities." The set is slated for a September release.

Speaking of the wild,...

Welcome back to Killer Film’s New Release Tuesday for May 31st! Before we get to these releases, let us remind you by ordering through our site, you not only get the best deals around from Amazon, but this one little click will help us out at no extra cost to you! It’s what keeps us killer!

Drive Angry

This wild grindhouse styled film was a blast in 3D, yet I think only 15 people saw it. That’s a shame, because it’s goofy fun, over-the-top violence and sex, and Cage being Cage. (Formats: 3D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD) Jon says: Buy Donny says: Rent

Passion Play

Despite the cast, with Bill Murray, Mickey Rourke and the sexy Megan Fox, this film was quickly attacked by critics forcing it to go to home video faster than hell. Were they too quick to judge? Megan Fox does do a little strip tease…...

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 George Lucas directs American Graffiti: Special Edition (1973) Stanley Kubrick’s period masterpiece Barry Lyndon: Amazon Exclusive (1975) John “The Duke” Wayne stars in the classic western Big Jake (1971) Academy Award nominee Javier Bardem stars in Biutiful (2010) Italian horror master Dario Argento’s Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971) Malcolm McDowell stars in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange: Anniversary Edition (1971) Nicolas Cage & Amber Heard star in Drive Angry 3D (2011) Tom Cruise & Tim Curry star in Ridley Scott’s Legend: Ultimate Edition (1985) James Mason & Shelley Winters star in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita: Amazon Exclusive (1962) Richard Harris stars in the western A Man Called Horse (1970) Sergio Leone’s western masterpiece Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) Mickey Rourke & Megan Fox star in Passion Play (2010) Harrison Ford Double Feature: Frantic / Presumed Innocent Howard Hawks directs John Wayne in...

Another John Wayne movie is debuting in high-definition, 1961’s The Comancheros. In honor of the film’s 50th anniversary, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the classic western on Blu-ray on May 17.

In The Comancheros, Wayne plays Captain Jake Cutter, a Texas Ranger who’s trying to stop an outlaw gang from selling guns to the Indians and aims to bring to justice the gambler Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman of TV’s Knots Landing), who’s wanted for murder. Both missions get entangled when Cutter unexpectedly crosses paths with Regret and and the two men form an unlikely friendship, while Regret decides which side of the law he’s on. Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen) also stars.

The movie will come to high-definition in special Blu-ray book packaging with these new and old special features:

commentary by film historians and Patrick Wayne, John Wayne’s son and an actor...

Two John Wayne westerns are making their high-definition debut, courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment: Big Jake and Rio Lobo will arrive on Blu-ray on May 31.

Rio Lobo

Released in 1970 and 1971, respectively — a year after 1969’s True Grit — Rio Lobo and Big Jake are two of the later movies from Wayne’s extensive resume.

In Rio Lobo, director Howard Hawks’ (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) last film, Wayne plays Col. Cord McNally, who, after the Civil War, goes in search of the traitor who caused the defeat of McNally’s unit and the loss of a close friend. The movie is rated G.

PG-13 rated, adventure film Big Jake stars Wayne as the titular Jacob McCandles, whose ranch is overrun by a gang of cutthroats led by the evil John Fain (Richard Boone). The gang kidnaps Jake’s son and hold him for a million-dollar ransom, and Jake must save him. The...

Director Sergio Leone’s glorious and acclaimed 1969 Western Once Upon a Time in the West makes its Blu-ray debut on May 31, 2011 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

Henry Fonda is bad to the bone in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.

If you’re a diehard Leone fan like me (Once Upon a Time in America baby!), you’ve got to be pumped about this one. I personally can’t wait to see the opening sequence—one of the greatest in movie history—in glorious high-definition. And my wife says she’s psyched to check out a bad ass Henry Fonda’s baby blues as rendered in Blu-ray.

The Once Upon a Time in the West Blu-ray will carry a list price of $19.95.

All the extras from Paramount’s 2003 Collector’s Edition of the film are being ported over to the Blu-ray. Here’s a complete list of...

Watching 1969’s much heralded epic True Grit, starring John Wayne, Glenn Campbell and Kim Darby, I felt the filmmakers missed a golden opportunity to create a true western masterpiece – in the vein of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and John Ford’s The Searchers. Wayne and co. deliver the goods, sure, and for the most part much of Henry Hathaway’s film feels alive, sometimes even sensational (“Fill your hand you son of a bitch!”), but otherwise does little to differentiate itself from Wayne’s other cowboy ventures, particularly Big Jake and, to some extent, Rio Lobo. Those films also followed a man in pursuit of justice/revenge, told with an eye towards adventure; unlike, say, the darker, more stylized western tales of Sam Peckinpah. For more, hit the jump to check out my True Grit Blu-ray review. Wayne made a living portraying proud, cocky, and awesomely invincible cowboys with boisterous personalities.

Back in summer 2010, we posted the ‘100 Greatest Movie Insults of All Time‘ which turned out to be our highest hit post ever! Now, the same people have gone back to the drawing back to create the 2011 version called ‘The Other 100 Greatest Movie Insults of All Time’!

Both videos were created by Harry Hanrahan who has done yet another fantastic job making them. Great to see Hook, Cool Runnings and Coming to America (you sweat from a baboon’s balls!) both making it into this one. We hope you’ll enjoy this one as much as you did the previous!

Thanks to Pajiba for the heads up on this. Below the embed is the list of movies used in this video. Please note this video contains swearing and depending on how fun your boss is, may not be safe for work!

Click here to view the original 100 Insults video after watching the one below

0’05 – Dumb & Dumber,...

In June 2010, we had the pleasure of debuting Harry Hanrahan's video, "The 100 Greatest Movie Insults of All Time," which would not only become our biggest post of 2010, but would launch the video toward what is now closing in on 5 million views and counting.

Today, we are debuting the follow-up to that video, "The Other 100 Greatest Movie Insults of All Time." The video includes lots of quotes that didn't make the cut the first time around, plus scads of omissions that were raised by commenters here and around the Internet.

It's not as vicious as the first video, but it is more playful, and nearly as rife with profanity, so it's not safe for work, unless your employers have a sense of humor, in which case, call them over before you watch.

Enjoy, you long streaks of paralyzed piss. You smell like a burger.

For a complete list of Harry Hanrahan's videos,...