Kind blue eyes. That’s the most striking part of the poster for The Black Phone, the latest Blumhouse horror movie from director Scott Derrickson. Filling the poster is the face of the Grabber, a kidnapper and child murderer who terrorizes a Denver suburb in 1978, covered with speckled gray paint. A mask covers the Grabber’s jaw, giving the killer an unsettling permanent grin, while a top hat and wide glasses accentuate his upper face. But it’s those eyes that stand out the most, somehow kind and sad, despite their ghastly surroundings, making the Grabber all the more terrifying.
In that one image, we see the secret to Ethan Hawke’s late-career turn toward horror. After establishing himself as one of the greatest leading men from Generation X, Hawke developed a reputation for playing sensitive and vulnerable characters, given to fits of thoughtful melancholy. But with movies such as The Purge,...
In that one image, we see the secret to Ethan Hawke’s late-career turn toward horror. After establishing himself as one of the greatest leading men from Generation X, Hawke developed a reputation for playing sensitive and vulnerable characters, given to fits of thoughtful melancholy. But with movies such as The Purge,...
- 6/25/2022
- by Joe George
- Den of Geek
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
By Todd Garbarini
I love Joe Dante. He has directed some hugely entertaining films and is an aficionado of the same genres I adore. Additionally, like most film directors, he is highly versed in cinemaspeak. My introduction to his work came in 1983 when I bought his werewolf classic The Howling (1981) sight-unseen on RCA’s now extinct Ced system and immediately took to it. That failed stylus-based videodisc format was severely limited to only several thousand titles, so I had to rely on VHS to catch up with his Hollywood Boulevard (1976), Piranha (1978), and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) in the mid-80’s following theatrical viewings of Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983 and Gremlins in 1984. For some reason, his July 12, 1985-released outing Explorers, which concerns the escapades of three young boys making their way through the battlefield of junior high school, escaped my list of...
By Todd Garbarini
I love Joe Dante. He has directed some hugely entertaining films and is an aficionado of the same genres I adore. Additionally, like most film directors, he is highly versed in cinemaspeak. My introduction to his work came in 1983 when I bought his werewolf classic The Howling (1981) sight-unseen on RCA’s now extinct Ced system and immediately took to it. That failed stylus-based videodisc format was severely limited to only several thousand titles, so I had to rely on VHS to catch up with his Hollywood Boulevard (1976), Piranha (1978), and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) in the mid-80’s following theatrical viewings of Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983 and Gremlins in 1984. For some reason, his July 12, 1985-released outing Explorers, which concerns the escapades of three young boys making their way through the battlefield of junior high school, escaped my list of...
- 7/25/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
One of Joe Dante’s finest pictures speaks heart-to-heart to gee-whiz space fans — transporting us from our backyard to the far reaches of the galaxy. With a boost from aliens unknown, Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix and Jason Presson are the intrepid space cadets that construct a fantastic vehicle from mysterious dream-signals, no Interociter required. Their dreams hint at the secret desires in their adolescent imaginations, even without an it’s-all-a-dream sandpit. They dare fly where no man has flown before, a genuine escape from the petty pressures of Junior High. New and old input on the Blu-ray finally tells the full story of the making of an underrated wonder movie.
Explorers
Blu-ray
1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 109, 106 min. / Street Date May 25, 2021
Starring: Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson, Amanda Peterson, Dick Miller, Dana Ivey, James Cromwell, Brooke Bundy, Robert Picardo, Leslie Rickert, Mary Kay Place.
Cinematography: John Hora
Film Editor: Tina Hirsch
Production Design: Robert S.
Explorers
Blu-ray
1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 109, 106 min. / Street Date May 25, 2021
Starring: Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson, Amanda Peterson, Dick Miller, Dana Ivey, James Cromwell, Brooke Bundy, Robert Picardo, Leslie Rickert, Mary Kay Place.
Cinematography: John Hora
Film Editor: Tina Hirsch
Production Design: Robert S.
- 6/5/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
One of director Joe Dante’s most interesting and underrated films gets the Blu-ray treatment it deserves with the Shout Factory release of Explorers, Dante’s 1985 follow-up to Gremlins that walks a similarly unconventional line between Spielbergian sentiment and Tashlinesque pop satire, with an undercurrent of unsettling melancholy thrown in for good measure. There’s genuine warmth and wonder to spare in the first half of the film as friends Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson build their own spaceship; when they actually manage to rendezvous with the aliens who have been communicating with them, the movie shifts gears to become […]
The post Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations: Explorers, Fool for Love, 12 Monkeys first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations: Explorers, Fool for Love, 12 Monkeys first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/24/2021
- by Jim Hemphill
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
One of director Joe Dante’s most interesting and underrated films gets the Blu-ray treatment it deserves with the Shout Factory release of Explorers, Dante’s 1985 follow-up to Gremlins that walks a similarly unconventional line between Spielbergian sentiment and Tashlinesque pop satire, with an undercurrent of unsettling melancholy thrown in for good measure. There’s genuine warmth and wonder to spare in the first half of the film as friends Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson build their own spaceship; when they actually manage to rendezvous with the aliens who have been communicating with them, the movie shifts gears to become […]
The post Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations: Explorers, Fool for Love, 12 Monkeys first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations: Explorers, Fool for Love, 12 Monkeys first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/24/2021
- by Jim Hemphill
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Joseph Baxter Nov 6, 2018
Explorers, the 1985 sci-fi film, is getting adapted as a TV series for Paramount by the impressive duo of Cary Fukunaga and David Lowery.
Explorers arrived anemic on the box office scene back in 1985, manifesting as one of several contemporaneous wide-eyed optimistic sci-fi films with prodigious child actors, two of whom were Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix. However, as the 1980s continues to be mined for reboots, it was only a matter of time before the industry revisited Explorers. Indeed, that is now happening in the form of a Paramount TV series. Yet, the names attached to the project might just give knee-jerk skeptics something to ponder.
Cary Fukunaga and David Lowery have been tapped to develop a TV series adaptation of 1985’s Explorers for Paramount Television, reports Deadline. According to the trade, the duo will collaborate on a script and pen the show bible, and it is...
Explorers, the 1985 sci-fi film, is getting adapted as a TV series for Paramount by the impressive duo of Cary Fukunaga and David Lowery.
Explorers arrived anemic on the box office scene back in 1985, manifesting as one of several contemporaneous wide-eyed optimistic sci-fi films with prodigious child actors, two of whom were Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix. However, as the 1980s continues to be mined for reboots, it was only a matter of time before the industry revisited Explorers. Indeed, that is now happening in the form of a Paramount TV series. Yet, the names attached to the project might just give knee-jerk skeptics something to ponder.
Cary Fukunaga and David Lowery have been tapped to develop a TV series adaptation of 1985’s Explorers for Paramount Television, reports Deadline. According to the trade, the duo will collaborate on a script and pen the show bible, and it is...
- 11/6/2018
- Den of Geek
I had actually completely forgotten about Joe Dante's Explorers until just this moment, but it all came flooding back immediately. The 1985 coming-of-age sci-fi film starred Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson as three young teenagers who came together to build a spaceship after one of them had recurring dreams about a blueprint of some kind. The film eventually gathered a cult…...
- 11/6/2018
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
I had actually completely forgotten about Joe Dante's Explorers until just this moment, but it all came flooding back immediately. The 1985 coming-of-age sci-fi film starred Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson as three young teenagers who came together to build a spaceship after one of them had recurring dreams about a blueprint of some kind. The film eventually gathered a cult…...
- 11/6/2018
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
When I was a kid the 1985 Joe Dante-directed film Explorers was one of my favorite movies. It was a coming-of-age sci-fi film that starred Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson.
The story centered on three geeky friends who create a build a working spacecraft and launch themselves off into outer space where they encounter some very odd extraterrestrial life. I remember after I watched the movie I wanted to build my own spacecraft!
Deadline is reporting that Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) and David Lowery (Pete’s Dragon, The Old Man and the Gun) are teaming up to adapt the film into a TV series! They will write a pilot script for Paramount Television, and one of them will even direct the pilot if it gets the greenlight.
That’s a crazy talented team right there! I would have expected these guys to be the one to develop a project like this,...
The story centered on three geeky friends who create a build a working spacecraft and launch themselves off into outer space where they encounter some very odd extraterrestrial life. I remember after I watched the movie I wanted to build my own spacecraft!
Deadline is reporting that Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) and David Lowery (Pete’s Dragon, The Old Man and the Gun) are teaming up to adapt the film into a TV series! They will write a pilot script for Paramount Television, and one of them will even direct the pilot if it gets the greenlight.
That’s a crazy talented team right there! I would have expected these guys to be the one to develop a project like this,...
- 11/6/2018
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
When it comes to the pantheon of great Wtf horror movies of the 1980s, Howard R. Cohen’s Saturday the 14th Strikes Back ranks right up with classic gems like Troll 2, Blood Diner or Spookies, and is probably a film that most genre fans haven’t heard about, let alone have watched either. And yeah, I’m not going to try and sell you on ST14SB as this grand masterpiece – it isn’t – but it is definitely something I would say fans of oddball cinema should experience at least once in their lifetime. It may have more than a few rough edges, but there’s so much genre love coursing through Saturday the 14th Strikes Back’s schlocky veins, that I can’t help but admire its total disregard for cinematic rules, and just delivering up a full-blown monster mash that is a ridiculous amount of nonsensical fun.
- 7/7/2018
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
It’s hard to believe, but four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke has celebrated over three decades in the film business. Hawke made his film debut in Joe Dante‘s 1985 film, “Explorers” and 33 years later has received some of the best reviews of his career for 2018’s “First Reformed,” which is currently playing in theaters across the country.
Although an accomplished Tony-nominated stage actor, Hawke is primarily celebrated for his work in movies. He is one of the few performers who has been a double Oscar nominee in both the acting category (“Training Day” and “Boyhood”) and writing (“Before Sunrise” and “Before Midnight”). Hawke has also been nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards (“Training Day” and “Boyhood”), as well as a Golden Globe nod for “Boyhood.”
Unquestionably, Hawke’s most notable film collaborations have been with writer/director Richard Linklater, who had the ability to bring out something extra in him.
Although an accomplished Tony-nominated stage actor, Hawke is primarily celebrated for his work in movies. He is one of the few performers who has been a double Oscar nominee in both the acting category (“Training Day” and “Boyhood”) and writing (“Before Sunrise” and “Before Midnight”). Hawke has also been nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards (“Training Day” and “Boyhood”), as well as a Golden Globe nod for “Boyhood.”
Unquestionably, Hawke’s most notable film collaborations have been with writer/director Richard Linklater, who had the ability to bring out something extra in him.
- 6/29/2018
- by Tom O'Brien and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
As a young boy of about 11 or 12, I fell in love with Frank Laloggia’s 1988 ghost story Lady in White. Maybe that’s because it’s told from the perspective of a boy not too much younger than me at the time, or because that boy shared the same love of horror fiction and monster movies that I had growing up. I think, though, that my response had something to do with the fact that Laloggia had crafted that rare thing: a good story—a good ghost story, better yet—and had done so with grace, class, and a lot of heart. Even as a kid, that much was evident.
Horror author Frankie Scarlatti (an uncredited Laloggia) recalls one fateful autumn from his youth, shortly after the passing of his mother. Young Frankie (played in flashback by Lukas Haas) is seen growing up in his Italian-American home in the early 1960s,...
Horror author Frankie Scarlatti (an uncredited Laloggia) recalls one fateful autumn from his youth, shortly after the passing of his mother. Young Frankie (played in flashback by Lukas Haas) is seen growing up in his Italian-American home in the early 1960s,...
- 9/23/2016
- by Patrick Bromley
- DailyDead
For horror fans who love to celebrate holidays in their own ways, this upcoming weekend couldn’t be any more delightful. We get a Friday the 13th the day before Valentine’s Day on Saturday the 14th. If that doesn’t sound like the perfect excuse for a genre-themed movie marathon, then I don’t know what does.
Okay, so some folks reading this might not have thirty years of horror movie-watching expertise under their belt like I do. Let me give you a rundown or schedule of events for the weekend’s festivities.
Begin Friday night with a mini-marathon of Friday the 13th movies. There are currently twelve to choose from. Most new-school slasher fans will no doubt choose the 2009 remake. If you’re looking to get educated, my personal choices are the original 1980 grassroots version, the grindhouse-influenced Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning, and ridiculous Jason X...
Okay, so some folks reading this might not have thirty years of horror movie-watching expertise under their belt like I do. Let me give you a rundown or schedule of events for the weekend’s festivities.
Begin Friday night with a mini-marathon of Friday the 13th movies. There are currently twelve to choose from. Most new-school slasher fans will no doubt choose the 2009 remake. If you’re looking to get educated, my personal choices are the original 1980 grassroots version, the grindhouse-influenced Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning, and ridiculous Jason X...
- 2/13/2015
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Eric Shirey)
- Cinelinx
It.s getting harder and harder to have a soft spot for 1980s films, seeing as how all of them are getting updated for high profile remakes, thus ruining a lot of what made the originals so special and 1980s-ish. The latest of these retro classics to go the remake route is 1985.s sci-fi family adventure Explorers, director Joe Dante.s oft-forgotten follow-up to the equally genre-bending Gremlins. If anybody wants to build a spaceship with me to send Hollywood into space, just send an email. Beyond being a load of fun for kids who wish they could do things beyond their means, Explorers served as the feature debuts for Ethan Hawke and a bespectacled River Phoenix, who starred as two best friends who team up with a third (Jason Presson) to create a spaceship out of a fair ride inside a home laboratory. Unfortunately, this wasn.t a movie...
- 3/13/2014
- cinemablend.com
X-Men: Days of Future Past: The latest image from X-Men: Days of Future Past depicts an armed and dangerous Magneto (Michael Fassbender) standing with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult) -- but are they for Magneto or against him? All will be revealed when the movie opens on May 23. [Total Film] Explorers: Released in 1985, Joe Dante's Explorers followed a trio of young teenage boys who build their own spaceship and explore the universe, discovering that aliens are not that different from humans. Now Paramount has set up the movie to be remade through its low-budget Insurge label; writers have been hired and producers assigned. The original featured the debut performances of Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, and also starred Jason Presson. [Heat Vision...
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- 3/13/2014
- by Peter Martin
- Movies.com
Remember the good old days? Way back when a talented individual would have an original idea, and make a movie out of it? Those halcyon days of discovery and entertainment might just have disappeared a little further back into the mists of time, as Paramount has revealed their intention to remake the 1985 Joe Dante classic, Explorers, with a script written by Geoff Moore and Dave Posamentier (Better Living Through Chemistry).
It seems to have become more and more ‘on trend’ to mine back-catalogues for titles deemed ripe for a robust ‘re-imagining’. Having endured second shots at films such as Red Dawn, Conan The Barbarian, About Last Night, Carrie and RoboCop in recent years, we still have Annie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to look forward to. Not to mention The Crow, Point Break, and even Flatliners, at some point in the future. Now, we can add to that list the tiny,...
It seems to have become more and more ‘on trend’ to mine back-catalogues for titles deemed ripe for a robust ‘re-imagining’. Having endured second shots at films such as Red Dawn, Conan The Barbarian, About Last Night, Carrie and RoboCop in recent years, we still have Annie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to look forward to. Not to mention The Crow, Point Break, and even Flatliners, at some point in the future. Now, we can add to that list the tiny,...
- 3/13/2014
- by Sarah Myles
- We Got This Covered
Another one of my favorite movies to watch growing up in the 80s was a sci-fi film called Explorers. The movie was directed by Joe Dante and starred Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson. THR is reporting that Paramount Pictures is going to to remake the film, and they've brought in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec to produce it. Geoff Moore and Dave Posamentier will write the script.
The original film told the story of three teenaged boys who create a homemade space ship that travels to into space where they encounter an alien race. The movie is really quite silly in so many ways, but as a kid it was the greatest thing ever!
There are no details on what the plans are for the remake, but an insider said "one template could be in the tone of Welcome to Yesterday, an upcoming...
The original film told the story of three teenaged boys who create a homemade space ship that travels to into space where they encounter an alien race. The movie is really quite silly in so many ways, but as a kid it was the greatest thing ever!
There are no details on what the plans are for the remake, but an insider said "one template could be in the tone of Welcome to Yesterday, an upcoming...
- 3/13/2014
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
We haven't quite reached the point where anyone's talking about remaking The Goonies, but we're a step closer this morning, with the news that Paramount have put a team to work on a new version of Joe Dante's Explorers. The writers of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Better Living Through Chemistry are in the mix.Dante made Explorers in 1985, in between Gremlins and Innerspace, giving River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke their film debuts in the process and showing an impressive eye for upcoming talent. The story involves three kids (Jason Presson was the third; where's he now?) who manage to create a spaceship out of a dodgem car and travel to a distant galaxy for some family-rated alien adventures.Ilm did the special effects and Rob Bottin did the creatures, but Dante says the film was rushed through production and never properly completed. It tanked on its initial release...
- 3/13/2014
- EmpireOnline
News.
Starting this week, filmmaker, editor, critic and Notebook contributor Gina Telaroli will be seeing the premiere of her exquisite short feature Traveling Light, "a small-scale silent (aesthetically “silent”, but with a dense sound mix) charting a trip among friends from New York to Pittsburgh carefully constructed as a string of tiny moments" (Christopher Small), around the world in a variety of venues. The most ambitious on the ground presentation will be at New York's Anthology Film Archives, in whose series "Closely Watched Trains" Traveling Light is showing alongside such other brilliant train cinema as Shanghai Express, Emperor of the North, and The Narrow Margin. For those not in New York, stay tuned for news of the film's online premiere.
As Dave Kehr prepares to take on his new position as Adjunct Curator at MoMA, it has been announced that J. Hoberman will be taking over his video column in...
Starting this week, filmmaker, editor, critic and Notebook contributor Gina Telaroli will be seeing the premiere of her exquisite short feature Traveling Light, "a small-scale silent (aesthetically “silent”, but with a dense sound mix) charting a trip among friends from New York to Pittsburgh carefully constructed as a string of tiny moments" (Christopher Small), around the world in a variety of venues. The most ambitious on the ground presentation will be at New York's Anthology Film Archives, in whose series "Closely Watched Trains" Traveling Light is showing alongside such other brilliant train cinema as Shanghai Express, Emperor of the North, and The Narrow Margin. For those not in New York, stay tuned for news of the film's online premiere.
As Dave Kehr prepares to take on his new position as Adjunct Curator at MoMA, it has been announced that J. Hoberman will be taking over his video column in...
- 11/13/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Enemy Mine is just one of 12 other sci-fi properties that would make a great TV series
Firefly: the Animated Series - Firefly is arguably the greatest form of cult classic awesomeness my Generation Y can boast. After one season the show was canceled by Fox but later wrapped up in a polarizing film, Serenity, that arguably is the best sci-fi film of the last 12 years previous to Abrams’ Star Trek. Now after seeing some cool art it is easy to imagine this space western as an animated series. How cool would it be to see Whedon’s universe expand on a cartoon canvas? How cool would it be to get Adam Baldwin and Nathan Fillion to voice Mal and Jayne? Hell even Alan Tudyk voicing Wash. A Firefly animated series is something I would love and many would want.
The Last Starfighter – How about rebooting this 80′s staple as a TV series?...
Firefly: the Animated Series - Firefly is arguably the greatest form of cult classic awesomeness my Generation Y can boast. After one season the show was canceled by Fox but later wrapped up in a polarizing film, Serenity, that arguably is the best sci-fi film of the last 12 years previous to Abrams’ Star Trek. Now after seeing some cool art it is easy to imagine this space western as an animated series. How cool would it be to see Whedon’s universe expand on a cartoon canvas? How cool would it be to get Adam Baldwin and Nathan Fillion to voice Mal and Jayne? Hell even Alan Tudyk voicing Wash. A Firefly animated series is something I would love and many would want.
The Last Starfighter – How about rebooting this 80′s staple as a TV series?...
- 11/15/2011
- by Kevin Coll
- FusedFilm
By: John Gholson
Their engines whine; their walls creak. These spaceships may look like antiques from the future, but many pack more punch under the hood than they let on. Never judge a book by its cover, and never judge a spaceship by its rust-holes and sputtering warp drive. What space-faring rattletraps make the cut in our top five list of "hunk of junk" spaceships?
5. Eagle V from Spaceballs
The most impressive thing about the Eagle V is its amazingly pristine (and retro-hideous) 1973 Winnebago chassis. Piloted by Captain Lone Starr and his Mawg co-pilot, Barf, the Eagle V is a ship-for-hire last seen crash landing on the surface of MoonaVega. I would say it was last seen on the recent Spaceballs cartoon series, but that would imply that people actually watched it.
Features: Interior shag carpeting, perfect for camping.
Drawbacks: Screen door, chemical toilet, small fuel tank.
4. Thunder Road from...
Their engines whine; their walls creak. These spaceships may look like antiques from the future, but many pack more punch under the hood than they let on. Never judge a book by its cover, and never judge a spaceship by its rust-holes and sputtering warp drive. What space-faring rattletraps make the cut in our top five list of "hunk of junk" spaceships?
5. Eagle V from Spaceballs
The most impressive thing about the Eagle V is its amazingly pristine (and retro-hideous) 1973 Winnebago chassis. Piloted by Captain Lone Starr and his Mawg co-pilot, Barf, the Eagle V is a ship-for-hire last seen crash landing on the surface of MoonaVega. I would say it was last seen on the recent Spaceballs cartoon series, but that would imply that people actually watched it.
Features: Interior shag carpeting, perfect for camping.
Drawbacks: Screen door, chemical toilet, small fuel tank.
4. Thunder Road from...
- 10/21/2009
- by Cinematical staff
- Cinematical
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