Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA

Leonard Maltin May 15, 2025

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I don’t harbor many regrets in my life; I’ve been fortunate to meet people and have experiences that others might only dream about. But there are a few things I could and should have done better. One is to avoid procrastination. I’ve delayed calling people I wanted to interview because I had no particular deadline…and waited too long. This thought popped into my head last week as I was watching a rerun of an episode of Wanted: Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen on the Encore Westerns channel. In the supporting cast were Lori Nelson, Michael Pate, and Than Wyenn, a busy and versatile actor who seems to have worked nonstop in the heyday of episodic television. I met Than some years ago at High Holy Day…

SO…WHAT PRINT ARE YOU SCREENING?

Exclusive April 28, 2025

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The American Cinematheque made headlines nine years ago when it announced that it had installed a projection booth that the city of Los Angeles deemed suitable for projecting nitrate prints. There are only a few others like it, even in the city most closely associated with filmmaking. But if you’ve ever seen the way nitrate can burn (as dramatized in Cinema Paradiso) you know why so many precautions are necessary. Once, when I was working at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I programmed a silent comedy short from the archives for a weekend show; a torn sprocket was all it took to ignite the print. The quick-thinking projectionist grabbed the film and the takeup reel below it and ran to the sink to get…

WHAT’S NEW ON DVD/BLU/4K IN APRIL

Exclusive April 28, 2025

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The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE. WHAT’S NEW ON DVD/BLU/4K IN APRIL: ANORA, LIZA, RE-ANIMATOR, SUMMER WARS, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Anora (The Criterion Collection): Writer-director Sean Baker has been an indie fave for years – not coincidentally, Criterion is also releasing of his early films, Prince of Broadway, this month – but this heartfelt tale of a sex worker and the spoiled son of oligarchs blew up in a big way, starting with a Palme d’Or following a well-received premiere at Cannes and culminating in a sweep at the Oscars, including Best Picture. But if you’ve been paying attention to Baker’s work, his latest succeeds where all his films do, by…

WHAT’S NEW ON DVD/BLU/4K IN MARCH

Exclusive March 30, 2025

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The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE. WHAT’S NEW ON DVD/BLU/4K IN MARCH: BABYGIRL, WOMEN WHO RUN HOLLYWOOD, FILIPINO HORROR, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Babygirl (A24): Overlooked by the Oscars, but nonetheless one of 2024’s most memorable and provocative films, this sophomore feature from writer-director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) stars Nicole Kidman as a forceful CEO and seemingly happy wife and mother who discovers she has a yearning for sexual submissiveness when she crosses paths with a new intern played by Harris Dickinson. Kidman is fearless and frank as she plunges into the character’s contradictions, and the film never judges her for intimate journey of discovery. Also available: Antiviral (Severin): A 4K…

WHAT’S NEW ON DVD/BLU-RAY/4K IN FEBRUARY

Exclusive February 28, 2025

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The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE. WHAT’S NEW ON DVD/BLU-RAY/4K IN FEBRUARY: WICKED, IN THE SUMMERS, YOU’RE NEXT, OSCAR MICHEAUX, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Wicked (Universal): So we’re about a year away from a lavish box set featuring both halves of this bifurcated musical, but if you’re a superfan, you might as well dig into this first release, which offers a “sing-along” version of Wicked Witch of the West’s origin story, along with deleted and extended scenes as well as two separate commentary tracks – one from director Jon M. Chu, the other from co-stars (and Oscar nominees) Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. If you were a fan of this stage-to-film adaptation,…

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews February 21, 2025

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I just watched CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD for the second time, as producer Kevin Feige and director Julius Onah came to my class at USC for a q&a following the screening… and you know what? I enjoyed it much more this go around. Somehow, knowing how all the pieces fit and who was responsible for what drew me in rather than putting me off. The first time around I felt as if I had started watching a serial with Chapter 2, robbing me of important exposition. The not-so-secret weapon this CAPTAIN AMERICA has going for it is Harrison Ford as President of the United States. We’re told that as a military commander he was cold and ruthless. That’s what caused a rift between him…

THE MOVIE GUIDE IS BACK—AND REINVENTED

Leonard Maltin February 17, 2025

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With a change in format and a new platform, The Movie Guide is back: it’s a podcast that I co-host with a savvy Australian “journo” named Guy Davis. Every week Guy and I compare notes on a favorite film of the 1970s, 80s, or 90s for a half-hour of lively chatter. I first got in to podcasting in 2015 with our show Maltin On Movies. My daughter Jessie joined me several years in and we love having a platform that allows us to do interviews and chat about films we want to share. Late last year Brendan Dando, an Aussie podcast producer with a solid show-business background, reached out and his energetic pitch got me on board. Once Guy and I started talking about The Godfather there was just…