Poll Update: Best Film of 2016 Week 1

Well, one week into KT’s 5th Annual Poll for Film of the Year and one thing is clear: a lot of great movies came out last year.  Rogue One is in the lead, but behind it is a seven-way tie for second.  Will the first Star Wars spin-off hold on and give us a second SW winner in two years, or will it be overtaken by the others.  If you haven’t yet, VOTE!  You can find the poll on the Killing Time homepage at https://justkillingti.me or by clicking here.  This is the reader’s choice: make your voices heard!

Trailer Time: Beauty and the Beast Trailer #2 (2017) *Final Invitation*

This is just stunning.  The teaser and the two trailers for this film have been clinics on how to sell a film to an audience.  The only criticism I can lay is I can’t imagine that any other rendition of the original Beauty and the Beast anthem that’s played over this trailer can equal the original, but so much looks so good that I’m going into this expecting something very special.  Beauty and the Beast opens March 17, 2017.

Star Wars Saga Tribute: Fallen Army

While Killing TIme readers have a diverse number of interests, pretty much all of us are die-hard Star Wars fans.  I’m mentally exhausted by the events of the last few weeks and the arguing, so today, I honestly don’t want to do anything more than check out to a galaxy, far, far away, a place we all love.  Leoberry has created this epic tribute to the most intense moments of battle and sacrifice in all eight Star Wars films and did a fantastic job.  Watch and repeat.  Watch and repeat.

Tom Hanks’ 10 Best Movies

Tom Hanks is the biggest star in Hollywood and has been for over two decades.  From a start as a comedian, first on TV in Bosom Buddies and then in film with movies like Bachelor Party, Hanks got his big break, first in 1984’s Splash, then exploding into popularity in 1988 with his first Oscar nomination for Big.  Since then, he has gone on to win two Oscars, four Golden Globes, and his work with HBO on miniseries like From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, and The Pacific has won him six Emmys.

Hanks is often called the “Jimmy Stewart of our generation” in that despite being the star he is, he’s a genuine person; the everyman who becomes someone with whom the audience can instantly relate.  Many actors, especially comic actors, really just play a heightened version of themselves in film.  Hanks began his career doing this, but soon disappeared into his roles and those roles defined some of the finest cinema of the last 30 years.  Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, the Toy Story Trilogy, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Charlie’s Wilson’s War, and the list goes on and on.  Hanks’ #11-20 films are of a quality that most actors would kill to have them as their top 10 (and I cheated and combined the Toy Stories to get two more films on the list; perks of making the rules).  Hanks turned 60 in 2016, hard as that is to believe, but he’s still Hollywood’s leading man.

PS – If you find yourself in a movie and Tom Hanks is the captain of whatever vessel you’re traveling on (Captain Phillips, Sully, Apollo 13)…..buckle up.  Things are going to be ok, but you’re in for a bumpy ride.  If he’s the captain of your platoon, that is another story altogether.

Site Note: New KT Feature-Their 10 Best

Two years ago I wrote a monthly feature called “Latest vs. Greatest” where I would rate an actor, director, composer, etc.’s 10 latest films against their 10 greatest films as a sort of career barometer.  I also threw in a feature-length biography to boot, and though they were some of the most-read posts I’ve written, I discontinued the feature because writing them was getting to be so time consuming and expensive that I just couldn’t keep up.  I’ve been mulling over how to bring it back in some way in a simpler form, and that form will be a new, weekly column on Sundays called “Their 10 Best”.

It will be much simpler than “Latest vs. Greatest”.  I will do a brief introduction of the subject, review their career honors, and then present a simple list of what I feel are the ten best films (or TV shows) in which they have been involved.  Lists are fun; they’re great for starting movie nerd debates, and I think this better captures the spirit of what I originally wanted to do with the original column.  I will also try to keep them dynamic and updated as new films in which subjects are released and new honors are bestowed.  If a subject was previously featured in Latest vs. Greatest, I will link to that profile as well, and to make sure it’s liked, our first column will be Tom Hanks, who I DEFY you to dislike.

Note: The Latest vs. Greatest Columns will still be archived at the bottom of the Their 10 Best page since this is an evolution of that feature.