Awesome Movies

From Titanic to The Perfect Storm to Finding Nemo, Hollywood has been depicting shipwrecks for decades. Insider asked maritime archeologist and historian James Delgado to evaluate the realism of on-screen disasters and the wreckage left behind. While they’re not always accurate, a few of the films are surprisingly spot-on.

Starting with the Maschinenmensch in Metropolis, robots have been a staple of science-fiction movies for a century. Using a series of AI-generated art, Stillskates explores the origins and evolution of on-screen robots and how they started as dangerous and powerful characters and gradually became comedic and helpful.

This notebook is perfect for keeping track of the movies you’ve seen and taking notes. It’s got pre-lined prompts for details like the title, director, genre, and stars, along with your notes and ratings of each movie. The 6″ x 9″ journal has 100 pages and is available in paperback and hardcover versions.

Making a parked car look like it’s driving can be as simple as projecting a moving background. But making it shake, dive, and roll produces a more realistic illusion. Insider visited NAC Effects to learn how they use motion control rigs to simulate movement and combine those with old-school effects like towing and airbags.

While Avatar: The Way of Water shot its underwater scenes by training actors to hold their breath, there are lots of other tricks that moviemakers use to create the illusion of underwater action. Insider explores some of the visual effects techniques – both practical and digital which bring underwater scenes to life.

Eclectic Method is known for his creative music remixes and video edits. Now, he’s started to experiment with AI-generated imagery. In this animated music video, you’ll spot scenes from films like Saturday Night Fever, Dirty Dancing, Pulp Fiction, and Footloose, only with digitally-created characters performing the choreography.

Each year, editor Sleepy Skunk puts together a compilation edit of movie moments from the past 12 months. His 2022 trailer includes impactful scenes from The Batman, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Avatar: The Way of Water, Glass Onion, and many lesser-known titles. See if you can name them all.

(PG-13: Language/Gore) Any movie with the tagline “On a rampage for blow and blood” can’t be all bad, right? This dark comedy is inspired by the insane true story of a drug runner whose plane crashed in the woods of Georgia, and the bear that ingested an insane amount of coke after finding a duffel bag filled with the drug.

Writer/director Mark Jenkin’s gritty horror has the looks of a grainy old grindhouse film. It follows the tale of a wildlife volunteer working on a supposedly uninhabited island who descends into madness as reality and nightmares become one.

Every film fanatic needs Taschen’s Horror Cinema on their bookshelf. This 640-page book catalogs some of the most notable horror movies of all time, along with common themes, tropes, and mythologies of the genre. Whether you’re into zombies, psychopaths, or other kinds of monsters, there’s something for every horror fan.

Having designed and worked on creatures in movies from Galaxy Quest to Avatar to Hellboy, artist Jordu Schell knows a thing or two about mask making. WIRED sat down with the professional artist for a glimpse into his creative process, starting from a concept sketch to creating a finished monster mask.

Ever since The Matrix came out, visual effects that play with time have become more common. Insider explains how effects artists have slowed down and frozen time on screen in movies like X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Worst Person in the World using practical effects, high-speed photography, and CGI.

American Crime Story’s Ryan Murphy and frequent collaborator Ian Brennan revisit the horrific crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer and the systemic failures that enabled him to murder 17 people over 13 years. Evan Peters stars as Dahmer with Richard Jenkins, Molly Ringwald, Michael Learned, and Niecy Nash. The series drops 9.21.22.

Steven Spielberg’s latest is basically his own autobiography, as told through the eyes of a boy growing up in the 1950s who falls in love with the cinema and starts making his own home movies. The star-studded cast includes Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch. In theaters 11.24.22.

After a soldier loses his youngest brother in an apparent police altercation, he returns home to help bring justice to the fallen. But things quickly escalate as the community wants revenge. Director Romain Gavras’ immersive Athena drops us smack-dab into the middle of a tense and chaotic scene. Coming to Netflix 9.23.2022.

There are lots of scenes in movies and TV shows where they show enormous stacks of cash. But there’s a fine line between on-screen realism and illegal counterfeiting. Insider takes a look at how prop companies produce fake bills, and one of the times they got in trouble for being too good at their jobs.

Thanks in large part to its interpolation of The Clash’s Straight to Hell, the track Paper Planes has one of the catchiest hooks ever. But M.I.A’s additions make it even better. The Unusual Suspect assembled 210 movie clips to make it appear look like they’re singing the song. The gunfire from Pulp Fiction is most effective.

Inspired by a true story, The Greatest Beer Run Ever follows a man who decides to support his friends fighting the war in Vietnam by delivering them real American beer. Zac Efron stars as the well-meaning pal who finds himself over his head, and learns some life lessons along the way. In theaters and on Apple TV+ 9.30.22.

David Fincher is known for his fastidious approach to filmmaking. He’s a staunch believer in digital technology and visual effects to bring his fiction to life. But when making a movie like Mank that’s supposed to look like it was shot in the 1940s, is digital better than analog? Video essayist CinemaStix explores the topic.

Movie remixer Antonio Maria Da Silva is back with the third part of his epic Hell’s Club series. The feature-length “love letter to cinema” combines footage of such diverse films as Wayne’s World, Saturday Night Fever, Gremlins, Amelie, and Legend. Join a star-studded cast for one more dance before the world goes to hell.

Filmmaker Brett Morgen (Cobain: Montage of Heck) directed this visual and auditory spectacle about the late, great David Bowie. Rather than present his life as a documentary, the film celebrates Bowie and his personas through concert and archival footage, some of which has never been seen before. In theaters 9.2022.

Flying through the air is one of the most common powers wielded by superheroes and supervillains. Insider takes a look at the history of flying characters in TV and movies, and how improvements in special effects and stunt techniques have led to more and more believable flight on screen.

It’s obvious to most of us that Hollywood has taken some artistic license in its portrayal of dinosaurs in movies. Paleontologist Mark Loewen sat down with Vanity Fair to explain some of the major inaccuracies with the Jurassic Park franchise and other dinosaur flicks.