The Story of Columbia Pictures Movie Company
Under the guidance of its longtime president, Harry Cohn, the American motion picture studio Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc., rose to prominence in Hollywood. The C.B.C. Sales Film Corporation, created in 1920 by Cohn, Joe Brandt, and Harry Cohn’s brother Jack Cohn, produced shorts and low-budget comedies and westerns. The studio’s title was changed to Columbia Pictures in 1924 to improve the studio’s reputation. While Cohn was the impetus behind Columbia’s ascent to parity with the other major Hollywood studios, Brandt led the corporation as president from 1924 until 1932. Cohn presided over the country from 1932 until his passing in 1958. The studio’s comedies were directed by Frank Capra, who Harry Cohn hired in the late 1920s, and this led to Columbia’s breakthrough. It Happened One Night, directed by Capra in 1934 and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, was a smash hit and earned the Academy Award for best film that year. Other comedies directed by Capra for Columbia include Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). (1939). The Awful Truth (1937), Holiday (1938), and His Girl Friday (1940), all of which starred Cary Grant, were produced by Howard Hawks and others for Columbia around this time.
By luring talent from competing studios to work for him, Cohn gradually expanded Columbia during the 1920s. By perfecting the technique of shooting scenes with expensive stars out of order, whether they were related to one another in the story or not, he was able to cut production expenses. With this approach, celebrities were not kept on the payroll while scenes were being shot that they weren’t required for. Columbia was regarded as a prominent studio at the decade’s end, albeit a weaker one.
Columbia released the immensely popular Opportunities that were more promising when Harry and Sally met, but the company was still having trouble finding the cash flow to support additional manufacturing. A deal for the purchase of all Columbia’s outstanding stock was also made by Columbia in late 1989 with Sony USA, Inc., a division of Sony Corporation of Japan. When that acquisition was finalized in November 1989, Columbia joined the ranks of media and entertainment organizations from around the world that had merged to form significant businesses. Columbia will be prepared to take on the challenges of the 1990s global media market under the direction of newly appointed co-chairmen Jon Peters and Peter Guber. Among the movie collection from Columbia Pictures, Spider-Man No Way Home and Spider-Man Homecoming caught a huge audience.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
You could be right if you anticipated that this would be the most successful Spider-Man film to date. Spider-Man: No Way Home has pretty much every advantage it can muster to become the next Avengers: Endgame, including at least five villains, whispers of Spider-return, Men’s a record-breaking trailer, and the idea of the universe opening it all up. Everything functions, for the most part. Just be sure you watch every Spider-Man movie that has come before. No Way Home has a remarkably neat plot if you get where each character is coming from despite an unavoidably complicated network of people, backstories, and goals. If you watch Spider-earlier Man’s films, you’ll understand why the audience members in the rear of the auditorium are applauding whenever given a chance.
And if you aren’t well-versed in the twenty years of prior Spider-Man movies? You won’t be dissatisfied if all you’re looking for is a smooth-running, enjoyable Marvel (and Sony) movie. It’s possible that you don’t get the scope of what is effectively the live-action version of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, also known as the best (or second-best) Spider-Man film ever. But you’ll also get to enjoy appealing heroes with relatable character development, sleek, dynamic action sequences, odd, wacky humor, high stakes, tremendous emotional punches, and at least one truly memorable one-liner, delivered by Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) of all people. Peter Parker must deal with the effects of the events that occurred after Far from Home in the fundamental plot line. The public is aware of his hidden identity and the minor (faked) fact that he killed Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). Peter must now adapt to a challenging existence while being pursued into the uncomfortable spotlight of the public eye by a vicious media led by the glorious (but underused) J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons).
Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, Thomas Hayden Church’s Sandman, and The Lizard were among the returning antagonists that Marvel promoted (Rhys Ifans). Perhaps this was meant to warn you to learn more about their backstories. Only one or two words are given to each villain to explain why they act the way they do in response to a plot that places them in a different universe. The Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus are the standouts. Dafoe and Molina appear in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy almost two decades ago, and thanks to Marvel’s digital de-aging technology, they largely still look the same today. However, occasionally it appears as though an Instagram beauty filter has been placed strategically over specific parts of the screen.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Formerly the youthful face of the current superhero movie period, Spider-Man gradually devolved into a dreadfully symbolic salesman, a parable for a business terrified of originality and fixated on regurgitating its wares. Sam Raimi’s first two chapters were exhilarating and deft; his third was disastrous. The decision to reinvent the character five years later by (500) Days of Summer filmmaker Marc Webb was improbable and ultimately unconvincing. Two years later, we get yet another refresh, with the character appearing in Captain America: Civil War to foreshadow a solo outing. The character appeared in two soulless committee-made flicks that covered boringly similar terrain.
Since Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first attempt within the Marvel cinematic universe, there is an understandable weariness and a wearying sense of inevitability that greeted its release. However, there is also a faint sense of hope. While its formula has recently begun to show some symptoms of rust (for me, both Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 failed to ignite), there is still a watchable slickness and an ambitious long-term strategy that augurs well for a reboot-free future for Peter Parker.
It also helped that the choice to cast Tom Holland, a 21-year-old British actor best known for his appearances in The Impossible and the stage production of Billy Elliot, as Parker was one of the few things that stood out from the otherwise overstuffed Captain America: Civil War. He left a bigger effect in a few brief scenes than poor Andrew Garfield did in two full films. Along with his ability with physical humor, he also gave off the impression that he was still in high school, which set him apart from his two predecessors who were both in their late 20s when they took on the role. It indicates that the decision to adopt his first substantial adventure into an adolescent film pays off spectacularly, the structure acting as an ideal device to describe the web-slinger’s journey to maturity.
Despite some significant flaws, Far from Home is a decent film. However, Homecoming appears to rely almost exclusively on Michael Keaton’s performance, which, to be clear, wasn’t particularly noteworthy but was instead stronger than that of most other MCU villains.
