(Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images for AFI)

One of the most anticipated new series of the next television season just got stopped in its tracks.

Beverly Hills Cop, the series reboot of the classic comedy starring Eddie Murphy, has been dropped by CBS after the network put in an order for a pilot. The drama is now being shopped to other networks, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The news comes as a huge surprise to insiders, who thought a series order was imminent for the franchise spin-off particularly because of Eddie Murphy’s involvement. While the reboot centered on the son of Axel Foley, Murphy’s character in the 1984 hit, Murphy is an executive producer of the spin-off and was committed to appearing in a handful of episodes. Murphy starred as wise-cracking detective Foley in three installments of the franchise between 1984 and 1994. The films were huge hits and launched Murphy to the Hollywood A-list in his post-SNL days.

Murphy and producer Shawn Ryan (The Shield) are still holding out hope that the series will find a home at another network.

(Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection)

Exactly 54 years ago today, Imitation of Life, the legendary film about racial identity, was released in theatres nationwide. The film was adapted from Fannie Hurst’s novel and a remake of the 1934 original.

Imitation of Life told the story of Sarah Jane, a light-skinned Black girl (both of her parents were Black), who could pass for White, played by Susan Kohner. She dealt with extreme emotional turmoil, eventually rejecting her mother, played by Juanita Moore. The film also starred Hollywood legends Lana Turner and Sandra Dee.

In the 1934 original Sarah Jane was played by a light-skinned Black actress named Fredi Washington. In 1959, the Sarah Jane character was Susan Kohner, who was Mexican and Jewish. Both actresses in the 1959 version, Kohner and Moore, received Oscar nods for best supporting actress and Kohner won the Golden Globe.

Imitation of Life was a huge success for its time, garnering $6.4 million and being the ninth most successful film in 1959.  The film’s handling of race and the “tragic mulatto” character is a slice of American history for its era.

There have been talks for years about an Imitation of Life remake, but no word on who or when.  In 2010, a behind the scenes book was released on the movie, Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life by Sam Staggs.

The most memorable scene from the movie was Annie dying and the iconic Mahalia Jackson singing at her funeral. Grab a tissue and check out the clip below!

(Photo: Paras Griffin /Landov)

Did Tyler Perry get tempted to steal the idea for his film Tyler Perry’s Temptation? A screenwriter from Gary, Indiana claims so.

William James, a small town scribe, is suing Perry for stealing the script for the critical bomb from him, reports TMZ. James says Temptation is a rip-off of his script Lover’s Kill, which he wrote in 2009. The synopsis for James’ original work is a woman, tempted by a man who ruins her picture-perfect marriage.

Um, isn’t that a tale as old as time? If James intends to pursue this in court, he’ll have to name virtually every author, screenwriter and filmmaker in history as co-defendants.  To make matters worse, James admits he doesn’t even know if Perry ever read his script. He submitted it blindly to Oprah Winfrey, hoping it would reach Perry.

(Photo: Universal Pictures)

Summary: Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Oblivion takes place in a post-apocalyptic New York City (It’s always New York isn’t it — can’t we ever get a post-apocalyptic Midwest?). Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his sexy, red-headed partner are attempting to control the remains of an alien invasion who destroyed the moons 60 years before, which caused devastation to the planet. But, as always, things are not what they seem. Who is the real enemy? The aliens? Jack Harper? Maybe it’s the self-imploding script.

Tom Cruise is arguably one of the greatest action stars Hollywood ever created. Minority Report, Mission: Impossible, War of the Worlds — even the films that suffer a beating by critics still perform well at the box office. Audiences can depend on Cruise for the adrenaline rush of his own stunts and the high-octane drama of beating the enemy. Oblivion is easily low on the list of Cruise’s action greats, but the film is still a thrill ride — even with a muddy storyline bogged down with anticlimactic plot twists.

First, the look of Oblivion is spectacular. The high-budget special effects paid off, which weren’t overstuffed with video game-ish CGI. Most action films today resemble a Playstation game versus a movie. The eye-popping flick is visually exquisite and you’ll never whisper to the person next to you, “That looks so fake!” However, Oblivion is fairly standard. The flick does its job but obviously Kosinski was going for the impact of The Matrix, Avatar or Mission: Impossible.

Oblivion misses the mark with a confusing, uneventful and eventually disappointing storyline. Talk of drones, scavengers and clones are tiresome — and trying to decipher the film’s ludicrous plot holes is pointless. Applying more and more logic to Oblivion only results in a less enjoyable film. Even though the movie wants to be a “deep” action flick, you’ll enjoy it more the less you think about logic. The Universal Pictures movie will more than likely earn solid numbers at the box office, but will probably disappear into celluloid oblivion in less than a month — but that doesn’t mean Cruise’s latest action effort isn’t a fun ride.

Oblivion is in theaters now.

(Photo: Sony Pictures)

Summary: A remake of the 1981 cult classic. Five twenty somethings (and a dog) — with no common sense — are trapped in a cabin in the woods.  An evil (and dead!) spirit with a love for profanity is hellbent on killing them all.  But of course one person must survive — blah, blah, blah…

Review: The Evil Dead is a cult classic.  But unlike The Texas Chainsaw Massacare (1974) 0r Poltergeist (1982), the horror film doesn’t stand the test of celluloid time.  Sami Raimi’s’81 version toed the line of camp with bad acting, awful special effects and ludicrous characters.  But the indie flick was in on the joke — the same can’t be said for the 2013 version.  Evil Dead (without “the”) is continuing the tradition of sucking the cinematic life out of iconic franchises.

With a cast of unknowns, the Fede Alvarez-directed film is offensively bland with cartoon-ish gore, simpleton characters and the worst of horror film clichés: tripping in the woods, stupidly entering creepy basements, brunettes possessed by evil and the lone Black character meeting their maker sooner than everyone else. The flick includes random throwbacks to the original, but Evil Dead stands alone as its own terrible film — it’s demonic possession meets torture porn.

As someone who appreciates the horror genre, making a good horror film is no easy task.  Audiences are immune to scares, therefore, the film needs a solid plot and characters you root for — someone a few rows behind me shouted, “Kill ‘em off already!”   It’s not enough to slap CGI blood on screen with screaming pretty people in crisis.  There is actually a craft to making a solid horror movie, redundant plots and inexcusable predictability equal another trite disaster.  The worst moment: A cursing demon who spat: “Kiss me you dirty c***!” and “Come down here so I can suck your c***, pretty boy!” The lines gave the audiences more giggles than creeps.

The plot, score, special effects and cinematography were all deadpan. As for the unknown actors — well, you’ve got to start somewhere. In one bloody scene, the leading lady cried, “It was so horrible! It was so horrible!” Girl, I know how you feel — that’s exactly what I said when the credits rolled.

Evil Dead is in theaters today.

(Photo: New Line Cinema)

On this day in 1997, Halle Berry wanted to make audiences laugh again.

Berry, who would go on to win the 2001 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance inMonster’s Ball, teamed up with actress Natalie Desselle-Reid for the movie B.A.P.S.

The Robert Townsend–directed film featured Berry and Desselle-Reid in the roles of “Nisi” and “Mickey,” two waitresses in Decatur, Georgia, with big dreams of opening the world’s first joint hair salon and soul food restaurant.

Though the film has since become a staple of basic cable and pop-culture folklore, at the time it was widely panned. Noted film critic Roger Ebert gave the film the equally rare and colossally bad rating of zero stars.

In his review, Ebert wrote: “B.A.P.S. is jaw-droppingly bad, a movie so misconceived I wonder why anyone involved wanted to make it.”

His peers seemed to agree, as the film only noted a paltry 13 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

1997 theater-goers were inclined to agree as well. B.A.P.S. was budgeted for $10,000,000 yet only grossed a little more than $7.3 million at the box office.

If nothing else, at least the movie boasted a cameo from Rudy Ray Moore.

(Photo: Overbrook Entertainment)

In the early 1970s, Angela Davis was a household name, not for dancing, singing or sports, but for her politics — she was public enemy number one. Davis was an open Communist with ties to the Black Panther Party (never a member, despite reports), intelligent, unapologetic and armed with the most dangerous weapon — knowledge.

Davis’ knowledge was so powerful that she was barred from teaching at any university in the State of California. The Birmingham, Alabama native became a political prisoner after being accused of involvement in the 1970 kidnapping and murder of a California judge. All of the controversy — none of which Davis brought upon herself — made her a global symbol for political prisoners. In the end, she was loved more than she was hated from people of all walks of life.

Directed by Shola Lynch, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners is a superbly executed doc from a political and emotional perspective. This is the first (and probably last) time Davis spoke about her trial, which eventually resulted in the acquittal from an all-white jury in June 1972.

Lynch presents the human side of Davis’ story with candid interviews from Davis, her family and historians. Free Angela is not a doc packed full of social agenda. Lynch goes to the core of Davis’ story, rising above politics. Davis was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List and wasn’t always the tough as nails, afro-wearing revolutionary we’ve seen in archival footage. She was a woman in love, on the run, fighting for her life and doubtful of a corrupt justice system. Her journey to freedom is fascinating to watch with the polish and intimacy created by Shola Lynch, who also directed the superb Chisholm ‘72: Unbought & Unbossed.

Most importantly, Lynch showed how Angela Davis ripped the door off the hinges for women and people of color who refuse to crumble under injustice. After watching Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, audiences will walk away rejuvenated, thankful and, surprisingly, proud of their country. Angela Davis’ journey is truly an all-American story. Being an American is not based on religion, race, gender or sexual orientation, it’s the willingness to walk in the legendary footsteps of the icons who fought for our right to exist.

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners opens in select cities on April 5.

(Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

The Intouchables was one of the breakout hits last year, breaking Amelie’s record for highest-grossing international release of a French film. Now, lead actor Omar Sy is set to make his Hollywood debut.

Sy, who played a troubled teen from a rough neighborhood charged with caring for an invalid aristocrat in The Intouchables, is close to booking a role opposite Bradley Cooper in Chef. The project, in which Cooper will play a temperamental chef whose Parisian restaurant loses its Michelin star rating, will be directed by Blue Valentine’s Derek Cianfrance.

The actor has also landed the lead in French drama Chocolat (not to be confused with Johnny Depp’s seminal love story with the same name). The film portrays the life of Rafael Padilla, a former Cuban slave who becomes the first Black entertainer in France’s Belle Epoque era.

Hopefully we’ll see the French actor walk the red carpet at the upcoming Academy Awards, where The Intouchables is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

(Photo: Warner Bros Pictures)

Summary: A family of sort-of-kind-of witches settle in South Carolina so their teenage girl can transition into “light” or “dark” on her 16th birthday.  But a boy comes along and the two fall in love, which is a n0-no in witch land. Their fate is at risk because teenage love and witchcraft don’t mix.

Review: Teen love fantasy flicks are all the rage. From Twilight to Hunger Games, these movies pull at the heartstrings of young girls and annoy the eyeballs of everyone else outside of the demographic. That said, the first Twilight and last year’s Hunger Games were somewhat enjoyable. Twilight was an accidental phenomenon and Hunger Games‘ commentary on media, fame and class was surprisingly interesting. Based on the book by the same name, Beautiful Creatures clearly wants to be the next teen franchise epic, which makes the Richard LaGravenese-directed film calculated and terribly predictable.

Beautiful Creatures is not the fault of the actors (although the majority of the southern accents are embarrassing) or the cartoon-like special effects, it’s a terrible screenplay that is a toxic mix of Beetlejuice and Mean Girls. From the yawnfest build up to laughable one-liners — “Love is a risk for anybody!” — even if you lower your standards to teen-dream melodrama (similar to Twilight), Beautiful Creatures is far from spellbinding.

The only saving grace is the female lead, Lena (Alice Englert), is not the powerless damsel in distress like Bella Swan from Twilight. She is not giving up her soul for Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich). The message of independence is a bit more palatable. Unfortunately, the film and the actors’ bland chemistry need movie-making magic to create the next Edward and Bella. Of course fans might balk at the Twilight and Beautiful Creatures comparisons, but it’s impossible to not notice the goal for a cash cow.

Acting giants Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis and Emma Thompson give Beautiful Creatures some thespian creditability. Nonetheless, even this trio of screen perfection can’t save a calculated, snooze-inducing and unoriginal heap of film-making. Don’t be surprised if the film doesn’t resonate with its target demographic.

Beautiful Creatures is in theaters today.

(Photo: Universal Pictures)

Summary: Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Jason Bateman) hunts down a crafty criminal (Melissa McCarthy) who steals his identity.  The two form an implausible bond.

Review: Melissa McCarthy is a refreshing “It” girl in Hollywood. She is talented, attractive, but not the norm for Tinsletown. However, the Oscar nominee’s shining star is not immune to a bad movie — which is exactly the result in the annoyingly ludicrous Identity Thief.  As most road trip comedies go, McCarthy and Bateman fight, love, fight again and reconcile with eye-rolling clichés.

An audience must suspend disbelief in most comedies, but Identity Thief was wildly illogical — ruining the film’s handful of chuckles. Directed by Seth Gordon and written by Craig Mazin, it’s one of those films where you scratch your head and whisper to the person next to you, “This doesn’t make any sense. Why don’t they just …” fill in the blank.  For example, McCarthy’s thievery crosses state lines — she resides in Florida and Bateman is in Colorado.  Law enforcement (one being the always smooth Morris Chestnut as Detective Riley) cannot pursue her, so Bateman volunteers to go to Florida (leaving his pregnant wife and two kids behind) to abduct McCarthy with handcuffs and bring her back to Colorado where she’ll magically be inspired to confess.

Why not call the credit card company?  Hire a lawyer?  How would abducting someone across state lines be possible or legal? Oh! And Bateman only has one week to complete the impossible task or his boss will fire him for his deteriorating credit rating (he works in the financial industry and somehow he wasn’t intelligent enough to not give his social security number over the phone to McCarthy, who was fishing for victims).  This is just one example of an unfunny jumble of absurdities.

McCarthy stumbles along with stereotypical big girl shenanigans: loud, eating, hyper-sexual and can’t find a man. Bateman plays his usual — all American family man who is shaken up by an edgy sidekick. While the two work well on-screen, the awful script guts out the comedy. T.I. and Morris Chestnut have disposable roles.

A scoop of one-liners, McCarthy’s likability and the polished comedy chops of Jason Bateman cannot save Identity Thief.  Hollywood is in a comedy recession; making a laughable comedy is as hard as making a scary horror movie.

Identity Thief is in theaters now.