Still not sold on Robert Zemeckis’s Beowulf? Try this. How’re you feeling about it now? The one thing the film’s myriad online trailers cannot do is show off its brilliantly rendered 3-D environs – though you can definitely see how Zemeckis has tailored his compositions to take maximum advantage of the medium. Devin, Russ and … Continue reading
Happy Labor Day from Los Angeles! It’s hotter than Appalachian State up in this piece! Why Does Hollywood Hate Labor Day? (The setting: Labor Day weekend, 1983. The place: A home not far from yours.) Man: A long weekend. Thank Christ! What’s new at the movies, dear? Woman: Mortuary and Deathstalker. Man: You have found … Continue reading
"John Carpenter’s The Thing is a foolish, depressing, overproduced movie that mixes horror with science fiction to make something that is fun as neither one thing or the other. Sometimes it looks as if it aspired to be the quintessential moron movie of the 80’s – a virtually storyless feature composed of lots of laboratory … Continue reading
Producers are never more desperate than before a strike, which is why I think the unions should threaten to strike more often. Not because I’m hot to see more Voltrons and He-Mans; these projects are a blight on cinema and, if made, could very well bring back slavery (granted, there’s an undeniable plus-side here for … Continue reading
I was out of the loop all day, so I don’t know the extent to which AICN‘s Moriarty is being dismissed outright for boldly going where no online movie writer – including the "Say It, I’ll Print It" maestro of IESB, Robert Sanchez – has yet to go regarding J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek re-whatever. If … Continue reading
I don’t know about you, but I just love the awards derby! There’s nothing like quality taking a back seat to promotion! I’m still breathless over Lionsgate’s brilliant end-run around the lockstep support (in certain, very influential quarters) for Brokeback Mountain in 2006, and I celebrate every V-E Day by replaying the 1999 Academy Awards … Continue reading
Oh, how I wish Gregor Jordan’s The Informers was a sequel to John Ford’s The Informer, a 1935 drama in which a big stupid Irishman named Gypo (Victor McLaglen) squeals on an associate for a reward and proceeds to blow the newfound cash in loud, clumsy, brawling fashion all over town (thus drawing the attention … Continue reading
Ben Garant’s Reno 911!: Miami was tolerable because it at least delivered on the modest promise of the TV show, i.e. it featured bizarro sights like Paul Rudd as a Scarface-like drug lord torturing a hostage with a weed whacker. On a yacht. Prompting one of this year’s more memorable snatches of dialogue: "Who brings … Continue reading
James C. Strouse’s Grace is Gone got a jolt of Awards season legitimacy a few weeks back when Clint Eastwood volunteered to compose a brand new score for the drama about a husband who’s left to raise his two daughters after his wife is killed whilst serving in the Iraq War. The film garnered generally … Continue reading
The Crop: Voltron The Studio/Production Company: 20th Century Fox/New Regency The Director: Agnes Varda (Unconfirmed) The Writer: Justin Marks The Actors: Bruce Dern, Stacy Keach, Robert Mitchum, Martin Sheen and Paul Sorvino (Also Unconfirmed) The Premise: Five years after the Robeast apocalypse, the fate of the Earth, nay the entire universe, rests on the shoulders … Continue reading