The very concept of a film trilogy engenders certain expectations. When a studio stretches a tale over six hours or more, we hope for a certain fluidity from one chapter to the next, for plotting, action and character arcs that are consistent both within each film and across the entire span. Few series ever truly … Continue reading
Towards the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Captain Barbossa cackles something to the effect of ‘I know the real secret to immortality, me mateys!’ (or something similarly salty dog). Could the secret be ‘Get involved in a seemingly endless series of Disney blockbusters’? Because as POTC: AWE comes to its credits, … Continue reading
"We’re like a percentage of something going bad somewhere. It’s terrible." Though it’s not necessarily surprising to hear someone reflecting negatively on the sorry psychological state of the nation, this cynical tone can’t help but sound awfully dissonant when it’s coming from Kevin Costner, who is inseparable in person from his amiable onscreen persona. Whether … Continue reading
I don’t cry a whole lot. I’m part of that generation of men raised by women, yeah, but when the salty liquid flows it generally isn’t from my eyes. Even so, I get a little bit teary every time I think about the percentage of early films that are simply gone. Nitrate stock: bad idea. … Continue reading
Welcome to the next CHUD List. We’ve tackled our essentials list and the continued revelation of our Kills List from 2003, and now that we’ve begun the beguine, we must continue. Behold: The CHUD.com Top 50 Disappointments. A quick word on the criteria. We could very easily have spent this whole article discussing sequels and … Continue reading
It says a lot about where genre properties have gone, commercially, that a video clip of Frank Miller talking about his upcoming film version of The Spirit is prominently displayed on the Hollywood Reporter‘s Cannes coverage page. There’s not a whole lot in the interview that die-hards don’t know — Eisner invented comics, great influence, … Continue reading
Back in college, an actor friend of mine approached me to write a one-man show in which he would play Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk from the moment of his conception to his iconic home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. "Fiskie lived life the way it should be lived," he … Continue reading
When I saw this ad on the side of the bus yesterday, I thought it was a brilliant act of vandalism and cursed my lack of a camera phone. As it turns out, it’s actually legitimate. But it does underscore Fox’s difficult task in marketing a PG-13 Die Hard. Though I’m hardly representative of the … Continue reading
It’s another Late to the Party, right on time. I’ve spent the last couple editions of my cinematic catch-up saga going over my history as a film geek, and my introduction to the worlds beyond the PG-rated and the popcorn. It’s high time I returned to the present, to expose the shame that lingers with … Continue reading
A lot of development dollars have undoubtedly been wasted on this remake of an adaptation of a short story reportedly loathed by its original author, but it’s the idea that counts, right? If so, I still don’t understand why James Thurber’s The Secret Life of Motherfucking Walter Mitty persists as a viable project for vain … Continue reading