“ZEPPELINS. BOMBS. BORDELLOS. BURIALS. RIGG. REED.” This is one of several taglines attached to the marketing for the Basil Dearden-directed (Dead of Night) action comedy The Assassination Bureau, a film adapted from a Jack London (The Call of the Wild)… Read More ›
To not mince words about it, I used to be a very avid collector of movie-related art (within reason) and had a substantial collection of posters, steelbooks, one sheets, and so forth. It was something that I prided myself on,… Read More ›
The New Gods series from Light Chaser is a refreshing approach to cultural stories. Each one of their films, even if not listed with the New Gods label (White Snake and Green Snake) allows the audience to engage with the… Read More ›
Comedy is tragedy plus time. – Author Mark Twain Though Edgar Allen Poe’s 1841 story The Murders in the Rue Morgue is widely considered the first detective story, there’s a long standing relationship between murder and storytelling. Whether in dramatics… Read More ›
Though some suggest that elder Millennials are breaking the trauma cycles of past generations, there’s always going to be a bit of a struggle between generations as each individual struggles to figure out who they are in the world separate… Read More ›
Over the course of writer/director Terry Gilliam’s career, whether it’s been Monty Python-related or not, each of his films have shared a fairly standard commonality: he’s written or adapted them. In the beginning of his career, his intention was to… Read More ›
There is something special about anthology movies that often get overlooked. They’re essentially a curated collection of shorts that, when brought together, tell an overarching story. Several movies have done this before, like the V/H/S franchise, The ABCs of Death,… Read More ›
Martial artist. Stuntman. Action director. Comedic Actor. Romantic lead? The first four absolutely describe world-renowned physical performer Jackie Chan, but the last? Certainly during his time making films with studio/distributor Golden Harvest, that’s not something the actor dared pursue as… Read More ›
There is something special about movies that feel like time capsules that in no way, shape, or form stand the true test of time. While the love and admiration of them is certainly questioned with a modern lens, they are… Read More ›
No less than 13 years after James Cameron introduced the world to the land of Pandora in Avatar (2009), the long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water finally saw a theatrical release in December 2022. Now, on the heels of… Read More ›
Before Donn Pearce published his 1965 novel Cool Hand Luke, he’d reportedly spent six years drafting it as he pieced together a dramatic tale crafted from his imagination, his experience in a prison camp working on a chain gang, and… Read More ›
The concept of “punk” is a rebellion against the mainstream. As it relates to music, the term was used to describe rock bands of the late-‘60s to early ‘70s that played rock tunes fast, hard, and, often, in brief. For… Read More ›
Beginning as a character in a serial, Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled detective Sam Spade has appeared in the original 1930 tale The Maltese Falcon, two films of the same name, several short stories, and several short films. Of the characterizations, the… Read More ›
It is 2023 and the theatrical window is dangerously small now. Things that aren’t being made on $100 million budgets are barely seeing the theatrical window to begin with, and then a physical release is even less likely, and if… Read More ›
For those not in the know, the video game subgenre “rhythm” is of a music-oriented or music-centric design, the intent being to get the player to engage with music in some way. This could be by using one’s feet to… Read More ›
Personal feelings have a way of clouding one’s more practical or pragmatic judgement. If we’re excited or enamored with something, we’re more likely to excuse or soften something’s harder edges. If we’re not interested or already turned off by something,… Read More ›
Acts of aggression always come with unintended consequences. On the smaller scale, as when my children fight, it could be that the toy they’re fighting over takes a break for a bit and neither gets to use it. On the… Read More ›
This new absurdity from studios that don’t release monster hits in 4K is getting a little out of hand. There are so many great horror movies that are getting just Blu-ray releases as the highest quality of release or not… Read More ›
Whiplash, La La Land, First Man — each one directed by Damien Chazelle, two of three written by him, and each one (love or hate them) makes a declarative statement regarding its subject. It shouldn’t surprise that the Oscar winner… Read More ›
“It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.” “Never tell me the odds.” “I know.” “Get off my plane!” An actor is lucky if they get even one line that stands the test of time, invading the zeitgeist and maintaining… Read More ›