Noel and Thomas Manning sharpen their swords and dust off their sandals to tackle Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s long-awaited return to the coliseum! This legacy sequel from Paramount Pictures features an all-star cast, including Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal,… Read More ›
“You can’t see everything.” These four words were a commonplace statement by me on episodes of The Cine-Men (RIP), a way to deflect and soften the fact that while the mind is willing, time and opportunity don’t often allow someone… Read More ›
As though itself inhuman, cartoonist Charles Addams’s creation, The Addams Family, rises into popularity, disappears, and then rises again. It’s never far from fans’ memories, but the wider general populace occasionally needs a reminder that being macabre doesn’t mean being… Read More ›
Ready for a trauma dump? Because unfortunately, it’s necessary for me to properly explain why I did not like Parker Finn’s Smile very much. One week before Smile dropped into theaters in September of 2022, my best friend killed themself… Read More ›
Originally created by Bryan Woods (65; Heretic) and Scott Beck (65; Heretic), under the vision of actor/writer/director John Krasinski (IF; A Quiet Place), the A Quiet Place film series is a creature feature with a character-driven heart. The first film,… Read More ›
Want to know what happens when you have a barrel of apples and a dozen or so apples have worms and are spoiled? The entire barrel ends up becoming trash and all that hard work has gone to waste. The… Read More ›
One of my favorite questions to ask anyone is the following: “If you could store one memory in a bottle to revisit over again, what would it be?” My choice revolves around the first time I stepped into Walt Disney… Read More ›
Over my recent vacation to Mexico (my first one in over half a decade), I spent most of my days with my Kindle reading in the pool as I baked in the Gulf sun. The first work I devoured in… Read More ›
Photosensitivity Warning: Bringing Out the Dead contains multiple sequences of flashing lights either directly (scenes with or focused on ambulance lights) or indirectly (lights flashing on characters) which may disturb sensitivity viewers. A lot can happen in 25 years. For… Read More ›
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” – Roman poet Juvenal in Satires. So often, the general public takes it for granted that someone will protect them. With stories featuring The Phantom and The Shadow as preludes to the birth of Superman and… Read More ›
In 2018, actor/writer/director John Krasinski introduced audiences to a world gone quiet as it continues to try to survive against alien invaders who hunt by sound in A Quiet Place. This year, writer/director Michael Sarnoski (Pig) took audiences to when… Read More ›
No one really knows when from where inspiration will strike. An innocuous action, a stray thought, a random observation — anything is ripe for seeding a new concept or approach. For writer/director/actor John Krasinski (A Quiet Place), inspiration for his… Read More ›
At some point in our lives, we lose the magic of our youth. The wide-eyed optimism is shuttered by age, experience, and, possibly, being told “no” by life too many times. Perhaps to help battle this, writer/director John Krasinski developed… Read More ›
In 1968, Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band premiered Off-Broadway and shocked audiences with its candid portrayal of homosexual men. The story of getting the play written and on stage is lengthy, including Mart (Fade-In) being hired as actor… Read More ›
If you don’t get your hands on the 4K of one of the greatest comedies about a team of newscasters to be released in the twentieth century, then I am afraid to report you might be trapped in a glass… Read More ›
I am not going to pretend I understand how licensing works, because I simply don’t. It would be an incredibly silly thing to pretend I know a singular thing about how movie licensing works and why X licenses out to… Read More ›
“Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don’t say any naughty words! That’s what this war is all about!” – Sheila Broflovski, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut It’s been 25 years since… Read More ›
When thinking of ‘80s filmmaking, most fans often point to the usual suspects: John Hughes teenage dramedies, over-to-top action spectacles, along with a few (now iconic) slasher flicks. But one early example of the decade deserves its flowers just as… Read More ›
Even though I’d had every plot point of Chinatown (1974) spoiled for me by film school staples like Robert McKee’s STORY, by the end of my first watch through of the new 4K edition from Paramount Presents, I still wanted… Read More ›
Typically, studio-released 4Ks have been poor and strip-mined of late. Usually, if you want a good edition, you’re paying out extra payola to a boutique brand with a severely limited run. But the Paramount Presents label has outdone itself with… Read More ›