Love Letters and Angry Rants of a Devoted Cinephile
The concept of a prequel is always difficult to justify. What story value can be gained by going back in time rather than continuing forward? The ones that work (The Godfather Part II, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me) succeed by not only filling in the gaps of the material that came before it, but... Continue Reading →
Frank Herbert's classic Dune novel from 1965 was called unfilmable. Which is a ridiculous thing to say. You know how many books have been called unfilmable: The Lord of the Rings, Anna Karenina, The Lovely Bones (okay, that one wasn't good, but I still hold that it could have been adapted well). Given David Lynch's... Continue Reading →
The weakest part of pretty much every Godzilla movie is everyone that is not Godzilla. You almost root for the big guy to smash towns (and people) because they are so bland and interchangeable. But Godzilla: Minus One alters the formula by... making us care about the humans?! An astounding change of pace. Written and... Continue Reading →
David Fincher knows how to make a film. He has proven that time and again with great films like The Social Network and Fight Club. Even with his not-so-great films like Alien 3 and Panic Room. The guy knows how to take a script a craft it into a visually interesting film, story quality be... Continue Reading →
The Room, one of the most infamous bad movies in history, finally has a companion. And that bedfellow is Big Shark. Rest assured, Tommy Wiseau's 2003 "masterpiece" was not a fluke; Big Shark is just as special. Written, directed and starring Wiseau, Big Shark features three heroic firefighters in Patrick, Georgie (Greg Sestero... and Mark... Continue Reading →
The appeal of Indiana Jones has always been his character: he's a smart, dedicated, heroic, do-it-all, tough archaeologist. He teaches, he fights, he studies, he does the right thing (usually after a little convincing). That's the formula that worked for three great films in the 80s. Since then... ehh. The formula is dependent on a... Continue Reading →
Believe it or not, Hollywood can make meaningful diverse films. And better still... people will go see them! Who knows if this current era will stick or prove a passing phase, but films that feature strong women, strong Black and strong LGBTQ characters are no longer passé, and that's a damn good thing. But diverse... Continue Reading →
Bollywood hasn't quite penetrated into the US market the way Chinese, Korean and Japanese cinema has; perhaps there's something too offbeat about it to appeal to the average American filmgoer. Whatever the case, RRR, the most expensive Indian film to date, succeeds in bridging that divide between Bollywood grandeur and American sentimentality, becoming the ultimate... Continue Reading →
The idea of a Cassian Andor series is still a little ludicrous to me; anybody remember that random character from Rogue One who dies at the end? (I mean, they all die at the end. Spoilers, I guess), Disney really seems to be digging at the bottom of the barrel here for Star Wars material.... Continue Reading →
Why do people go to John Wick movies? To see Keanu Reeves shoot, stab, punch, kick, strangle, throttle, knee, karate chop, smother and burn a whole bunch of bad guys. And given the dire straits of action movie stars today, Wick is awfully lonely in the multiplex. So while John Wick: Chapter 4 stays way... Continue Reading →
Hardwired for Film 