After Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol came out in 2011, it seemed that the series had finally figured out how to become the best version of itself and could go on forever doing the same thing. It was with that film that the movies stopped being somewhat dimwitted star vehicles for producer Tom Cruise and […]
A review requested by Kent H, with thanks for donating to the Second Quinquennial Antagony & Ecstasy ACS Fundraiser. Obviously, 1981’s Escape from New York is a transitional film in the career of director John Carpenter: his fifth feature (seventh if we include his television movies) is the one that finds him starting to really […]
Every week this summer, we’ll be taking an historical tour of the Hollywood blockbuster by examining an older film that is in some way a spiritual precursor to one of the weekend’s wide releases. This week: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation continues the unexpected late flowering of a TV-derived spy franchise into its best self. […]
A review requested by Tim Van Autreve, with thanks for contributing to the Second Quinquennial Antagony & Ecstasy ACS Fundraiser. Director Claude Berri’s Manon of the Spring from 1986 is maybe the best kind of sequel. It is greatly deepened in its emotional impact if you’ve seen Jean de Florette, its predecessor from earlier in […]
Every week this summer, we’ll be taking an historical tour of the Hollywood blockbuster by examining an older film that is in some way a spiritual precursor to one of the weekend’s wide releases. This week: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation continues the unexpected late flowering of a TV-derived spy franchise into its best self. […]
A review requested by Fedor Illitchev, with thanks for contributing to the Second Quinquennial Antagony & Ecstasy ACS Fundraiser. My thanks as well for the historical background he was able to provide for this film, about which virtually no information is readily available in English. During the most censorious periods in the history of Soviet […]
If I were to tell you that a movie called Zombeavers is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable experiences I’ve had with a 2015 movie (it’s been kicking around since the first half of 2014, but its commercial release was slow in coming), and you were to call me a piece of shit, no good […]
