Movie awards shows always seem on the brink of extinction, at least as televised viewing. Non-comedian Millennial hosts, no hosts, format changes — nothing ever seems to make it that much different from previous years. Despite the forever ancient music, bored-as-hell hosts, and general sameness of it all, I always get pulled back in for a watch, though usually with less awe and more snark. Come with me as we […]

A re-review: I have mellowed somewhat in my feelings toward Déjà Vu since it was new, but not enough that I’d feel the need to revise anything I said before, except that my original review, however fair or not fair at the time, has become unspeakably tasteless in light of the manner of Scott’s death on 19 August, 2012. I certainly don’t want that to be my final statement on […]

The word “problematic” connotes different things to different people in different contexts, to the point where it’s best used precisely to avoid committing oneself to anything specific and meaningful. Yet there are occasions where it’s absolutely the perfect word: and if there was ever a platonic idea of a “problematic” motion picture, surely it would be Man on Fire, the 2004 kidnapping thriller which reteamed director Tony Scott and star […]

In fairness to Leroy & Stitch, it’s probably less perverse than I think it is. I have not seen one second of Lilo & Stitch: The Series, which fills the narrative gap between 2003’s Stitch! The Movie, and this feature-length series finale (and ultimately, between this and the 2002 theatrical Lilo & Stitch, but there’s no reason we have to do that grand movie the disservice of bringing it into […]

So, what can a body say about Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch? It exists. It’s probably a better fit, formally, with the original Lilo & Stitch from 2002 than the first of that film’s direct-to-video sequels, Stitch! The Movie, but it’s not nearly as compelling a follow-up from a storytelling standpoint. Also, it does not have any meaningful continuity with Stitch! The Movie, and while it purportedly […]

Our long national nightmare is over: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 has come out, and brought an end to the beloved teen paranormal love triangle franchise that began four achingly long years ago with Twilight, in which an insipid young woman falls in love with a shiny vampire who embodies all of the unhealthiest fantasies about male/female relationships that could be dreamed into being by one frustrated […]

There are a number of things The Runaways does right, and virtually none that it does wrong; yet at the same time, there are very few things it does exceptionally well. Thus it falls into that set of movies that are good, altogether good, and quite perfectly enjoyable for the time that you’re watching them, except that I can’t shake the niggling feeling that you’d be better off spending your […]

Of all the stories of Disney Feature Animation in the ’00s, one of the saddest to me is the fate of Chris Sanders – all the sadder because it is lacks drama or operatic tragedy, but is just a little example of the meanness and pettiness of corporate filmmaking. Sanders was a character designer on a number of 1980s cartoon series, when he was first hired by the Walt Disney […]

2009 is just barely a month old, but I’m already prepared to call it a better year for movies than 2008. After only 37 days, we’ve been gifted with the year’s first masterpiece; at the very least, it’s much superior to all five films currently jockeying for the 2008 Best Picture Oscar. The film is the stop-motion animated Coraline, adapted by writer-director Henry Selick from a marvelous 2002 children’s book […]

For a month where the best that Hollywood has to offer is supposed to be spewing forth over the cinematic landscape, this is a simply appalling month. Not since…July?…have I looked forward to so few releases. 1.12.2006If there’s a movie that I’m “excited” to see this weekend (there’s not), it would have to be Turistas, if only because it will allow me to bookend my year with mediocre splatter films […]

A while back, not so long ago, everyone who was anyone was talking about the oh-so-extraordinary upcoming conservative agitprop comic book Liberality for All, by Mike Mackey and Donny Lin. At long last (after a one-month delay) the first issue was published last week, and because I suck so very much, I bought it. And by “it,” I mean both covers. For those who missed it the first time around, […]