If only by a small margin, Hot Fuzz probably has the stronger reputation; The World’s End is more sophisticated in all sorts of storytelling and filmmaking ways. But from where I stand, the very first feature made by director Edgar Wright, with stars Simon Pegg (who co-wrote with Wright) and Nick Frost, after the three […]
Barring a pair of 1940s serials that are largely forgotten today except by the most rabid completists, the theatrical debut of DC Comics’ Batman, the second most important and arguably the most popular of all the superheroes in that company’s stable was the 1966 film titled simply Batman, written by Lorenz Semple, Jr., directed by […]
A previous review of this film can be found here. A guide to all things Bond at Alternate Ending. Directed by John Huston, Ken Hughes, Val Guest, Joseph McGrath, and Robert Parrish Written by Wolf Mankowitz & John Law & Michael Sayers with uncredited contributions by Woody Allen, Val Guest, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Peter […]
Every Sunday 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: the jukebox musical Rock of Ages turns the nihilism and filthiness of the ’80s hair metal lifestyle into a […]
Every Sunday 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: of all the things you can turn into movies, board games are one of the weirdest, and an ice-cold […]
Every Sunday 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: it is held that The Avengers represents some kind of unprecedented achievement, which is entirely true, from a branding […]
The first thing worth noting is that Bond parodies and rip-offs were always more successful in Europe than in the United States – not for nothing is there an entire Eurospy subgenre far more robust and long-lived than anything that America or the United Kingdom was able to claim. And thus it was the case […]
I’ve been in a Vincent Price mood lately, and Turner Classic Movies just so happened to come along to scratch that particular itch for me last week, and that is why today and tomorrow are given over to a pair of “Why the hell not?” reviews – something I frankly don’t do enough of, and […]
I can’t even remember the last time that we had a horror movie that became such a talking point across such a wide range of cinephiles, so praise be to the long-delayed The Cabin in the Woods for that reason all by itself; though whether it’s actually categorically responsible to refer to The Cabin in […]
I’m tired of blogging. It takes hours, and I have to watch shitty movies, and I never get any money for it, so this is going to be my last essay ever. NO! I’m lying, because it is April 1st! Haha. I am really bad at April Fool’s jokes. But at least I’ve never killed […]
Screens at CIFF: 10/12 & 10/14 & 10/16World premiere: 7 October, 2010, Indonesia Here is a place that I don’t think any of us expected the present superhero movie wave to to end up going: a transgender crime fighter in a shiny leather catsuit fighting a conservative Islamic presidential candidate who wants to turn Indonesia […]
To later generations, John Hughes is all but indistinguishable from the genre of teen angst comedies that he helped to create in the 1980s, but it was not ever thus. Hughes began his career as a joke writer for stand-up comedians, and an advertising copywriter, and eventually a staffer on the National Lampoon magazine during […]
