The superhero sequel is a peculiar beast. It is the nature of the sequel to be a chancy proposition, artistically at least: most stories really actually don’t need the extra space to be told, and cinema history is littered with sequels that can’t do better than feebly retread the same plot and conflicts as the original movie, or else strain so hard to find a new direction that they completely […]
I’m currently putting together a list of the 100 best movies from 2000-2009, like everybody else has already done; but dammit, the Aughts aren’t even cold in their grave, let’s wait a teeny bit before starting the lists already. Anyway, you can consider this the first salvo in my Decade-In-Review extravaganza: see, I’ve been doing this proper-like, and trying to re-watch every single picture I put on my list (and […]
Here are the facts: Peter Schneider, the President of Feature Animation at Walt Disney Pictures since 1985, and therefore the man who oversaw and to some extent engineered the successful execution of the one-film-per-year plan, was promoted to being president of the whole film division of the Walt Disney Company in 1999. At that time, he was succeeded by Thomas Schumacher, producer of The Rescuers Down Under and executive producer […]
It is but one week from tonight that the Oscars will be handed out, though by that point I imagine that only a handful of people will actually care, besides the nominees themselves. But this is not the place for me to complain and whine about the low quality of the Academy’s choices this year. This is just the cursory and grumpy predictions for what I expect will win. Best […]
It had been my intention to see a movie today and review it – you know, like I do on this movie review blog of mine. The thing is, I’ve got a cold that just will not be ignored, and so I’m allowing laziness to be the better part of valor. A quick post, and then to bed! Anyway, I’m still sore over the Worst Oscar Slate In Years (okay, […]
Nominations! Wow, they sure loved the hell out of The Reader. I’m impressed, though – I knew the Oscars were going to be boring this year, but I didn’t realise they were going to be boring and shitty. The good: Melissa Leo in for Best Actress, Richard Jenkins for Best Actor, In Bruges for Original Screenplay (actually, Original Screenplay as a whole is pretty good), Hellboy II for Makeup The […]
At first I wasn’t going to do this, but I’m ultimately a sucker for the glitziness of Teh Movies. So here are my predictions for the Oscar nominations tomorrow morning. I have decided to eschew all but a little commentary, mostly on the grounds that I haven’t been this bored by the Oscar race in all the years that I’ve been watching the Oscars. Incidentally, the fact that I’m predicting […]
I had this whole thing prepared where I was going to be all, “Man, 2008 was so beastly awful for movies!” when I realised something important: it really wasn’t. Here’s the thing, I mentally noted back in March that if In Bruges didn’t make my top 10, that meant 2008 was better than 2007, because it would have hit my 2007 list around 7 or 8. And as you’ll presently […]
And so summer rattles along, with the year’s first bona-fide masterpiece finally under our belt. Lo and behold, it does appear that there might be another one on the horizon, maybe, if we allow that superhero movies can be bona-fide masterpieces. And for the record, I am certainly not talking about… 2.7.2008…Hancock, which looks appealing only insofar as Will Smith is an appealing guy. Otherwise, the trailers seem to indicate […]
