To begin with, Guardians of the Galaxy is the best film in the 10-film Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2008’s Iron Man started things off, or at least the most self-contained, and the one that feels the least like an airbrushed factory-made product. More unexpectedly, it’s also the best Star Wars film since 1980. And neither of those is an unfathomably difficult bar to clear, though I’m still glad that the […]

There’s an insurmountable argument to be made that, most of a year later, there’s no merit to kicking Movie 43 anymore. On the other hand, writing shell-shocked, visceral pans of fucking dreadful movies is fun, and it’s Christmas Day. So here’s my present to myself, and hopefully to you as well, my readers. God bless us, every one. Now, I have not seen every wide-release American film of 2013, but […]

Whether or not he or she admits to it, deep inside every film buff is the desire to watch a certain number of films in a given year. Perhaps most people don’t do what I do, and set that number as their New Year’s resolution, but most people are not so wankeriffic as I am. Yesterday, I reached a total of 183 distinct films watched in 2006, which is to […]

If you’re the type of person who would enjoy Slither, you likely don’t need me to tell you to see it, because you already know who you are. I don’t mean to absolve my critical responsibilities, but facts are facts, and B-movie fans don’t need to be told, “hey, there’s an awesome new movie about killer space slugs!” If you enjoy movies about killer space slugs, you have known about […]

Greetings and welcome back to Raspberry Picking, where we look back at Golden Raspberry Award winners and decide whether they really deserve to be called the worst movies ever. This time we’re looking at An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, nominee for nine Razzies, winner of five including Worst Picture, and killer, not only of multiple once-flourishing careers, but of the concept of “Alan Smithee.” The Razzies feature a […]

Some films that are marketed with an emphasis on how much of a “passion project” they were for the people involved are obviously bullshitting us. This is not the case with Black Adam. That this film, the first big-screen adventure for the mid-tier DC Comics supervillain-cum-antihero, is a long-gestating passion project for star Dwayne Johnson is the unvarnished truth, and we know this because there have been stories floating around […]

Aquaman is the dorkiest fucking movie. I think I slightly loved it. This is a film that luxuriates in all of the absolute dumbest bullshit of superhero comics: the overwrought dialogue in which words like Cylinder and Trench are repeatedly declaimed with unmistakable Capital Letters; unbelievably squirrelly concept like sharks with laser cannons on their heads treated with absolute awestruck wonder by the solemn low angle; a plot that starts […]

It only takes a short while for Widows to prove to us that we’re in good hands. In point of fact, it takes until the very first cut, and the first cut comes rather sooner than we expect it to. Which is, in fact, part of how it shows us we’re in good hands – it has a certain “I will be showing you things that are better than you […]

In retrospect, “the worst of the Captain Americas” and “the best of the Avengerses” is exactly what somebody with my tastes in Marvel movies should have expected from Captain America: Civil War, and lo and behold, that’s exactly what it is. The first film in the much-ballyhooed Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is much more a sequel to last summer’s dreary Avengers: Age of Ultron (one of the […]

A version of this review was published at the Film Experience Ant-Man is maybe the most typical film yet made in the now 12-picture Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is up to the individual viewer to decide if that’s a compliment or a vicious & lacerating criticism. But it’s really hard to think of it as anything other than a factory-pressed rebuild of the same basic story beats, character arc, gags, […]

During the press tour for Avengers: Age of Ultron – a press tour marked by an uncommon number of wrong turns by the participants – writer-director Joss Whedon admitted almost in so many words that making the film was exhausting and no fun and he wasn’t happy with the final product. It helps to know that, but it’s easy to guess something like that was the case: more than any […]

As the Oscars ring close the movie year that was, I shall also present my more private awards honoring the best of the 2014 movie crop. And quite an exceptional best it is, too! Though one film dominates the list to follow like nothing has ever dominated the Antagonists in their brief history, the breadth of movies that were absolutely terrific in this way or that continues to amaze me, […]