Escape from New York: They Call Him Mr. Plissken
The gaps in my pop-culture knowledge are well documented. I never saw all three Godfather movies until 2013 and didn’t see Tron until 2008. There’s too much media, and Continue Reading
CategoryMovies
The Circle: She Loved Big Brother
The Circle is the second movie I’ve seen this year with an abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score that I’ve enjoyed (The first being the much-maligned Fifty Shades Darker). While Continue Reading
Netflix, ratings, and Lars von Trier
I want to talk about Netflix’s new ratings system, in the context of Danish auteur Lars von Trier. To date, I have seen three von Trier Continue Reading
Twilight: 50 Shades of OG
Sparkley vampires. Mormon references. Team Edward or Team Jacob? Badly written fan fiction. With its hold on the cultural zeitgeist, it’s hard to believe that Twilight was Continue Reading
50 Shades of Prettier Woman
Double Toasted recently ripped Kevin Smith’s Yoga Hosers on a premise that very much speaks to how I feel about 50 Shades Darker. In the DT review, they lamented Continue Reading
Millennium: 12 Monkeys 0.5
I vaguely remember watching 1989’s Millennium once in my childhood. While mostly a forgettable film, the ending stuck with me, with its booming voice-over narration making grand sweeping Continue Reading
Zombeavers: And the jokes write themselves
In a bit of a meta-moment, about halfway through Zombeavers, one of the main characters says “quit with the beaver jokes.” It’d be nice if this Continue Reading
A Way Too Late Year in Review: 2016
Apparently, this was the year I wrote about zombies. Lots of zombies. Fast zombies, slow zombies. Zombies on the big screen, the small screen, and Continue Reading
Arrival: Who’s on First?
It’s the day after and I’m still processing the events of Arrival, the new film by Denis Villeneuve. Atmospheric and chilling, Arrival is one of those films that Continue Reading
V for Vendetta: the Once and Future 1984
In 1985, author Neil Postman released Amusing Ourselves to Death, a treaty on political discourse in the mass media age. Postman argued that George Orwell’s vision of Continue Reading
The Millennium Trilogy: Sex, Death, IKEA
In 2011, David Fincher released The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the first novel in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. Fincher’s follow-up to The Social Network boasted an A-list cast, Continue Reading
Final Girl: Boring Vengeance
There’s a trope in horror movies: the final girl. The one left alive. Who confronts (and maybe defeats) the killer. The one left to tell Continue Reading
Queen of the Damned; King of Bad Adaptations
Is Anne Rice still a rite of passage for fledgling goth kids? The first four novels in her Vampire Chronicles series were required reading when I was Continue Reading
The Killing Joke: Just as toxic when animated
The Killing Joke: It’s taken me a few weeks to process this movie. I needed time to decompress, to find the words behind how bad Continue Reading
Suicide Squad: At least it wasn’t as bad as BvS?
At the time I’m writing this, it’s been about an hour since I walked out of the theater after watching Suicide Squad. On a scale Continue Reading
Ghostbusters and the Rules of Reboots
Many people have already made up their minds about whether or not to see Ghostbusters, so I’ll spare you the traditional review. Rotten Tomatoes is awash Continue Reading
Knights of Badassdom: LARPing for Keeps
Let’s get one thing out of the way. For a movie about LARPing, Knights of Badassdom could have gone so wrong. I mean, it does go wrong, but not in Continue Reading
10 Cloverfield Lane: The Address You’ll Never Leave
Because Bad Robot films are super cereal about insisting that moviegoers avoid spoilers for their films, I’ll put the rest of my spoiler-y review of 10 Cloverfield Continue Reading
Civil War vs. Dawn of Justice: Who Cares??
Let me preface Civil War vs. Dawn of Justice: Who Cares?? with saying that I care about both movies – and have strong opinions about Continue Reading
He Never Died: There’s Something About Henry
Jack’s been in a rut lately. He sleeps, gets up, watches TV, sleeps some more, eats dinner at the nearby diner, sleeps, plays bingo and Continue Reading
Hellboy: Hell is a PG-13 Rating
Let’s get my biggest pet peeve out of the way: Hellboy isn’t as fast-paced as either I or Netflix remembers. When I first saw Hellboy closer to its 2004 Continue Reading