Our modern era of moviemaking is unsettling in that it is no longer defined by acting talent (as it was during the Golden Age of Hollywood) or directorial and auteurial interests. Instead it is increasingly driven by mega-corporations who seek to build consumer brand-loyalty by creating and curating intellectual properties that can go on in …
As I write this right now the reality is that for the first time in my lifetime there will not be a summer blockbuster season. With most movie theaters only hoping to open their doors in July at the earliest and almost every major studio summer release being delayed (some until 2021) I am currently …
Continue reading The “Stay-at-Home” Summer Blockbuster Film Festival
The Dark Knight Trilogy is an important addition to the current explosion (or glut, depending on your perspective) of all things superhero-related in modern Hollywood. Christopher Nolan's blockbuster trilogy came during a lull in the superhero craze, when the initial wave of mainstream superhero movies (Spider-Man, X-Men) had given way to a string of critical …
Continue reading Franchise Ruminations: The Dark Knight Trilogy – The Iconoclasm of the Superhero
With the recently released Mission: Impossible - Fallout generally being hailed as the best action movie since Mad Max: Fury Road (it is definitely one of the best) I figure this is as good a time as any to comb through the action films of this century and suss out what the best might be. This proved to be …
The movie sequel has had a bad rap ever since its inception, and often for good reason. At its worst, the sequel perfectly epitomizes just about everything that is wrong about Hollywood: a cheap money-grab sanctioned by studio executives to satisfy stockholders rather than borne out of any creative and artistic inclinations. They often exploit …
One of the things I hate the most about putting together the end-of-year "Best-Of" list is that it is near-impossible to have any perspective on movies that have only come out months earlier. The victors of these lists often turn out to be the flashiest, most hyped, or, as is often the case with the …
Homebody Movies 