If you follow my blog posts, you know I have mixed feelings over superhero movies, especially as adapted by Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you are unaware of these mixed feelings, I wrote a rant about them a few months ago that you might want to read. Though I find them fun, entertaining movies—great popcorn...
Eva Green is fast becoming—if she hasn’t already become—one of my favorites actors. I first saw her in Casino Royale (2008) as Vesper Lynd. Since she didn’t want to be a Bond Girl, she was going to decline the role, until she read the screenplay and realized that Vesper was not just another Bond Girl....
Rachel can’t move on. Everyday the commuter train she rides takes her past the house where she had lived with her husband, now exhusband. Tom still lives in the house, with his wife Anna and their daughter, Evie. A few houses down lives Scott and Megan Hipwell, the perfect couple. Rachel doesn’t know them,...
They did it right! Leaving the theater after seeing The Magnificent Seven, that was my first thought. They did it right! Hollywood had taught us to be wary about remakes. Some are good, some are alright, and some ruin the concept. So anytime I go to a theater to see a remake, I worry...
Hollywood find source ideas from several directions: from novels, short stories, and even comic books, from historical events or biographies of remarkable people, from social crises and political unrest, and from old movies that they want to update for a modern audience. One favorite source are foreign movies that they want to translate for...
When villagers learn that bandits plan on raiding their village after the barley harvest, they bemoan their fate and argue about what they should do. Ideas range from fleeing their village and their farm and establish a home elsewhere to yielding to the bandits in hopes of light treatment. When they consult “the old...
Perhaps the last thing the Harry Potter franchise needs is for me to sing its praises. Successful with both box office revenue and critical appreciation, these eight movies, based on seven books, have achieved a popularity that makes it doubtful that anyone reading this review has not already seen the movies. I imagine...
In 1959 the Heights Art Movie Theater in Cleveland showed the French film Les Amants (The Lovers). The theater manager, Nico Jacobellis, was promptly arrested for showing obscenity, convicted, and fined $2,500. Justice served! Menace to society punished! Not so fast. In 1964, when Jacobellis v. Ohio went before the United States Supreme Court,...
A couple weeks ago, I review Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ, the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace, and last week, I review the 1959 movie starring Charlton Heston. This was in preparation to this year’s remake, starring Jack Huston and Toby Kebbell. I anticipated this movie with tempered excitement, because most Hollywood remakes are...
In 1955, the American poet Allen Ginsberg published Howl and Other Poems. He published it with City Lights Books in San Francisco. In 1957, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the publisher, faced obscenity charges for publishing and distributing the book. The title poem, “Howl,” in particular was considered obscene. But it has since become a classic America...
