Lookin’ to Get Out: What Hal Ashby Left Behind
Hal Ashby was an immense, intuitive talent who drew indelible lines across the throat of our culture. He’s one of my favorite directors, but his career was brief. He left […]
Category Archives: Active Observation
10 Awesome Things About Pacific Rim
If there’s one thing I really don’t want to do, it’s write another long post about how some summer movie is completely incoherent and stark naked when stripped of its endless […]
Pacific Rim: Why Movie Marketing Matters
There has been a lot said lately about the state of modern cinema. Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and even Gore Verbinski have come out, heads all scratchy, to wonder […]
Precious Few Words On Sam Raimi’s Crimewave
I now count myself among the small number of people who have seen Sam Raimi’s second film, Crimewave (’85), the follow-up to his surprise success Evil Dead, written with Joel […]
World War Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Are the zombies in World War Z even zombies? Or merely disease-carrying jerks? Nerds across interwebworld are arguing the finer points. I’m afraid those on both sides of the argument […]
Happy Birthday To You, Stand By For Mind Control!
Well whaddya know? We have been feeding this blog film-paste and delectable bits of cinema for a whole dang year! And it’s finally stopped barfing on us! PAR-TAY!!! We wish […]
It’s A Bird! It’s A Plane! It’s Not Superman!
Hollywood just doesn’t get Superman. I mean, sure. They get some stuff right. The easy stuff. They know how to make George Reeves bust through brick walls. And they know […]
The French Connection and Relentless Pursuit
Take a look at Popeye Doyle. He’s got a hunch. His hunch says that table is wrong, the one in the corner, the guy with the striped shirt and the […]
Man of Steel: Bad News From Outer Space
Has there ever been a good Superman movie? I’m beginning to think not. I have a fondness from days of yore for the first two Christopher Reeve versions, but they […]
Behind the Candelabra’s Poison Kisses
Do you want to see something sparkly and wonderful, like the magical poop of unicorns? Well then let me introduce you to Liberace. Slowly. Recently, I broke down and ordered […]
This Is The End, And The Pointlessness of Reviewing Average Movies
There’s nothing exceptionally bad about This Is The End. There’s nothing exceptionally good about it either. It’s got just enough laughs to offset its thinly thought-out story, so when it […]
The Best Movie You’ve Ever Seen Sucks
So you went to see Giant Soul-Sucking Blockbuster Part XI and — if we are to believe what you’ve written on the internet without vowels — it is the best […]
E.T. Gives You the Magic Finger
Far be it from me to take issue with the Supreme Being, but after reading his otherwise infallible dissection of the stunningly overrated career of Señor Spielbergo, I must take umbrage […]
Before Sunrise, Sunset, & Midnight
I like these movies much more than I thought I did. They’re about time, and time is interesting. It does things to people. We can’t help but make choices as […]