Five Great Movie Madmen (and Women)
The nutty hermit is one of my favorite character archetypes. He (or she) is usually found in a break from the action in the middle of a story. They will be recognized by the brief…
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Five Movies Where the Characters Know the Soundtrack
One of the things that pops up in movies from time to time is a scene where one of the movie’s characters is fiddling around on an instrument, and winds up playing the main theme…
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Happy 80th, John Williams
On Saturday at Tanglewood, there was a big to-do celebrating John Williams 80th birthday (which actually happened on Feb. 8). A milestone for anybody, but for a national icon like Williams, it provided a unique…
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Six Movies Where the Intro Sequence is the Best Part
A good beginning is crucial to a movie. It has to introduce the world of the story, give you an idea of the tone it’ll be taking, and give you a reason to stay in…
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Five Movies I Didn’t Love Until the Second Viewing
While I tend to think that a movie should give you everything you need to enjoy it on the first viewing, it’s hard to deny that with some great movies a rewatch is simply necessary….
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The Six Best Superhero Themes
In comics, a superhero’s most important asset is his (or her) iconic costume. This is how you know whose book you’re looking at, whether you’re two feet away or across the room. In movies, the…
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Double Feature Duels: John Carter vs. Avatar
A disgruntled soldier from Earth is on the run from his past when he winds up the key figure in a war on an alien world. Along the way, he encounters beautiful natives, uncompromising villains,…
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Five Great Visual Effects Scenes that Didn’t Need CGI
As I’ve written before, CGI is underrated. It’s allowed filmmakers to make us believe unbelievable stories about city-destroying aliens, shapeshifting terminators, and psychadelic racecar drivers. While movies like Tron and The Last Starfighter are laughable…
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Shrek Forever After – Cinema’s Hardest-Working Sequel?
So, Shrek Forever After isn’t really current, nor is it old enough to let this be an actual retrospective. Why write about it now? In truth, what happened was I completely skipped out on this…