Almost a century ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle showed The Lost World (1925), a film filled with prehistoric creatures, to a meeting of the Society of American Magicians, and impishly refused to disclose the origin of the film. Willis H. O’Brien’s stop-motion dinosaurs were impressive enough to convince at least some of the audience that […]
The Jungle Book Succeeds Where Jurassic World Fails
Dinosaurs are by far the largest and most spectacular creatures ever to walk this earth. Consider the magnificent Brontosaurus; up to 90 feet and 35 tons worth of saurian majesty. Elongated neck on one side, whip like tail on the other, legs like pillars of an ancient temple in between. As for the color of […]
Looking Back: The Dark Knight
Six years ago today, one of the most critically acclaimed movies of all time hit theaters. The Dark Knight won over 100 awards when it was released, including academy awards for both sound editing and the late Heath Ledger’s performance. It has remained in the public consciousness since 2008 and is regularly hailed as one of the best […]
The Wolf of Wall Street
I will make no apologies: Jordan Belfort is a greedy, shortsighted leech on society, and I hope The Wolf of Wall Street is his swan song. To me, this real-life Wall Street mogul represents everything that can go wrong with the human spirit. To quote him directly, he is nothing but pond scum. And yet […]
Superheroes Are Not In Decline
One of Roger Ebert’s “Far Flung Correspondents,” Michael Mirasol, recently wrote an article entitled The rise and decline of the superhero. It’s a very interesting and well-written piece, and even includes a video essay to accompany the text. However, I cannot say that my views totally gel with Mr. Mirasol’s assessments. I think it’s always […]
Iron Man
Iron Man stands in my mind as the greatest super hero film released thus far. With a phenomenal mix of fantastic acting, near-perfect special effects, humor, and story, this film simultaneously gave me hope that future Marvel movies might actually be good, and brought the wonderful Robert Downey, Jr. back into the limelight. As a […]
