Alvarez adopts the film language of Raimi’s films, adds more to the bag of tricks, and keeps the sardonic attitude without necessarily being slapstick.
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Eric Melin
Before you think that this all this fawning over Rick Springfield is too weird, consider this: We all have a nostalgic obsession to one thing or another. For an entire generation of “nerds” (who seem to have inherited the summer movie season in all its $200-million+ budget glory), Star Wars has been a defining cultural entity. So before you go off all high and mighty about the weirdos that follow the Yellow Rick Road, think about the bit of pop culture that helped define you.
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If big-budget summer movies are supposed to be entertaining, escapist fun, then Pacific Rim is a perfect example of that. I’ll be damned if del Toro’s silly, exuberant, dramatic Kaiju flick didn’t give me that “rah-rah” feeling, amplified of course by the sight of giant monsters and robots bludgeoning each other while towering over our puny cities and coasts.
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There is an extra prick of instinctive excitement in watching Safety Last! today because we know quite well that computer-generated effects didn’t exist in 1923. Besides the creative and thrilling staging of his building climb with an actual cityscape in the background (not a matte or a composite shot), the rest of Safety Last! is filmed with a real cinematic eye and the newly restored 2K digital film transfer looks fantastic.
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Having been available only on VHS and a bare-bones MGM “limited release” on-demand DVD since 2011, the Shout! Factory Blu-ray re-issue of Rolling Thunder is something to celebrate.
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There is an investigative aspect to the movie for sure, where Pitt and what is left of the American military and leadership explore options and hunches, but World War Z gets most of its mileage out of first-person danger. How would you react if fast-moving zombies were suddenly swarming you? What split-second decisions would you make?
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The Criterion Collection’s new Blu-ray of Ingmar Bergman’s extraordinary 1957 film Wild Strawberries is superlative and serves an a perfect introduction to the director’s work.
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Two suspense thrillers new out on Blu-ray showcase two completely different approaches to what may be considered the horror genre. The term has morphed a lot since the late 60s/early 70s and the rise of the exploitation films, but both Stoker and The Last Exorcism Part II have what can be considered classic horror elements.
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The death of country songwriting legend Hank Williams has been the stuff of legend since it was announced on January 1, 1953. The Last Ride, a romantic “what-if” version of the story starring Henry Thomas as Hank Sr. is out now on Blu-ray and is interesting only as a cultural artifact.
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Ten years before he lensed the lush outdoor images of Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, Wexler directed Medium Cool, a fictional narrative that combined actual documentary footage of the riots and other lightning-rod political moments to explore the blurred lines between fact and fiction.
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Man of Steel is like The Dark Knight trilogy drained of all its moral complexity and vibrant storytelling. What’s left is an oppressive movie filled with a blaring seriousness, inconsistent production design, mundane conflict, heavy exposition and a huge amount of super-destructive action that leads to nothing.
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Because This is the End has transplanted the egotistical and childish behavior normally reserved for Team Apatow’s lovable manchild characters onto the actors themselves, it feels dangerous.
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Sometimes you come across a film so bizarre, that, while providing a wholly unique experience, often leaves what’s inside your skull a muddled puddle of goo. I like to think I have a handle on many films – even if I don’t get every reference or deeper symbolism. Yet every so often, I’m left a bit slack-jawed and dazed.
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Besides being a stirring portrait of a youth culture in crisis, ‘Band of Outsiders’ is very charming and accessible — especially for anyone that’s experienced teen alienation.
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There are two ways that an exercise like Now You See Me could have failed miserably, and it admirably succeeds on both counts.
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