Overpriced Popcorn

Okay, perhaps I was a bit premature in announcing the closing of this blog, but this is a review I had to write.   It doesn't use my usual Good/Bad/Ugly standard, but I beg your indulgence on that. So last night my wife Julie was working late and I decided to go to the movies by myself, which I do on occasion - I rather enjoy the experience. I went to see Cloud Atlas , and I absolutely had to write something about it. Cloud Atlas was written and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer. It was adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell and stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, James D'Arcy, Jim Broadbent, Susan Sarandon, and a veritable who's who of other character actors in a stellar ensemble cast. It is, at a budget of over 100 million dollars, one of the most expensive independent films ever made. I am not exaggerating when I say I think this was one of the greatest films I've ever seen. Certainly some of the ...

Introduction It's been a whopping thirty-three years since Dan O'Bannon and Ridley Scott gave us a seminal film in both the science fiction and horror genres: the classic (some say masterpiece) Alien . The film was not only a commercial success, but has gone on to near universal accolades, including a laundry list of award nominations and wins in 1979. Wins include the 1979 Oscar for visual effects, and a nod for art direction.  It won Saturn Awards for best sci-fi film, best director, supporting actress, and got a nod for Sigourney Weaver.  It also was nominated for best makeup, special effects, and writing. I could go on--there were nominations for the BAFTAs, Hugo Awards, Golden Globes and on and on and on. The film spawned three sequels and two spin-offs with "Sister" franchise, Predator .  In general, and with the arguable exception of Aliens , the sequels are all considered generally inferior to the original. Aliens is an interesting case, in that it smartly...

There’s a lot of things and people in the film industry right now that it’s become somewhat chic to hate.  For many of them, there’s strong and valid reasons to hate them. However, I’d like to post in defense of a few things. First up, Michael Bay.  People—especially those in the SF/F fan community—love to hate Michael Bay.  Yet, his movies make millions upon millions of dollars and to my mind the hatred of him seems unreasoning. I’m going to go out on a limb that will likely place me at odds with the rest of the geek community and say I actually dig Michael Bay.  Unlike many, when I hear he’s attached to a film, especially a licensed project, my first reaction is usually “thank God.” I’ll admit to some (pretty serious) trepidation about his altering of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to be aliens rather than earthly mutants, but in the end I think raging about it because the word “mutant” is in the title is foolish, and it doesn’t mean that the film is going t...

FIRST THINGS FIRST: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW – It’s necessary to discuss the text-to-screen adaptation. So if you’re avoiding spoilage, you might give the details of this one a pass after the introduction, then skip to the conclusion and rating for a generalized, spoiler-free summary. Introduction Well, amid much fanfare, The Hunger Games opened this weekend to record-breaking numbers.  I feel a sense of strange personal satisfaction in that it completely left the Twilight series in the dust—it shows that tweens and young adults are indeed reading good fiction as well as bad.  As with thousands upon thousands of others, I was there opening night (actual opening night, not the Thursday midnight showing—at my age work trumps late night movies, much as I wish it weren’t so). Before I dive into the review of the film, let me just say something to all those haughty, snobbish people in fandom who are whining that they “liked it better when it was Battle Roya...