Overpriced Popcorn

Just realized I never cross-posted this one from my other location. Mea culpa.   Introduction One of the most anticipated movies of the past two or three years has been  Man of Steel, the reboot of the Superman film franchise under the guidance of Zack Snyder at the director's helm, written by David S. Goyer, and with Christopher Nolan producing. The latter two are currently known for being the duo in charge of the recent blockbuster Batman trilogy reboot. With whispers of a Justice League film in the works by DC, following in the footsteps of Marvel's Cinematic Universe, it was vital for Man of Steel not only to have legs, but to somehow thematically and tonally fit with Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, while still feeling like Superman. Did the film succeed? In short, the answer is yes and no. Let's take a look. Before I go on, I should mention that this review will contain spoilers for the film, so if spoilers aren't your thing, you might want to skip to ...

Due to some interest from the editor over there, I'm going to be re-starting and moving this blog over to the Dormont-Brookline, PA Patch website at http://dormont-brookline.patch.com/ .   The direct address to the blog itself will be http://dormont-brookline.patch.com/blogs/overpriced-popcorn . As I think about it I'll try to cross-post any articles here, but that will be the home of this blog from here on out. I'll likely re-post most of the entries from here, over there, to get things going and I will also be adjusting the format to cover older films, both classic and cult, and films on DVD and Blu Ray. I'll also post articles about the film industry as I see it. So, feel free to check it out over there and feel free to comment!

Introduction The biggest buzz in movie news these days is the release of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The film slammed the box office this weekend, dominating in a way that even its predecessors in the Lord of the Rings trilogy did not. The film pulled in nearly $223 million at the box office its opening weekend, and that was with a traditional Friday opening rather than the oh-so-trendy "Wednesday opening to pad the numbers" tactic. The movie is news for several reasons. The obvious, of course, is that it's the long-awaited completion of the story of the Baggins clan as written by J.R.R. Tolkien, an adaptation of the prelude (not prequel, for this book was in fact written first) to the longer, epic Lord of the Rings. The second is Jackson's decision to shoot the film in 48 fps "High Frame Rate" (or HFR) format. For around 100 years now, films have been shot in 24 frames per second; the argument in favor of HFR is that the faster...

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 ...

I have decided, at least for now, to end this blog. Why?  There are several reasons.  Firstly, I have only 13 followers here. Word of mouth never took off to get me enough followers to make it worth continuing on. Second, movie-going enough to maintain a film review blog is beyond expensive. I just don't have the funds to pursue it. I'd need to have people send me to the movies to review films they want me to review, which would require donations from followers, which, see "only 13 followers," above. Finally, a lot of times after I do go to see a movie, I just don't sit down to write the requisite review, which is my fault, but if it's not going to get done, well, there you have it.  I'm sorry to those of you who enjoy the blog. I'd like to continue it, but I just don't have the cash combined with the time and energy to be an independent film reviewer. I'll leave the reviews I have written up, and maybe from time to time I'll post s...

So I have been very neglectful of my blogs over the past, oh, year or two. My postings have been infrequent at best. The reason for this, as many of you know, is that I've been going through a very dark place in my life. Very stressful, very depressing, just generally not a good place to be. Thanks to the mercy of St. John's Wort, I got to a point where I could cope, but I still wasn't getting things done outside of my soul-crushing job at the time. That's all changing. I am at a new job now, and so far it's going great. It was a major step up, a lot of really nice people, but a lot to learn and a ton of new responsibility. As such, I'm much happier, but I'm also tired a lot from all the learning. Still, the positive outlook gives me more energy to spare, and just in time, as I've got some new projects coming to fruition to which I need to devote time and energy. What this means is, I'm really hoping to kick my blogging back up soon. So I appreciate ...

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...