This past week, I was cordially invited and honored to join a panel on the "Kicking the Seat" podcast hosted by Ian Simmons. As always, Ian is joined by his regular wingman David Fowlie of Keeping it Reel. We left a seat warm for mutual friend Emmanuel Noisette of E-Man's Movie Reviews, but he couldn't make it. Ian, David, and I have talked comic book movies before, so it was only proper to get together for Justice League.
Read MoreJustice League comes across like attempted course correction done on that Etch-a-Sketch. The artist, or artists in this case, are trying to retrace old paths and smooth over past missteps with redrawn swirls, lighter hues, and a fluffy cover-up we call comedy. That effort on the cinematic Etch-a-Sketch indeed changes the initial picture, but only after unnecessarily tedious effort and some remaining messy results.
Read MoreWars transform the soldiers that participate in them. Men and women in combat can be broken down, built up, or both in positive and negative ways. Because the young tend to serve, their stories, and the films that tell them, can mirror a late-term version of the “coming-of-age” archetype. The fingerprints of forced maturity appear all over the likes of “The Deer Hunter,” “Platoon,” “Jarhead,” and dozens of other films. In all honesty, the trope is overused and over-familiar and that’s the first mistake of “Sand Castle.”
Read More"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" is constantly intense, powerfully suspenseful, and operatically enthralling on an emotional and sensory level. It is a remarkable experience on the big screen. We are in a new era with a new tone. There is room in the cinematic superhero landscape for important and formidable urgency like this. Let Marvel stick to the shiny sparkles and corner their piece of the market. This new franchise has chosen its mature path and they are showing the resolute fortitude to stick with it, haters be damned. What follows is spoiler-free!
Read MoreBecause of the box office clout of James Bond and Ethan Hunt and plenty of failed imitators in between, "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and its small stature roots already have difficulty standing out as a ripe property for viable franchise possibilities. It would have to hit on its own unique style to succeed and stand out. Ritchie's film does exactly that to be an easy and breezy companion to the foreboding likes of the modern spies. If you feel the spy game has gotten too ominous over the years, slide over to "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and have a good time.
Read More
