Indiana Jones Pocket Thoughts Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981) After a brief break I’m back baby, and this time we’re talking about the all too brief, but impactful, Indiana Jones franchise. I think Raiders is an example of the perfect confluence of ideas. We have elements of classic Hollywood, particularly in the underrated love… Read More Pocket Thoughts: Indiana Jones Movies
Okay, so, I know no one asked for this, but with it being the doldrums of movie season, I’ve decided to go through every Star Wars film in order of release, and give my succinct thoughts on each movie. We’ll call them ‘pocket thoughts’. Anyway, on to the first film… Star Wars: A New Hope… Read More Pocket Thoughts: Star Wars Movies
In the first wave of the James Bond franchise (the first five films) was the cool audacious trend setter for action cinema in the 60’s. Movies like From Russia with Love and Goldfinger flaunted sex, fashion, and stylized violence into theaters and into the imagination of audiences around the world. The box office success was incredible, those first five Bonds set a new standard for big budget film making while also establishing the blueprint for many modern action movies.… Read More Bond Tropes: #24 License to Kill
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, the media behemoth it has become, has reached 18 films with no signs of slowing down. With assembly line efficiency the studio is pumping out blockbuster after blockbuster with few leaving an impression lasting more than 15 minutes outside the theater.… Read More Black Panther is Part of a New Marvel
We’re in an interesting place in time, still riding the first waves created when art and technology collide in the vast ocean of the internet. Arguably the art form benefiting most from this collision is film; anyone can now make a visual story with their phone and present it to the world on Youtube. But, conversely the film industry is experiencing turmoil. … Read More Cloverfield Paradox and The New Film Medium
You Only Live Twice, more than Thunderball, is the spiritual successor to the template setting Goldfinger. It establishes the iconic Bond villain trope with Donald Pleasence’s Blofeld, it, like Tomorrow Never Dies, takes everything that worked in a previous successful film and turns it to 11. Blofeld’s volcano lair is the exaggerated succession of Goldfinger’s home and even Dr. No’s atomic lair, Blofeld himself is inflated to almost cartoonish proportions compared to previous villains. … Read More Bond Tropes: #15 You Only Live Twice
There is a delicate charm hovering in the air when the fashionable eccentric meets Alma, the plainly dressed, and blushing, beautiful waitress in a little country inn. Reynolds is immediately smitten with her, and the massive breakfast he orders suggests he is replenishing before beginning another cycle with another muse.… Read More The Twisted Love Story of Phantom Thread
I, Tonya may be the perfect movie for America right now. The story of an impoverished woman, the victim of near constant abuse, is an unfortunate mirroring of our current state both metaphorically and literally. I, Tonya is essentially two hours of Tonya Harding losing, whether it be her choice in a husband or her… Read More I, Tonya is Punk Rock On Skates
The franchise that started as a little film in 1977 could have easily drifted into the backlog of our culture, but in the internet age Star Wars has become so pervasive it soaks in to every crevice of our lives. This is due in large part to Lucas Film licensing every inch of Star Wars for just about anything, and it’s ramped up by Disney shoving a new movie in our faces every year for the next 1000 generations. … Read More How The Last Jedi Made Me Rethink My Star Wars Fandom
The sub-genre Torture Porn came in to style like a wave in the middle of the 20-aughts, carrying new inventions in gratuity, or so it’s often suggested, but to be honest I don’t know what a Torture Porn film exactly is. There were a lot of films made between 2001 and 2009 that experimented pretty heavily in graphic gore, similar to the 80’s when film makers tested the limits of gore and trash. True to film’s cyclical nature gore, and in some cases, trash, were reinvented in the decade following 9-11, and like the 80’s, a lot of movies from the period ended up being empty practices in gratuity. … Read More Shallow Graves: The Loved Ones, or How We Need to Resolve to Not Say ‘Torture Porn’ This New Year
