Rashomon: Criterion Collection
December 18, 2012
When Akira Kurosawa made Rashomon (1950), he had left Toho Studios and made movies for three other companies before returning. It was with one of these other studios that the director made this film, but it wasn’t easy. He had a hell of a time getting...
Lawless
December 10, 2012
Based on the historical novel The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant, Lawless (2012) is a fictionalized depiction of the Prohibition-era bootlegging practices of the Bondurant family. The book got the attention of Australian filmmaker John...
Finding Nemo: Collector’s Edition
December 7, 2012
Finding Nemo (2003) is one of Pixar Studios most successful animated films. In addition to being a critical darling and a commercial success (to the tune of $921 million worldwide), it also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. And yet, at...
Weekend: Criterion Collection
December 6, 2012
Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend (1967) is an outrageous pastiche of 1960s intellectual discourse, fusing together the ideas of Karl Marx, Jacques Lacan and Bertolt Brecht (among others). Along with his cinematic contemporaries, chief among them, Pier Paolo...
2 Movie Double Feature
December 6, 2012
Before he hit the big time with The Mummy (1999) reboot, director Stephen Sommers cranked out a nifty little B-monster movie called Deep Rising (1998). It had nothing more on its mind than to deliver an entertaining thrill ride and for the most part achieves...
Comic Book Confidential: 20th Anniversary Edition
December 3, 2012
Often regarded as just for kids, comic books finally gained a modicum of respectability in the mid to late 1980s with the rise in popularity of titles like Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Maus to name but only a few. Harlan Ellison’s seminal...
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
November 30, 2012
Ever since Juno (2007), Jennifer Garner seems to have been relegated to playing “mom” roles – whether it is by choice or by typecasting is uncertain. She seems to have moved on from the more physically demanding roles (Daredevil) and romantic comedies...
4 Movie Collection: Comedy
November 29, 2012
During the late 1980s to the early 1990s, Geena Davis could seemingly do no wrong, appearing in successful films like Beetlejuice (1988), Thelma and Louise (1991), and A League of Their Own (1992). Among these hits was Hero (1992), a high profile comedy...
4 Movie Collection: Action
November 27, 2012
The paper-thin plot of The Replacement Killers (1998) concerns a deadly assassin by the name of John Lee (Yun-Fat) who is hired to kill a cop’s son. But John suddenly develops a conscience and decides to spare the boy’s life. This doesn’t sit too...
Night of the Devils
November 26, 2012
Italian horror really came into its own during the 1960s with the rise of Mario Bava’s atmospheric gothic horror films. He paved the way for a new generation of filmmakers in the 1970s, chief among them Dario Argento. Giorgio Ferroni was a contemporary...
