47 posts
It's probably too strong to say I grew up hating Doctor Who. I'd only seen bits and pieces in the wee hours of the night on PBS. Not nearly enough to form an opinion other than "this looks cheap" or "plungers aren't scary". I'm no snob. Or, I should say, I… Continue reading
Forget Mark Millar's take on Superman. "Epic" and "archetypal" are just synonyms for "flat" and "lifeless". There's no there there. Obviously the Coen Brothers are never going to make a Superman movie, so we can throw out Moriarty's idea as well. As much as… Continue reading
I live in the South. No, I'm not talking about the metropolitan South. This isn't some suburban wasteland of grocery stores and strip malls and planned communities like Oaky Acres and Shady Divisions. This isn't a stop on any pop country superstar tour, and… Continue reading
I always thought M. Night Shyamalan just wasn't a very good writer. Too many scenes in his movies come off stilted. His characters feel like robotic plot devices–like they're all puppets. Symbols more than people. But it turns out that's just what M. Night… Continue reading
The recent announcement that Johnny Depp will be playing Tonto in a new Lone Ranger movie may have come as a surprise to many of you. It would make far more sense, you thought, if Depp were playing the titular hero himself, since a character of such timeless… Continue reading
A while back, Devin issued a call for thoughtful discussion of The Dark Knight that didn't take the form of a top ten list. Was he referencing the questions I asked myself while watching The Dark Knight? Who knows. But with Batman slowly backing out of the… Continue reading
Last week, I wrote of my harrowing journey through the bowels of the Downtown Atlanta Sheraton into the sweaty belly of the beast that is modern Star Trek fandom. I attended a Dragon*Con screening of a lavishly produced fan film, partly because it promised… Continue reading
I ducked out of Dragon*Con a little early Monday morning so I could beat the hurricane back home to Louisiana. For those who don't know, Dragon*Con is the largest gathering of something or other east of the Mississippi and south of the Mason-Dixon Line. It's… Continue reading
The Mountain Goats make the best music. Let's throw out that fan-wank conceit that any aficionado's tastes should be too dense and layered to let any one artist rise to the top. You have a favorite parent, a favorite sibling, just like you have a favorite… Continue reading
I'm not going to write about The Clone Wars. Not because George Lucas bullied me into an embargo. Lucas hasn't bullied me into doing anything other than get the hell off his lawn, and that wasn't so much him as the X-Wing patch-wearing security guards he has… Continue reading
Last week I began a look back at the summer movie season of 1994 in an attempt to contextualize this year's excellent, though potentially overblown, crop of blockbusters, blockdenters, and blockdodgers. Why 1994? Because of randomization. And because it was… Continue reading
Some are saying that this is the best summer at the movies in the history of summers at the movies. Admittedly, it's been pretty good. While The Dark Knight didn't ask you to check your brains at the door, it certainly asked you to check your emotional… Continue reading
