I never heard the word "mumblecore" until a week ago. Apparently this is a thing. Good to know. Anywhoooo. . . To make a long story short, I liked this film. I had only seen one Duplass Bros (After watching Book Of Eli and Daybreakers this past week, I'm… Continue reading →
When did Peter Jackson go from the director who made movies with rats singing about sodomy, to the director who models his films after The Notebook? He started getting cheesy about midway through The Two Towers, and he's reached his Spielberg-ian peak with… Continue reading →
Even with the modern frequency of remake/sequel/prequel announcements, I still find myself shocked at times. A prequel to The Thing? A prequel to Alien? A remake of The Stepfather?! It shouldn't. It makes good business sense. Just like in politics or product… Continue reading →
Oh, man. . . This was a good year. Some of the ones that I cut out were fucking brutal cuts. I'm not usually a fan of "honorable mentions", but I'm going to have to this year. There are a couple movies I have yet to see. No 2009 film list, as with any list… Continue reading →
It's funny; I have had almost zero emotional reaction to Spider-Man 4 movie news, but when I heard that Raimi was off it, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Why, I wonder? I generally enjoy the series. Loved the first one, liked the second two. But, I don't… Continue reading →
The International. I remember the giggle inducing ads for that one; "Look honey, the ‘Evil Bank' movie is coming out!". Having no idea that Tom Tykwer was the director. Now, I'm not the dude's biggest fan, but he's done a couple of interesting films;… Continue reading →
Some might say to me, "Hey Phil, why don't you hurry your lazy ass up and do your top ten of 2009 already?". Well, here in Ann Arbor, we likes to take things sloooowwww. We ain't got your fancy Red Carpet premieres, so sometimes we gotta wait for January to… Continue reading →
It would be easy to dismiss The Shield as "The Wire for meatheads". And, to be fair, there's some validity to that assessment. But there's something about this show that compelled me to finish all seven seasons. Was it the quality of the show, or the… Continue reading →
Santa was good to me this year. My Christmas booty, the highlights: The Stanley Kubrick Archives-An insanely cool book from the equally insane Taschen. Hundreds of high quality photos and interviews of and about my favorite film director. My girlfriend picked… Continue reading →
It's that time of year again. . . the end. The time of year that my film nerd friends start pestering me for a top ten of the year list. So, I make a mad dash to the theater, line up my Netflix queue, and watch 2009 movies like crazy. Anything that seems… Continue reading →
Concrete, the irregularly long running comic series written and illustrated by Paul Chadwick, is a wonderful read. It's perfectly accessible to people who've never picked up a comic book before. But, somehow, it has never managed to penetrate the mainstream… Continue reading →
What do I know about Avatar? Pretty much. . . nothing. I've seen the unavoidable photos of blue aliens. I'm guessing, based on the title alone, that there will be an Avatar of some sort. And, being a James Cameron film, I'm guessing that there's action and… Continue reading →