I'm not an Emmerich fan by any means, but there is something appealing about the way he captures the scale of his projects. It surprises me how few filmmakers actually get that right - loud noises, explosions and general devastation are not the same as bigness. I suppose at this stage, after four Transformers …

While I prefer it to QoS , I do think Skyfall is hugely overrated and QoS somewhat underrated. Skyfall is effective, entertaining, and has many great images, but there are a lot of absurd simplifications and contradictions. The film's many attempts at describing the new era of global security concerns seem to…

QoS was, reportedly, heavily affected by the Writer's Strike. It does feel at times rather undercooked, with dangling plot threads and many baffling shortcuts to move the plot along (the whole mid-section in Haiti, after the fight in the hotel that I thought was a pretty good scene, is quite messy). But there's…

I think what could be an issue in this show moving forward is that they might stretch the definition of "story" a bit too much. And I only make this observation because the show and its critics seem to use the term. The show is perfectly fine the way it is, but a certain distinction could get at why it might work or…

Tim Lebbon, the writer on whose novel this movie was based, has been endorsed by Ramsey Campbell, perhaps my favorite horror writer and certainly one of the best ever (I recommend all his stuff, but his short story collection Alone With the Horrors has some sterling examples). I'd be interested in reading Lebbon's…

You're right. I wasn't a fan of Dark Shadows either.

There. The italics slow me down and I do want to emphasize the titles, so I tend to go with all caps. But I'll be quieter from now on.

The Brazilian masterpiece How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman !

Within Burton's filmography, the movie that Sweeney Todd brings most insistently to mind for me is Sleepy Hollow , which I tend to like. The design was strikingly similar, and the many throat-slitting scenes are just as lovingly staged as the decapitations in Sleepy Hollow . These two films make me think that…

I would like to mention THRILLER and THE OUTER LIMITS from the '60s. Both were anthology shows and made several impressive forays into horror. They are also favorites of Stephen King and, in his estimation, better and more consistent in pure scares than THE TWILIGHT ZONE, which had a flexible enough concept that it…

If SICARIO is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, I would have to ask which McCarthy, because in his major works about drug-related violence, I think there is a major difference. The McCarthy of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN gives evil an embodiment (Chigurh) that, while fearsome, is still limited to the body of a man, a…

Wow, Mardik Martin hadn't had a screenwriting credit for a feature film since RAGING BULL. And from his previous resume it seems he is one of the unsung heroes of the New Hollywood, just by virtue of having written BULL and MEAN STREETS.

It was only a matter of time for Kaufman to make a film using puppets. That he turned to stop-motion makes me think of what would result from a Charlie Kaufman-Jan Svankmajer collaboration.

Yeah, I read that. And I've read a few of the first reviews and they are not flattering. I think some of the best comments critics have made signal out Guillermo Navarro's cinematography and Jeremy Reed's production design. Some give credit to director Cullen for getting the film made at all - the final successful…

Great piece! The description of the nature of the show feels spot-on. But I'm surprised there is no mention of Hugh Laurie's towering performance. Perhaps enough writing has been committed to the subject, but I would bet he was the constant that made many viewers keep returning to the show even in its decline. And…

That's all true. But I have thought, on occasion, that Lucas and Co. have in the past used the term "MacGuffin" a bit too liberally, or have at any rate changed some of its meaning from what someone like Hitchcock intended. Thinking of a film like NOTORIOUS, the Uranium bottles plot is truly secondary to the film's…

I was about to write the same thing. But even if TEMPLE OF DOOM hadn't happened, I don't think restricting Indy's quests to Judeo-Christian artifacts is strictly necessary. But I think you're right that the story was underdeveloped and the choice of relic seemed confused. The advantage of the Judeo-Christian tradition…

Yes and yes. More people should watch that show.

Yeah, he hated THE LOVER. I can quote the review further. He says THE LOVER is "a series of orphan images which must, one by one, be seen, recognized and, so to speak, ticked off by the spectator-consumer. In this aesthetic, an image never finds its sequel, its mystery or its elucidation in another, more or less…

It's not just the casts that he assembles that are quite imaginative. The crews he puts together for these hypothetical movies are really interesting as well. Although I don't see a satisfying version of BLADE RUNNER as directed by Billy Wilder, THE HOBBIT directed by John Boorman with cinematography by Geoffrey…