Day 873: The Movie-Money Juggling Game

originally published May 22, 2014 A spoiler for today’s article: it may shatter your innocence, lay waste to your humbling yet lavish optimism regarding the spirit of humanity, and rend into tatters your perceptions of Hollywood studio executives as upstanding, honest and forthright folk. If this won’t be a problem for you, read on. The […]

Day 848: No One Is Far From Bacon

originally published April 27, 2014 Those who know me (or who have read enough of my articles to have observed when my jokes and references get tired and therefore repeated) know that I love to write about bacon. Today I’m offering a new take on the topic; in fact, I’m refocussing my literary lens on […]

Day 834: The Dark Knight Redux

originally published April 13, 2014 When Hollywood scores a hit, we all know they will run it as far into the ground as possible, often forgoing quality and integrity somewhere within the planet’s crust and plunging deep into the molten core with a hot and hungry grab for easy audience bucks. The current crop of […]

Day 824: Lights… Camera… Stink!

originally published April 3, 2014 Imagine if you will the scent of Scent Of A Woman. The stink of Mel Brooks’ Life Stinks. The sweet smell of The Sweet Smell of Success. With so many leaps in the technologies of CGI to improve a film’s look and the constant reinvention of pristine Dolby sound, it […]

Day 800: 100 Movies, 100 Improvements

originally published March 10, 2014 Some days it’s not easy to drag my sinewy carcass in front of this computer to punch a thousand words in the throat. Some days it’s easier to drown my brain cells in daytime TV, in mindless games or between the sprocket holes of a good movie. I’m having one […]

Day 793: Curious Bond-ities

originally published March 3, 2014 After three years of film studies classes, I have yet to find any university prof who will bestow more than a grunt upon the phenomenon of James Bond. I understand that – if ever there was a formula film genre, Bond takes the golden crown of convention. But they are […]

Day 788: Vintage Celluloid Boobery

originally published February 26, 2014 Whenever I’m assessing a question of morality, I like to assume the vantage point of an interplanetary visitor from an advanced race, dropping in to see how humanity stacks up to their alien equivalent. Don’t kill each other? I’m sure the little green dude agrees. Don’t pilfer one another’s wallets […]

Day 765: Only 682 Days To Go…

originally published February 3, 2014 For those of you who are already sick of hearing Star Wars news, I’ve got bad news for you: that incessant buzz is only going to get louder over the next 22 months. Also, what the hell is wrong with you? It’s Star Wars! My inner 8-year-old, the one who was allowed to cut […]

Day 752: Mother Of Mercy, Is This The End Of Rico?

originally published January 21, 2014 Back before Luca Brasi slept with the fishes, before Tommy DeVito shot Spider in the foot while trying to make him dance, and long before Frank Costello tossed Oliver Queenan off a rooftop, the Hollywood gangster splattered onto screens at the birth of the genre, walking the floss-thin tightrope between […]

Day 690: Cinema’s First Heavyweights

originally published November 20, 2013 Before Tarantino was planting cameras in car trunks and Scorsese was building coke-sniffing montages around classic Rolling Stones singles, someone had to figure out how to put it all together. And so begins the hunt for the first real cinematic visionary. As with any topic that expensive schools feel is […]