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You May Have Missed: The Invention of Lying

9/22/2014

by Matthew Howe

I was talking to my brother-in-law about the trainwreck that was the 2011 Arthur remake. For those of you who have not seen Arthur (the original) it is a true classic. The remake, not so much.

Our mutual beef was the casting. Russell Brand is great in some movies. Get Him to the Greek, classic. Forgetting Sarah Marshal, another classic. But he failed as Arthur almost as spectacularly as Greta Gerwig shone as Naomi. (in a weird bizarro twist, it was Liza Minnelli as Arthur's love interest Linda in the original that left one wondering what the casting director was high on.)

You May Have Missed: Richard Widmark Edition

9/2/2014

by Matthew Howe

Most people know Richard Widmark as the psycho who threw an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs in the classic film noir Kiss of Death. But Widmark had a long and lively career, and on his resume are two of the greatest crime dramas ever made.

The first is Jules Dassin's Night and the City. (The original, not the horrid 1990's remake.) Night and the City tells the tale of Harry Fabian, a low-rent London club promoter with dreams of making it big. Fabian's chance comes when he meets Gregorious, an aging wrestler. See, wrestling is massively popular in London at the time, but it's the staged wresting we know today. Gregorious is appalled and wants someone to stage real, traditional wrestling matches without all the fakery. Fabian decides he's going to become a wrestling promoter and throws in with Gregorious.

You May Have Missed: Nic Cage Edition

8/2/2014

by Matthew Howe

A while back I started watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was free, streaming on Netflix. Even so, couldn't take it. So pretentious. Jim Carrey, who I dislike anyway, trying to be serious. Epic fail. Shut it off after ten minutes.

So what to watch now? My son had been streaming Kick Ass. It was in the queue, so I gave it a shot.

You May Have Missed: Golden Oldies Edition Part 2

7/22/2014

by Matthew Howe

Looking back at a recent post about re-watching classic films, I realized I missed a few. So back we dive into movies I loved as a younger man. Did they or did they not hold up?

You May Have Missed: Golden Oldies Edition

7/3/2014

by Matthew Howe

One of the great things about having a kid is getting to watch with him or her all the favorite movies you had growing up (and I include in the notion of growing up the time period from birth to last week). Not only do you re-experience them yourself, but you get to see them through new eyes. Here's a few I've shown my own son over the past few years that have held up the best.

You May Have Missed: Christopher Nolan Edition

6/4/2014

By Matthew Howe

Walking into the theater to see Godzilla, a trailer was already playing on screen. As soon as I realized it was for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, I did what I always do during trailers for movies I'm excited about: I shut my eyes tight, stuck my fingers in my ears, and hummed loudly. (Call me crazy, but I like to know as little as possible about a movie before I see it). As you may have guessed, I'm a big fan of Nolan. Inception is one of my favorite summer blockbusters of all time (and yes, he's still in). Not only did The Dark Knight accomplish what I once felt was the impossible task of making a truly great Batman movie, it's also the best film ever made about the war on terror.

Going back, though, we see Nolan, right from the start, has been making terrific movies. I'd like to take a look at three of them.

You May Have Missed: Killer Bees are Coming Edition

5/15/2014

by Matthew Howe

I can't decide if Irwin Allen's 1978 The Swarm is the among the worst movies ever made, or among the greatest. At the very least, it is certainly the most accidentally (I hope) racist movie I've ever seen when watched through the PC lens of 2014.

The entire cast is white, with the exception of one minor character of Latin-American descent and a few other minorities as deep, deep background extras. I'm pretty sure there's one line of dialogue delivered by an African-American, but I'd have to go back and check.

This mob of A-list crackers struggle to overcome the menace du jour, in this case vast swarms of killer bees invading Texas.

You May Have Missed: Best Seller Blues Edition

5/13/2014

by Matthew Howe

Dean Koontz is cursed.

At least when it comes to film adaptations made from his many best-selling books. The guy has had a pretty hard run of it. Other than the excellent Demon Seed and a pretty well-reviewed French version of his novel Shattered, the movies based on Koontz's fiction have been pretty hit and miss. Mostly miss. If you don't believe me, then just try slogging through Servants of Twilight or Phantoms. I dares ya.

You May Have Missed: Grave Encounters 1 & 2

1/23/2014

by Georgia Thompson

Anyone who knows me knows I am big on horror. I grew up on slashers, I fell in love with Vincent Price at the age of 14 (and never fell out), and I can recite Bela Lugosi's Bride of the Monster monologue from memory. As awesome as this makes me*, it does have the abhorrent side effect of leaving me totally and utterly stone-cold desensitised. The last time I was scared at a film was 1998 and I was 8 years old. (For reference, I Know What You Did Last Summer, I spent days thinking the dude with the hook was behind my bedroom door). That was, until I found Grave Encounters one fortuitous Sunday evening in 2012.

You May Have Missed: David Cronenberg

1/6/2014

by Matthew Howe

You will never catch me expressing the opinion that the world is, could be, or even should be "fair." Even so, one blazing symbol of universal injustice sticks in my craw. Why does the world shovel piles of money at the feet of directors like Gore Verbinski and (God help us) M. Night Shyamalan for them to set fire to, while a true artist like Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg is forced to engage in the cinematic equivalent of turning tricks on a street corner to get his tiny yet brilliant movies funded?

<<Previous

You May Have Missed: The Invention of Lying

You May Have Missed: Richard Widmark Edition

You May Have Missed: Nic Cage Edition

You May Have Missed: Golden Oldies Edition Part 2

You May Have Missed: Golden Oldies Edition

You May Have Missed: Christopher Nolan Edition

You May Have Missed: Killer Bees are Coming Edition

You May Have Missed: Best Seller Blues Edition

You May Have Missed: Grave Encounters 1 & 2

You May Have Missed: David Cronenberg

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