Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.
In light of my recent post about film critics, I decided today’s Friday Favorite could only be Anton Ego’s review from Ratatouille. It’s certainly something that I can relate to, both as a film buff and as something of a critic. And as I’ve said before, I love a good movies speech. Take a look:
The Lone Ranger is most likely not what you expect, though it probably has at least one or two moments (or silver bullets) aimed at you. It’s not a devoted adaptation of the beloved TV show from the 50’s or the radio show from the 30’s. It’s not a “Disneyfied” (hate that word, it’s so condescending) version of a Western, aimed at kids. It’s not Pirates of the Caribbean on horseback, though your ability to enjoy The Lone Ranger might be related to your ability to enjoy that saga of movies. It’s not even a live-action adaptation of Rango. So what is it?
The Lone Ranger is a rip-roaring, funny, violent, subversive, political, Western action extravaganza. Continue reading
By this point it’s well known that all new Pixar films are accompanied in the theater by a Pixar short. Over the years, these shorts, ten of which have been nominated for Oscars, have become as much a part of the Pixar experience as the feature films. This year, Pixar attached a short entitled The Blue Umbrella to its release of Monsters University.
In some ways it’s difficult to review a film that only lasts six minutes. Continue reading
I’ve been watching the Rotten Tomatoes score for The Lone Ranger slowly climb from a rather horrific 17% today, and it’s gotten me thinking about critics and reviews and the movie review industry as a whole. In fact, I read a blurb from one review that stated, “Everyone wants this to be horrible,” and it makes me wonder how much film reviews in the industry are shaped both by what people expect from a movie, what they want to happen to the movie, and what they think people expect and want the reviews to say. So if you’ll excuse the rambling, unorganized and meta nature of this post, here are some of my thoughts. Continue reading
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.
During my movie marathon a couple weeks ago, I saw a trailer for The Lone Ranger (out tomorrow) before my showing of Man of Steel. There’s nothing unusual about this, and I fully expected it, but what I didn’t expect was this unusual take on a trailer instead of something more typical. Take a look, and then read on for my thoughts:
Instead of a standard trailer we instead got a behind-the-scenes look at the film. Continue reading
Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.
After the big news (on my birthday) that the Supreme Court had struck down DOMA and Prop 8, I knew I wanted to feature something related to the topic for my Friday Favorite. There were many choices. I could have used Lynn Redgrave’s amazing scene in Kinsey, or anything from Philadelphia or Rent, but I kept coming back to Valerie’s letter from V for Vendetta. I know it seems like an odd scene given the happy news from this week, but I think it’s important to realize both how important this news is and how far we still have to go.
V for Vendetta is an interesting movie, given that I’ve heard positive things about it both from liberals and conservatives. Continue reading
With the recent release of Monsters University, many blogs and news sites have been ranking all of the pixar films, so I thought I would do the same with my favorites. There is some flexibility here, as films tend to move up and down depending on my mood, but the general trend doesn’t change. (You can also find my ranking of comic book superhero movies here.) Read on for my list and for a poll. Let me know what you think in the comments! Continue reading
The third CD that I ever bought was a film soundtrack (the first two were Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” and Garth Brooks’ “Greatest Hits”). It was the soundtrack to Independence Day, and I actually bought it in the hopes of it having R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” which for some reason I really wanted on CD. I was disappointed when the song was missing from the soundtrack album, but after listening to the CD I realized how much I enjoyed the score, composed by David Arnold. Thus began my obsession with film scores, and my collection of albums showcasing them.
I’ve been listening to the Jurassic Park soundtrack for the past week or so on my commute to work, and I’ve realized that there are several very big problems with the film score album as a whole in the industry. I don’t know why it’s so damn hard to put together a decent album from a film score, but I’ve come up with a list of several of the problems: Continue reading
In my review of Man of Steel, I talked a bit about the modern phases of comic book superhero movies that began with 1978’s Superman. I’ve enjoyed some of these phases more than others (I’m not a fan of Nolan’s style), but they’ve all produced good films and bad. So I thought I’d come up with a list from best to worst of the comic book superhero movies of the modern era. I kept the list limited to my arbitrarily chosen “major” superheroes, so you won’t see things like Blade or Hellboy on the list (though I love Hellboy). I’m also not including more indie comic book films, like The Rocketeer or Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, both of which I love. I tried to just use the films people were most likely to have seen. (Note: Green Lantern is not included because I actually never saw it.)
Lists are great for discussion, so let me know what you think! (In other words… BRING IT ON!!! I can’t wait to hear people challenging where I have the Batman Begins saga or Man of Steel.) If there’s anything obvious that I left off, let me know. And then vote below as to what is your favorite comic book superhero movie (you can fill in your own choices). Continue reading
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.
Those of you who saw Monsters University were probably treated to this small teaser for the upcoming Disney Animation film, Frozen. Frozen is a retelling of “The Snow Queen,” a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. It features the voice talents of Kristen Bell (sloths!), Idina Menzel, Alan Tudyk and Jonathan Groff. It’s also a musical, with songs written by Robert Lopez (songwriter for Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon and the Scrubs musical episode) and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
The trailer is just a simple tease, though it does a lot to evoke the most popular characters from Tangled, Maximus the horse and Pascal the chameleon. It may not tell us much, but it sure is cute! Take a look: Continue reading
The Love Pirate 
