Friday, October 14 2011
The Thing (2011): Bringing Quiet Tones and Space Vaginas Back from the ‘80s
Matthijs van Heinjningen Jr.'s prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing summons the chilly vibe and the cinema-sexual psychoanalytic undertone of the best of '80s genre cinema. It's only the generic modern "female empowerment" story that seems dated.
Monday, August 8 2011
The Death and More Still of the Malignant Man
At its heart, Malignant Man is not a horror comic. Nor does it try to be. It’s a dark thriller that combines action, suspense and a bit of fun into a tale that ends up reminding as a combination of The Matrix and Alien. But…
Thursday, August 4 2011
The Story of a Woman on the Morning of a War
Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising is a rich and complex work teasing out the personal price paid by soldiers set on the stage of grand ideological battles for liberty and against the backdrop of deep drama of military tactics. There couldn't be a better choice than Hilary Swank for the just-announced upcoming movie.
Monday, March 7 2011
“Alien Resurrection”, the Unproduced Script That Shaped Joss Whedon’s Career
Prior to gaining fame as one of the foremost pop cultural creators, Joss Whedon gained fame within the film industry as a screenwriter and script doctor. But of these early efforts, it was his script for Alien Resurrection that contained themes that dominated much of his later work.
Thursday, July 15 2010
‘Riverworld’ Suffers From a Slow-moving Current
This Riverworld reboot improves on the 2003 version, but that's no grand achievement.
Thursday, December 17 2009
Blue World: James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’
Cameron's evocations of everything from Blackwater's Iraq massacres to the Trail of Tears gives his story an uncommon resonance. This is a whole new kind of science fiction filmmaking, something particularly grandly spectacular, even if occasionally daft and overblown.
