Going where several other blogs have gone before.
Takehiko Inoue’s The First Slam Dunk is a tale as old as time: a high school basketball team full of misfits try to overcome each other’s differences and their own personal demons as they prepare for a game against an undefeated team. This is certainly a story that Inoue himself has told at length through… Continue reading ‘First Slam Dunk’ Reinvents the Game
From the first movie with solid action and sophisticated character motivations in order to become a cult classic, to the sequel that sacrificed story for the single-handedly best and most vibrant gunfighting ever caught on film, we’ve now reached the third film, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum that seeks to be the culmination of all… Continue reading ‘John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum’: Descending Action
2014’s John Wick didn’t just set the bar for action cinema; it WAS the bar. On top of being shoot-em-up excellence, John Wick had the added bonus of being an emotionally-complex drama, bringing the generic action-revenge flick down to its knees with a character-focused story about a retired hitman avenging the brutal slaying of his… Continue reading John Wick: Chapter 2 – Perfecting Action
(Note: Welcome to the first part of this John Wick-centered series where every week I'll take a look at a new piece of John Wick media in preparation for the much-anticipated Chapter 4. Every Wednesday this month, I'll have a new retrospective on John Wick, including the movies and the 2019 video game. So, basically,… Continue reading John Wick: Redefining Action
Featured image: The Southern California Logistics Airport, an airport and storage facility in Victorville, CA that is used for commercial cargo flights and long term storage of old aircraft. This is a dual issue! The holidays have been a busy time for me, and because of that I wasn’t able to finish the December issue… Continue reading Prescience 4: Nope and Chinese Science Fiction
You watch enough horror movies and it becomes increasingly difficult to be scared or disturbed. After all, this is coming from the same writer who didn’t even flinch at torture porn such as Martyrs, or finds the current output of horror films to be tame and generic or just fun popcorn cinema at best. Indeed,… Continue reading ‘Skinamarink’: New Era of Nightmares
What can be said about 2022? Well, lots, actually, because this was a damn fine year for movies. Not to repeat myself, but every year is a great year for movies if you know where to look; in fact, 2022 was the best year we’ve had for movies since before a certain world-altering pandemic. We’ve… Continue reading Best Movies of 2022
Much like its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water will be the subject of long-running debate and criticism. Some will see it as a true-to-form cinematic marvel in a time when original stories in Hollywood seem far-fetched; others will look past the stunning and lifelike imagery to bring down the movie’s characters and story For… Continue reading ‘Avatar: Way of Water’ – Beautifully Flawed
The late 1900’s was truly where a number of modern horror films had gained their baseline. Hot off the heels of the 60’s darlings such as Night of the Living Dead or Rosemary’s Baby came an advent of movies that really defined horror as a genre. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is touted as being one of the earliest examples of a slasher,… Continue reading 1974: A Prognostic Year of Horror in Film
It’s safe to say there’s no horror franchise much like V/H/S. Sure, found footage was exploding in popularity by the time the first film came out, but as the subgenre began to fade into obscurity, V/H/S lived on, constantly trying to one-up itself and push the boundaries of what found-footage has to offer. It’s a… Continue reading All ‘V/H/S’ Segments, Ranked and Reviewed
Yes, this is a piece about the Pentagon and Top Gun. I know that’s old hat and everyone talks about it, but I think it’s important to interrogate the relationships here and be aware of them. Especially because this shit isn’t a recruitment commercial necessarily. We are all aware, in some sense, that it's propaganda.… Continue reading Propaganda and Top Gun: Maverick
There was a time The Oscars meant something. Beneath the sparkling champagne, extravagant fashion, performative bravado, and glamorous self-importance, there was also an identifiable love of movies and celebration of the industry that was impossible to ignore. Bob Hope hosted The Oscars with a record-breaking nineteen appearances; he was controversial and daring, but displayed it… Continue reading The Oscars’ Dilemma
I guess there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. After the cinematic drought that was 2020, cinemas have begun to slowly reopen over the past year. While the ability to go to the theaters again is surely a propitious comfort, we now have to deal with the return of region-locked films… Continue reading Best Movies of 2021
There was a point a long time ago that DC appeared to struggle from an identity crisis. Trying to play catch-up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC seemed desperate to compete with their filmography, clashing ideas and rushing projects in a bid to imitate their competitor, while also promising to offer something different. There's the… Continue reading ‘The Suicide Squad’: Catalyst for Chaos
The film adaptation of a video game that is itself adapted from a book has finally hit Netflix. As a huge fan of Dynasty Warriors and the Musou genre as a whole I needed to watch this. I've been curious about this film ever since our first trailer in 2018, however the first trailer left… Continue reading Dynasty Warriors is everything Video Game Movies should be