In his wildly popular book on screenwriting [[[Save the Cat!]]], Blake Snyder suggests that every movie needs to fulfill the promise of the premise; to give the audience all of the things they expect to see in the movie based on the title and the promotional materials. You can’t make Legally Blonde without having scenes…
As fans of shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Mork & Mindy, we already knew we enjoyed the sitcom stylings of magical mishaps in real life, so we were kind of excited to check out this 60th Anniversary DVD collection by MPI Home Video of My Favorite Martian. For those of you who…
There was a wonderful science fiction romance in James Cameron’s original 1984 film The Terminator. It had a touch of everything: time travel, killer androids, romance, and hints of a technology gone haywire. It was shot on a modest budget with a familiar but not star cast, anchored by the hulking presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger….
Supergirl premiered on CBS Monday night setting a Fall series record of 14 million viewers. It was an undeniable teen hit with both boys and girls. And of course we watched it too. But as critical fans of all things being superhero-y while female, did we enjoy it? Duh. But was her costume Tweeks Approved…
James Bond endures, with the 24th film, Spectre, scheduled to open November 6. The sinister organization has plagued 007 from the earliest films but have yet to rear their hoary heads in the current incarnation with Daniel Craig as Bond. For those who are new to MI-6 and international espionage, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) and Twentieth…
Too often filmmakers interpret or reinterpret works from other media, nowhere near often enough creating new characters and situations. Look at Tim Burton, for example, he started off taking Pee Wee Herman and producing a feature version of his television series. He returned with the original and still funny Beetlejuice before tackling his version of…
The most painful thing about The Last Witch Hunter is how clear it is that Vin Diesel is passionate about the material and is having an amazing time. Almost every profile piece I’ve ever read on Diesel has mentioned his love of Dungeons & Dragons, or that he wrote the introduction for their 30th anniversary…
Given its setting during the Christmas season and with “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” playing as the credits rolled, Die Hard rapidly became a beloved Holiday classic. So, it’s no surprise to see 20th Century Home Entertainment kick off the Holiday gift giving season with the release of Nakatomi Plaza: Die…
In almost four years of reviewing movies the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been in a movie theater was watching Mama, the 2013 horror movie produced by Guillermo del Toro. I remember very few of the particulars of that movie but what I remember quite viscerally was scene after scene of being transfixed by the action…
Halloween is our favorite holiday, so while we decorated the house this week, we decided to share our list of the 13 Best Not Scary Halloween Movies….because we don’t do scary. (This week’s Scream Queens had us sleeping in the same bed, which we think illustrates our level of scary show discomfort.) We hope you…
The Final Girls is a movie that came to a crossroad about what kind of movie it wanted to be, and instead of making the choice stayed at that point reading the signs until it wasted away. There’s a good madcap comedy in there spoofing the Friday the 13th series and slasher movies in general,…
It goes without saying that the 1970s cannot be recounted without examining certain cultural phenomena. The Godfather and star Wars certainly helped redefine filmmaking and both had major impact on pop culture. But then there was the growth of cult cinema, which endures to this day, and was sparked by the arrival of a 20th…
