February 3, 2013 7:00 am | Tags: Movies | No Comments
Movies are one of my favorite things, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a mental list of their favorites right readily available. One of the joys of having the “What are your favorite movies?” conversation is that it seems endless: just when you think you’ve named all your favorites, another one pops into your mind. Or, you ask for some kind of criteria to help limit your focus. Favorite of all time, or just comedies? Or just action movies? Or just Christmas movies?
With this in mind, I answered the call on Nathan Bransford’s site for my 100 favorite movies. Remember that “favorite” and “best” are, of course, not the same thing. And as soon as I post this, I’ll almost certainly think of a couple that I left out. Picking a top hundred isn’t all that hard. Putting them in order was really hard. But I did my best, and reserve the right to change my mind frequently. And I will. So, thanks, Nathan, for the motivation!
Onward!
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August 28, 2012 11:58 am | Tags: Criticism, Ghostbusters, Movies, The Hunger Games, The Running Man | No Comments
The Hunger Games film, based on Suzanne Collins’s young adult trilogy, has become the first blockbuster hit of 2012. In this dystopian fantasy world, set at some point in the near-future, the hero is a sixteen-year-old girl named Katniss Everdeen, who lives in District 12, one of a dozen districts of Panem. This country’s capital is called, well, The Capitol, which is the sole metropolis and has an iron-grip around the twelve districts. In retribution for starting a war nearly three generations ago, each district participates in The Hunger Games, an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the districts are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death. All of this sounds like a pretty compelling setup for a movie.
Unfortunately, the movie’s incoherent and insulting narrative says something disturbing about its audience. (more…)