Author Archive

Exploring how Hitchcock, Carpenter and Cunningham changed the horror genre with 3 classic films.

In our 21st-century, post-Tarantino world of filmmaking, originality has become almost a parody of itself. Is it even original anymore to have quirky characters, snappy dialogue, stylish violence and a needlessly convoluted—if not downright contrived—plot (Smokin’ Aces, anyone)? Or is there more skill in using a realistic, humanistic approach to storytelling, where the actual quality of filmmaking can’t be hidden beneath the guise of cleverness? Exhibit A in the latter argument is The Lookout, the directorial debut of accomplished screenwriter Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Minority Report), which features just the latest in a string of strong performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Ask a magician to categorize his profession, and he’s likely to tell you that it’s something more than just a skill with slight-of-hand techniques and misdirection–it’s an art form. Acclaimed director Christopher Nolan has similarly modeled his latest film, The Prestige (recently released on DVD by Touchstone Pictures), as a whole greater than the sum […]

Coming-of-age yarns come around with enough regularity to reflect the comfortable, nostalgic portraits of youth they usually represent. And while our quirky/lovable/colorful cast of characters must often learn a lesson the hard way or cope with their first major tragedy, we can still count on these pics, with the familiarity and reliability of childhood, […]

Times aren’t exactly tough for comic book movie adaptations. Recent years have offered the returns of Batman and Superman to the big screen, the critically lauded and innovative renditions of Sin City and V for Vendetta, and box office smashes like the X-Men trilogy. Even marginally popular franchises are being awarded super-sized budgets, like the […]

Take one part true-crime narrative, one part disaffected youth commentary, add a touch of coming-of-age, and what do you get? Just what you’d expect—a muddled and unfocused, if occasionally compelling, film that disappoints despite its promising potential. The underachiever in question is Alpha Dog, director Nick Cassavetes’ tense, violent tale of an ill-conceived […]

B-movies are often the unfortunate result of shoddy editing, half-baked scripts, cliched concepts, phony special effects, amateurish acting and scores of other corner-cutting pitfalls. In avoiding most of these missteps (FX aside) and in keeping its aspirations self-deprecatingly modest, writer/director Don Coscarelli’s 2002 comedy Bubba Ho-Tep is a B-movie for all the right reasons. Clearly, […]

Jamie Kennedy took the road less traveled to celebrity status. As a struggling actor in Hollywood, he used his talent for creating eclectically interesting personas to pose as his own “agent” to finally get meetings with real agents. So when Kennedy’s childhood passion to become a rapper stalled, he once again pursued an […]