Cinema is an interesting art form, in that it is made up of a number of other art forms, including theater, painting, music, and writing (among others). Not all films can be considered art, nor should they all strive to be, but when they do rise to that level, they become something that can help us better understand ourselves, and […]
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As a lead up to the Chicago pop culture extravaganza that is C2E2 (where I will be officially stalking John Barrowman, Val Kilmer, and John Cusack), I started a series in my last article that focuses on one of the current driving forces in American pop culture: superheroes. In the previous article, I focused on working out just what exactly […]
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John Carter has received a mostly negative reaction, both from critics and movie fans. General audiences appear to have shunned the film as well, in America at least, although you can blame that on a botched marketing campaign more than the film itself. But I liked the movie. Quite a bit, in fact. It’s infused with a rousing sense of […]
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There is a long tradition of films that mix horror and comedy, going at least all the way back to the Harold Lloyd film Haunted Spooks (1920). Sometimes it works (An American Werewolf in London, Shaun of the Dead), but quite often it doesn’t (Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Evil Toons). The reason so many films that attempt to mix […]
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In April I will be attending C2E2, the Chicago-based comic books, comix, graphic novels, and all around pop culture convention. As a lead up to that event, which I’ll write about in this column, I thought I would delve into a topic that, while the scholars may be in agreement, fans the world over are not. And that topic is: […]
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It’s March, which means it’s time for St. Patrick’s Day, the annual celebration of all things Irish. It also means that spring is in the air, and as Alfred Lord Tennyson (or was it Lord Alfred Hayes…I can never remember) taught us, that’s the time when a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. So as a way […]
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When most people think of comic book movies, they tend to think of muscle bound men and sexy women strutting around in revealing spandex costumes, striking poses and pummeling one another within an inch of their lives. However, there is another side to comic books, one that looks at the human condition through the lens of ordinary, everyday folks who […]
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In honor of Valentine’s Day, I decided to use this month’s column to focus on one of the most touching and heartfelt love stories ever put to film. No, I’m not talking about Twilight (sorry, kids). I figure I’ll hold off on that one until I feel like focusing on the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Of course, I can only […]
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You’re in the middle of Hyderabad, India, on the hottest day of the year. You’re there for a business / pleasure trip, researching Bollywood culture for your book on globalized fandom. You’re looking for the easiest way to get to Ramoji Film City, a Bollywood response to Disneyland. You would ask someone, but your previous attempts at handling the region’s […]
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On the morning of Tuesday, January 24th, the nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards were released. If you listened carefully, you likely heard the sound of mass disappointment. Not just regarding DRIVE, but for me, that was the big one. First of all, why 9 Best Picture nominees? Because they just HAD to get EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE […]
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