With Halloween right around the corner, it seemed like a good time to take a look at two films that not only redefined the horror genre, but also had a lasting impact on the culture as a whole. Director Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls (1962) has developed a strong cult following in the years since its release, but it is […]
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Carol Burnett once said “Comedy is tragedy plus time.” What she meant is that anything can be considered funny given enough time and distance. George Carlin agreed with her to a point. He believed that everything could be considered funny, and it didn’t matter how much time had passed. His contention was that “It all depends on how you construct […]
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MiracleFrank: Okay, we’re doing something a little different for our review of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Since both of us paid to see this hunk of shit, we’re going to have a discussion about it, and then post the transcript of the discussion, because I read somewhere that “movie review discussion transcript” is now like the number 3 most-searched item […]
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Stories that follow the traditional “hero’s journey” template are often geared toward adolescent boys, and feature easily identifiable male characters in the lead role. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and countless other properties can be placed into this rather broad category, and they all tend to reinforce the notion of the young male protagonist as champion or […]
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Warrior (2011) is the latest film from Gavin O’Connor, the director of Miracle (2004), and stars Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, and Nick Nolte. The film tells the story of Tommy Reardon (Hardy), a troubled young man who grew up in the shadow of an alcoholic and abusive father (Nolte), but fled with his terminally ill mother when she had finally […]
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I saw this movie pirate style. The way ordering a burger from In-and-Out Animal Style will always make your meal more enjoyable, watching a movie pirate style is sure to enhance the film watching experience. To do this, just dump a bunch of rum into your movie theater soda (PLEASE NOTE: Pirate style does not involve bringing a parrot to […]
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Director Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian fable Children of Men (2006) is a veritable master class in the art of modern filmmaking, and nearly any moment in the film would be worthy of inclusion in this column. However, the sequence that towers above them all, and serves as the focus of this installment, comes late in the film, and depicts a rare […]
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One of the finest arts one can learn and do well is acting. To be believable in a role, one must put oneself into a role totally and completely. It has to be something the audience will buy, right? There is a right way to cry, to laugh, to fall, and to get punched in the face. If a punch […]
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From the earliest days of cinema, filmmakers have long been fascinated by the often contentious relationship that exists between Mankind and nature. Indeed, one simply has to look at director Robert J. Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922) for an early example of this, as it perfectly illustrates the give and take relationship we share with the natural world. Since […]
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It happens almost every time a movie comes out; “The book was better.” Often the change from one medium to another is at best mixed, and even more often lackluster. This is understandable, books go into far more depth and spend far more time building characters and plots and some of that is simply lost when it moves to film. […]
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