I loved Captain America: The Winter Soldier so much that I fully expected to be disappointed by Captain America: Civil War. I wanted another Cap movie — particularly one where he pals around with Black Widow and Falcon again — not a movie overstuffed with Iron Man and a bunch of dudes from the Avengers. Much to my surprise, I loved it. The Good Stuff The characters all acted in...
Note: This post contains spoilers for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Also note: I grew up reading the X-Men and for most of my life, they’ve been my favorite superhero team. I’m invested in this. X-Men: First Class made me incredibly angry and sad, and I hoped that X-Men: Days of Future Past would not show such obvious disdain for woman and people of color. And it doesn’t! But...
TOP 5 MOVIES OF THE YEAR (Listed alphabetically) Beasts of the Southern Wild: Magic realism starring an amazing Quvenzhané Wallis. I missed seeing this in 2012 but couldn’t bear to leave it off this list. Casting By: Brilliant HBO documentary about two of the unsung heroes of Hollywood, casting directors Marion Dougherty and Lynn Stalmaster. A must-see. Frozen: Never thought I’d be...
Trying to compile these entries has taught me that I need to keep better records of my media consumption each year. Let me give it a go anyway… Videogames Portal 2 One of my favorite games of ALL TIME. I love logic puzzles, and the collaborative mode of this game had me scratching my head then whooping with joy every time I solved a new challenge. LOVE LOVE LOVE. The single-player mode also...
I saw Les Misérables four times on Broadway when it first came out. I have listened to the soundtrack hundreds — if not thousands — of times, and used to be able to sing the entire thing from start to finish. And yet… I didn’t like the movie. [Spoilers follow.] I’m struggling to say exactly why I didn’t like it. The theater production is magic. You get chills...
I just saw Pixar’s new movie, BRAVE. It’s been at the top of my must-see list for a long time because although Pixar makes excellent movies, they’d never made one starring a girl or woman before. I couldn’t wait to see Merida, an amazing archer with wild red hair, save the day. First, I must say that the movie is gorgeous — absolutely stunning. It’s the first...
Do you remember last year when I got my first SAG-qualifying voice acting job? (If not, here’s a reminder about My First Movie.) The movie was supposed to go direct to DVD, but the producers lost their original distribution deal. Eh. These things happen all the time in Hollywood, and I barely thought about it at all. Flash forward to last night, when I was checking out the new arrivals on...
It makes me sad when there’s a movie I really want to see, and that does so many things right, but that seems to go out of its way to belittle, objectify, and/or marginalize women. Below I’m going to mention some of the things in X-MEN: FIRST CLASS that upset me. To do so, I will have to mention some spoilers. Proceed at your own risk. SPOILERS BELOW SPOILERS BELOW SPOILERS BELOW In...
I stumbled across IP MAN while browsing Hulu Plus on Friday night. (It’s also on Netflix instant streaming.) I recognized “Ip Man” as the name of Bruce Lee’s first Wing Chun teacher (although I had always seen it as “Yip Man“), and thought I might find a few good fights scenes to enjoy. I ended up loving the film. Loosely based on Ip Man’s life, the film...
In case you haven’t seen this yet (or you want to see it again), settle in, turn up the volume, and enjoy: I’m not sure what I love most — Gaiman’s words, the way he reads them, or the way the colors spread across Vess’ illustrations as if they’re soaking into the paper. I also love that the main character is a cat person, not a boy or a girl. It feels so much...
Beginnings are tricky in almost every medium — novels, movies, comics, videogames, you name it. You’re often dealing with a world different from our own, sometimes in huge ways, and sometimes in small, subtle ones. You need to convey the salient differences smoothly, so they’re absorbed but not necessarily noticed. I’ve noticed two main styles of opening which I’m...
Sleep Dealer is a fantastic near-future Mexican science fiction film currently in very limited release. My good friend Steven discovered this movie and arranged an outing to go see it on Sunday. Boy, am I glad he did both those things! I really love science fiction about people. Not the head scientists and space cowboys and intergalactic presidents (although those are fun sometimes), but the...
Today’s mystery Hollywood sign read “ACNE.” Let’s just hope they’re casting a commercial and not in production on a blockbuster trilogy…
Nope, not even remotely tempted to follow.
There are signs taped and stapled all over Los Angeles, usually handwritten, and always bearing a codeword like “Cowboy” or “Underwater” or “Heaven” and pointing down a certain road. It’s my understanding that these signs point to casting calls or shoots. Whenever I see one, I spend the rest of the drive making up a concept around whatever the codeword...
The Forbidden Kingdom, a martial arts action adventure starring Jet Li and Jackie Chan, was far better than I’d been expecting. Perhaps because I’d heard luke-warm reports about the movie, I never went to see it in the theater. I certainly regret that now. You see, most of the time, people care about things like plot and character. Yeah, yeah, most of the time I care about those...
I saw The Incredible Hulk tonight! A buddy from work got us all tickets for an advance press screening at the Arclight (the best movie theater in the known universe). Here’s my brief review, minus spoilers: Very fun. Very green. Edward Norton is fantastic. If you enjoyed Iron Man, you’ll like Hulk, too. It’s not as funny, but Norton’s performance more than makes up for the...
Singin’ in the Rain is one of my favorite movies of all time, and now it’s been remastered!
I’ve been streaming radio stations through iTunes at work, bopping between classical and folk and Beatles and NPR. But yesterday I discovered my new favorite: StreamingSoundtracks.com! Some of the choice pieces I’ve heard since tuning in have been from: Totoro Battlestar Galactica (new) World of Warcraft (Lament of the Highborn!) Pirates of the Carribean Hero Final Fantasy VII (but...
My friend MoviePen works at WB. Before lunch today, we wandered around the lot, stood in the ER ambulance bay, and visited the Warner Brothers Museum… of which the entire second floor is dedicated to Harry Potter! Oh, the geekery! We were greeted immediately by a headless mannequin sporting Hagrid’s huge overcoat from the first movie. What, is he nine or ten feet tall? Then we saw...
Hi, folks! I’ve been offline while entertaining a house guest for the last few days. I’ve barely even been checking email — can you believe it? No, no, it’s true. I’ll probably continue to be offline through Wednesday or Thursday. In recent news: – The movie THE TV SET was funny and depressing, and I highly recommended it, especially if you liked (or wanted to...