quick list: five great Jeff Goldblum performances
I remember when Jeff Goldblum used to be the *star* of movies…
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
Friday night fortune cookie: Buckaroo Banzai says…
“Remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”
‘Doctor Who’ blogging: “The Eleventh Hour”
Tons of spoilers. Don’t read until you’ve seen the episode.
question of the day: What 10 or 15 movies belong in the ultimate scifi collection?
As a followup to yesterday’s “oh-no DVD of the week,” someone’s idea of an “ultimate sci-fi collection” of movies, and at the suggestion of bill in the comments there, here’s a simple question that’s tough to answer: What 10 or 15 movies belong in the ultimate scifi collection? Anything that leaves out The Adventures of … more…
dream cast: hypothetical ‘Buckaroo Banzai’ sequel
It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time to remake an 80s classic TV show or movie with an all-new cast. This week we’re fantasizing about the once-promised, soon forgotten sequel to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension — Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League. (If you have a suggestion for an … more…
‘Knowing’ versus ‘Left Behind,’ Part I
It’s the little things, really, that make this job so satisfying. Who’d have thunk that when I made reference to, in my review of Knowing, “the nitwits who wrote those preposterous Left Behind apocalyptic end-times fantasies,” that it would provoke such outrage? Okay, perhaps I should have known what I was in for. Reader “Todd” … more…
question of the day: What imaginary film would you most like to see?
We’ve all got those favorite movies that don’t exist. I’d love to see Sand Pirates of the Sahara, the fake movie-within-the-movie we get only glimpses of in The Majestic. I’d also love to see The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Against the World Crime League, the sequel that was promised to us at the end of … more…
alert! ‘The New York Times’ picks the 10 bestest movies evar!
Stanley Fish has, for some reason, been chosen by The New York Times to name “the 10 best American movies”… ever. Fish is “the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and a professor of law at Florida International University, in Miami, and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois … more…
Repo Man (review)
Kinda cheap-looking and with a quasi-indie, ‘who gives a shit if we ever make any money’ attitude that Miramax and The Blair Witch Project have all but wiped from the face of studio filmmaking, 1984’s Repo Man reminds us that once, not so long ago, weird-ass movies were not verboten in Hollywood. Deadpan humor, throwaway visual jokes, and oblique political and social satire may have doomed this way-cool flick to the neverland of sci-fi cultdom, but it has good company there, like its similarly themed contemporaries The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and the TV series Max Headroom.
Mystery Men (review)
I’m happy to report, having now seen the movie that goes with the trailer, that my final disillusionment has been postponed, at least for a little while. Mystery Men is a dream of a summer flick: outrageously funny, unabashedly hip, totally cool, with just a hint of heart beating under a cynicism that’s well beyond skin deep — and I mean that in the best possible way.
