classic film virgin: Top Gun (1986)

Cold War propaganda that is weirdly apolitical. Sunny, breezy homoeroticism that is surely unintentional. What a hoot this is! Mostly not in a good way, but its impact on pop culture cannot be denied.

District 9 movie review: aliens go home

Even as half my brain was ticking off all those little nods with a geek’s appreciation for fellow geekitude, the other half of my brain was so floored with surprise that this could all still feel so fresh, so original, so like nothing I’d ever seen before.

the oh-no! DVD of the week: ‘Ultimate Sci-Fi Collection’

You’ll love what someone considers as constituting the “ultimate” collection of science fiction movies: Escape From New York, Mad Max, Rollerball (the original, I’m assuming), The Abyss, Alien, Aliens, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Fantastic Voyage, The Fly (not sure which one), Independence Day, Journey to Center of the Earth, The Neptune Factor, Planet … more…

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (review)

It’s probably very much funnier if you’re already a bit of an Anglophile, if you drink a lot of tea and long to attend a weekend house party in the 1930s at a manor in Sussex where you take the train down from London and someone meets you at a station that’s called a ‘halt’ and you don’t think murder is all that bad as long as the mystery of it is solved by a gentleman who has his manservant dress him for dinner. Cuz the Wallace & Gromit claymation toons have always been very much about both celebrating and sending up the peculiar British character, and you have to recognize it as a bit silly and a bit of an exaggeration that was never really real anyway but still completely love and embrace it nevertheless to really get the warmth and affection with which they — the Wallace & Gromit toons, that is — are offered for your entertainment.