By Nick Maylor On this episode of the podcast, John and I swapped seats as he interviews me about the history of comic-book adaptations and superheroe film. Be sure to check out our official YouTube channel for all of our shows!
By John H. Foote (*) Hollywood remakes of foreign language films almost never pan out, there is always something missing. This applies to this film, which played at Sundance, a remake of the Swedish picture Force Majeure (2014), it just never gets off the ground despite game performances from the two leads, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and…
By Alan Hurst For a brief period in the eighties and early nineties Cher was a big movie star. She had earned some credibility and a Golden Globe nomination with the little seen Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), Robert Altman’s screen adaptation of his short-lived Broadway production featuring…
By John H. Foote (****) I have written often about The Godfather Part II (1974) which I consider the finest film I have ever experienced, an American masterpiece. Oddly, I have not yet revisited The Godfather which I will remedy today. “I believe in America”, are the first words we hear in The Godfather, spoken…
By John H. Foote I am watching the Oscars this year in a seething rage. A great injustice will take place tonight when Martin Scorsese, the greatest living film director, and his magnificent film The Irishman will be ignored for Best Director and Best Picture. Yes, great films are often overlooked, but a film so…
By John H. Foote On the eve of the Academy Awards, each year on a beach under a tent, the Independent Spirit Awards are handed out for excellence in independent cinema. The film must have been made for less than $25 million, and these awards have helped further the art of “indie” cinema, drawing attention…
By John H. Foote (**) Margot Robbie was the finest thing in the awful Warner Brothers film Suicide Squad (2016) as the kooky, violent, positively insane Harley Quinn, moll to Joker. Robbie absolutely blew everyone off the screen in the film with her wisecracking nutbar out to conquer everyone in her way. Each scene she…
By Alan Hurst I’ve watched Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood twice. The first time was with an underlying sense of dread at what I had assumed would be the film’s climax. The second time was with an almost a giddy appreciation for the bygone world that Tarantino was able to create…
By John H. Foote Great directors once again dominated the decade as they had the seventies, resulting in some of the greatest films ever made. Steven Spielberg won two Academy Awards for Best Director for Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998), while Quentin Tarantino emerged as the most exciting filmmaker since Martin Scorsese…
By John H. Foote Spartacus is dead. May he live long in eternity. Over a century of life came to an end yesterday when Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas passed away, gone from this mortal life, forever immortal on the big screen. One of the last of the great legends of the classical period of Hollywood,…