In my view, the terms “film” and “movie” are not synonymous. I believe a “film” is a work that prioritizes metaphor, analysis, symbolism, etc. above entertainment value, while a “movie” does the opposite, striving to put entertainment value above all else. 2001: A Space Odyssey is my all-time favorite film, but 2010: Odyssey Two is a better movie. In 1982, Ridley Scott set out to make a film, and the studio tried to turn it into a movie. I would say the original Blade Runner is a nearly perfect film, both in the Director’s Cut and the Final Cut, although it’s a deeply flawed movie. Now, 35 years later, Denis Villeneuve teamed up with Blade Runner co-writer Hampton Fancher and Michael Green (Heroes, Logan, American Gods) to produce this sequel. I use the term “sequel” loosely: watching the original will enrich this experience, but it isn’t strictly necessary, and characters from the original are on screen for less than an hour of the 163 minute runtime.
Category Archives: Movies
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) – Make Me Watch It #10
The latest subject of Make Me Watch It is Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The series can also be found on Stitcher, on iTunes, or in a direct RSS feed.
October Reviews: XX
“The devil gets blamed for a lot of stuff he didn’t have nothing to do with.”
October has fallen again and, once more, the Bureau digs up its ghostly offerings for night-time viewing. We’ll have horrors past and present up for review. Along with the shambling dead and the body snatchers, the horrors lurking behind your neighbor’s white picket fence and friendly facade, and the mysterious agents holding back the hordes of hell, we’ll also examine an SF sequel more-anticipated than any recent Star Wars chapter. Our full list appears at the end of this review.
Without a doubt, the most-discussed horror films of 2017 have been It (reviewed here) and Get Out (which we will examine on Halloween night). However, much fan chatter also centered ’round the horror anthology XX— and that’s where this year’s October Reviews begin.
Summer’s End Review: The Dunwich Horror (1970)
“Why don’t you take this copy of The Necronomicon and return it to the library?”–Professor Armitage
We have one final Summer Weekend Review for 2017: the notoriously trippy 1970 adaptation of the classic H.P. Lovecraft tale.
The equinox is here.
We begin our October countdown in two weeks.
Summer Weekend Review: Melancholia
SF and fantasy often uses peculative elements metaphorically. Melancholia reworks When Worlds Collide as an art-house film about depression, with a stunning central performance by Kirsten Dunst. As summer 2017 comes to a close, we continue with our reviews of older films– this one from 2011.
Monty Python’s Meaning of Life: Make Me Watch It #9
The latest subject of Make Me Watch It is Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam. The series can also be found on Stitcher, on iTunes, or in a direct RSS feed.
Weekend Review: It (2017)
The second adaptation of Stephen King’s notorious novel takes It to the big screen with a big budget.
It is actually the first of two parts, yet can also function as a self-contained film, and It‘s1 makers clearly hope It will become the movie of Halloween ’17.
Summer Weekend Review: Attack the Block
Sure, September is here, but summer doesn’t end until the 22. So we continue with our late-season Summer Movie Reviews of older films. This one came out in 2011 and its following has only increased since. It features the timely account of people coming together under crisis: not a natural disaster, in this case, but an alien invasion.
It also stars the incoming Doctor.
Summer Weekend Review: The Island of Lost Souls
“The stubborn beast-flesh creeps back!”
–Dr. Moreau
Our Summer-End Weekend Reviews of older films continue with this 1932 adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, which significantly influenced later SF– and the recently-concluded Orphan Black. Less well-known that Universal’s horror movies of the period, it actually holds up better.1
Indeed, its horrific content earned it a ban in some countries, while other audiences watched a censored version for many decades.
Summer Review: Wilson
With the summer SF blockbuster season coming to an end, we’re going to deliver some of our Summer Weekend Reviews of older flicks during the final weeks of beaches, sunglasses, and solar eclipse.1. This one isn’t even that old; it hit theaters– fleetingly– in March.
Wilson, based on the Daniel Clowes graphic novel (reviewed here), received a mediocre response from critics and did not find a large audience. It’s not the film of the year, but it’s far better than the popular response suggests.