“Elvis Mitchell’s Documentary ‘Is That Black Enough For You!?!’ Is Black Enough and More”

Yes, it is! Blacker than black! Blacker than the blackest black times infinity! You did it, Elvis! Continue reading →

“Who Is ‘Captain Marvel’ Breakout Goose?”

Real talk: I wrote this piece just so I could use the phrase “jerkin’ your flerken.” Don’t act like you don’t adore me for it. Continue reading →

“Captain Marvel Review: How Brie Larson’s Training Shaped Carol Danvers”

Happy “Captain Marvel” weekend! In the first of Andy’s *three pieces* about the new Marvel movie, an appreciation for Brie Larson and her fondness of baked goods and weight training, and how all of that hard work (and not hard work) reflects on the screen. Continue reading →

“Why ‘Glass’ Twist May Feel Unsatisfying”

The big twist of M. Night Shyamalan’s capper to his homegrown superhero movie? It’s actually an obnoxiously self-satisfied deconstruction of superhero tropes. Continue reading →

Samuel L. Jackson, Hollywood’s Most Versatile Badass

It’s not a secret that Samuel L. Jackson is one of my enduring faves, so it shouldn’t be surprising that I found an opportunity to write praise in his name, either. Over at ye olde Birth. Movies. Death., I prattled at length about Jackson’s opening salvo of 2017 roles and how they validate him as … Continue reading →

Review: xXx: Return of Xander Cage, 2017, dir. D.J. Caruso

  xXx: Return of Xander Cage is an incredibly stupid movie, but it’s an incredibly stupid movie that proves the value of incredibly stupid movies. You will not “turn off your brain” while watching it so much as your brain will forcibly shut down to avoid shaving off any of your precious IQ points; at … Continue reading →

“The Legend of Tarzan’s Hashtag Problem”

…annnnnd here’s “part two” of my attempt at getting to the core of why The Legend of Tarzan is such a failure and such an embarrassment as a modern studio blockbuster. How do you make a racist novel written in bygone times un-racist? Can you? Is it worth the effort to try? And is trying in and of … Continue reading →

Review: The Legend of Tarzan, 2016, dir. David Yates

I sure have written a lot of words about WB’s The Legend of Tarzan considering how much I hate it. But then, maybe “hate” is a strong word. Maybe it’s the wrong word. The Legend of Tarzan isn’t a good movie by any stretch of the means, but I think I have to classify my response to it as … Continue reading →

12 Most Memorable Movie Characters of 2015

“Another year, another slate of movie releases in the history books, and with it a bevy of new characters gracing the big screen. Just like making the movies themselves, though, making a truly memorable character is a major challenge. You have to get them right on the page before you can cast them, for one … Continue reading →

Review: The Hateful Eight, 2015, dir. Quentin Tarantino

“‘Looks can be deceiving,’ says Michael Madsen to Kurt Russell upon first introduction in The Hateful Eight. No four words could be more appropriate to the moment, or to the movie: Russell’s character, a bounty hunter named John Wayne Ruth, is distrusting by nature, even more so because he has a prisoner named Daisy Domergue … Continue reading →

Review: Big Game, 2015, dir. Jalmari Helander

“Big Game’s stelliform cast isn’t the only proof Finnish director Jalmari Helander has gone Hollywood. The scene that best evinces his Tinseltown transition plays out in the film’s first few minutes, in which one of the supporting players from Helander’s international breakout movie, the wonderful Yuletide-horror gem Rare Exports, gets mercilessly exploded in a wanton … Continue reading →

Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2015, dir. Matthew Vaughn

“Remember when spy movies blended melodramatic international intrigue with wacky gadgetry, high adventure, and the good breeding of the gentlemen class? Remember when they weren’t po-faced efforts pressured, perhaps by unreasonable audience demands, into being grounded and gritty, plus any number of tepid industry buzzwords? Matthew Vaughn does, and for that matter so does comic … Continue reading →

Review: The Avengers, 2012, dir. Joss Whedon

The Avengers didn’t have to do much to impress me. Being as honest as possible, Joss Whedon’s attempt at making a respectable entrance into the 2012 summer season with the capstone picture of Marvel Studios’ long-gestating superhero bonanza just needed to be tolerable to get a pass from me. Put bluntly, C-level material alone would … Continue reading →

Avengers, Assemble For Take 86: Behind the Scenes Avengers Images

Well, we’re almost into April, and I can only imagine that in the coming thirty days we’ll see the campaign promoting the May 2nd release of The Avengers ramp up in a big way. Marvel’s unleashed some new screen caps here and there to follow up the truly horrible poster released at the end of February and … Continue reading →

Review: Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011, dir. Joe Johnston

To call Captain America: The First Avenger “perfect” would be something of an overstatement– the opening scene serves absolutely no appreciable purpose whatsoever for the movie’s narrative, and the denouement gets a little choppy and falters in set-up and execution. The unsavory frames of film that bookend what you could call Joe Johnston’s masterpiece (with … Continue reading →

Review: The Other Guys, 2010, dir. Adam McKay

Wow, Adam McKay– what’s gotten you so worked up? Watching The Other Guys, the answer isn’t particularly secret and nor does McKay seem terribly interested in trying to disguise it. For a bonkers, slapstick, off-the-wall comedy featuring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg swapping back and forth between being the straight man and acting like lunatics, … Continue reading →