For the last twenty years, David Fincher's adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club has slowly, steadily gained the reputation as a monolithic touchstone for toxic masculinity, a reckless movie that fills weak-minded young men with bad ideas. "If a man tells you his favorite movie is Fight Club, run away," is a somewhat common social media sentiment nowadays. … Continue reading FIGHT CLUB Deserves a Better Legacy

It's been made clear what Todd Phillips is going for with Joker, his new "super twisted" and "ultra gritty" take on the iconic comic book villain, and the former comedy filmmaker certainly delivers on the obvious expectations. Joker is, of course, inspired by a pair of legendary Martin Scorsese pictures: Taxi Driver and King of Comedy. That much has been made … Continue reading Joaquin Phoenix Takes JOKER as Far as He Can

John Carpenter had quite a decade from 1978 to 1988. In the years following the massive success of Halloween, Carpenter helmed a handful of genre films that, despite being commercial flops at the time, have been stamped as pure classics in the modern court of popular opinion. Now, fans flock to Carpenter's output during this decade, … Continue reading JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES (1998) is The Best of The Legend’s Later Films

Rambo: Last Blood is a terrible movie. It is poorly written, even more poorly executed, it is stupid and half-hearted and insanely, excessively violent to the point of being repulsive, and it probably should have never happened in the first place. The critics may be right that it's bad, but trying to frame this as some … Continue reading Politics is Not the Issue With the Terrible RAMBO: LAST BLOOD

It had been twenty years since John Rambo fought alongside the Afghan soldiers in Rambo III, a high-budget, low-profit misfire that seemed to wrap up the character for good. But Sylvester Stallone's nostalgia senses were tingling in the mid-2000s, and he had a sneaking suspicion that a fourth adventure with the reluctant super soldier would attract … Continue reading The RAMBO Revisit: RAMBO (2008)

Al Pacino had a strange decade in the 80s, and it was Sea of Love that steered his career back on track. Yes, one of the greatest actors in a generation of all-timers, responsible for a staggering number of classics in the New Hollywood renaissance of the 1970s, had almost a solid decade of duds, save for … Continue reading Thirty Years Ago, SEA OF LOVE Rescued Al Pacino’s Career

Rambo III was the most logical next step not only for our reluctant hero, but for Sylvester Stallone, who had managed to turn both of his successful franchises into political mouthpieces for correcting America's mistakes of the past, and securing the future. In the summer of 1985, First Blood Part II longed to heal the wounds of Vietnam … Continue reading The RAMBO Revisit: RAMBO III (1988)

In 1999, John McTiernan had quite a tumultuous month of August. Mired in the disastrous shoot/post-production/feudal malaise that was The 13th Warrior, which would open August 27 and promptly bomb, McTiernan released his remake of Norman Jewison's breezy caper picture at the beginning of the month. The original starred Steve McQueen as the debonair thief Crown, … Continue reading John McTiernan’s THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR is 20