Not only was Top Gun a massive blockbuster hit during the summer of 1986, the film remained so popular over the years that, when Paramount went looking for titles from its catalog to convert into 3D during that format’s revival in the early 2010s, of course Top Gun shot to the top of the list.… Read More The Need for Speed | Top Gun in 3D (Blu-ray)
Culture often seems to move in thirty-year cycles. Growing up back in the 1980s, it felt like nostalgia for the 1950s was everywhere, as my parents’ generation hit middle age and started pining for their own youths. Now here we are another three decades hence, only to find the United States in a renewed Cold… Read More Don’t Think, Just Do | Top Gun: Maverick (2022) 4K Ultra HD
There was once a time when I followed the annual Oscars race with great interest and excitement. I even went so far as to live-blog the damn ceremony a few times at my last gig. These days, however, I can barely give a damn. I didn’t even realize the nominations would be announced this week… Read More Everything Oscars All at Once | 2023 Oscar Nominations
The biggest blockbuster hit of 1986 and one of the most (if not the most) iconic films from that decade, Top Gun has remained enduringly popular over time – enough so that a sequel released 36 years later once again blew the roof off the theatrical box office. Is it actually a good movie, though?… Read More Take My Breath Away | Top Gun (1986) 4K Ultra HD
Confession time: As someone who has reviewed movies on home video for more than two decades, I simply cannot stand to watch most DVD or Blu-ray bonus features. The days when I might get excited for a director’s audio commentary or a lengthy making-of documentary about the film I just watched feel like a distant… Read More Remember When DVD and Blu-ray “Special Features” Actually Used to Be Special?
I love movies. Let me start with that lest I sound too negative right off the bat. I’ve been obsessed with movies most of my life and have many fond memories of watching countless films on the big screen. All the time I spent in darkened movie theaters over the years played a critical role… Read More R.I.P. Cinema – Leaving the Theatrical Experience to Nostalgia
I seem to be out of step with both critical and popular opinion on Guillermo del Toro’s new stop-motion animated remake of Pinocchio. I watched that one without so much as checking Rotten Tomatoes or Letterboxd and thought it was kind of awful, only to find nearly everyone else in the world proclaiming it a… Read More No Strings on Me | Pinocchio (1940) Blu-ray
For The Banshees of Inisherin, writer/director Martin McDonagh reunites Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, the stars of his 2008 cult hitman comedy In Bruges. The two films may be very different in terms of story, incident, and tone, but both share an incisive wit and blisteringly funny ear for character dialogue. The lead actors’ previous… Read More Niceness Doesn’t Last | The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
I am frankly puzzled at why anyone felt the world needed two Pinocchio remakes in the same year, much less two bad ones. Disney’s official live-action adaptation directed by Robert Zemeckis was a pretty big bust when it streamed on Disney+ just a few months ago. Now we have another Oscar-winning filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro,… Read More These-a Puppets I Do Not Like | Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
I awoke Monday morning to two surprises: snow on the ground (the first of the season) and the 2023 Golden Globe Award nominations being announced on the Today show. I thought we as a culture were collectively over the Golden Globes? It appears that the show’s banishment from broadcast was just a temporary measure –… Read More Oh, Are We Supposed to Care About the Golden Globes Again? – 2023 Nominations
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