Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” seemed like an idea that was destined to be popular right from the time of its publication. The pop culture-filled novel earned a plethora of positive reviews and even became a New York Times bestseller, pretty much making it a foregone conclusion that we would one day see a film adaptation on the big screen, and indeed it’s no surprise to learn that said film rights were nabbed by Warner Bros. a full year before the book was even published. Nor was it a surprise to see Steven Spielberg sign on to direct the reference-heavy walk down memory lane, especially as one of the major players of the times being referred to. With all of the perfect pieces seemingly i
The Film: It was only a month ago that I wrote about Takashi Miike’s latest incredible film, the thrilling samurai epic “Blade of the Immortal,” which earned a place on my top ten films list of last year. In that review, I also mentioned several of his early films that got him to this point, including the chilling “Audition” and another amazing samurai flick entitled “13 Assassins.” However, the early work that he is perhaps best known for is the utterly bizarre “Ichi the Killer,” which was based on the manga by Hideo Yamamoto. It’s gruesome, violent, darkly-funny, and is being re-released in a definitive remastered edition this week. As such, there’s no better time to go back and revisit it
The Film: In the history of modern sports, it seems like there have always been scandals. From “fixing” games to gambling to doping to biting off an ear, it feels like these events just go hand in hand. However, out of all of these scandals, one has always stood out as one of the strangest, most talked-about occurrences in all of sports. The event in question is, of course, the infamous attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan by Shane Stant on January 6th, 1994, in which he attempted to break her leg with a baton after being hired by Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and her bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt. The attack caused one hell of a stir, and even to this day, no one’s quite sure how
The Film: “Justice League.” It’s the movie that many DC Comics superfans have been waiting for for years now, the film that will finally unite several of their favorite superheroes to do battle against an evil being that threatens all life on Earth. Indeed, it has been a long time coming, though as to what to expect when we finally got here was another matter. After all, as I’ve mentioned before, the DCEU has been having an awful lot of trouble establishing their universe thanks to poorly-written and overall lackluster films like “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad.” Would throwing together all of the superheroes at once be enough to make for a fun, exciting, and entertai
The Film: The Marvel Cinematic Universe is well-known for having some insanely entertaining franchises under its belt, including “Guardians of the Galaxy” (still their best series of films to date) and “Captain America” (which has provided some of the most action-packed films in the entire collection). However, there have also been some series that have somewhat fallen on the wayside, one of which has been the “Thor” films. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed both previous films well-enough (and they were decently received by most), but in all honesty, they weren’t very memorable, and besides Thor and his brother Loki, the characters were equally forgettable. Now we are faced with the inevitable t
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just finished handing out the 90th Annual Academy Awards, ending in a rather surprising finish. Guillermo del Toro's romantic fairy tale "The Shape of Water" has claimed Best Picture, along with Best Director (Del Toro), Best Production Design, and Best Original Score. Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" was not far behind with three wins: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. The victory for "The Shape of Water" is rather surprising because, for the first time in over 20 years, a Best Picture winner has won the top prize without having a nomination for Best Cast from SAG, along with another big surprise of not winning its
The Film: When it comes to Disney’s pantheon of classic animated films, you have the standard group of masterpieces that are mentioned quite often, a class of film that includes “The Lion King,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and several more. Then there’s a slightly lesser category for those animated works that audiences remember fondly and are still rather enjoyable, but don’t quite stack up to the major players that Disney has delivered over the decades. This would include works like “Bambi,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” and the most recent entry in the Signature Collection, “Lady and the Tramp.” Why does it end up here and not in the upper echelon