The Village Troll

The Village Troll

My recent reviews of M. Night Shyamalan's Eastrail 177 Trilogy sparked a discussion of the controversial director's other films on and off this blog. One movie in his catalogue that proved more contentious than most was 2004's period thriller The Village. On the meta level, The Village is noteworthy because it…
December 30, 20209 Comments
The Eastrail 177 Trilogy: Part 3

The Eastrail 177 Trilogy: Part 3

The following is a review of the third movie in a trilogy of films, all of which have twist endings; all by a director who only knows how to write twist endings. Be forewarned: spoilers ahead. Confession time: I didn't know that M. Night Shyamalan had released two sequels to…
December 24, 20209 Comments
The Eastrail 177 Trilogy: Part 2

The Eastrail 177 Trilogy: Part 2

"Spoiler-free M. Night Shyamalan review" is an oxymoron. Read on at your own risk if you haven't yet seen Split. The first decade of the twenty-first century saw director M. Night Shyamalan burst onto the scene with back-to-back hits. Unfortunately for his fans, the auteur's curse would strike Shyamalan at…
December 23, 202013 Comments
The Eastrail 177 Trilogy: Part 1

The Eastrail 177 Trilogy: Part 1

They say that when you've got it, you've got it. Then, at some point, you lose it. That would have been an apt summation of M. Night Shyamalan's directorial career in the mid-late aughts. After an early hit that invited frequent comparisons to Steven Spielberg, Shyamalan was widely perceived as…
December 22, 202013 Comments
A Dying Art

A Dying Art

Mamoru Oshii, the venerable director of animated film classics Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor, explains why the feature-length 2D animated film is becoming a dying art.“Making anime is also the world of the artisan,” Oshii explained. “I’m the kind who wants do my own part 120 per cent with…
December 1, 202028 Comments
Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

The recent post I did on beloved 80s horror-comedy Gremlins hinted that a review of the sequel was forthcoming, so here it is. First off, I mentioned that Gremlins 2: The New Batch belongs to that rare breed of sequel that surpasses the original. Much like the follow up to another little…
November 16, 202013 Comments
Gremlins

Gremlins

A common malady among aspiring artists is to get hung up on an established set of rules. That's not to deny that any rules exist. Art is a work performed to a standard. Where artists run into trouble is when a type of creative myopia sets in that sees only…
November 12, 202014 Comments
The Crow

The Crow

Lately, movie reviews and true accounts of high strangeness have become popular post subjects here. With the spooky season upon us and Hollywood on its knees due to Corona-chan, I thought it fitting to post my analysis of a movie that is itself a nexus of high strangeness. Said to…
October 16, 20206 Comments
Batman Returns

Batman Returns

Tim Burton's first Batman movie was a classic black swan event. Like Star Wars, it was a genre film by a fledgling director whose quirky vision inspired little confidence in the corporate office and the press. Also like Lucas, Burton defied expectations to create a genre-redefining cultural landmark that launched…
October 14, 202019 Comments
Vicki Vale Popcorn

Batman 1989

Back in the 80s, an action movie by a young director with only two films under his belt was shot at a venerable British studio with a motley cast of Oscar winners and veterans of 60s schlock from Hammer/American International. Dismissed as B movie camp by the press, and even…
October 12, 202035 Comments