Money Isn’t Real

"Money isn't real." That's the advice Fred Jung, played by Ray Liotta, gives his son George in the 2001 crime drama biopic Blow. Though more workmanlike than visionary in its execution and more of a noteworthy mid list film than a classic, Blow has an abundance of wisdom to share about…
May 20, 2021

Shadowrun (1993)

We've documented Gen Y's vices in copious detail these past few years. But if Gen Y has one virtue, it's a knack for remembering what the Pop Cult would prefer stayed memory holed. For example, the AAA video game publishers really don't want you thinking about pre-Ground Zero 2D video…
May 20, 2021

OG #StarWarsNotStarWars

Now that #StarWarsNotStarWars has secured its place at the apex of newpub, it's worth looking back at what made the original Star Wars successful. I've long maintained that George Lucas achieved his genre-redefining opus by solving old storytelling problems in fresh and exciting ways. Specifically, he presented refined expressions of…
May 20, 2021
prestige

Illusionist v Wizard, Part 2

"It is more than entertainment," the stage magician Vinovich declares in Lord of Illusions. "We are bringing miracles back into their miserable little lives." Fellow illusionist Robert Angier, villain-protagonist of the aforementioned film's spiritual successor, echoes that declaration in his parting words to archrival Albert Borden. "You never understood why…
May 20, 2021
Illusionist v Wizard, Part 1

Illusionist v Wizard, Part 1

The illusionist who simulates preternatural feats through sleight of hand and the wizard who actually wields powers not intended for man - both loom large in the human imagination. Since one is a deliberate counterfeit of the other, those occasions when illusionists and wizards share the spotlight in one story…
April 19, 20214 Comments
MS Gundam: 0083

MS Gundam: 0083

With innovation and originality in legacy entertainment now relegated to the past, I've been getting my fix from pre-Cultural Ground Zero properties. The best part of revisiting the classics is sharing hidden gems with friends who'd missed them the first time around. When it comes to anime, the late 80s to early…
April 8, 20218 Comments
Signs

Signs

By popular demand, we delve once more into the back catalog of wunderkind-turned-byword-turned-mercenary director M. Night Shyamalan. This blog's reviews of Sham's Eastrail 177 Trilogy chronicled the rise of an earnest auteur, his fall to hubris, his delayed redemption, and his subsequent relapse. But twenty years ago, Shyamalan was riding high on…
January 11, 202114 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