How I would have made the prequels.

I love the hell out of Harry S. Plinkett’s reviews of the Star Wars prequels. Early on in his review of Revenge Of The Sith, he feints and hooks so well. You think he is going to make the obvious “they spelled shit wrong” joke. And what he actually says had me nearly dying of laughter.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past makes me uncomfortable

Earlier, after my first viewing of the new X-Men film, I set fingers to key and cranked out thousands of words about how much I enjoyed the film. And I do. The good parts are very good. Just like Rogue, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler, Quicksilver gets an introduction that ensures viewers never forget him.

Your Movie Sucks, by Roger Ebert.

I still mourn the loss of Roger Ebert from our world. Oh sure, it had to happen sooner or later, and the last invasion of cancer in his body likely had him believing it would be rather soon. But there are deaths in the world where even people who only know the deceased through their work feel it for years after the fact. Roger Ebert‘s ability to impart facts about the workings of the film industry and inform the audience in poetic terms about what they can expect from a film were second to none.

I think I have the shits.

So, on the advice of a good friend who is now a neighbour, I went to a local rental video outlet and rented a foursome of films on BD. I will talk about what happened with the outlet in question later. For now, I want to talk about something that I think a lot of so-called creative artists need to learn.

Nightmare On Elm Street series: looking back in Blu.

Until its recent demise and incorporation into the folds of its parent company (Warner Brothers), New Line Cinema could be considered the most successful of the upstarts that got into the motion picture business during the deregulation frenzy of the 1980s. Granted, it started a bit earlier than that, but it was not until one particular success that New Line moved beyond its origins of buying independent productions and exhibiting them on circuits consisting of things like university campuses.

Ed Wood. The man, his films, and their meanings.

I will say this much to start with: I am a fan of the films of Ed Wood. In fact, Ed Wood‘s work can be considered a reason to be grateful for the joys of home video and film preservation. Without either of those things, we, the plebs of the later twentieth and early twenty-first century would not be able to enjoy his work. But this also provokes a myriad of questions. Like every celebrity that walks or walked an unusual path, Ed Wood‘s work and life prompts a number of questions that one can learn from by answering.

Much ado about nothing: Christopher Nolan’s Batman films…

I will come out and say this off the bat. I do not “get” the hero worship of the director named Christopher Nolan. No, wait, let me rephrase that. I get it just fine. It is just that once I get it, I do not want it anymore. As I have mentioned, I have insulin-dependent diabetes. I have had it since I was a little shy of ten years old, and have been promised an imminent cure ever since. So when I tell you that “…it’s time for my shot…” offended me more in that moment than two Rain Mans put together, I want you to understand my full meaning here. People who crap on that Christopher Nolan is some awesome director who can not do wrong can blow me. Their opinion has less meaning to me than the life of Jenny McCarthy.