Star Trek Into Darkness slows its engines to impulse power and plays too safe to the field; refusing to steer too far off course from 50 years of cannon or even from its 2009 predecessor. Despite some original patches, it bleeds into the original. It will face the same issue I had with the first two Harry Potters in which I'll forever struggle to recall which scene belongs to which movie. (Harry fights a snake in the first one, right?) For its first three quarters, the sequel appears to eclipse the orig...
Netflix has recently announced that nearly 2,000 movies titles were being removed from its streaming library. We won't know the extent of the damage until we get conduct a queue count. I did a spot-check and noticed that the classic Star Trek episodes remained intact. In fact, I noticed some new additions, such as 1996's Big Night whose video rights were, somehow, reacquired. But many of the Warner Bros. classics were gone -- seemingly forever so the studio to trumpet their own competing streaming servic...
Today, Hollywood lost one of its great magicians. Ray Harryhausen -- the stop-motion and special effects pioneer -- died today at the age of 92. To me, Harryhausen remains an icon as large asa Tom Cruiseor Arnold Schwarzenegger.You never saw him on camera.Hismovie stars were mere one-feet tall puppets, who, thanks to Harryhausen's genius, became wondrous and occasionally terrifying feats of fantasy and imagination. In lieu of his death, we willhear a collage of respectand tributes from all corners of the...
Shane Black's Iron Man 3 is a fresh combination of 80s formulaic action and 21st century bells-and-whistles. You get the impression that if Black could get away with it, he would have cast Mel Gibson in the title role and Danny Glover as Iron Patriot (or War Machine depending on which nerd you ask). There's a loving tribute to the films that made Shane Black, at one time, the highest paid, most coveted screenwriter. Like his best work, it's fun no matter which scene you watch, whether it involves Iron Ma...
A three-year-old girlfidgets with toys while a movie plays on the television. An asshole checks Facebookon his cellphonewhile sitting adjacent to attentive move-goers in a dark theater.These are two movie experiences I recently encountered. Both parties were seeminglydistracted; caring little for the magic fillingtheir respected screens. In fact, they were oblivious. It's atrend that's becoming more evident with each 'S'that's added tothe newest incantation of the Samsung Galaxy. Movies already face stif...
The success of this week's newest Hollywood release, Oblivion, has a sense of severity to it. It's as if its fate will immediately mirror the career lifespan of one of our last movie stars.Tom Cruise has dominated our cinemaplexes for three decades. There is no other movie star like him in our generation. But in the last few years his movies have been lackluster; his appeal has been tainted by his personal eccentricities (couch jumping, wife leaving, spaceship waiting). The gossip columns have fueled aud...
If there's one obsession that matches my filmlust, it would be a good bargain!Although some would prefer togloat over theirtop arcade, basketballskillsor SAT numbers, Ialways preferred bragging about my painstaking frugality. Don't believe me? Just check out my grocery receipts sometime.WheneverI ring up my items and the checkout clerk beckons the manager -- meaningmytotal savings exceeded$100 -- I'd do a subtle celebration danceand soaked in collectedlooks of astonishment by the housewives and elder sho...
Last year -- roughly around this time -- I started a blog. What originally began as a minor hobby soon became an obsession, a refuge from life's challenges and torment -- kinda like a good film. Since then, Film-Matters.net has become a perfect conduit to release all of my trifle, internal musings and tirades concerning my favorite medium. I confess that I hoped it would serve mainly as a mental exercise; a regiment to remove the cobwebs and rejuvenate my brain during moments when I collapsed into a bla...
When a classic is re-released in 3D, I ponder over the possibilities. Which single moment would benefitmost froma leap into another dimension? I could think of only one. It's when the T-Rex is chasing the jeep; his menacing jaws creep dangerously close in the rear-view mirror. But that wouldn't make much sense would it? Neither does most of Jurassic Park's post-converted transition, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this past weekend. It remains a trailblazer not just for itsgroundbreaking digital sp...
I don't recall when I wanted to be a film critic, but it involved a pair of thumbs. Today, the balcony finally closed forever. Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert, who, along with his Chicago Tribute writer, Gene Siskel, became the most famous critical duo and a television celebrity, died today after his decade-long battle with cancer. Ebert remains the only film critic to win the Pulitzer. He was, in many ways, my hero. Yes, a pudgy, short, film nerd with heavy framed glasses is the reason you see this...
