How about this for a topical article? A lot of people wanted Britain to stay in the European Union, but the Brexit vote last week dashed their hopes. However, through the centuries not everyone has been too keen on having the British around.
So here are five films about different countries forcing the British to leave, as well as a little information about what happened after Britain’s withdrawals. Continue reading
Alice in Wonderland debuted in March 2010 and it took Disney remakes of their own films to a whole new level. It was the first of its kind to make $1 billion worldwide, and every live-action Disney remake since it has been struggling to duplicate its runaway success. Oz the Great and Powerful, The Lone Ranger, Maleficent, Cinderella, and others have all fallen short of the billion-dollar mark. It appears that 2016’s The Jungle Book will finally cross that threshold, though.
Why was Alice in Wonderland such a monster hit? Was it an amazing film that told a riveting story audiences just couldn’t get enough of? Not really. It was a mediocre film that just so happened to enjoy a confluence of factors that pushed it into blockbuster territory:
Ah yes, Avatar. I’ve made no secret of my disappointment in that film. Nevertheless, a sequel to Avatar has been in the works since the film debuted in December 2009 and smashed worldwide box-office records. But as of this writing, the first sequel isn’t slated to debut until 2018. That’s quite a disparity between sequels, even for James Cameron, who waited seven years between his two Terminator films.
What does Avatar and its upcoming sequels have in common with Alice in Wonderland and its sequel? Quite a bit, as I hope to explain. Continue reading
Can you imagine what life would be like if money were no object? You could spend like there’s no tomorrow and never face any consequences for it. That would be the life… or so it might seem at first.
Several films have explored what might happen if people spent ungodly amounts of money. Let’s spend some time exploring their different takes on this seemingly simple concept and see if we can discover some similarities. Continue reading
Remember the title cards at the end of American Graffiti that reveal the fates of the four male main characters? Some people were annoyed that there was no mention of the female characters. I wasn’t bothered by that omission at all because the girls weren’t the focus of the story. They were just along for the ride, so to speak. It was the boys who were becoming men after a long night of drag racing, pranks, and self-discovery.
But I was deeply troubled by the glaring omission at the end of The Pursuit of Happyness. It ends with a couple of title cards revealing the happy fate of its protagonist, Chris Gardner. He went on to earn a great fortune and build his own brokerage. He certainly deserved to after all the hard work he put in and everything he suffered along the way. But what about his son? Why didn’t we learn his fate, as well? Continue reading
Last week I started talking about singers who tried and failed to have acting careers. Some failed right out of the gate while others were one-hit wonders. Now I’m going to finish where I left off and share the stories of singers who managed to hit the big time in Hollywood, as well as in the music industry. Continue reading
Singers and actors are both entertainers. They use their voices and bodies to thrill people’s ears and eyes. But not every singer is a great actor, nor is every actor a great singer.
It’s tempting for singers to try to parlay their talents into a career on the silver screen. I’d like to talk about the varying degrees of success singers have had over the years attempting to transition to acting.
This article got ridiculously long as I put it together, so I’ve split it into two. Part 1 will focus on the singers who tried and mostly failed to become successful actors while Part 2 will be about the ones who managed to have it all on the concert stage and the big screen. Continue reading
As a longtime blogger and user of the Internet, I have learned a thing or two about how to navigate the Web while maintaining my dignity and staying positive. I’d like to share my pearls of wisdom with you to hopefully spare you some painful lessons and help you be successful online. With that, here is the Internet Etiquette Guide! Continue reading
James Bond has bedded dozens of women over the decades with barely a mention of any of them when the curtain comes up on the next film. I used to think Bond girls were mostly virginal to make it clear the super spy is not riddled with STDs. But I now realize that that’s a superficial byproduct of a larger issue. The reality is that they needed to be conquests, not mere exploits. Bond would come across as a phony sexaholic if he bedded any old woman he met. No, his conquests had to be attainments. They needed to demonstrate his profound ability to tempt even the most virtuous woman to make an exception for his eyes only. Continue reading
Captain America: Civil War comes out this week in the U.S., and it got me thinking that this isn’t the first movie to be about choosing a side on an important issue. No, I’m not going to compare this film to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice… though it might just warrant a Movie Matchup in the future.
What I’m actually going to do is go back and talk about other films that have done excellent jobs of setting up likable or at least intriguing characters on opposite sides of a debate who the audience and the characters in the film are equally drawn toward. I’m going to talk about five films, but I think they represent different categories of rivalries that show up in many other films. Continue reading
I was wrong about 2001: A Space Odyssey. I used to think it was severely overpraised, like a massive case of the emperor’s new clothes. But no longer.
I grew up loving science fiction. I read several Arthur C. Clarke novels, as well as works by Ray Bradbury, Robin Cook, and Stephen King. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a fantastic novel. The film left me in a lurch, though. It was beautiful to look at, but that was it. I found it painful to sit through the long sequences of spaceships and astronauts moving through the void of space.
I’ve never been the biggest Stanley Kubrick fan. I enjoyed Spartacus and The Shining, but most of his other films came across as strange for the sake of being strange. I prefer the serious tone of Fail-Safe over the dark comedy of Dr. Strangelove or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb.
So I avoided 2001 for many years, thinking it wasn’t worth my time to revisit. But two things inspired me to give it a second chance and change my mind about it. I’ll explain what those two things were and what I now think of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Continue reading
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