Tag Archives: stanley kubrick

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love 2001: A Space Odyssey

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 … Continue reading

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Short Stories That Grew Into Big Films

Films can come from anywhere. They can be original ideas or adaptations of stories from other media. When they’re based on literature, they usually have a lot of source material to draw from. But what happens when they’re based on … Continue reading

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10 Directors Who Seamlessly Transitioned to Sci-Fi on Their First Try

Great directors are ones who thrive even when making films in genres they’re not particularly familiar with. Science fiction is a great one to test a director’s mettle because films in this genre could so easily be dismissed as mindless … Continue reading

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Movie Matchups: The Shining (1980) vs. Manos: The Hands of Fate

Stanley Kubrick did something that no one else can boast of doing when he made The Shining in 1980. He took the worst horror film ever made, 1966’s Manos: The Hands of Fate, and turned it into the best horror … Continue reading

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Is Anger Funny?

Have you noticed that most of what passes for comedy on the Internet is anger? I don’t mean to denigrate Internet reviewers like the Nostalgia Critic and the Angry Video Game Nerd. I often find their work to be creative … Continue reading

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Movie Matchups: Star Trek: The Motion Picture vs. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Since my first attempt at talking about 2001: A Space Odyssey was such a resounding success (Stanley Kubrick fans lined up to hurl insults at me), I thought I might as well finish what I started and try to set … Continue reading

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Movie Matchups: Star Wars Prequels vs. Spartacus

Spartacus (1960) is proof that the Star Wars prequels could have been contained in one film. And they probably would have been much better if they had. Just imagine, we could have gone back and seen the birth of the … Continue reading

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6 Movies That Are Better If You Skip the First Half

Some movies are so perfectly set up that you can’t skip a second without feeling totally lost or missing something vital to the whole experience. Films in this category include such gems as Inception, Star Trek II: The Wrath of … Continue reading

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