As you’re probably already aware of, the latest Twilight movie, “Breaking Dawn: Part 1” was recently released in theaters. The fourth (and second to last) movie in the Twilight Saga tells the story of vampire, Edward Cullen, and his mortal fiancée, Bella Swan, finally tying the knot. Since I have this sort of OCD thing going where I can’t start a series without finishing it (so yes, I’m admitting that I’ve seen all the other Twilight movies…shut up), I went […]
Pass The Popcorn: Is Eddie Murphy Really Back?
By dropping out of the Academy Awards ceremony, has Eddie Murphy squandered yet another chance at a comeback?
Pass the Popcorn: Kevin Smith’s “Red State”
The notion that Fred Phelps – pastor of the charming family church Westboro Baptist, prolific funeral picketer, originator of the adorable slogan “God Doesn’t Much Care For Homosexuals At All” “God Hates Fags” – is perhaps the worst person on the globe right now isn’t new; after all, perhaps the only good thing about the Phelps clan is that nobody actually takes them seriously. No, what’s truly surprising about public perception of the Westboro Baptist Church is that it took this […]
Pass the Popcorn: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Call me old fashioned, but sometimes I think the modern day slasher formula has ruined the contemporary horror film. While some movie makers adhere to the Hitchcockian pillars of suspense and atmosphere, it seems far easier to scare by showing rather than implying. On one hand I can understand: dread, especially of the supernatural variety, can be so difficult to manufacture consistently. It’s far easier, and far more instantly gratifying, to scare the audience on the most basic of grounds: […]
Pass the Popcorn: Fright Night
Whatever happened to the Nosferatus of the world? Sometime between that 1921 masterpiece of gothic horror and today, vampires ceased to become cold blooded monsters and started to become the creepy fixation of adolescent girls (not to mention soccer moms) everywhere. The modern day vampire is brooding, sexy, and urbane, more interested in passionate affairs with young, bored women than with devouring the life blood of peasants. The gnarled, bird-like face created by F.W. Murnau has somehow transformed into the […]
Pass The Popcorn: “Final Destination 5”
A good critic is essentially a reductionist, distilling popular art and entertainment into its most basic components and highlighting which parts add to and which parts detract from the final product. It’s easy to take a movie like The Social Network and sing high praises for the hauntingly ambient soundtrack, the laser precise direction, and the compelling performances, just as it is easy to take a movie like Vampires Suck! and rake it over the coals for terrible writing and […]
Pass the Popcorn: Dark Days – Tenth Anniversary Edition
Perhaps like me, you’ve never heard of Marc Singer’s documentary Dark Days (featuring music by DJ Shadow). Maybe that shouldn’t be so surprising. Spearheaded by an English immigrant with no prior filmmaking experience, shot on a less-than-shoestring budget and barely making a ripple in the American film mainstream, it was easy to miss. But it’s an intimate, emotionally powerful film that deserves wider recognition. Fortunately, the film’s significance is receiving the deluxe treatment to mark its tenth anniversary. When he […]
Pass the Popcorn: “Still Bill”
Bill Withers seems like an unlikely subject for a movie, right? Even if you’re a soul music fan, hell-even if you were a Bill Withers fan up until the point that “Still Bill” was made, his life seemed like it was one of the least likely for even a documentary. An unassuming, regular-Joe singer/songwriter, Withers amassed a string of hits over the course of a decade before abruptly retiring to concentrate on family life. No drugs, no paralyzing car accidents, […]
Pass the Popcorn!: Popblerd Reviews “Howl”
When the opportunity arose to attend a premiere of the new movie “Howl”, I jumped at the chance. Not only was the opportunity to see a movie for FREE.99 a great deal, but after doing a little research on the film, my curiosity was piqued. I had a basic knowledge of Allen Ginsberg and the whole Beat Generation/San Francisco scene from reading several interviews with him (including one in Rolling Stone circa 1995 or 1996 that was really good), and […]