Introducing a new blog series. As movie enthusiasts, we’ve all experienced the disappointment of watching a film that didn’t live up to its potential. Whether due to a lackluster plot, underdeveloped characters, or a central premise that just doesn’t work,…
Life rarely provides second chances. Yet, that is what happened in The Godfather III, the (hopefully) final film of The Godfather saga. Released 30 years ago, the film features a potential redemption story for Michael Corleone. When we saw Michael…
I’m always looking forward. I do this because the past is prologue. You can’t change it. Decisions made are done – Learn from mistakes, and the days to come provide ample opportunities to do things different. And better. Except… I’m…
William Friedkin is a hell of a filmmaker. Since Friedkin is the man who brought us The Exorcist, that statement is both true and an unintentional pun. Because in 1973 The Exorcist scared the hell out of a lot of…
With the new decade now underway people have been posting a lot of “best of” lists… And one that caught my eye was a list of favorite films over the past 10 years. Not “best”, but favorite – as in…
This is a quick “listicle” entry, inspired by conversations with She Who Must Be Obeyed regarding movies that are near-universally loved that I… don’t. Your opinions/mileage may vary and feel free to disagree on Twitter (@josephdickerson). So let’s go. The…
This article was recently posted online, listing the top 50 soundtracks of all time. As a fan of film music, I eagerly clicked on this list – and was profoundly disappointed. Apparently the author of this list barely considered any…
A month ago there was a very interesting report that The Walt Disney Company had been in discussions to buy 20th Century Fox’s entertainment assets… But that the talks had ended with no deal. This week, news is breaking that…
My friend Ariel confessed to me over dinner several months back she had never seen several movies that I considered seminal classics. Why she hadn’t done so was understandable. Ariel is much younger than me, over a decade. She grew up…
No, because of the wonderful system called Hollywood Accounting. Studios have been sued – repeatedly – around this practice, the most famous suit where this was a factor being Buchwald v. Paramount, which had Art Buchwald suing the studio who…
I’m an unabashed fan of the work of Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes. I think Holmes is one of the most exceptional characters in all fiction, and the fact that Holmes has been reinterpreted and…
I was playing with a new outdoor projector setup and was looking through Netflix to test it out. What movie could I use to run it through its paces? What film had a great variety in shot selection that would…
I’ve written about some underrated and/or neglected movie directors like John Carpenter, Bob Fosse and Orson Welles before, but when I put my latest Neglected Cinema column to bed, I realized that there were many other directors who haven’t gotten…
I love Orson Welles. He is one of the most amazing people of the 20th Century, a larger-than-life figure who’s had a dozen books written about him (I’ve read quite a few of them). His life could be accurately described…
One of the first movies I purchased on Blu-Ray was Speed Racer. Not because I was a fan – I hadn’t seen it before I bought it – but because it was on sale for less than $10. I was…
Trying to figure out and align James Bond continuity is like making a vodka martini from Siamese vodka… it can be done, but it’s not going to result in something that is very palatable or satisfying. I remember one of…