On Friday, July 2, Airplane! will celebrate its 30th anniversary. I personally — slightly — prefer Anchorman, but despite my modern leanings, Airplane! is easily the finest comedy ever made. Its gags, puns and sequencing are all perfectly done, sure, but what really sets it apart is that, unlike many of the other comedies that come off […]
Halfway through 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Logan (Hugh Jackman) delivers the line “I come with you. I’m coming for blood. No law. No code of conduct,” which marks a departure from the moral, yet stigmatized killing machine who ventured heroically through the Civil War, World War I, II, and the Vietnam War. And, this seems to be […]
Often, remakes signify a growing lack of originality that seems to be burgeoning throughout Hollywood, and this stigma is often compounded two or three fold when a production company decides to remake a horror film. Some prime examples would be the most recent installments of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th or Rob Zombie’s Halloween […]
Somewhere in the comic universe, there is a Mason-Dixon Line (a Stark-Wayne Line?) that separates Marvel from DC. Fierce battles take place across that line. As you may guess, dear reader, this is…not…one of them. You’ve heard about Iron Man 2, right? It’s, like, the biggest movie in the world. Right now. (But not of ever. Some […]
I was gonna write this amazing Date Night-style recap of my experience with El secreto de sus ojos. It was gonna weave together the story of a bet I lost with the Liberian Girl as well as a conversation at a bar in SoHo with this painter about the fundamental differences between Michael Jackson and Prince. It […]
Picture me rollin’. Slowly. Through mid-day traffic on a Wednesday. Along U Street in NW Washington, DC. The sun is shining. The windows of my Grand Prix are cracked generously to welcome both the fresh Spring air and the sounds of the city. From somewhere behind me, I hear the approaching bassline of a song I think I recognize. […]
Mar09
There’s No Poetry in Being Comfortable: A Poem for Henry Charles Bukowski, Junior (Hank)
by 
Tim Adkins
Back in 2004 they released a movie about Hank another one in this one Hank Bono Tom Waits Taylor Hackford John Martin Hank’s baby mother (the woman with the white hairs sprouting from her chin) Hank’s wife, Linda Lee and Sean Penn told the man’s story the parts we didn’t already know the parts edited by the […]
As if the unoriginality of Hollywood needed further attesting to, they have decided to reboot the Spiderman franchise as well as—wait for it—Daredevil. Yes. Daredevil. For those of you who can’t, or choose not to remember, Daredevil was anchored by Ben Affleck, who might possibly be the worst person to cast in the role of superhero. I […]
As if the unoriginality of Hollywood needed further attesting to, they have decided to reboot theSpiderman franchise as well as—wait for it—Daredevil. Yes. Daredevil. For those of you who can’t, or choose not to remember, Daredevil was anchored by Ben Affleck, who might possibly be the worst person to cast in the role of superhero. I don’t dislike Ben Affleck (the devil […]
Austrian director Michael Haneke might be one of the most provocative working in the film industry today. I’ve shied away from using the term “Hollywood” because there is nothing in Hollywood that resembles the patience exhibited my Haneke—much less the pleasure taken in keeping an audience on pins and needles, forever hinting that a boogey man will […]