Film.com Movie Blog

What's the Big Deal?: Touch of Evil (1958)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:14:00 PST

A seedy border town, a fiery explosion, a corrupt cop, a family of drug lords -- Orson Welles' Touch of Evil has plenty of good old-fashioned entertainment. To read its plot description, you'd think it was no more vital a part of the canon than any other black-and-white crime thriller, yet it is spoken of in reverent tones as a "classic" and a "masterpiece." So what's the big deal? Is it more than just populist entertainment? Or is it just really, really good populist entertainment?

The…

Big Hitter: 2012, Avatar's Budget, Seann William Scott, and a Seattle New Moon Contest

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:20:00 PST

What I'm Seeing This Week
2012, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Youth in Revolt. I'm oddly excited for all three of these films, though for wildly divergent reasons. 2012 looks to be either a heap of fun or an absolute disaster (which could be fun). Fantastic Mr. Fox is another chance to peek inside Wes Anderson's brain, a fascinating and worthwhile cinematic vacation. Youth in Revolt was one of my favorite books of the past decade, and I think Michael Cera is the perfect Nick Twisp. So I'm hopeful!

Wh…

Hollywood's 10 Best Alien Stories

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:22:00 PST

When Hollywood looks to the skies and brings to us beings from another world, the result is rarely good for humanity. In fact, it usually means trouble. But sometimes, just sometimes, it means box office gold and some of the greatest movies ever made. This week, with the release of the alien abduction film The Fourth Kind, we once again look to the skies and give pause to think about the very best of previous visitations.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
This Steven Spielberg classic is the…

Review: The Box is Uber Creepy Yet Interesting

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:23:00 PST

"Not an easy film to talk about, but one worth seeing."

The Box is not an easy film to talk about. Almost every description of the film will end up as a spoiler, it's fairly high concept, and it has a few glaring problems. However, The Box also presents huge moral dilemmas and is a genuine candidate for "cult-classic" status. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it, perhaps some amalgamation of confused and captivated. Yes, The Box confustivated me.

Borrowing from the synopsis:…

Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats is Good, Not Great

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:20:00 PST

"For those looking for something off the beaten path ..."

Almost 20 years ago director Roger Spottiswoode put to the screen an adaptation of an incredible book chronicling some of the crazy, unbelievable things our government, through the CIA, did during the Vietnam War. It was about a group of wild, unruly but brilliant pilots who flew stripped down civilian planes on military missions that NEVER HAPPENED. Drugs, money, weapons -- all to people we weren't supposed to be giving…

Review: A Christmas Carol Not Merry Enough

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:07:00 PST

"This version of A Christmas Carol has very little story and even less Christmas cheer."

The old aphorism goes "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater," but the makers of the latest iteration of A Christmas Carol have flipped the script; they've created a film that looks amazing and combined it with an appalling lack of story. In essence they've provided a lovely, piping hot bath, all the while forgetting to actually place the dirty baby into it. We're left with only a…

Review: Don't Bother Having an Encounter with The Fourth Kind

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:03:00 PST

"Not good, for sure, but at least it appears to have been attempting something intriguing."

When so many films are bad in lazy and ordinary ways, it's refreshing to occasionally see one that fails interestingly. The Fourth Kind is that sort of movie: not good, for sure, but at least it appears to have been attempting something intriguing.

Thanks to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (which it's strange no one in this film ever mentions), the common man knows about the degrees of…

Hey, Academy, How's About Nominating In The Loop?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:29:00 PST

I'm not entirely sure what to expect with this year's Oscar race. Throw everything you know out the window, because for the first time in a long time the nominees are too long a list to predict. It's just a feeling game at this stage. And here's what I feel so far:

Up in the Air
An Education
Precious
Nine
Up
Invictus

All the above movies are looking pretty strong right now. A Serious Man, Bright Star, and The Hurt Locker are all movies the Academy may or may not love as much as their strongest…

Eric's Bad Movies: Surf Ninjas (1993)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:20:00 PST

Let's say you write a weekly column about bad movies, and that this column is extraordinarily popular and has made you beloved the world over. (LET'S JUST SAY.) Then let's say someone suggests as fodder for this column something called Surf Ninjas, which of course you have not seen, because why would you have seen a movie called Surf Ninjas? You'd be more likely to watch a movie called Your Parents Having Sex. So you watch Surf Ninjas, expecting it to be awful -- which it is -- but when it's…

Best Actress Front-runners

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:37:00 PST

So, as I sit down to write this, I've just come from a screening of The Young Victoria, in which Emily Blunt portrays the English queen at the beginning of her reign in the mid 19th century, with much pomp and pretty accents and costumes. And I'm glad I did, because it justifies my ~~laziness~~ ~~procrastination~~ prudence in holding off writing this for another day. Cuz it's one more flick I've got under my belt for awards season.

Best Actress front-runners? Geez, who can tell at this point? With…