Expelled Grey Matter

Shortly before the release of The Irishman director Martin Scorsese made headlines with his comments showing disdain for the current state of cinema, largely aimed at Marvel and DC films.  While all of his points were valid (and many have been voiced by myself and others), the way it came across was as a rant from an angry old man.  It was one of the biggest "Okay, Boomer" moments of 2019. I think the reason some directors suddenly got their hackles up is, despite Grandpa Simpson way his concerns were presented, they contain more than an element of truth.  Movies, from the start, have always been a way to make money.  However, as with any visual medium, there are those who can do it better than others and turn out works of art that, coincidentally, end up making the investors happy as well.  Martin Scorsese has been one of those directors, and his influence on just about any director from the early 1970s forward is unquestionable.  Even if there is not...

Besides bringing us the collective works of Coleman Francis, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is responsible for bringing a number of movies to public awareness that would have been forgotten or lost.  Often those that made or starred in them might have preferred that had happened, but some, like Manos: The Hands of Fate , have become underground classics. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was already pretty much known as a bad Christmas/science fiction mashup long before MST3K, largely due to the books published by Michael Medved going over the worst movies ever made.  Although in public domain, it took the interest of the Misties (much like another maligned Christmas movie, Santa Claus ) to bring it back to the awareness of the general public.  Among all the Christmas specials that used to play in December I can definitely say that this was not among them. It is a bit surprising, since by all accounts the movie didn't do that bad on initial release, especially consid...

I have no idea if, when Iron Man initially came out, that Marvel was thinking in phases.  Whatever the situation, Iron Man 3  marked the start of phase two of the series, as well as the last movie made by Paramount.  Disney and producer Kevin Feige, in fact, were largely in control of the direction by this period, so the whole "phase" thing may have come about since, in a roundabout way, the preceding movies had finally led up to The Avengers .  It is fitting, then, that we begin once again where the entire series started.  There were no threats from space and no union of superheroes, just a man coming to terms with the error of his ways and fighting to maintain control of his family legacy.  It may not have been chock full of shiny effects, but it was solid story telling, as was the direct sequel .  It also didn't try to shoehorn any unnecessary characters just to have cameos (Colonel Rhodes, aka War Machine, was always part of the story). ...

By the mid 1980s it was not a question of if there would be a new James Bond, but when.  Roger Moore himself was ready to hang it up after Moonraker , but it turned out to be a good thing he didn't.  Where Guy Hamilton's directing, as well as Albert Broccoli's producing and procuring of scripts, had turned Bond into self-parody, new director John Glen brought him into the 1980s with the surprisingly back-to-basics For Your Eyes Only .   Not only did Moore seem reinvigorated, but the movie also acknowledged his age in not having as much bed hopping, but still emphasizing his physical presence with a number of great action scenes. John Glen came back for the next movie, Octopussy , as did Moore.  The latter wasn't a given, however.  American actor James Brolin had basically won the part, and screen tests were made in preparation for him to replace Bond.  Were were going to have our first American playing the British secret agent since the original televi...

Looking back it is apparent how hard Game of Thrones (the television show; the books have more than one main influence) wanted to be The Lord of the Rings.  Both books series have epic battles set within an historic sweep in fantasy worlds that in different ways mirror our own.  The difference is, the showrunners behind Game of Thrones only seemed to notice the battles in The Two Towers and The Return of the King, somehow thinking that this was the reason audiences showed up. In a way, they were partially right.  When The Fellowship of the Rings came out I was unsure that anyone who was not already familiar with The Lord of the Rings would even come to see it.  I was relieved that Peter Jackson was filming the whole thing simultaneously, as I didn't want to see a quality film (which I had no doubt that he would deliver) just sitting there, for years, as one third of the story with no conclusion.  It has been frustrating having the majority of The Song of ...

So, let's get to the story so far.  Walter White (Bryan Cranston) came back from self-imposed exile, insuring that his family was going to be cared for an getting rid of a bunch of neo-Nazis that were holding his partner, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) hostage and forcing him to cook meth using White's recipe.  While White dies from a gunshot wound after setting off a remote-controlled machine gun, Pinkman hops into an El Camino owned by a psychopath named Todd (Jesse Plemons) and high-tails it on out.  The end, credits roll. That was four years ago as Breaking Bad came to its end.  I won't say the show was perfect; in fact, I think its spin-off, Better Call Saul , is the superior program.  It is kind of unfair to compare them since, even though they are the same universe and some of the same characters, the feel of the shows couldn't be more different.  That is why it is strange that, instead of a new season of Better Call Saul , creator and director Vi...

Hammer Studios didn't just appear out of nowhere remaking Dracula and Frankenstein films.  They were founded in 1934 and, while initially doing comedies, branched out into a number of different genres, finally finding success with nearly 20 years worth of classic fright films until they fell apart in the 1970s.  Just as Hammer didn't just materialize out of nowhere, neither did British science fiction.  Long before Doctor Who there was Professor Bernard Quatermass, an earthbound rocket scientist who found himself fighting aliens across three well-regarded British television series in the 1950s, and better known in the United States through a number of movies based on the show and the character.  The first of those was The Quatermass Experiment , the television version having suffered much the same fate as early Doctor Who .  Fortunately, in 1955, a movie version called The Quatermass Xperiment  was released and did well in the United States (where it w...