“Give it at least four”. That’s been my mantra when it comes to HBO hourlong dramas. From ‘The Sopranos’ to ‘Deadwood’, ‘Rome’ and ‘Boardwalk Empire’, a four episode minimum will help the viewer make the transition from the typical ‘done in one’ format of network television to the more fleshed out style of premium cable [...]
In a matter of days, ‘Skyfall’ will be the highest grossing James Bond film of all time with nearly $600 million worldwide in less than a month. But ‘Thunderball’ is still the box office champ, if the box office numbers were converted to today’s dollar, coming in at nearly a billion dollars. But that doesn’t [...]
Following the smashing success of ‘Casino Royale’, the anticipation for Daniel Craig’s follow up outing as Bond was palpable. Reviving the series following the unfortunate final appearance of Pierce Brosnan as Bond in ‘Die Another Day’ (a debacle that Brosnan didn’t deserve), Daniel Craig turned the majority of naysayers into diehard supporters. Although there are [...]
Last week I made my annual trek down to San Diego to partake in the hurricane that is Comicon. Over 100,000 sentient beings made their way to the San Diego Convention Center to imbibe in all things pop culture: Comics, movies, games, toys, and almost anything else entertainment related. As a selective collector not looking [...]
The annual Los Angeles Film Festival started Thursday night at the Regal Cinemas at LA Live downtown and will run through next Sunday. The festival is a combination of over 200 independent films of all sorts, domestic and international as well as short films and music videos. I’ve seen a few films since Friday and [...]
I saw Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi opus, ‘Prometheus’, over the weekend and was fascinated. Kind of a prequel to the ‘Alien’ franchise that he started in 1979, it’s also a look at the eternal question of ‘why are we here’, and to some, ‘who put us here’. Hold on: calling ‘Prometheus’ a prequel is the [...]
Not quite yet, but it’s in the running. Now a record breaking $200 million weekend may strongly suggest otherwise, but it’s not a title I’m ready to bestow on what is at the very least, a solid, entertaining movie. Highly enjoyable, great performances by all except Scarlett Johansson (who in fairness, did make more of [...]
When Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo opened in 1980, I was already familiar with the genesis of the film. Schrader, who was best known at the time for writing Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, had written Gigolo for the then hottest star in the industry, John Travolta. Coming off of the success of Saturday Night Fever and [...]
To quote a well known poet, “don’t call it a comeback” (LL Cool J). Denys Cowan hasn’t left the building. A groundbreaking comic book creator, award winning television producer, husband, father, and one of my best friends, Denys has been working steadily for a hundred years. However, today marks the release of a new ongoing comic [...]
