- "Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." — James Joyce
- "Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?" — Ulysses Everett McGill
Tag Archives: film
Cases Of Conscience: THE TRANSPORTER vs. TAKEN
The action vehicle Taken (France 2008, US 2009) casts Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, a retired special intelligence operative in search of his abducted teenage daughter. It’s about a man combating an essentially immoral or amoral world, and under cinematic … Continue reading
Posted in I wlll rant and you will like it, movies
Tagged film, morality, neeson, statham, taken, transporter
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Vaudevillain
Not only does the bad guy get all the best lines (if you’ve made your movie properly) — sometimes he has all the best moves.
Mildly Updated: 5 Subtle Things I Liked About SALT (2010) … w/ spoilers
Salt, in case you’ve forgotten, was the sneaky popcorn movie with Angelina Jolie (in a part originally written for Tom Cruise) as an elite U.S. covert agent who’s actually an elite covert Russian agent. Planted in American society as a … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Heroes: Henry Silva
There’s a certain Schrödingerian honor in being That Guy. You both are and are not a “star,” depending on who’s watching, but you nonetheless get hired for films and TV shows because you’re recognizable, you’re dependable, and damned if you … Continue reading
Trailer: The Movie
The Golden Trailer Awards should be a bigger telecast than the Oscars. At least that way we’d all have seen the same things before the envelopes got opened. Trailers are the real way we conceptualize a film — they’re forward-memories, … Continue reading
Posted in Sometimes I Notice Stuff
Tagged film, iron man, psychology, trailers, tron
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Because It Is Sunday And Because It Is My Blog
At the Film Freak Central blog, I chew my cud over the passing of film director Roy Ward Baker — he of The Vampire Lovers (above) and Quatermass and the Pit, not to mention A Night To Remember — and how … Continue reading
Posted in Because It Is Sunday and Because It Is My Blog, movies
Tagged clickthru, film
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Steady ‘Hands’
Last night’s episode of “Mad Men,” “Hands and Knees,” was helmed by Seattle director Lynn Shelton. After becoming familiar with Shelton’s pores-and-all approach to achieving intimacy with her subjects, and her dedication to improvising her way to a larger story, … Continue reading
Alex Cox and the Problem of Patronage
The Renaissance as an art explosion probably needed the Medicis, but does modern film need a similar relationship with the government? Most filmmakers in the U.S. would love a federal sugar daddy, but not for any of the strings attached. … Continue reading
The 9 People You Meet In A Film-Review Comment Thread
By Friday, Walter Chaw’s Prometheus review was on its way to being the most-clicked-ever at Film Freak Central, where I write sometimes. Walter and site editor Bill Chambers assessed its wealth of reader comments, goaded on by me, Abby Holmes … Continue reading →