Pop Culture for Fun

Assuming studios don’t mess with the announced release dates (which will happen), next year promises to offer a lot of (would-be) blockbusters. There’s everything for everyone: Deja Vu with Jake Gyllenhaal as Denzel Washington (Source Code), The Three Musketeers in Paul W.S. “Resident Evil” Anderson’s vision, an uninspired Wes Craven attempt to resurrect the Scream [...]

Posted on December 4th, 2010 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies | 1 Comment »

Leslie Nielsen has died from pneumonia, aged 84. He was in a way a part of pop culture more so than others can ever hope. Despite a more serious career at a younger age, he found fame with comedies and especially parodies in his later years. Just knowing he was part of Airplane! is enough [...]

Posted on November 29th, 2010 by MrWiseguy
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Remakes were something normal until a couple of years ago when people started using the term reboot. The reason was probably the increasing number of franchises available and the fact that the studio heads started thinking in terms of those rather than individual movies. If a franchise shows signs of fatigue in its current incarnation, [...]

Posted on November 20th, 2010 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies | 1 Comment »

Something struck me as I was watching the 2010 Primetime Emmy opening number. No, it wasn’t all the attention Glee was getting, it was Jon Hamm being casual, funny and having a decent voice. Taking into account his guest spots on 30 Rock you could say the guy has some range. On Mad Men he [...]

Posted on September 9th, 2010 by MrWiseguy
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Ever watched one movie and thought of a completely different one, just because a little tiny bit of a character in one movie was like a character in the other? I have, so let’s look at fiction’s distant cousins. James Bond and Maxwell Smart They’re both spies at work for the government. Only one has [...]

Posted on September 1st, 2010 by MrWiseguy
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Action movies will always be popular because people like heroes. Heroes that walk away from explosions without flinching, dodge bullets, ignore serious injuries, do death defying stunts and witty one-liners along the way. The number one prerequisite of being an action movie character? Toughness (and the ability to generate suspension of disbelief). So let’s count [...]

Posted on August 13th, 2010 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies | 2 Comments »

Building up franchises is nothing new to the world of cinema. It has been going on since the early days (William Powell and Myrna Loy enjoyed three movies in the Thin Man series starting 1934, I don’t have to mention Bond, but I do, and even Sergio Leone did his Dollars trilogy). Now, taking the [...]

Posted on August 1st, 2010 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies | 1 Comment »