All articles filed in Movies

The motion picture experience.  Popcorn.  Movie trailers.  Surround sound.  A sense of local community importance (especially when one mentions the Madison or the Spectrum). Personally, I love going to the movies – especially when my friends and I go together to enjoy a new film at the local cinema.  With that in mind, if a…

Follow along with me. Apparently, at some point after finishing Return of the Jedi, George Lucas had it all. And then, suddenly, he disappeared. In his place, a doppelgänger directed the “prequel” Star Wars movies, inserting everything from Jar Jar Binks to more Jar Jar Binks to even MORE Jar Jar Binks.  The original Lucas,…

City Lights is my all-time favorite motion picture. It’s Charlie Chaplin’s finest performance – you can argue that his work with The Kid and The Gold Rush is more significant, but this film – released in the 1930’s, after the advent of synchronized sound in motion pictures, yet still retaining Chaplin’s mute Tramp character –…

Last night, I attended an advance screening of the upcoming Paramount Pictures film Thor.  Yes, it’s the next installment of what will become the big blockbuster film of 2012 (or 2013, I’m not sure), The Avengers.  No, not the one with John Steed and Emma Peel.  This is the one with Iron Man and the…

One of the benefits in winning trivia competitions in the Capital District is that sometimes the prizes include movie passes to see films that have not yet officially premiered.  That was the case Tuesday night when my Street Academy trivia teammates Jeremy and Alexis joined me at Crossgates Mall – we had won movie passes…

The Three Stooges are, without a doubt, one of the greatest comedy teams in motion picture history.  Don’t argue with me on this, or I’ll gouge your eyes out, porcupine. But what would happen if you took a Stooge out of the team – and put him in his own short film? And you say,…

Not every animated feature is a Mickey Mouse / Bugs Bunny / Pink Panther classic. In the history of animated films, there have been several short subjects that have been both thought-provoking, well-seasoned and informative. They weren’t just “Popeye the Sailor eats his spinach and beats the crap out of Bluto” or “Heckle and Jeckle…

If I had a time machine, if I had a magic device that could take me to any period in history, you know I would go back to the 1920’s and watch one of the greatest actors / directors  / filmmakers of all time, Charlie Chaplin, make one of his legendary films.  I’d stare in…