With Part Two in the books and the Polar Vortex quickly retreating (not to mention my readers’ patience), let’s wrap this explosive competition. Reviewed in previous posts: Asteroid City, The Dark Knight Rises, The Day After, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Failsafe, Fat Man and Little Boy, Godzilla, Indiana Jones/Crystal Skull, Matinee, Oppenheimer and The Peacemaker. Which leaves five until we pick a winner. Buckle up.
Frigid Winter Warming Spectacular: Best Nuclear Explosion! (Pt. 2)
There’s little doubt my six or so loyal readers gobbled up Part One at a single sitting and, barely satiated, started pounding silverware on the table demanding more destruction porn. Let me oblige posthaste. As you’ll recall, we critiqued Hollywood’s take on nuclear explosions in six films: Asteroid City, The Dark Knight Rises, The Day After, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Failsafe and Fat Man and Little Boy. Let’s now light the fuse on our next five!
Frigid Winter Warming Spectacular: Best Nuclear Explosion! (Pt. 1)
Inspired by tense family holiday gatherings (and a recent rewatch of Oppenheimer), let’s turn our attention towards ranking Hollywood’s most memorable depictions of nuclear explosions, the kind of conflagrations I’d welcome with open, melting arms considering the temperature in my hometown hasn’t muscled its way past zero going on three days now. #wintersucks
RIP Michael Gambon
It’s easy to roll one’s eyes at popular culture, especially something as overwhelming as the eight-film Harry Potter series, which parked itself in cinemas worldwide for a full decade back when the millennium still had that new-car smell. Whether a supporter or disparager of the films (truth be told I side with the former, beginning with the Alfonso Cuarón-helmed Prisoner of Azkaban), one has to admit the series introduced a generation of young movie goers to a murderers’ row of British acting legends, many of whom they otherwise probably Continue reading
Tanya Robert Retrospective, Part 2
Tanya Roberts may be gone, but she’s not forgotten to The Conflicted Film Snob. Far from it.
In Part One of this retrospective, we tackled 1983’s Storia d’armi e d’amori and the 1982 sword-and-sandal classic, Beastmaster. Without further ado, let’s knock out two other major works from Roberts’ filmography and get some closure on what is her finest performance/movie appearance.
Tanya Roberts Retrospective, Part 1
It’s been over two years since one of our greatest thespians, Victoria Leigh Blum, known to the world as Tanya Roberts, was taken from us not once, but twice, the first instance by way of a premature announcement by her itchy-trigger-fingered publicist and then, just days later, the definitive word from Cedars-Sinai Hospital: our angel spread her wings for heaven at the tender age of 71.
Film Adaptations of John le Carré’s Novels: Part 3
For those monitoring my potential windfall (outlined here, here and here), the $28,324,275.00 promised by Mrs. Renate Magdalena Settnik of Burkina Faso never materialized. And while there’s no denying this turn of events has caused me some financial distress (audits, wage garnishment, bankruptcy, etc.), for those of you engaged in a self-satisfied smirk (What kind of moron reads unsolicited emails from war widows, let alone provides his home address, social security and account/routing numbers?), let me ask Continue reading
Today’s Most Pressing Existential Crisis
Recently, over drinks with a friend, the conversation took a sudden turn from my preferred substance (vacuous) to something deeper when the friend began lecturing me on how the world was spinning off its political/environmental/cultural axis and soon would—mark his words—fling itself into the sun and reduce mankind to ash. Deservedly so, he added.
Top Gun: Maverick Reviewed by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America
Breaking: Donald J. Trump has reviewed Top Gun: Maverick. Any questions please forward to Devin Nunes, Truth Social (www.truthsocial.com).
Film Adaptations of John le Carré’s Novels: Part 2
In the two+ months since my shocking windfall courtesy Mrs. Renate Magdalena Settnik, Burkina Faso’s favorite paralyzed-philanthropic-German-widow daughter, my personal finances have taken something of a nosedive. With my accounts mysteriously drained, my credit rating in shambles and my utilities shut off for non-payment, I now find myself offering windshield