May

28

Troy: Homer and Virgil Cast into the Pitt

May 28, 2007 | 1 Comment

Not so much Troy as “oy”, this aberration of an adaptation mutliates its sources like Achilles butchering Trojans.

Okay, so tonight I landed on the Hallmark Channel, which happened to be running (a somewhat expurgated version of) this confused condensation of the Trojan War story (and a fragment of the Aeneid).
It must be granted a few […]

May

27

The Insomniac’s Method

May 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment

A brief note on method:
In general, I write one of these things when I see a film go by on TV. I don’t really get to make the initial active selection of what to write about– if I don’t have a serendipitous encounter with something then I don’t go out of my way to throw […]

May

27

The Critic as Writer: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

May 27, 2007 | 1 Comment

I’ve never understood the whole Russ Meyer thing. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls has eluded me since college… maybe it’s a matter of my just not having been “there” in the moment this was set in, maybe it’s something else… maybe it’s just that there’s no there there.  Other than breasts, that is.
Would people still […]

May

20

Spy crap flick of the month: Fathom

May 20, 2007 | 1 Comment

Fathom is another in a cluster of cringeworthy star vehicle spy flicks that seem to have been spawned by the success of the early James Bond movies. This time, we got Raquel Welch as skydiver Fathom Harvill, recruited as a secret agent to recover a stolen nuke or something…
 I can’t be bothered to figure out the […]

May

14

Great Guardian Piece: What Goes Up…

May 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment

A fun read at Guardian Unlimited on how some actors’ careers self-destruct after a few bad roles, while others seem impervious… picks out a number of fun flix that deserve to make the bad-flick hall of fame…
There is a common misconception among laymen that a once luminous movie star’s decline can be traced to a particularly dreadful […]