Harrison Ford

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ is a welcome return to the franchise’s space opera roots

Harrison Ford crash landed a plane he was piloting onto a California golf course. NBC News is reporting the actor was conscious when he was found and sustained cuts to his head, but has been stabilized, taken to a hospital and has been described as in fair to moderate condition. Ford was solo piloting a …

Ridley Scott nostalgia is having an awful good week. Back in November there were talks that a sequel to Blade Runner, Scott’s 1982 sci-fi masterpiece, was in the works, but that Scott would be unable to direct due to schedule conflicts with Prometheus 2. Now however, a replacement has been found in Denis Villeneuve, Oscar …

I could barely contain my excitement. Star Wars, a film I had probably watched maybe 20 or 30 times was going to be re-released theatrically. My parents weren’t big movie fans, but my uncle had offered to take me and my best friend to see it. A fitting choice considering it had been my uncle …

The Expendables 3 Directed by Patrick Hughes Written by Sylvester Stallone, Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt   Family themes are getting a good workout in action movies lately.  From the ragtag team of outlaws in Guardians of the Galaxy to the Pizza Hut dream-team in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, filmmakers need us to know that …

There is a sense in watching Kingdom of the Crystal Skull play out that Spielberg’s lack of enthusiasm carried on into pre-production and then filming itself. One final, brutal visit to the editing suite before the film’s release would have fixed much of the damage and created a final product that, while hardly a classic, would not have infuriated to such a degree.

Condensing a popular young adult book to its most basic and necessary parts is an unenviable task. No matter how passionate the filmmakers are to the original text, someone’s bound to be disappointed. No film adaptation can satisfy every fan; it doesn’t matter how hard you try. Take out one character or rewrite them to be minimal, and you’re doomed.

Film locations are rarely given much screen time. They are seen in a moment, establishing where the action takes place. They are no more than a beautiful backdrop, and the actual location may not be remembered. Yet there are some locations that become characters themselves on film. Countless films have been shot on location in …

42 Directed by Brian Helgeland Written by Brian Helgeland USA, 2013 The majority of baseball movies come pre-set with a dollop, if not a heaping scoop of hokey, cornpone jingoism. It’s all but impossible for a director to not indulge in well-worn clichés and cinematic tropes when recreating great moments of the truest American pastime. …

The Fugitive Directed by Andrew Davis Written by David Twohy & Jeb Stuart US, 1993 There’s something fundamentally bizarre about a film nominated for seven academy awards, including best picture, being underrated. In fact, said film can’t even be cited as the victim of an Oscar backlash, and if esteemed net sources such as Rotten …

Blade Runner Directed by Ridley Scott Written by Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples U.S.A, 1982 Every Friday during the month of June, the Friday Film Noir column will be taking a slightly offbeat look at noir in film. More specifically, films that embrace noir elements in their  own fashion yet are not from the …