There’s a vast world of difference between a family movie and a kid’s movie. If you’re a) a parent or b) someone who spends a chunk of time around children, you know the difference immediately. But what is the difference? It’s a tricky concept, to be sure, and I think there’s a great deal of […]

Movies make a promise. Good movies keep them. In one of the early scenes in John Wick, a dipstick gangster and his boys break into the home of a nobody. They beat the nobody, steal his car, and kill his dog. Just another day at the office, right? Not quite. The gangster’s father is a crime […]

You know what the real difference is between the characters of Marvel and DC? Presentation. Marvel’s heroes have feet of clay. They’re flawed and relatable. Peter Parker constantly worries about money. Tony Stark is essentially a functional alcoholic. If I gained fantastic powers or a power ring fueled by willpower, I’d still make lots of […]

The age of the superhero arguably began in 1938,  when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman. Slightly less than a year later, Bob Kane and Bill Finger devised Batman.  Both characters have passed their 75th anniversaries, and both of them have appeared in pretty much every entertainment medium. They have changed a great deal […]

Heat changed a lot of things. Released in 1995, it was a sprawling crime saga pitting obsessive cop Al Pacino against clever thief Robert De Niro. Watching it, you’ll have a lot to enjoy. A ridiculously talented cast. Highly precise action scenes. Existential musings found within a labyrinthine plot. It’s probably the best thing writer/director Michael […]