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Posts Tagged With ‘ laurence fishburne ’

 

A Man of Focus

May 19th, 2019
John wick and daisy

Let’s begin with something that’s indisputable. On April 1, 2009, Alfonso Hernandez and Michael Edmonds thought it would be funny to shoot a dog dead. Why? All cruelty has ever needed to flourish is an opportunity. In this case, Hernandez and Edmonds saw a yellow Labrador puppy outside a home. They shot the dog with a .357 Magnum pistol, then stood over her body, laughing. In addition to being evil, this was a seriously dumb move. The puppy’s name was Dasy. Her guardian was Marcus Luttrell, a SEAL team member awarded the Navy Cross for heroism in combat while serving in Afghanistan. He was... Read More

The Road Better Off Not Taken

December 16th, 2018
The Mule

As much as I love Unforgiven, In the Line of Fire, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and Dirty Harry, I think my favorite Clint Eastwood film is Escape from Alcatraz. As bank robber Frank Morris, you can see him plotting a way off the famed prison from the very first scenes of the film. Eastwood’s Morris is taciturn, intelligent, and does not suffer fools gladly.* Clint Eastwood casts a long shadow. He’s been in the entertainment industry since 1955, and he has 72 acting credits and 40 directorial credits. At age 88, he keeps at it, releasing a film or two every few years. He’s made some... Read More

Earth’s Tiniest Heroes

July 8th, 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp

What do superheroes mean? Everything means something, but they don’t always mean the same thing. Westerns are a nostalgic look back at a time of independence and exploration. They’re also about the subjugation of native peoples and a time of almost complete anarchy. Science fiction can be a hopeful look to the years ahead, and it can also be a reflection of our anxieties about the present. Most folks tend to read superheroes as adolescent power fantasies. We want to have the brains of Iron Man, the raw power of the Hulk, the morality of Captain America. That’s why it’s easy to understand... Read More

John Wick Blasts His Way Into Our Hearts

February 12th, 2017

There are many reasons why I want a time machine. I’d like to see a live t-rex – from a safe distance, of course. I’d like to see The Beatles live, or stroll through the streets of Renaissance-era Venice. You do it like that, you don’t have to worry about screwing up the space-time continuum. But I know myself, and I know I’d eventually become highly irresponsible. I’d travel back to 1988, specifically to San Dimas, California. There, within San Dimas High School, I’d see the filming of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. During a break, I’d... Read More

Star Vehicle

January 1st, 2017

Dear reader, I have to be honest with you. I have a problem. As much as I want you to read this review of the new film Passengers, you really don’t need to read it. All you need to do is direct your eyeballs up a few inches to the picture of the pretty people, and everything you need to know is right there. Let me explain. In the background is Chris Pratt. He’s in sharp relief, handsome. He’s wearing a spacesuit, so that suggests he possesses a degree of competence most of us beta males are lacking. But his mind is in other places, evidenced by the fact that he’s staring... Read More

Batman v. Superman v. Me

March 27th, 2016

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 over the years. We’ve seen iterations of Superman as a paternal authority figure, a socialist crusader, and a Soviet hero. We’ve seen Batman as a revenge-driven psychopath, a bloodthirsty vampire, and a pop art goofball. Like any timeless character,... Read More