For this week’s episode, Travis and I talk about Overlord, the new WWII/Zombie epic. Because this film is set entirely in France, we’ll be drinking a selection of French wines.
Todd Wofford
Columbia Pictures
An unwavering sense of duty cinches tight around the soul of James Stevens, the central character in The Remains of the Day. This singular focus makes Stevens an impeccable butler, but it also forms a tourniquet, choking off the pathways to love and happiness. Stevens takes great pride in his work until he finds, with…
A strange cinematic bisque, Overlord so effectively stirs genuinely jarring horror elements into a gripping war movie until it's impossible to distinguish the ingredients in the pot. It somehow combines tropes that have survived throughout decades of movies and books and video games into something new and...can you use the word "refreshing" about a movie that features so many Nazi entrails? To hell with it--I'm using it, anyway. Overlord is ballsy, well-made, and--if you're not terribly squeamish--a damn good time.
D r. Seuss' evergreen opus about an evergreen grouch was not a story that cried out to be remade. The 60s Christmas cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones and guided by Boris Karloff's grinning baritone, has long since qualified as timeless. Ron Howard and Jim Carrey went live-action, a move that only underlined how well-enough should…
T he first fifteen minutes of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms spark with real imagination and wonder: Long-ago London is vividly recreated, with snowflakes flitting soundlessly to the cobblestones. Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite teases on the soundtrack during an elegant dance scene, replete with billowing ballgowns and Morgan Freeman handing out enchanted presents, and....damn it, Christmas is…
I t's telling that Freddie Mercury chose to pepper his mansion with cats, maybe because their personality traits mirrored his own: As a man, Mercury was proud, unapologetically high-strung, and ferociously independent. As a rock god, he burned onstage like an incandescent singularity, his shimmering voice serving as a conduit for Queen's pounding arena anthems.…
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M y high school humanities teacher was an adorably quirky woman who had a saying: "The only new invention of the 20th Century was artificial snow. Everything else was done before." I'm not sure how well that statement holds up to scrutiny, but I do enjoy the sentiment behind it. If what's past is truly…
I f you love classic movies, Five Easy Pieces is one you gotta see. It's one of the top ten American films of the 1970s, in my opinion. If Easy Rider made Jack Nicholson a name, this is where he became a superstar. His character is a meandering, boozy no-account who must return home to his family of wealthy…
