Happy Friday the 13th. If you’re the superstitious kind, you might want to avoid this list entirely, as I list thirteen random facts about “Friday the 13th.” Perhaps you might learn something new about your friendly neighborhood movie critic.
You might also be surprised to see how much of an influence “Friday the 13th” and Jason Voorhees has had on my life.
Marvel and Disney have brought movie fans far and wide some of the strong, bravest and most beautiful heroines in cinematic history. While Marvel has a pretty good track record with female heroes, the Cinematic Universe has slowly but surely introduced a long gallery of fantastic and complex bad asses, some of whom are cinematic creations, while others brought in to the flesh from the pages of the comics. These are five of my favorite beauties from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Did I miss any of your favorites? Continue reading
Though director Lamont Johnson’s “You’ll Like My Mother” is generally well received, I found it to be a mostly flat thriller with a lot of the attempted suspense lost in translation. “You’ll Like My Mother” is a mix of “Misery” and “Flowers in the Attic,” in where a young woman tries to reconcile with her dead husband’s family and gets much more than she bargained for. The late Patty Duke plays Fran, a very pregnant young woman who ventures in to Minnesota in the dead of winter to visit her husband’s family and perhaps make peace with them.
Hey you can complain all you want about lack of female heroes and lack of African American Heroes and lack of Gay heroes in “Star Wars.” What about us? What about the Hispanics? We have nothing! And don’t come emailing me about the Extended Universe because it doesn’t count. For the short time he was in “The Force Awakens,” Poe Dameron made his mark, promising a riveting and unique star bound hero who took his X-Wing and kicked some dark side ass.
It’s apropos of Marvel to finally bring in Spider-Man to “Civil War.” Because while it is essential that he be introduced to a brilliant cinematic universe, he is representative of the underlying message behind “Civil War.” With great power comes great responsibility. After spending so many years doing battle with aliens and super powered foes, the Avengers are finally taking a toll on the world, and the government from all sides of the globe is angry at their inherent recklessness.
It’s very satisfying to see a director who understands Superman and gets the ideals and goals he strives for. Sure he’s a super man with god like abilities, but it’s not his place to bend humans to his will and make them follow his desires. At the end of the day, Superman understands the fragility of humanity, and he also comprehends that despite being a hero that’s taken on gods, and aliens, even the smaller problems count from time to time. Sarah is on her way out of the city set to venture out on her own and isn’t intent on going back home any time soon. While sitting in the park, she’s approached by a seemingly mundane bespectacled man in a blue suit who explains he’s a reporter.
She can’t understand why she’s so important, but the reporter is insistent and is abler to charm her enough to where she can open up to him for his “interview.” Director and writer Thomas spends the majority of the short film defining Superman and exploring common questions and themes that have alluded many people for decades about the character. Who else to understand Superman than Metropolis’ ace reporter Clark Kent? Soon enough, the pair are discussing the idea of beings with powers, humanity, and how we all matter in the scope of life, no matter how minute our problems may seem in the long run.
Erin Brown Thomas and John Nagle perform very well, providing fantastic chemistry and conveying the dynamic of wayward youth and wise hero well. John Nagle is the perfect Clark Kent and might even be a bang up Superman, presenting an excellent amount of humility and empathy to make him a noble crusader, even when he’s simply sitting around in a suit and tie. Thomas has a small budget to work with but aspires for larger than life storytelling, emulating the awe inspiring more misunderstood traits of Superman and conveying that it doesn’t take an actual superhero to change someone’s life and steer them in to promise and success. I hope we see more from Jake Thomas very soon. Hell, I’d even love to see him tackle Superman yet again.
Even without the hilarious small edits and cuts made by “Everything is Terrible!,” their film comprised of clips and long montages of bizarre footage from news reports is so funny and bizarre, it warrants watching twice, and heavy analyses. When we look back at the VHS generation, we can look back at “Everything is Terrible! The Movie” and either remember that the generation was not all peaches and cream, or was maybe even better than we remember. It’s tough to believe that so much of the unusual, silly, and over the top infomercials and instructional videos were paid for, and made for the utmost sincerity of selling us something or teaching us something.