CategoryForeign
International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.
913 stories
DocumentariesForeignIndieMoviesStreaming TVTrue Story
…with “other things being equal, simpler explanations are generally better than more complex ones.” — Occam’s Razor Read the above statement on Occam’s Razor. This post is about the “docuseries” Making a Murderer, the Netflix “docuseries” that has a second season coming. This post is not about whether Steven Avery is guilty or innocent. It is not about whether there are injustices in our legal system. We know there are. This piece is about the cynicism behind making a piece of entertainment disguised as social crusading. I was inspired to write this after trying to make my point in a series of online tweets. There was backlash from people who made it about a social cause, and that I was ignoring the issues in our criminal justice system. My point was simple: Making a Murderer is not about the correction of our legal system or justice for a man wrongly accused. The series is about entertainment. Manipulation Set aside your
Continue reading →
Comic Books/Graphic NovelsDocumentariesForeignIndieInterviewsProductReviews
To Clear A Few Things Up A few myths need to be dispelled about the 1980 Robin Williams film, Popeye. It was NOT a boxoffice failure. It was made for 20 million and grossed well over 60 million. While deemed a “disappointment” by Paramount Pictures, it hardly failed. 2. It is NOT Robin Williams’s worst film. I will argue it is his best, hands down. Like Williams and its director, the film paid a price for breaking away from formula. Popeye is fucking art, so there, I said it. Popeye fought Cynema and lost the first few battles, but I think it won the war. It was Robin Williams’s first film, and almost his last. It’s been called a mess, incomprehensible, a misfire, a disaster and a bomb. Bear with me as I show how this unique film stands up against Cynema. I’ll also lay out how this film reflects the present attitudes between industry and audience. Years after I
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsStreaming TV
‘[REC] 4: Apocalypse’, the follow up to 2012’s ‘[REC] 3: Genisis’, follows TV reporter Angela Vidal (Velasco) as she is rescued from a quarantined, zombie infested building. Angela is then transported, along with the men who rescued her, to a converted oil tanker out at sea. The boat has been converted into a floating medical research lab. The doctors on board believe that Angela may be carrying the key to curing the virus, a parasite. When someone lets loose an infected test subject, the virus spreads through the passengers, Angela and a few uninfected survivors must band together and fight to survive. Something tells me we will see another movie in the franchise, the ending was left open and set up perfectly for another movie, which I would be happy to watch. Director Jaume Balaguero co-wrote ‘[REC] 4’ along side Manu Diez, who also wrote ‘[REC] 2’, did an amazing job of creating a zombie/infection movie that really makes for
Continue reading →
More from Foreign
DocumentariesForeignIndieMoviesStreaming TVTrue Story
…with “other things being equal, simpler explanations are generally better than more complex ones.” — Occam’s Razor Read the above statement on Occam’s Razor. This post is about the “docuseries” Making a Murderer, the Netflix “docuseries” that has a second season coming. This post is not about whether Steven Avery is guilty or innocent. It is not about whether there are injustices in our legal system. We know there are. This piece is about the cynicism behind making a piece of entertainment disguised as social crusading. I was inspired to write this after trying to make my point in a series of online tweets. There was backlash from people who made it about a social cause, and that I was ignoring the issues in our criminal justice system. My point was simple: Making a Murderer is not about the correction of our legal system or justice for a man wrongly accused. The series is about entertainment. Manipulation Set aside your
Continue reading →
Comic Books/Graphic NovelsDocumentariesForeignIndieInterviewsProductReviews
To Clear A Few Things Up A few myths need to be dispelled about the 1980 Robin Williams film, Popeye. It was NOT a boxoffice failure. It was made for 20 million and grossed well over 60 million. While deemed a “disappointment” by Paramount Pictures, it hardly failed. 2. It is NOT Robin Williams’s worst film. I will argue it is his best, hands down. Like Williams and its director, the film paid a price for breaking away from formula. Popeye is fucking art, so there, I said it. Popeye fought Cynema and lost the first few battles, but I think it won the war. It was Robin Williams’s first film, and almost his last. It’s been called a mess, incomprehensible, a misfire, a disaster and a bomb. Bear with me as I show how this unique film stands up against Cynema. I’ll also lay out how this film reflects the present attitudes between industry and audience. Years after I
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsStreaming TV
‘[REC] 4: Apocalypse’, the follow up to 2012’s ‘[REC] 3: Genisis’, follows TV reporter Angela Vidal (Velasco) as she is rescued from a quarantined, zombie infested building. Angela is then transported, along with the men who rescued her, to a converted oil tanker out at sea. The boat has been converted into a floating medical research lab. The doctors on board believe that Angela may be carrying the key to curing the virus, a parasite. When someone lets loose an infected test subject, the virus spreads through the passengers, Angela and a few uninfected survivors must band together and fight to survive. Something tells me we will see another movie in the franchise, the ending was left open and set up perfectly for another movie, which I would be happy to watch. Director Jaume Balaguero co-wrote ‘[REC] 4’ along side Manu Diez, who also wrote ‘[REC] 2’, did an amazing job of creating a zombie/infection movie that really makes for
Continue reading →
