We understand that the Star Wars movies have exciting stories, loveable characters, and terrific sound editing. Forgive us if, for the remainder of the day, we remember it as a video art provocation that almost gave us a headache. Archer animator Marcus Rosentrater created Star Wars Wars (embedded above), a mashup of all six of […]
Continue readingEven in booming China, independent filmmakers struggle for funding and attention
Last month, we posted about the iffy state of film and television production credits in the United States. You might assume that the recent boom of China’s film industry has created a new market for incentives overseas, but evidently, the purse strings are tight there as well. Although major Hollywood “co-productions” like Iron Man 3 […]
Continue readingHead back to dino-school before seeing Jurassic World
What will blow up the box office this summer? Dino might. …okay, fine, we’re sorry. The point is that Jurassic World, the fourth movie in the Jurassic Park franchise, is going to be monstrously successful this weekend. Nearly every child of a certain age became obsessed with dinosaurs at the same time because of Jurassic […]
Continue readingWhat do we lose when we revive a TV series?
The next year will see new seasons of Heroes, The X-Files, Coach, Twin Peaks, Prison Break, Full House, and possibly Arrested Development or 24. Television shows long since canceled have found a second life in the increasingly diversified, well-funded world of digital programming. Surely TV fans of a certain generation looks forward to catching up […]
Continue readingNew Acquisitions – June 2015 – Part 1
As promised, we’re going to start updating you about our new acquisitions every two weeks. We just resumed purchasing for the summer, and the latest wave of titles has begun to pour in. For this most recent batch, our biggest acquisition is the complete run of the Helen Mirren-fronted British crime procedural Prime Supsect. You […]
Continue readingOregon Goonies fans never say die, but they’re getting on in years
Beloved 80s adventure movie The Goonies turned 30 last week. That’s a milestone you probably didn’t know or really care about, much like how you missed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie‘s 25th anniversary in March. But it was a big deal in Astoria, Oregon, the small northwest town where The Goonies was filmed. Over […]
Continue readingThe unexpected new life of Black Angel
Two years ago, we first told you about Black Angel, a recently unearthed lost film from 1980. Black Angel was an influential fantasy short film that played before The Empire Strikes Back during its first theatrical run; its practical effects and “step-printed” slow-motion paved the way for movies including Legend and Excalibur. But copies of […]
Continue readingPretentious-O-Meter picks out films on the critical-popular divide
Independent and art films are often unfairly criticized as “pretentious.” We’ve all slung that word around to attack a movie at some point, even though we probably enjoy some arty cinema ourselves. But the roots of that insult deserve some additional dissection: is a film really better or worse because critics and film buffs enjoy […]
Continue readingUnearthed transcript reveals the origins of Indiana Jones
The National Geographic Museum downtown recently opened an exhibit about Indiana Jones and the films’ connections to actual history. This had us thinking about our favorite tenured action hero. Coincidentally, a link has been making the rounds revealing how Indy got his start – and what he might have been in an early draft. In […]
Continue readingDid you know we have 3D glasses?
While we were rifling through our drawers earlier, we came across a little-known collection that goes along with a few of the DVDs in our collection: 3D glasses! Modern displays and theaters use advanced projection systems to achieve a 3D effect, but a few DVDs in our collection opt for an old-school solution. Apart from […]
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