Category: Film
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Saving No Country For The Band of Brothers
I just noticed this: They all have basically the same design. I love all three of these films so I don’t really care, but I just thought it was curious.
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Iron Man
I think us moviegoers have caught on to the whole Superhero Movie thing. We’ve learned that comic book superheroes are born out of a freak radioactive experiment gone wrong, or out of childhood anger, yadda yadda yadda. We know that evil villains will eventually be outsmarted and killed due to excessive monologuing. We’ve caught on…
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Macho, Macho Men: Vulnerability In ‘Casino Royale’ And ‘The Bourne Identity’
Originally published in the North Central Chronicle on April 25, 2008. John McClane, Rambo, the Terminator. They are the American Action Hero: muscular, terse, a killing machine. They favor spouting clever catchphrases and blowing stuff up over expressing emotion. To them, women are hors d’oeuvres best enjoyed while they serve cold dishes of revenge to…
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The Oscars — ‘Once’ Wins!
I got two of my Oscar picks wrong – not bad. I don’t remember why I didn’t pick Diablo Cody to win, but I’m glad she did. Yay for Once! It was pretty lame that Marketa Irglova got cut off, but pretty awesome that Jon Stewart gave her time later. The only reason why the…
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12 Angry Men
Published in the North Central Chronicle on Feb. 22, 2008, as part of a series called “Chad Picks Classic Flicks.” I was about 7 years old when O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder. I’ve seen the highlights—the slow-speed chase, O.J. struggling with the glove—but I don’t remember the sensational media coverage or the racial debates…
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Listen Up, Academy…
My 2007 ACADEMY AWARD PICKS: Best Picture Who will win: No Country for Old Men Who should win: No Country for Old Men Best Director Who will win: The Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men Who should win: The Coen Brothers Best Actor Who will win: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood…
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Lord of the Rings
The Turner Classic Movies channel is showing Academy Award winning films all day every day this month in a series called “31 Days of Oscar.” I watched Lord of the Rings: Return of the King last night and realized something. I would remember that trilogy for the rest of my life. I hadn’t read the…
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Standing Tall: Comparing ‘High Noon’ And ‘On The Waterfront’
Published in the North Central Chronicle on Jan. 25, 2008 “I have here in my hand…” said Senator Joseph McCarthy in February 1950, effectively hoodwinking the country into a hysterical anti-Communism era known as the Red Scare. McCarthy claimed the list identified 200 Communists within the American government, so he and the House Committee on…
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Best Films of 2007
Note: See an updated version of this list. 1) The Lives of OthersThis German film won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars last year, and boy, did it deserve it. Set in East Berlin during the Cold War, involving a member of the German secret police who spies on a dissident writer and soon finds…
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Some Like It Hot
Published in the North Central Chronicle on November 2, 2007, as part of a series called “Chad Picks Classic Flicks.” After tackling a few different genres—film noir, thriller, crime drama—all of which can take a heavy toll on your senses, I thought it best to visit a genre much older than the film medium and…