A Study in Disney: 'The Little Mermaid' (1989)
Disney is as much a part of our [...]
Comedy
8-Bit Christmas (2021)
Beyond my old standards, I guess I’ve reached the point at which I’ve stopped looking for the next big Christmas classic – that movie that will couch itself among my annual perennials like It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street and Elf and A Christmas Story and even Die Hard. You can’t force […]
Black Friday (2021)
It is hard to dismiss the horror-comedy Black Friday for ambition, however on the level of execution you admit to yourself that it never quite makes it to the winner’s circle. That’s too bad because a Christmas zombie picture featuring horror icons Devon Sawa and Bruce Campbell could and should be a lot better. It […]
Coming 2 America (2021)
I had a knee-jerk reaction going into Coming 2 America and it’s not without prior experience. Comedy sequels have a long-standing history of offering up less-than-nothing, from Ghostbusters II to Men in Black II to Revenge of the Nerds II to Home Alone 2 they’re almost always a hollow cash-grab, a cynical exercise in which […]
Unholy Relics: Appreciating the Goofy Charm of ‘Batman the Movie’ at 55
As a movie and as a TV series “Batman” belongs in a time capsule, not of Batman lore but of a loving tribute to the pop sensation of the swinging 60s. To watch it again after almost 50 years is to be reminded of a time when television – and for that matter pop culture […]
Wild Mountain Thyme (2020)
Wild Mountain Thyme is one of those confectionary baubles that takes up an hour or two of your time, does little to nothing important and then starts exiting your brain twenty minutes before it is over. I’ve just seen it and I find that I have to write this review rather quickly before it completely […]
The Pod Bay Doors Podcast, Episode #83: City Lights (1931)
This week, Jerry and Doug revisit Charlie Chaplin and discuss his masterpiece City Lights (1931). Pull up a chair, put a flower in your lapel, and don’t forget us when you’re sober.
Isle of Dogs (2018)
Wes Anderson takes to whimsy like a duck to water. It must be in his bones, he knows how to conceptualize it in a way that is droll and wry but never forced. After 20 years one might think that his bag of whimsical drollery might be wearing out its welcome, but not so fast. […]
I Love You, Daddy (2017)
You know how they say that in show business timing is everything? Well, someone might well have listened. In the midst of a sexual misconduct roll call that has already sucked up Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, now Louis C.K. falls into the fray in the midst of confirmation of rumors that, over the course […]
