The Hateful Eight: A Gluttonous Appetite for Debauchery

Early in The Hateful Eight, John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell) encounters Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), warning him to move slowly – “molasses-like” – while keeping his firearm fixed on the stranger. You could say that the film itself is comparably molasses-like; dense and dark in its substance while deliberately unhurried in its…

Bruce Dern in Black Sunday (1977)

Black Sunday (1977)

As a disaster movie, Black Sunday feels almost quaint compared to the destruction reaped in modern superhero films; the film sees the Goodyear blimp descend upon the Superbowl, laden with plastic explosives, a threat level a few notches below Superman tossing Zod through Metropolis’s skyscrapers or the Chitauri laying waste to Manhattan. The difference between…

Awards Roundup – Family, Liebster, Sunshine Awards

(Note: this post does not follow the normal 200-word word limit of this blog) First up – I’ve been pretty slack when it comes to posting these awards. This is mostly because I’m still venturing my way into the blogosphere (if that’s even a word), and partly because it was basically impossible to do an…

The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)

When you go to see a kung fu hip-hop opera (hip-hopera!) directed, written, narrated by and starring the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, you have a clear expectation. You’re not looking for a sophisticated drama; what you’re after is bombastic kung fu battles scored with the best rap around. The Man with the Iron Fists delivers that…