If any of you have ever seen a sports movie, a romantic comedy, or anything that uses the term “uplifting” from a critic’s review in its trailer, then the “pick-me-up scene” should not be a foreign concept in the least.  Let me paint the picture for you: a negative turn of events has the main character slouching and sulking in his home, often in his underwear, lamenting how things turned out.  Then his sidekick/best friend/token comedy relief comes through the door to check…

                This is easily the most difficult review for a film I have done in over three years of doing them, and not just because of recent personal matters that delayed an output of analyses of classic films – which I do sincerely apologize for, by the way, so feel free to imagine me pelted with pseudo-butter sauce from your cinema’s popcorn machine, if it helps.  The bigger reason that this took so long is the subject matter of this documentary, and the personal empathy that I found…

Apologies for the delays, this should have been up a couple days ago but the week sort of blended together.  In all complete honesty, a great deal of personal matters (and mounds of snow seemingly pouring on the Northeast every other hour) has made it feel like the same day over and over lately.  Such an environment can make it hard to feel as inspired to pull different angles and means of using the electronic pen, so to speak.  So in order to get out of the rut, maybe this film can serve as…

For those moments when multiple interpretations are warranted, where opinion on the worth of a film is divided, or when you are just happy to exchange opinions with somebody, sometimes a single person's opinion isn't enough.  So with that in mind, this is the first of a number of DUAL REVIEWS, featuring my friend Greg from WatchHombres (http://watchhombres.blogspot.com).  Similar to Siskel and…

                At this point, there are currently about a dozen or so romance films being released each year.  Most of them are comedies that follow an annoyingly similar formula  – main characters meet by chance, wacky hijinks ensue (which you’ve likely seen in trailers), love develops, one character screws up and admits his folly (yeah, almost always the guy’s fault), they kiss, credits roll.  But what about films that follow them after love is…

               About midday yesterday, it was suggested by my father that I take a look at the most recent Dan Brown novel, “The Lost Symbol”.  There is a symbol of world-changing importance lost, Robert Langdon must find it, you get the basic formula for his stories.  I never read his previous books as a whole and was honestly skeptical when I began reading…I ended up putting it down after reading to the last page, following 16…

                Chances are, the following statement will automatically make me sound at least 23 years, 6 months, and 19 days older, but here goes: Kids today do not know how lucky they have it.  Silent films are an entirely different beast to tackle, needing to be incredibly selective about which lines of dialogue they post on the screen (by “post”, I mean “shoehorn in between actors maybe saying ‘peas and carrots’ to keep their…

                Over the course of this year, there will be moments when my reviews take longer because of personal matters and outside efforts.  But at other times, it will be because of what the film I am attempting to examine entails.  This one, in particular, is one that I vaguely remembered seeing before and somehow felt uneasy about seeing again.  Within 10 minutes of starting this film, I…

                If you want to call me a semi-hippie, that is fine; but in all honesty, diving into dark stories (especially war-related ones) is not exactly my forte.  If a fire hydrant shot out water on a street corner, you might notice me running underneath like it was a sprinkler on metal-enhancing steroids…whereas makers of a…

                OK, first extensive weekend of film watching.  Thank God my Steelers have until seven days from now to prepare….and that snow is starting to make mere retrieval of mail an act of practical senselessness.  You’ll get icicles on your inner thyroid before you can scrape the frost…

             In my mind, it is hard to admit when you have made a mistake in how you handle yourself, but harder still to adjust yourself in a way that gets rid of bad habits (namely, figuring out how to put aside a certain amount of time each day).  I guess what I am saying is that I am sorry for the delays caused by vacationing and travelling, I promise to plan ahead better…

In the rush of feeling the discovery of a great, great film (and a hopefully decent film series) yesterday, I forgot to mention that there will be times that I will be travelling around.  Depending on which time zone I am in, what passes for me as “evening” may be “man, it is so late and there is no way in Satan’s backyard I am going to stay up waiting for…

           Looking ahead at this project, in many ways, feels like trying to find the best way to crawl through five football fields of steaming, garden-fresh sewage.  Regardless of how you trek through, smelling like peaches is probably not a realistic goal to have.  But at the same time, a breath of fresh air can reveal itself…

Greetings Spill Members! (Insert cheesy "HALLELUJAH!" theme here)

Well, it took a great deal of sweat (digital), blood (metaphorical) and tears (....no comment), but your requests, numerous lists, and a bit of my own preferences have finally finished one year-long, 420-film calendar of classic cinema for 2011!

(Noise of rousing standing ovation can be heard)...No, please...thank you, thank you very much...

Don't worry, I am just kidding,…

Hey Spill Members,

After a bit of time away from the Spill network, in order to complete college and summer work, a little itch in the back of my mind has continued to push me to return to movie reviewing. But after taking a step back, I have realized something about my understanding of cinema.

In terms of awareness of classic films, it sucks.

Maybe it was being mired between everything from Twilight:New Moon and The Dark…