Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs
All four previous entries of the franchise use a time-traveling event as the kernel of a larger story, and the best two films (which I don’t even need to name explicitly) relegate this to the very beginning of the first act. Terminator: Genisys limps along its narrative by using time-travel plot elements like a crutch. … Read more
Today, an article in Variety details the struggle to prevent far-right wing elements of French politics from stamping Gaspar Noé’s Love with an Under-18 rating (our equivalent of NC-17 in the States). The piece is articulate and informative, and likely portends the difficulties that Love will face in other nations as well. If you’re at … Read more
Over the last week or so, details regarding a pair of space adventure sequels have started rolling in, and while there isn’t much to interpret as of yet, I do think it is interesting to consider the choices being made by these two franchises. I am speaking, of course, of the Star Trek franchise, and … Read more
If you’ll recall, a couple of weeks ago The Martian was moved up over two months for an October 2nd release. There, it will compete with the Robert Zemekis film The Walk and Brian Helgeland’s Legend, starring Tom Hardy (twice). And, while we’ve had a couple of different looks at The Walk (which I always … Read more
This whole week has been a whirlwind of casting news, kicked off by the announcement of the new Spiderman. Again, castings that were supposedly set in stone (and reported upon in the movie news) have proven less solid by the time the ink finally dried. In this case, Alicia Vikander has officially been named the … Read more
When the Independence Day sequel is released next year, it will be just shy of 20 years after the original alien invasion disaster film debuted. Fox has announced that the film will officially be titled Independence Day: Resurgence and has provided a brief synopsis. In the years since the invasion, humanity has reverse-engineered the alien … Read more
When reacting to the trailer for Joe Dante’s Burying the Ex, I remarked that it could be interesting to use the zombie story as a metaphor for a doomed or stale relationship. This film barrels down that road with fervor, and the result is an awkward on-screen relationship that despite literally decaying, just will not … Read more
You would be forgiven for thinking that the powers that be had already decided on the new Spiderman for the second reboot of the beloved web-slinger and his introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Many movie news outlets were quick to anoint Asa Butterfield a couple of months ago, but all of them were quick … Read more
What the Hell is this Dragon Blade trailer? When was the last time that a swords and sandal epic was actually worth anything? Well, here we get a major film produced in China starring Adrien Brody, John Cusack, and Jackie Chan. The film was originally titled, “Tian jiang xiong shi”; literally, “Celestial General, Heroic Army” … Read more
