Long-Form Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs
Ever since those in charge of the Harry Potter franchise decided that they could make an extra movie near the end without anyone really caring, it has been a common practice, and the story usually suffers. It was the same with The Hunger Games franchise, as the first part of the final book was all … Read more
A sequel to a great film has to find a Goldilocks zone between two guaranteed recipes for failure. Should the sequel exploit the success of the original and attempt to re-tell the same story, it will feel derivative and add nothing. This is epitomized by The Hangover sequels. At the other end of the spectrum, … Read more
Last week we only had a few stills from Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the Andy Weir novel The Martian, but we have started this week off with a bang, receiving not only a neat little viral marketing video, but also a full-length trailer spanning three-and-a-half minutes! Clearly, the marketing department for this flick has decided … Read more
All you c-section babies can bail, though. I’ve already written about the new adaptation of The Scottish Play with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in my Cannes Film Festival piece, but today they released the first trailer for Macbeth. It is bleak and gorgeous, offering an aesthetic more similar to the grime of Braveheart than … Read more
There is an undercurrent of awkwardness in almost every large-scale disaster movie that is very difficult to shake, and it is especially evident in San Andreas. The movie very badly wants to tell us the story of heroism in the face of abject disaster – and to do that the narrative necessarily focuses on a … Read more
If you’re at all like me, then the second Jesse Eisenberg + Kristen Stewart pairing on the big screen might have evaded your feelers. I feel like I heard about American Ultra at some point, but may have dismissed it initially – even though I relatively enjoyed Adventureland (it wasn’t anything special, and I must … Read more
With all the horn-blowing I have been doing for Inside Out, it sometimes slips my mind that we’re actually due for a second Disney / Pixar film in 2015 with The Good Dinosaur being released in late November, marking the first time we get two Pixar features in the same year. So far, we’ve been … Read more
With May over, my first full month of blogging on Plot and Theme has concluded, and I am having a great time so far talking movies and trailers and news. This got me thinking that it might be fun to spend the first day of each month looking back on what was successful from the … Read more
In this century, properties like Twilight, Vampire Academy, and even things like Underworld and Blade have infantilized the vampire genre. These films are overtly focused on either relationship drama for the girls or supernatural action for the boys, leaving very few recent vampire movies capable of approaching these creatures of the night and their mythology … Read more
Keeping in line with the horror comedy of something like Zombeavers, I watched the trailer for Burying the Ex. Here, we are introduced to Max (Anton Yelchin, of Star Trek fame) and his relationship problems. For reasons that are unclear (though not particularly important), he wants to break up with his girlfriend Evelyn (Ashley Greene) … Read more