Posted: December 27, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alan Tudyk, Ben Mendelsohn, Chris Platt, Chris Seitz, Diegan Luna, Felicity Jones, Gareth Edwards, Jennifer Lawrence, Jon Spaihts, Lawrence Fishburne, Mads Mikkelsen, Michael Sheen, Morten Tyldum, Passengers, Peter Cushing, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Tony Gilroy | 1,093 Comments »
For questions: hcasner@aol.com
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Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
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Warning: SPOILERS
In film, Sci-Fi has often been divided into two categories: adult science fiction, stories that capture the mind and are more philosophical and questioning in nature; and pop culture Sci-Fi, stories that are more escapist and less challenging where the grey cells are concerned.
Perhaps no better year can define this dichotomy than 1977 when the original Star Wars was released the same year as Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Critics often claim, or have a prejudice, that adult sci-fi is inherently superior or preferably to pop culture sci-fi. And I do have to admit, if truth be forceably told, I tend to prefer the former to the latter. But there is never a guarantee that one is going to be better than the other. In fact, in the end, the one that is better is simply the one that is better, and the reason why it is better is because, when all is said and done, it’s the, well… better one. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 31, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ben Mendelsohn, Black Sea, Demet Akbag, Dennis Kelly, Ebru Ceylan, Haluk Bilginer, Jude Law, Kevin McDonald, Melisa Sӧzen, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Scoot McNairy, Winter Sleep | 2,659 Comments »
First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
After WWII, Germany was being fought over by the Western Powers (England, France and the U.S.) and the Russians. They ended up splitting the country in half, in a riff on that Solomon and baby thing.
In Black Sea, a new action film written by Dennis Kelly and directed by Kevin McDonald, cold war politics come back to haunt the characters as a submarine crew made up of equal parts British and Russian go on the hunt for some Nazi gold with the goal of splitting it between the two.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Before I continue, I should reemphasize how I start these reviews: Warning: SPOILERS.
I feel I should do this because there will be spoilers. My god, will there be spoilers, spoilers galore. They will flow like the River Nile and spray the canvas like the drops flung forth from a fighter’s broken nose during a Mixed Martial Arts bout.
They will flow because I found the plot to Black Sea to be one of the most preposterous ones I’ve come across in some time. Read the rest of this entry »