“The Grudge,” a 2004 American film directed by Takashi Shimizu as an adaptation of his own 2002 masterpiece “Ju-On: The Grudge” (which is Japanese), is a very good horror movie. It has scary and iconic villains, a genuinely disturbing backstory, fine performances and a consistently creepy atmosphere. I highly recommend it… but, unlike many other fans of the American version of “The Grudge” series, I think “The Grudge 2” is the best installment.... Read Original Article
I had an hour-and-a-half to kill before New Year’s Day 2021 officially came to a close. That was just enough time to watch “The Grudge 3,” a movie I once described as the worst in the American version of “The Grudge” series, and see if my initial impression was wrong.
It wasn’t.... Read Original Article
I’ve written before that Steven Seagal the action film icon is quite different from Steven Seagal the real-life man. The actual Seagal has been accused of sexual misconduct and of being egomaniacal. He has, without question, cozied up with tyrants like Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and American President Donald Trump.... Read Original Article
As I write this review, Sir Ian McKellen is making headlines for being one of the first celebrities to publicly get a COVID-19 vaccine. Clearly he realizes that we must inoculate ourselves against deadly diseases and is using his celebrity status to set a good example. While it remains to be seen how much of the public will follow his lead with the coronavirus pandemic, one thing is clear: When he made a film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Richard III” in 1995 to inoculate the public against a different disease — that is, the disease of fascism — people did not heed his warning.... Read Original Article
Earlier this month I wrote an essay about the aesthetics of fascism, and at first glance “Coriolanus” seems like an easy story to turn to fascistic purposes. Indeed, many actual fascists have embraced William Shakespeare’s early 17th century play as their own, and when director/writer Ralph Fiennes updated the story by plopping it in a highly militarized early 21st century context, some wondered if he had gone fascist himself.... Read Original Article
I loved Roger Ebert, and he hated “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” which poses quite a conundrum for me. The legendary film critic didn’t just pan the movie, which was directed by Tom Stoppard (based on his 1966 play of the same name) and starred Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. He gave it zero stars out of four, arguing that “as a movie, this material, freely adapted by Stoppard, is boring and endless.... Read Original Article