Our Movie-Themed Amusement Park

The time of year has come when we dutiful Americans shove our families into tightly packed cars and head off to giant, overpriced amusement parks! Crying children in the back, sleeping spouse in the passenger seat, and a strong urge to drive headlong into an eighteen wheeler if only to save yourself from the agony

Continue Reading →

The Injuries of Indiana Jones, Cataloged

Whether Nazis, Communists, or Thuggees, Indiana Jones fights them all, and he gets his share of bruises and beatings. But just how much damage does he take in the course of his adventures? How many concussions has the great archeologist suffered while fighting the most evil of evil jerks around? We kept track. Here’s a handy movie-by-movie summary. .

Continue Reading →

The Lost Versus

Movie audiences love great action, and they love it more when they care about the characters. From Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman to Batman v Superman to Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, the overpriced-popcorn-loving set rush to the local cinema to watch what goes down when two classics come together to settle the most important question mankind

Continue Reading →

There’s a Marx Brother for Every Stage of Life

For close to 90 years, the world of pop culture has been influenced by four brothers from New York. Their look has sold millions of “nose glasses” and novelty wigs. Their faces have graced the walls of movie theaters, been spray-painted onto walls, and turned into shirts and posters. They’ve shown up in cartoons, comic

Continue Reading →

U.S. History in Film Part 2: 1914-2008

Welcome back! Last time, we took a look at movies based on U.S. history from Columbus to the end of the 19th century, and boy did we have fun! But there’s still plenty of history to cover, so we better get back in the groove. And what better place to jump back in than what

Continue Reading →

U.S. History in Film Part 1: 1492-1908

George Santayana isn’t a household name, but something he said is one of the best-known quotations in human history: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As a bit of a history buff, I’m a big fan of that quote, and I think it is, for the most part, very true. If

Continue Reading →

Buy My Drink! The Art of Product Placement

Product placement has been around for a long time. Like, super-long. We tend to think of it in terms of movies and TV shows, but the truth is, the concept was in use well before the Lumière brothers were born. Perhaps the first notable use of product placement was in Jules Verne’s classic novel, Around

Continue Reading →