You can find the full list of the top 100 blockbusters since 1972 here, as well as an index for other posts in this series. It’s a well-worn bit of trivia that the Death Star trench run in Star Wars, which I think would get my vote for “the most exciting twelve minutes in movies,”… Read More Top 100 Blockbusters of the Multiplex Era: Eschatology
As many of you were, I was inspired by the list released by Empire on Thanksgiving this year. It is, a little cheekily, titled “The 100 Greatest Movies,” and I say cheekily because there’s no way that the people publishing this can possibly imagine that these are, by any standard, the one hundred greatest movies.… Read More Top 100 Blockbusters of the Multiplex Era: Introduction
As any true -holic knows, a little grace goes a long way. As I read through and listened to dozens of Best of the Decade lists, I tried to apply a truth I’d always kept close about list-making: it’s about what’s not on the list as much as it is what’s there. To some extent,… Read More Top 100 Movies of the Decade (2010-2019): The Painful Cuts
Dir. J.J. Abrams. Starring Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega There are spoilers, but can you spoil something that was already rotten? Ha! Ha! Ha! This would be a bad movie even if The Last Jedi had never existed, one reliant on lame screenwriting, quests which are urgent but never important, and a centrist distaste for bloodletting.… Read More Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Dir. Ron Howard, sort of. Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Joonas Suotamo The biggest problem with Solo is everything that happens after the gang gets to Savareen. The secondary villains, who wear all sorts of interesting helmets, take off their interesting helmets and reveal that they are good guys after all. There’s another melee fight… Read More Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Tim: Matt has an entertaining question to lead us off with today for our discussion of reboots. Matt: Are these Conversations a reboot of the podcast? Tim: Here we are, living in our own little rebooted nightmare where we can no longer just say things, but where we must type all of our thoughts instead.… Read More Baumann and Burch Conversations #9: Reboots
Tim: Glad to report we’re back for another conversation. Also glad to report that this one may have less structure in mind than any previous conversation we’ve had. (That we’re typing and putting on a blog. I have no doubt this would not even register in real life.) Howdy, Matt. Matt: I’m wondering how many… Read More Baumann and Burch Conversations #8: Trilogies
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 15-11
Dir. Rian Johnson. Starring Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver Spoilers below. If you love bar scenes, then Star Wars is historically a pretty good bet for you. There have been three Star Wars movies which make a Death Star the centerpiece of their plots; there are at least three Star Wars movies which place… Read More Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
The following is part of an overview of the top 100 American narrative fiction feature films, from my perspective. For an introduction to the project and an index of other entries in the series, click here. For a list of more than 800 films which I considered for the top 450 and my eligibility qualifications, click here.… Read More Better than AFI’s Top 100: 25-21
Seeing Things Secondhand 