by John Lobell As we await Cloud Atlas, let’s look at a more modest spiritual movie from the past, Babette’s Feast, a 1987 Danish movie directed by Gabriel Axel, staring Stéphane Audran as Babette, and based on a story by Isak Dinesen. Babette’s Feast looks at the dual nature of out existence. In the […]
Midnight in Paris
by John Lobell Have you noticed that quite a few recent movies use non-linear layered time? In 50 First Dates, a man romantically pursues a woman who has suffered a brain injury affecting her long-term memory. Each night she loses all of the memories of the day, and wakes up the next morning thinking it […]
Groundhog Day, revisited
Groundhog Day is one of those movies that I will watch any time I come across it on TV. I have been thinking about why. Groundhog Day is a 1993 romantic comedy directed by Harold Ramis and staring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It was well received on release, but as is often the case […]
The Evolving American Myth, Part 1: The Chronicles of Riddick
by John Lobell The Chronicles of Riddick, directed in 2004 by David Twohy and staring Vin Diesel, has always been a favorite of mine. It had a poor critical reception and its gross did not make back its production, marketing, and distribution costs. However it has since seen success on DVD and television broadcasts. […]
More thoughts on Prometheus
by John Lobell An expedition goes to a remote planet where there was an outpost of beings from another world called the Engineers. The members of the expedition piece together that the Engineers had created life on earth, and that those on this outpost had created a vicious bio-weapon (the aliens of the Alien movies) […]
On The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games Reviewed by John Lobell First, this is a discussion of the movie; I have not read the books. Second, I am going to exercise some laziness and, for those not familiar with the story line, quote from Wikipedia to get us up to speed: “The story takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic […]
On Immortals
Immortals, Mythology and Metaphysics A Review by Benton Rooks “…Myth remains the proper language of metaphysics.” –Ananda K. Coomaraswamy There are three essential layers and functions for any mythology: social, psychological and metaphysical /spiritual. The dualistic social function varies significantly from culture to culture—myths have often been used by the media, Church and the State […]
Source Code
Source Code: A Movie Review by John Lobell [Spoiler alert] In my comment posted after Ebert’s review on this site of Inception, I wrote: “Notice that we have been getting a lot of movies with a non-linear, layered time, and notice that (most) audiences are totally comfortable with these movies.” I then went on to […]
Top 20 Films Since 1992
My Top 20 Films Since 1992 by John David Ebert After watching Quentin Tarantino’s list on You Tube and then realizing that absolutely none of his films overlap with my own list, I’ve decided, just for fun, to post that list here, with brief discussions of each film. Here they are, then, in order by […]
On Tron: Legacy
Tron: Legacy a Movie Review by John Lobell It is bad enough that movies have become so formulaic, but when they are, they could at least follow the rules of the formula. In Tron: Legacy, we have: – Search for and reconciliation with the father – Travel to the underworld for the completion of the […]
On Black Swan
Black Swan: A Movie Review by John Lobell A female ballet dancer in a New York Lincoln Center company has for too long been passed over, but now she has been chosen for a role in a reworked Swan Lake which will require her to dance both the role of the pure White Swan, and […]
On Skyline
Skyline: A Movie Review by John Lobell [Spoiler alert] Mummy movies begin with the 1932 film The Mummy starring Boris Karloff, and subsequent mummy movies follow the pattern it lays down. Our mummy, who has survived for thousands of years (by the miracle of tana leaves) is seeking to kill a contemporary woman whom he […]
Splice: A Movie Review
by John Lobell [Spoiler alert] First, some personal background. I have for the past few years been consulting on a project called Timeship, a $300 million project devoted to extreme life extension. Put simply, the developers of the project object to death and intend to “cure” it, finding the genetic cause of aging and turning […]
On Harry Brown
Harry Brown: A Movie Review (Actually more of a political comment). By John Lobell Harry Brown, with seventy-seven year old Michael Caine, is in the tradition of Death Wish but it most closely evokes eighty year old Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, even to the point of using the “Harry” from Eastwood’s earlier Dirty Harry movies. […]
On Clash of the Titans
Clash of the Titans: A Movie Review (Actually, more of a meditation) by John Lobell Ok, a mish mash of plots and stories, quarrels and backstabbing among the Greek gods (no Titans, despite the title), confused story lines, and lame dialogue. So, should we just appreciate the great special effects (love that Pegasus) and dismiss […]