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For a current-day viewer to contemplate how Around the World in 80 Days won the 1957 Best Picture Oscar (in addition to four other statuettes), either imagination or time-travel is required. (The latter being more appropriate for H.G. Wells th...

The scenario presented in Arrival isn’t new - motion pictures have been dramatizing an event of this sort almost since moving images first flickered on a big screen. We wonder about it, dream about it, imagine it, and write about it. Popular te...

The biggest alien invasion picture of the summer of 1996 is Independence Day. But it's not the first. The Arrival, with a significantly lower budget than Fox's July 3 release, has that distinction, and, while this particular film doesn't boast an...

For Art School Confidential, director Terry Zwigoff has re-teamed with Daniel Clowes for an offbeat and bitingly satirical look at the college era coming of age story. Considering Zwigoff's resume, which includes Bad Santa and Ghost World (based o...

What is it about fantasy novels that makes them so difficult to translate effectively to the silver screen? It’s not impossible – J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings adaptations are proof that i...

It's amazing how a lifeless, pointless remake can provoke pangs of nostalgia about a mediocre movie. Such is the case with Arthur. The kindest thoughts I have ever experienced about the 1981 original occurred while I was watching Russell Brand and...

When it comes to Christmas movies, although most are quickly forgotten, a select few go on to become touchstones, beloved and re-watched by families year after year after year. Arthur Christmas may have what it takes to join the latter category. Wi...

As Good as It Gets is a perfect Christmas release, not because the story takes place during the Yule season, but because many of the plot elements are straight out of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. There's more than just a little Scrooge in M...

Ash doesn’t claim to be a re-imagining of John Carpenter’s version of The Thing, but one would have at least expected some sort of credit to be given to the 1982 movie. The earlier film’s DNA is so deeply infused into this production that it...

For anyone who doesn’t remember the media popularity of Dr. Ruth Westheimer during the 1980s, Ask Dr. Ruth (a documentary made for the Hulu platform) may be little more than a curiosity – a competently mounted film providing insight into a...