Retro Reviews & More

Underappreciated, Too Last week , I began a new series on underappreciated films with 2008's  Terminator Salvation . The series in February was focused on lower budget movies (beginning here ), but this round is (of course) not. It might be a bit more difficult to gauge a film with a big budget as underappreciated because the expectations are so high. But, then again, maybe it is not, since to be underappreciated is simply to deserve better response, from either its audience or critics, or both. Here is number two of three underappreciated films that were meant to be blockbusters. RoboCop (2014) | Sci-Fi Action Big surprise, I am a fan of another franchise that prominently features a cyborg. From previous posts, it may have been less evident than Terminator , with only the 1987-1993 RoboCop trilogy as a contender in an " Into the Fray " and brief mentions in a couple of other previous posts. Full disclosure, I have watched through the 1994 live action series. It only la...

Underappreciated As stated in the previous series of Underappreciated posts, beginning here , sometimes a substantial amount of money is spent so a film can make an even larger profit. The subject films of that series were not these, but I always planned to return to them. As a reminder as to what makes a film underappreciated, it simply deserved better audience and/or critical response than it received. Granted, external factors sometimes keep audiences away, but my opinion is simply comparing lower than expected reception to the final product. Here is the first of three films in my blu-ray collection that are unappreciated in my opinion. Terminator Salvation (2009) | Sci-Fi War Action I think my fandom for the Terminator franchise is obvious if you've followed along with every post. To recap, I had to split my timeline theory, which is more appropriately a (more or less) linear timeline theory, into four posts beginning here , I reviewed the threequels in the +/- format in anot...

SEVENSES Westerns Welcome to the first edition of Sevenses, a new type of post. The idea started as a list of seven items that ranked supreme in a category, but then I realized that concept is too similar to  tier lists so this is an opportunity to write an opinion piece without that level of contention. So, what is Sevenses? It is taking a similar group of films such as genre or those who have featured the same main character many times (like Batman, a probable future edition) and choosing standouts. High quality, according to my opinion, is a given. But some entries might have a unique trait to make them distinct or the best of a subgenre, and there may be others not included that are actually better films overall. In other words, it may not be a list ranked 1 through 7, but all would grade high enough if doing so. (Instead, I use release order.) Last thing, a rule of sorts, I must own the film in a home media format to be considered. I will likely include an abridged version of...

STAR WARS Continuity Theories After reviewing all three trilogies (start here ), the timing is right for this post. To date, the Star Wars franchise includes eleven live action films, one animated film, and several  animated and live action  television series, each consisting of a number of seasons ranging from one to seven. These make up the canon Disney established shortly after acquiring of LucasFilm in 2012  and have created  since. With such a large volume spanning nearly five decades (and more to come), there are bound to be some instances of broken and questionable continuity. The six original George Lucas-era films have particularly been the source of much internal debate and shared what if's and could be's for anyone that would listen and the genesis of my proclivity to form film theories. Before I get into it, a couple of things to note: 1. If any explanation has been offered in media outside the films and series, I am not considering these because the main...

BurtonVerse: The Tier List The whole concept of the tier list has always fascinated me. Its beginnings are as a means to rank how powerful the characters of fighting games are, particularly Super Smash Bros.  But it caught on to share the opinions on a wide variety of topics. For me, the appeal is the organization of something we all do to a point anyway. There are those with the notion that there should be one and only one [S] and one and only one [F], but I disagree. Otherwise, why not just make a list of 1., 2., 3., etc. I do agree with limiting the number to few, but it saves one from having to choose a single favorite and/or least favorite. While working on my BurtonVerse Theory , I devised the idea of a tier list of the films, considered as standalone as intended, below. It contains all twenty features, the nineteen Tim Burton directed plus The Nightmare Before Christmas . The images are snips from the theatrical release poster. The only ranking otherwise is release order. A ...