Retro Reviews & More

Welcome to another edition of "Into the Fray". Being that there has only been the one post ( the special 50th one ) in between this and the last,  I will be brief in explaining what "Into the Fray" is. Four contenders are chosen based on criteria, scored based on another somewhat overlapping set, and a winner is determined from those scores. Today's is meant to be a companion to the last one on opening scenes , and a better idea can be obtained by additionally reading the ones on sequels , (unplanned) trilogies , and Batman (actors). Into the Fray: Ending Scene What does one want from a movie's ending scene? Using the same comparisons as with "Into the Fray: Opening Scene", it is much like the last chapter or epilogue of a book or the final portion or coda of a song. The audience should know it has ended (so a song performed live to avoid the simple fade-out of some), and it should feel like the natural conclusion to all that has preceded it. It ...

Welcome to the 50th post of Retro Reviews & More!  Last week , I promised something special. When I launched the blog over two-and-a-half years ago, I did so with five posts on the Terminator film series, first, a four-parter on timeline theories,  1  The Terminator  | T2 , 2  T3 | Salvation , 3  Genisys , and  4  Dark Fate , and then finally, " +/- Reviews of the Threequels ". In that fifth post, I mentioned potentially revisiting the other "threequel", the television series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles , and for both theory and review purposes, which I always intended as a promise, as well. But before we get to that, I wanted to mention two things I have worked on to prepare for this 50th post. First, I recreated the original four timelines and updated those posts with the new images (it always bothered me that the screenshots had the markup for spelling and grammar "errors"). It was recreated faithfully, aside from a few b...

Welcome to the fourth edition of "Into the Fray". It's been two years since the last one on Batman , more specifically how the character was portrayed by certain actors. So, as is a common occurrence since I revived this blog, here is the rundown of what "Into the Fray" is. I take four contenders for a topic that have been picked by certain criteria and then score them against each other with another set of criteria, often with some overlap between the two. The purpose is to declare a winner based on an equitable measure. To get a better idea, please click here for the one on sequels , here for the one on (unplanned) trilogies , and here for the aforementioned one on Batman . Into the Fray: Opening Scene What does one want from a movie's opening scene? Purely from an artistic standpoint and also to me, it is much like the first chapter of a book or the introductory bars of a song. It's the hook, and to a point, it should establish direction for the re...

Introduction: It's Retro Review time again! It has not been terribly long since the last one on Ghostbusters , but a reminder is always a good thing in my opinion. A retro review is taking an older film and writing a critique as though it has recently released. It works best with a franchise with a recent entry, and preferably one with a number of them in between. That is because the intent is to subtly, facetiously include the context of the history since the subject film. Sometimes the best way to "get the idea" is with examples, so please check out ones on A Christmas Story , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , and miniature versions on the films of Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology , in addition to the aforementioned Ghostbusters . I use a review format that follows the name of the final film of Sergio Leone's Man with No Name Trilogy , The Good, the Bad and the Ugly . Good and bad aspects are typical elements of a good review, so I always feel the need to explain w...

BurtonVerse Theory: Revised  Timeline and Stats & Trivia Abbreviations used are as follows: Fw 84 =  Frankenweenie  (1984) PwBA  =  Pee-wee's Big Adventure ES  =  Edward Scissorhands BR  =  Batman Returns TNBC  =  The Nightmare Before Christmas EW  =  Ed Wood MA!  =  Mars Attacks! SH  =  Sleepy Hollow POTA  =  Planet of the Apes BF  =  Big Fish CATCF  =  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory CB  =  Corpse Bride ST  =  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street AIW  =  Alice in Wonderland DS  =  Dark Shadows Fw 12   =  Frankenweenie  (2012) BE  =  Big Eyes MP  =  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children BB  =  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice While I chose to post the entire revised BurtonVerse Theory last time, updates to behind the scenes, statistics and trivia will be in one go. The origin...

BurtonVerse Theory: Revised Abbreviations used are as follows: Fw 84 =  Frankenweenie  (1984) PwBA  =  Pee-wee's Big Adventure ES  =  Edward Scissorhands BR  =  Batman Returns TNBC  =  The Nightmare Before Christmas EW  =  Ed Wood MA!  =  Mars Attacks! SH  =  Sleepy Hollow POTA  =  Planet of the Apes BF  =  Big Fish CATCF  =  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory CB  =  Corpse Bride ST  =  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street AIW  =  Alice in Wonderland DS  =  Dark Shadows Fw 12   =  Frankenweenie  (2012) BE  =  Big Eyes MP  =  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children BB = Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Since I began formulating my BurtonVerse theory , two seasons of the Netflix series  Wednesday and the sequel to Tim Burton's second feature film Beetlejuice , aptly named Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,...