The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
SimilarBatman (1989), Batman & Robin (1997), Batman Forever (1995), Constantine (2005), Ghost Rider (2007), Sin City (2005), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Terminator Salvation (2009), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Matrix (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999),
Studio20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Productions,
One of the things I enjoy most about the moviegoing experience is coming out of a film feeling as if I've actually learned something that I didn't know before, or had not even occurred to me in the first place. That's exactly the feeling that I got while watching Sam Pollard’s The League, a documentary about the history of Negro baseball leagues in America. Going in, I suppose I knew the basics about the subject and could name such key figures as Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige, but Pollard, who previously directed MLK/FBI, and executive producer Questlove delve much deeper, and the results are indeed fascinating. Continue Reading →
La Femme Nikita
By the time the 1990s rolled around, the action film genre in America was in a bit of a doldrums. The same figures who had dominated the previous decade were still making movies, but their efforts were becoming more forced and listless. Even masters of the form like Walter Hill and Clint Eastwood were coming up with duds like Another 48 Hrs (1990) and The Rookie (1990), chasing past glories with sequels and knockoffs rather than attempting anything new. Sure, the Hong Kong scene was thriving with the works of John Woo and Tsui Hark, but few in the US outside of film circles were familiar with them. Continue Reading →