Showrunner Steven S. DeKnight returns to the Roman era with Spartacus: House of Ashur. The show is an alternative history set in the same world, with a minor villainous character from the original show resurrected and rewarded with a gladiator school by his patron. Can the new show live up to the extremes of nudityContinue reading “Does Starz’s Spartacus Sequel Dishonour the Blood and Sand Legacy It’s Built On?”
Tag Archives: movies
Where the Camera Behind Citizen Kane Still Rolls
Steve Gainer’s Everything Cinematography YouTube, 5 episodes Social media suffers no shortage of lifeless movie channels. Yet, Steve Gainer’s Everything Cinematography is a welcome break from anonymous YouTubers endlessly reshuffling the same old talking points. The canon has long since settled. Refreshingly, Gainer focuses not on the movies but on the cameras and the operatorsContinue reading “Where the Camera Behind Citizen Kane Still Rolls”
Predator: Badlands, or If It Bleeds, We Can Emasculate It
Predator: Badlands is Emasculated Masculinity: The Movie, complete with championing disability, taking down the patriarchy – and a cute Disney animal. At one point in the movie, a creature spits acid at an android and completely melts it away. You know you’re watching a bad movie when you’re envious. Yes, Predator: Badlands is so badContinue reading “Predator: Badlands, or If It Bleeds, We Can Emasculate It”
Alien Resurrection?
8 episodes, Disney+ Alien: Earth sets out to expand the Xenomorph’s universe beyond that of the classic Ridley Scott and James Cameron movies. Reassuringly, the show is no reboot, and the showrunners take us to literal eye-popping new territory. 2024’s awful Alien: Romulus was the series’ greatest hits rehashed for Gen Z and a clearContinue reading “Alien Resurrection?”
Lost on a Bloodless Barsoom: How Disney Butchered John Carter
Did Disney’s wildly expensive failure pave the way for a stronger vision of Dune? Many Marvellous Misfires What do The Marvels (2023), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), and Cinderella (2025) have in common? Three films. Three franchises. Three expensive Disney flops. Such financial disasters are sadly nothing new to Disney. In 2012,Continue reading “Lost on a Bloodless Barsoom: How Disney Butchered John Carter”
Still a Big Wednesday?
I hate surfers. Loathe them. Meritless conformists uniforming themselves in Rip Curl branding and braided hair, group-thinking themselves counterculture icons. If the Nordsee had been warmer in the 1930s, surfing would have been the Reich’s chosen sport. You can imagine my scepticism when approaching John Milius’s celebrated surfer movie ‘Big Wednesday’ (1978). Yet, I can’tContinue reading “Still a Big Wednesday?”
Lee Russell Wilkes 