Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
#2 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. The one movie that this reminds me most of isn't Kagemusha or Throne of Blood or any other film by Akira Kurosawa. No, the movie Ran most reminds me of is Fanny and Alexander by Ingmar Bergman. Both films feel like culminations of careers, two master filmmakers… Continue reading Ran
#11 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. Dersu Uzala got Kurosawa back to work, but it was Star Wars that brought him back to the top of the cinematic world. George Lucas, heavily inspired by Kurosawa in his space opera, used his newfound power in Hollywood to, alongside Francis Ford Coppola, to convince 20th… Continue reading Kagemusha
I went on a rollercoaster of appreciation for the third Omen movie. There was even a moment, about halfway through, when I wondered if this was going to be my favorite of the series. And then it pretty steadily and completely fell apart. It was never great, juggling a couple too many subplots, but the… Continue reading Omen III: The Final Conflict
#8 in my ranking of Mel Brooks' filmography. The funniest movie Mel Brooks had made since Silent Movie, Spaceballs is an amusing film with solid jokes and a misplaced sense of satire that eludes actually hitting the intended target, George Lucas' Star Wars franchise, instead creating a generic space fantasy adventure without a satirical bite,… Continue reading Spaceballs
#7 in my ranking of Mel Brooks' filmography. This is one of those movies I grew up with, it having been a key cornerstone of my father's small VHS collection. This is probably the Mel Brooks movie I've seen the most, and like many films from my childhood, I haven't seen it in years. The… Continue reading To Be or Not to Be (1983)
David Vining, Author 