Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
I've previously written retrospectives on three directors: Ingmar Bergman, Terry Gilliam, and Quentin Tarantino. So, looking out over the sea of film directors, I came across John McTiernan's name. He's a director I've known for his most popular work (Predator and Die Hard) but never really thought about holistically. So, sitting down to watch all eleven of his films… Continue reading John McTiernan – A Retrospective
#10 in my Ranking of John McTiernan films. I was with this movie for maybe two-thirds of it. I wasn't quite loving it, but I was going along with the twisting narrative and contradictory stories well enough. It was a lesser version of Kurosawa's Rashomon, but it worked. And then it took the twists into… Continue reading Basic
And yet another listicle. May the listicle gods be appeased and grant me bounty. At least it's a top eleven, not a top ten. Top tens are stupid. John McTiernan hasn't worked since the early 2000s. After some trouble with the feds, he hasn't been able to get a new project off the ground since.… Continue reading John McTiernan: The Definitive Ranking
#11 in my Ranking of John McTiernan films. I'm not sure I've ever seen a talented director faceplant as hard as John McTiernan does here. This goes beyond bad story choices, performances, and unfortunate effects. There's an amateurishness pervasive through this film that makes it feel like the first film of a film student given… Continue reading Rollerball (2002)
#7 in my Ranking of John McTiernan films. You can separate your main character and you protagonist, but it's hard to do well. The 13th Warrior attempts it, but I don't think it's really all that successful. There's a technical polish to the film, especially in isolated sequences, and obvious talent behind the camera, but… Continue reading The 13th Warrior
David Vining, Author 