Films
Eric San Juan
April 11, 2016
And it starts in five minutes. Something came over me the other day. It might have been Netflix suddenly throwing Trek in my face. Maybe it’s the result of a space slug crawling into my ear. Don’t know. Whatever it was, it resulted in a feeling I’ve pretty much never had in my life: “I should watch some Star Tek – and a LOT of it!” If that sounds like a knock on Star Trek, it’s not. Rather, it’s just to say that I’ve never been anything more than a vaguely casual Star Trek fan. I watched most of the original series as a kid, saw many seasons of The Next Generation and one or two of Deep Space Nine with my old man, saw…
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Eric San Juan
April 4, 2016
This review first appeared on the web more than 10 years ago on DVDinmyPants.com. The site is gone, but I’m pulling this from the archives for your enjoyment. Dig it: When it comes to Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest work, it would be difficult to find a title more worthy of the Criterion Collection treatment than The Lady Vanishes. Hitch’s spy thriller The 39 Steps certainly deserves its place among the collection, and this reviewer believes The Lodger is in dire need of restoration, commentary and otherwise deluxe treatment … but I am an unabashed fan of The Lady Vanishes, the last good film Hitchcock would make as a British director, and hence I am glad it received Criterion’s loving treatment. In The Lady Vanishes, Hitch brings…
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Eric San Juan
December 18, 2015
Technically, I wrote this review 10 years ago for a site called DVDinmyPants.com. That site is long gone, though (you can only find it on the Wayback Machine), and since this is the greatest review in the history of film reviews (and also because of Star Wars mania right now), I’m reposting it here. It’s purposely over the top, but also completely sincere: The Empire Strikes Back Let’s cut right to the chase: I fall into the camp that declares The Empire Strikes Back the best of the Star Wars films. Which means I also fall into the camp of people who actually have an opinion regarding what the best Star Wars film is. Which means some of you are probably surfing off to another page…
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Eric San Juan
December 17, 2015
A movie comes out today, a small little thing that may have slipped past your notice. A few people might go and see it. The release of the first new Star Wars movie in many years makes today something of a geek holiday, but amid all the glee and celebrating the movie is going to be something else. Something far less positive: incessant bitching about what an awful person George Lucas is. Because on the Internet, no mention of Star Wars is complete without also mentioning how George Lucas, the man who created Star Wars, ruined everything you hold dear by being the worst person in the world. I’d say that has gotten old, but it got old years ago. Instead, I’ll say that it’s…
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Eric San Juan
December 7, 2015
The following is an excerpt from Dissecting The Walking Dead: Slicing Into The Guts of Television’s Hottest Show, available in paperback and for Kindle. Without George Romero, there is no The Walking Dead. His 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead, invented the modern zombie genre. Robert Kirkman himself has said on many occasions that his comic series and television show is essentially an extended take on Romero’s legendary film, borrowing all its core elements and reimagining them as an ongoing story rather than a single night of terror. In other words, if you want to understand where The Walking Dead comes from, you must understand Night of the Living Dead and the Romero mythos. As I examined in a previous post, Romero didn’t create the…
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Films, Geek Stuff, Television, Works by Eric
books, excerpts, George Romero, Robert Kirkman, television, the walking dead, TV, walking dead, zombies
