X-Men: First Class, and it is good (not great) but very. Good.

X-Men: First Class, and it is good (not great) but very. Good.

Posted inFilms, Geek Stuff
My X marathon begins! And for what it's worth, I'm starting pretty shallow, with some lightweight comments and such. Totally mailing it in for the first few movies. The reason is because I am. Seriously. Ripping this one out because in truth what people REALLY want is to know why I think you're dumb for insulting The Last Stand. So to get the obvious stuff out of the way, First Class is close to impeccable. Marred only by writing that is too wink wink nudge nudge, it's got pretty much everything you want from a good mutant movie. Pathos. Humanity.…
Revisiting the X-Men flick: 7-film marathon time!

Revisiting the X-Men flick: 7-film marathon time!

Posted inFilms, Geek Stuff
I grew up a comic book geek (among other things). Growing up a geek has shaped and molded me in ways I'm still discovering today, some of them good, some of them not so much. As an adult, I remain unashamed of my geekdom, and that is likely to be the case until I die of old age at 53. All of this means I'm about to take something silly way too seriously. And I am. You'd better bet your damn life on it. This is a long-winded, pointless, unnecessary way to say that over the next seven days I'm…
Spielberg Knows What He’s Doing. You Don’t.

Spielberg Knows What He’s Doing. You Don’t.

Posted inFilms, Geek Stuff
Okay, first off, that headline is needless antagonistic. I acknowledge it. Forgive me. I'm listening to punk as I write this. It just seems to fit my mood. Anyway, prompted by Steven Soderbergh's interesting recasting of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the other day I was daydreaming and my mind wandered to action scenes in films, specifically why some sprawling action set pieces work and some don't. The Star Wars prequels were at the forefront of my mind at the time, but it led to a train of thought that is relevant to action movies in general. Now keep in…
Saving Private Ryan on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day

Saving Private Ryan on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day

Posted inFilms, Random Musings
Watched Saving Private Ryan in honor of the 70th anniversary of D-Day yesterday. I still remember when I first saw this in the theater. I live in a retirement area with a huge senior population.When we went to see this the theater was full, and it was a sea of white heads in every aisle. My wife and I were some of the only young people there. It was harrowing. That opening sequence, no one had ever done anything like it before. For 20 minutes you're assaulted with graphic violence and noise and fury that relentlessly pounded your senses. By the end of the sequence, you were out…
Hitchcock's Villains

My new book comes out soon…

Posted inAlfred Hitchcock, Films, Works by Eric, Writing
... so that's kind of cool. The follow-up to A Year of Hitchcock is due out in, damn, just a few weeks! Called Hitchcock's Villains: Murders, Maniacs and Mother Issues, this collaboration with Jim McDevitt is a full exploration of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest villains, what makes them tick, the themes that drive the darkness in his movies, and of Hitchcock's own psyche. I think it's pretty great. This will be my fifth book, collaborative or otherwise, with a sixth hopefully coming out next year in ebook form via the Philadelphia Weekly. (That project is still up in the air.) The…