Taking Aim: Is The Avengers A Chick Flick?

By Lisa Anderson

Jeremy Renner in The Avengers

As fan of comic book movies and of Joss Whedon, this is a great summer for me. I’m thoroughly enjoying all the buzz over The Avengers, which opens in the US at midnight tonight. Every once in a while though, I’ll come across something that I can’t get on board with, even though it’s essentially positive. A recent piece by Bill Gibron at Pop Matters is a good example.
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The Cabin In The Woods (spoiler free!)

By Lisa Anderson

Do you love the horror genre, but feel like it’s in a rut? Do you like rooting for main characters in a terrifying situation, but find that in recent movies, they’re often one-dimensional or unlikable? Do you enjoy the exquisite treat of being confronted with a Big Bad that’s been built up for over an hour . . . but wish that could happen without a lot of sexism or torture porn?

If, so, fortunately, Joss Whedon agrees with you.
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Except Rap And Country

By Lisa Anderson

Johnny Cash

“Oh, I like all kinds of music, except rap and country.”

How many times have you heard someone say this? If your life is like mine, you’ve heard it a lot. This will usually be said during small talk, by someone you’ve just met at a party or other gathering, or on a first date. I’ve heard it so often that I’m sure I’ve said it myself. In the last few years though, I’ve realized that it’s not true for me. Now I no longer say it, and I get annoyed when I hear it.
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Scandal In The 21st Century: The Different Faces Of Irene Adler

By Lisa Anderson

To Sherlock Holmes, she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It’s not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one in particular, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind . . . He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer . . . And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.
—”A Scandal in Bohemia,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In recent years, two new versions of the stories of Sherlock Holmes have captivated viewing audiences. One is the film version starring Robert Downey, Jr. The other is the BBC Television version with Benedict Cumberbatch as the lead. Both versions make good use of characters that have either been portrayed very differently or not used as extensively in other incarnations of Holmes stories. For example, both Jude Law and Martin Freeman portray John Watson as a much better sidekick than did Nigel Bruce and others. Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s smarter older brother, gets screen time and importance in both the movies and the television show. However, none of Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters has seen their stock increase more in these retellings than Irene Adler. SPOILERS BEHIND THE CUT!
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Top Ten Movies To Look For In 2011: Follow Up

By Lisa Anderson

In late 2010, I made a list of the 2011 films that I was most interested in. With many year-end retrospectives going on, I thought I’d go back over the list and report on how these movies compared to my expectations.

1. Red Riding Hood

Of all the movies on my list, this one probably disappointed me the most. The story was muddled and didn’t make use of folklore and symbolism in the way it could have. The love triangle was not as interesting as it could have been, and there were disappointing performances all around from otherwise amazing people. Last but not least, the script missed the perfect opportunity to have the wolf throw back its head and howl at the moon. Red Riding Hood had its good moments and there were things I liked about it, but overall, you’re better off watching Hanna (reviewed here) for an innovative, feminist take on fairy tales.
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Jaws: The Shark Has Always Worked

By Lisa Anderson

One of my favorite movies was released three years before I was born.

Jaws, the ground-breaking 1975 film by Stephen Spielberg, is one of the movies that I’ve seen more times than I can count. Like The Matrix, it’s also a film that I consider perfect; I can’t think of anything that could be added, altered, or removed to make it better. That’s not surprising, either; Jaws changed the way movies were made and marketed forever.
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Everything New Is Old Again: Dorian Gray Films, Past and Present

By Lisa Anderson

I recently re-read The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde’s novel about a beautiful but debauched young man whose enchanted portrait takes the brunt of both his years and his misdeeds. Soon afterwards, I got together with a group of fellow horror fans and watched two film adaptations: the1945 Albert Lewin version with Hurt Hatfield in the title role, and the 2009 direct-to-video version with Ben Barnes starring as Dorian. Not surprising in light of the time between them, both movies approach the source material in very different ways. Each deviates from the novel in different ways, and has its own strengths and weaknesses. The variations between the book and each film can be illustrated by discussion the tone of the films, and two pivotal incidents in the story.
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Mixtape For The Apocalypse: An Interview With Author Jemiah Jefferson

By Lisa Anderson

With electronic books pulling ahead of paper books in popularity, self-publishing is getting easier and easier. One of the pioneers on this new frontier is Dark Horse comics editor and Popshifter contributor Jemiah Jefferson. Jemiah and I met up over IM to discuss her recently self-published novel, Mixtape for the Apocalypse, as well as her previous work.
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In Defense Of Television

“There are only two things I love in this world: everybody, and television.”
—Kenneth the Page on 30 Rock

“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
—The Bhagavad Gita, as quoted by J. Robert Oppenheimer

TV is bad for you, right?

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The Supernatural Drinking Game

By Lisa Anderson

Here’s a drinking game for you fans of Supernatural! Perfect for a DVD marathon or one of the new episodes coming out this Fall. Because it is Supernatural, after all, I decided to go for 13.
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