Category: Articles

Given the cavalcade of box-office flops we’ve had over the last few years, I was scrolling through the list of movie disasters and came across a film that’s still notorious after almost 30 years. Waterworld was launched in ’95 to massive expectations, only to sink faster than the cities of the film’s setting. The story…

Alright, buckle up, people. I’ve reviewed a lot of bad movies over the last few years. Mac and Me. Johnny Mnemonic. Krull. They were just the warm up. There exists a movie so terrible that it’s name is still whispered in dread through the gilded halls of Hollywood. Cutthroat. Frikkin. Island. This 1995 pirate movie…

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a supernatural horror, and a strange little film The Bridge: Ritual has recently released on Netflix. It is worth a watch? Let’s find out! The film revolves around a group of game designers trying to create an Augmented Reality horror game to sell to the big developers. For…

I’ve been working on a new story involving a female smuggler from the Appalachians of the USA, as I wanted a protagonist who was capable and self-sufficient. It helps that I have two dear friends who have family history from this cultural group, and they’ve shaped a lot of my views away from the unfunny…

I took my daughters to see Trolls Band Together, the third film in the series revolving around the multicoloured, pint-size, music gremlins. Since my house’s Spotify has had “I Will Get Back Up Again” on repeat since 2016, this seemed like a good choice.   The film was a lot of fun, revolving around gruff isolationist…

As the Dad of three young girls, I’ve just watched the trailer for the new kid’s movie “Wish.” It’s… ok, I suppose. The central conundrum of the film is the evil king who only grants wishes that are in the best interest of the kingdom, versus the young idealistic apprentice who wants all wishes to…

I’ve been seeing lot of ads for the new Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, and while films and games are making the genre cool again, I cannot forget a mid-90s sci-fi schlockfest that showed how absolutely crazy cyberpunk can be. You want hitmen with laser whips coming out of their thumbs? You want 90s rappers throwing flaming…

My wife and I were talking about shlock movies today – you know, the kind that aren’t just awful, but gloriously awful to the point where you just can’t look away. While some of these are easy to identify (I am still on the lookout for a copy of 1995’s Cutthroat Island if anyone can…

My daughters have been throwing themselves into creative writing recently; I couldn’t be prouder, but it has created some interesting conversations about the nuts and bolts of creating a story. One of our latest conversations has been about subtext, in particular how to stretch out the tension of a scene by having the characters communicate…

I was cleaning out the garage today and found a box of DVDs, which I’m glad I held onto given how spotty streaming can be for classic older films. There was one DVD in the collection that really caught my eye, and I was already humming the bluesy tunes when I called my girls and…