I can’t recall a movie that–for better or worse–comes so exactly as advertised as Pacific Rim does. If you’ve been looking at the summer marketing and thinking, “Good lord, that looks head-slappingly stupid,” you are correct. Likewise, if you’ve been watching the commercials and thinking, “Ho-lee crap, this looks mess-my-pants awesome,” you are also correct. [...]

So, The Lone Ranger, yeah… Pirates of the Old West… Johnny Depp, Buster Keaton, old-age make up… and so forth… a mystic loon with a dead bird on head, etc… Armie Hammer, “what’s with the mask?”, yes, that’s his real name and his real jaw… blah blah… ‘30s radio show, ‘50s TV show, Clayton Moore, [...]

Fans of “coming of age” films, like myself, know there are several subsets within the genre. For example, I’ve always been partial to the “British Prep School Coming of Age Film” (of which I guess in many ways the Harry Potter films are a very long, goofy entry. There’s a thesis for future essay: “Harry [...]