I Still Believe in Heroes

             In May of 2017, Universal Pictures announced that the Tom Cruise led The Mummy reboot would be the beginning of its own cinematic universe known as the Dark Universe. This cinematic universe would see Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man, Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster and Angelina Jolie was long rumored to join as the monster’s bride. Those of us who love the Universal classic monster films were thrilled by this announcement. To bring such incredible talent to our beloved monster films was a sign of great things, because why would they sign on if the material was anything less than amazing? Two weeks after this announcement, The Mummy was released and it became apparent almost immediately that this new film was both the beginning and the end for the Dark Universe. 2017’s The Mummy reboot is the latest attempt to bring back the classic Universal monsters, but not the only one. In 2014, Lu...

Before the release of Wonder Woman, director Patty Jenkins spoke to Fandango about her influences for the film. She mentioned the 1942 classic, Casablanca , and said, “I wanted a great love story where both characters have integrity and it might be set in the complexities of war, but it turns into a grand love story.” At first, I wasn’t quite sure how much Casablanca really factored into Wonder Woman . After all, these are two vastly different films. As I re-watched Casablanca, however, I began to notice similarities between the two that I had never considered. So, as I move forward with this article, I will talk about how Casablanca influenced Wonder Woman . More specifically, how it helped Wonder Woman become a great love story in a genre where great love stories are far and few in between. I want to start off by talking about the characters and draw some parallels between the leads in both films. While watching Casablanca , I couldn’t help but compare Humphrey Bogart’s char...

Great films often borrow elements from other great films. Captain America: The Winter Soldier borrowed from Three Days of the Condor and in doing so, it revolutionized the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the first time ever, they proved that the movies in the MCU could tackle different genres. For this film, they went in the direction of 1970s political thrillers. The Winter Soldier sees Steve Rogers as a fugitive running from the very people he thought were the good guys, people he served under because he thought they were doing the right thing. As he is being hunted down, Captain America must uncover the truth behind those who are after him.  Leading the charge against Cap is none other than Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce. The fact that it is Redford who is in the role of Alexander Pierce is important because in 1975, Redford starred in the film Three Days of the Condor . This film sees Redford as Joe Turner, a CIA code breaker who walks into his office to find the en...

Classic cinema represents the best of what film can be. Most of the films we see and love today take ideas from the classics that came before them. La La Land , one of 2016’s most beloved films, owes a debt of gratitude to films like Singin’ in the Rain , An American in Paris and West Side Story . I believe that it is completely possible to enjoy films without having knowledge of what came before them, but I also think that having that knowledge enhances your experience of them. I understand why people today might not want to seek out a 70-year-old film. Thanks to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon we have an unending stream of modern films to explore. Even beyond that, I know there are many people out there who simply don’t like black-and-white movies. Others find older movie effects laughable. There are some who don’t watch old films because they look and feel old. With every year comes newer and newer technological advances that make older films look less impressive. Yet, despite ...

"Oh, what's the use? Walter, you wouldn't know what it means to want to be respectable and live a halfway normal life." Hildy Johnson - His Girl Friday           When His Girl Friday  came out, way back in 1940, society was in a place where women were still not fully integrated into the work force. For the most part, women worked in clerical or sales work and they were often faced with hostility from many of the men that worked with them. Women working in journalism was a rare thing, and that is where this film takes place.           There are many things that make this a great film, but one of the things that I admire the most about it is how ahead of its time it was. It wasn't just the fact of placing Hildy (Rosalind Russell) in a male-dominated work environment, it was the fact that Hildy was a character who was respected and admired by her male peers. There are multiple comments throughout the film from the male repor...