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Why Are Video Game Movies Almost Always Terrible?
Hollywood has notoriously had difficulty adapting video games to the big screen. Starting with the original Super Mario Bros. film released in 1993, there have been 47 live-action video game movies that have received theatrical releases. Collectively, these 47 films have a Rotten Tomatoes score of 28.6% and an average Metacritic score of 36/100. As always, aggregated…
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Can California’s New Tax Credit Bring Movies Back from Georgia?
Since 2008, the state of Georgia has become a hub for film productions thanks to its generous film tax credit. Film tax credits allow a production company to write off a certain percentage of state income taxes within the state offering the credit. Georgia’s program allows productions to receive a 20% transferable tax credit, with an…
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HBO’s New Harry Potter Series is Proof That Hollywood has Lost its Magic
News of HBO’s new Harry Potter television show has been swirling for some time. It’s something I’ve put off thinking about – until I came across a photo of the new actors dressed as Harry and Hagrid on set. My first reaction was simply, “Who the hell are those people?” I grew up on the Harry Potter films. Being…
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The Power of a Packed Room: The Theatrical Experience of Zach Cregger’s Weapons
Zach Cregger’s Weapons was released this weekend to widespread critical and audience acclaim. The film follows the residents of a small town after 17 children mysteriously vanish in the middle of the night. While it is nominally a horror film (and it is scary), Weapons is also laugh-out-loud funny. Prior to Barbarian, Cregger was best known as a member of…
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What Ari Aster’s Eddington Says About Perception and Reality in the Digital Age
***SPOILER ALERT*** Ari Aster’s Eddington satirizes the delirium of the COVID pandemic through the framework of a traditional Western. It’s surreal to see such recent history on screen. There is so much to unpack from that time, and Aster tries his best to fit as much as he can into the two-and-a-half-hour film. The film feels like…
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5 Movie Villains Who Made Valid Points
5. Thanos – Avengers: Infinity War (2018) The initial run of Marvel movies leading up to 2018 had a villain problem. These early movies were great at establishing our heroes and developing an interconnected world. However, I felt these initial movies lacked compelling villains. With the exception of Loki (who ultimately had a redemption arc),…
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MPA Ratings Explained: How Self-Censorship Still Shapes Hollywood
Previously, I wrote about how television networks frequently self-censor lewd and explicit content from their broadcasts. In the world of film, censorship operates in a similarly self-imposed fashion. The Motion Picture Association (“MPA,” formerly the MPAA) reviews films for content and provides a rating for nearly every film that is released. However, the MPA is…
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Why Can’t Hollywood Quit Cigarettes in the Age of Vaping
As vaping becomes increasingly popular, it’s no surprise that it has begun to seep into television and film. Movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once and shows like Mare of Easttown feature characters who vape. In the movie Blink Twice, Channing Tatum’s frequent vape use is a critical plot device central to the story. Yet cigarettes still reign supreme as…
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Why I Miss Cable TV in the Age of Streaming
Sitting on my couch, flipping through the seemingly endless ocean of content, I find myself longing for the days of cable. It’s an odd thing to miss. I remember hating cable when I had it—sitting through commercials, scheduling my day around the airtime of certain shows. The cable companies and networks felt like my oppressors, forcing me…
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Ranking the Ten Best Fight Scenes in Film Since 2000
According to google AI (which is always accurate and should always be trusted) only 23.6% of Americans have ever been in a fight. According to my own research, about 90% of action film characters have been in a fight. Fist fights are always necessary in Hollywood; they are one of the most important tools in…