Die Hard at 30:
Come Out to the Coast, Have a Few Laughs
| Published September 19, 2018 |
By R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and starring Dwayne Johnson and Neve Campbell, the fair-to-middling 2018 summer action film Skyscraper—in which Johnson’s character must...(click to read more)
2001: A Space Odyssey:
Fifty Years Ago Science Fiction Changed Our World
| Published April 12, 2018 |
By R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
Some films are meant to be seen on the big screen. This may be a cliché, but as several of our Thursday Review writers have pointed out over the years...(click to read more)
Superman: The Movie at 40;
How it Changed Our View of Super Heroes
| Published March 1, 2018 |
By R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
The constant and never-ending reinvention and rebooting of the great comic book and graphic novel themes has become central to the Hollywood...(click to read more)
Geo Storm
| Published November 8, 2017 |
By Cameron Dale,
Thursday Review contributor
What if global warming got much worse, leading to even more catastrophic climate changes and severe weather tantrums? And what if we...(click to read more)
Barry Lyndon:
A Look Back at a Stanley Kubrick Classic
| Published September 3, 2017 |
By R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
In the annals of Hollywood time travel, there have been a dozen or so truly impeccable films that have nearly perfect fidelity to...(click to read more)
Ain’t Got Time
to Bleed:
Predator at
30 Years Old
| Published July 12, 2017 |
By R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
In case you haven’t been to the theaters lately, alien lifeforms are slightly out of fashion in science fiction, at least for now—with the notable exception of this summer’s...(click to read more)
Shaken, Not Stirred: Reflections on the Death of Roger Moore
| Published May 24, 2017 |
By R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
In the old days, and among moviegoers of a certain generation, the longstanding debates over who was the best James Bond were like the pointless, unwinnable arguments over...(click to read more)
Kong: Skull Island
| Published March 14, 2017 |
By Cameron Dale,
Thursday Review contributor
Hollywood may never quite get King Kong right. At least not after the ancient first film hit the screens in 1933, almost 85 years ago. Poor Kong will just have to continue beating his chest, snarling with gargantuan teeth, and looking pitiful each time he is...(click to read more)
Bill Paxton, Star of Apollo 13 and Twister,
Dead at 61
| Published February 26, 2017 |
By Thursday Review editors
Bill Paxton, star of such blockbuster Hollywood films as Titanic, Apollo 13, and Aliens, died unexpectedly after complications due to...(click to read more)
Reflections on the Passing of
Mary Tyler Moore
| Published January 31, 2017 |
By Thursday Review editors and staff
Her death on January 25 sent waves of sadness through two entire generations of television fans, as well as millions of moviegoers who were enthralled by her appearances in...(click to read more)
Doctor Strange:
Dazzling Visual Fun
| published November 12, 2016 |
By Cameron Dale,
Thursday Review contributor
We could use this guy in the hours and days after the election, but, alas, he is but a comic book hero, one of many members of the Marvel Comics galaxy of characters and creatures, but one perhaps unable...[read more]
Reflections on the
50th Anniversary of Star Trek
| published September 18, 2016 |
By R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
The latest cinematic installment in the Star Trek franchise—Star Trek Beyond—has largely recovered from what some industry analysts described for...[read more]
Ben Hur:
Revenge of the Digital Age Remake
| published August 20, 2016 |
By Maggie Nichols,
Thursday Review contributor
The dazzling advance of special effects and digital gimmickry make the temptation to remake and reboot almost anything irresistible. Sometimes this proves...[read more]
The Conjuring 2:
Frights Aplenty
| published June 29, 2016 |
By Maggie Nichols,
Thursday Review contributor
Rarely does a sequel exceed the quality of the original. It can happen, as was the case with Terminator 2—a vastly better film in overall quality, though it lacked...[read more]
London Has Fallen
(And So Has the Plot)
| published May 13, 2016 |
By Maggie Nichols
Thursday Review contributor
Things can get dicey in the 2016 summer of movie sequels. There are the good ones: Captain America: Civil War , for example (and more about that one very soon!). And there are the...[read more]
Andy & Don:
The Making of a Friendship and a Classic TV Show; Daniel de Visé
| published February 22, 2016 |
By Kevin Robbie
Thursday Review contributor
Like millions of people, I grew up watching the Andy Griffith Show, arguably one of the greatest classic comedies in television history. Some of my earliest memories of television involve the...[read more]
Point Break: Pointless Remake
| published January 16, 2016 |
By Maggie Nichols
Thursday Review contributor
I love remakes. They can be fun…loads of fun. I especially love reboots, which are a species of animal somewhat different from the traditional remake, but...[read more]
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
| published December 26, 2015 |
By Michael Bush
Thursday Review writer
Star Wars. Those two words alone are enough to make me smile. I don't need to know anything else you're about to say following this phrase—the title of...[read more]
Welcome to my Secret Lair:
A Look at SPECTRE,
the Latest Bond Thriller
| published November 26, 2015 |
By Michael Bush
Thursday Review writer
Before we get started, let me fill you in on my opinions of James Bond. Anyone before Sean Connery is unknown to me; never watched any of...[read more]
Bridge of Spies:
Best Film of the Year
| published October 14, 2015 |
By R. Alan Clanton
Thursday Review editor
Twentieth century history is back in vogue, and making lots of money at the box office. A spate of recent big-budget films has made American history cool again on the big screen, and—save for a couple of exceptions—without...[read more]
The Martian:
Ridley Scott Scores Big
| published October 6, 2015 |
By R. Alan Clanton
Thursday Review editor
Some movies have a kind of hyper-predictable template even going in—you just pretty much know and understand the plot, and all the things that can go right and wrong with the protagonist. And you are aware of the narrative even before you get...[read more]
When Time Travel Was Fun:
Back to the Future at 30
| published September 12, 2015 |
By R. Alan Clanton
Thursday Review editor
Want to feel really old? Remind yourself, assuming you are of a certain age or generation, that 30 years ago American movie theaters saw a slew of movies geared toward the ample expendable cash of teens and young people, vaguely defined by marketers and advertisers in those days as the 19-to-35 crowd (and yes, that means...[read more]
Six Movies That Made Me Pee in My Pants Laughing
| published August 13, 2015 |
By Keith H. Roberts
Thursday Review contributor
Film Legend Omar Sharif Dead of Heart Attack at 83
| published July 11, 2015 |
By Pamela Pitman Brown
Thursday Review contributor
Avengers: Age of Ultron
| published May, 13, 2015 |
By Isaac Fink
Thursday Review
contributor
The End of the Abbey
| published April 2, 2015 |
By Earl Perkins
Thursday Review
features editor
Millions of fans worldwide could be forced to have a stiff upper lip, or perhaps breathe a huge sigh, knowing that even wonderful things must eventually come to an end.
Despite incredible ratings for ITV's Downton Abbey, upcoming Season 6 will be the British period drama's swan song. The highest-rated show ever on America's PBS, the Crawley family...[read more]
Revenge of the Nerds:
Science Guys on
the Big Screen
The Imitation Game and
The Theory of Everything
| published January 20, 2015 |
Film reviews by R. Alan Clanton
Thursday Review editor
It’s not hot news, but in case you’ve been asleep for the last 15 to 20 years, smart guys are back in vogue. Previous generations saw some of the best and brightest of the math geeks and science dorks either totally ostracized for their inelegant, bumbling social skills, or—conversely—herded onto remote desert camps to channel their top-one-percentile brains into the creation of atomic weapons, a sort of summer science camp with uranium.
A generation after the Manhattan Project, hundreds more were rounded up from grad schools and herded like feral...[read more]
The Interview
| published January 11, 2015 |
By Lori Garrett
Thursday Review contributor
Remembering Stuart Scott, ESPN Broadcast Legend
| published January 7, 2015 |
By Earl Perkins,
Thursday Review
features editor
“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer,” he once told a reporter for The New York Times. “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.” Stuart Scott passed away Sunday morning following a long battle with cancer, but he fought the disease valiantly to the end, and the...[read more]
Coppola's Best Year: 1974
| Published December 22, 2014 |
By R. Alan Clanton
Thursday Review editor
In Francis Ford Coppola’s film canon—and like all great writer-directors, his motion pictures fall reliably into a consistent moral framework of his own design—there are family people, and then there are loners. Family is the touchstone of safety and security...(click to read more)
Pulp Fiction Turns Twenty
| published December 14, 2014 |
R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
The Book of Life
| Published November 20, 2014 |
By Kathryn Mineer
Thursday Review contributor
Interstellar: Science, Sci-Fi, and
the Humanity Thing
| published November 19, 2014 |
R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
The Most Famous Voice of Saturday Night
| published August 20, 2014 |R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review editor
Maleficent
| published June 10, 2014 |Lori Garrett,
Thursday Review contributor
The End of the Film
| published January 18, 2014 |R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review Editor
The Shape Shifter
| published February 2, 2014 |R. Alan Clanton,
Thursday Review Editor
The Last Unicorn
Film review by Lori Garrett
Thursday Review contributor
