It seems hard to remember now that there was a time when the American counterculture embraced J.R.R. Tolkien and his masterpiece. Groovy dudes in pipe-weed jerkins yelling “Go Go Gandalf,” walls covered with graffiti proclaiming “Frodo Lives!”, and election-year “Gandalf
by Leo Grin12 Mar 2011, 6:07 AM PST0
At heart, the works of J.R.R. Tolkien — The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and even the often bleak and sad Silmarillion — are kindly works, not bitter and cynical ones. He was not interested in leaving his readers
by Leo Grin5 Mar 2011, 6:54 AM PST0
In 1944, J.R.R. Tolkien was tickled to receive a charming letter from a twelve-year-old Yankee praising The Hobbit, released seven years prior. It was, said the lad, “the most wonderful book I have ever read. It is beyond description. Gee
by Leo Grin28 Feb 2011, 4:45 AM PST0
by Leo Grin19 Feb 2011, 6:24 AM PST0
I used to think I was a fan of the genre known today as fantasy, and specifically the subgenres of High Fantasy and Sword-and-Sorcery. This was due to a number of factors. A childhood imagination dominated by Dungeons & Dragons.
by Leo Grin12 Feb 2011, 10:07 AM PST0
Living in California and having as friends many artists, writers, and poets (all of them, to a one, blissfully, unreflectively liberal), I often have the opportunity to hear them wax poetic about the Golden Age of their lives: the late
by Leo Grin6 Feb 2011, 6:06 AM PST0
At the urging of a friend, I recently plowed through all twelve episodes of the first season of the Fox action/adventure series Human Target (2010) on DVD. He thought I’d like it, and he was right. Loosely based off of
by Leo Grin29 Jan 2011, 6:55 AM PST0
Over the last year I watched an interesting mini-social experiment play out: my sixty-something parents trying out Netflix. The company’s now-famous little red envelopes first gained fame around the time the dot-com boom went bust in early 2000. Video rental
by Leo Grin22 Jan 2011, 6:42 AM PST0
Cleaning out some old books in preparation for an impending move, I came across some items that reminded me about how precipitous the drop in the quality of the moviegoing experience has been. Believe it or not, there was a
by Leo Grin8 Jan 2011, 6:47 AM PST0
When the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, announced that they were going to remake True Grit, it sparked all of the usual arguments about the merits and demerits of such undertakings. The first film, released in 1969, sits in the
by Leo Grin4 Jan 2011, 4:45 AM PST0
There’s been a dearth of Yuletide material here at Big Hollywood this month, so as The Most Wonderful Day of the Year draws nigh, let’s spend some time saluting the five men whose voices echo most strongly through the Christmas
by Leo Grin18 Dec 2010, 6:46 AM PST0
Much has been made about James Agee’s affectionate judgment of Buster Keaton: “Keaton worked strictly for laughs, but his work came from so far inside a curious and original spirit that he achieved a great deal besides, especially in his
by Leo Grin11 Dec 2010, 6:43 AM PST0
One day in early 1896, a toddler barely able to walk accidentally tumbled head-over-heels down a long flight of stairs. People gasped and rushed to help, but when they reached the bottom of the landing they saw the little boy
by Leo Grin4 Dec 2010, 6:32 AM PST0
The Cameraman marks an exact crossroads in the career of Buster Keaton. It was his last genuine silent film, made after his previous three pictures (all now hailed as classics) had underperformed at the box office. Coming at the very
by Leo Grin20 Nov 2010, 4:36 AM PST0
On September 5, 1949, a largely unknown forty-year-old writer named James Agee had an essay published in Life magazine. Titled “Comedy’s Greatest Era,” it was a paean to the silent screen comedians of yesteryear, and to the fine art of
by Leo Grin13 Nov 2010, 6:43 AM PST0
Yesterday I walked into my local supermarket to find they already had a massive Christmas tree up ornamented with gift cards. Yes, it’s quickly approaching “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and that means gifts to buy, preferably before
by Leo Grin9 Nov 2010, 6:24 AM PST0
With Hallowmas upon us, I thought I would go over the reasons why I consider zombies to be the greatest monsters yet invented, a sort of grand synthesis of all of the best elements of previous fright-mongers. See if you
by Leo Grin31 Oct 2010, 4:49 AM PST0
There’s an Ed McBain police procedural novel (Poison, I think it was), where the cops take a statement from a man accused of gunning someone down in a movie theater. The suspect explains how the deceased kept talking and talking
by Leo Grin23 Oct 2010, 7:25 AM PST0
We’ve all watched well-known, highly regarded actors for the umpteenth time on screen — perhaps even raucously enjoying both their performance and the movie — and thought about how painfully derivative and self-referential they’ve become. Somewhere along the way, over
by Leo Grin16 Oct 2010, 4:57 AM PST0
by Leo Grin9 Oct 2010, 4:59 AM PST0
In the Age of the Hollywood Sucker Punch, betting your time and dollars on movies and TV is more perilous than ever. As often as not, you can expect to fork over $20-$40 at the theater expecting to laugh, cry,
by Leo Grin2 Oct 2010, 4:50 AM PST0
A good argument can be made that the period 2000-2009 was the single worst decade for movies in Hollywood history. Unfortunately, judging by what we’ve seen so far in 2010, the next decade could conceivably dip even lower into mediocrity.
by Leo Grin25 Sep 2010, 4:55 AM PST0
Few franchises have had a steeper fall than the Alien series. In 1992 Alien3 appeared to near-universal derision. James Cameron nailed the essential problem when he said, “[director David] Fincher pissed me off by killing off Newt, Hicks, and Bishop,
by Leo Grin18 Sep 2010, 6:26 AM PST0
by Leo Grin11 Sep 2010, 10:59 AM PST0
by Leo Grin4 Sep 2010, 6:51 AM PST0