by Padraic Coffey On the surface, it would seem ludicrous to compare John McTiernan’s 1988 trailblazing action thriller Die Hard with Billy Wilder’s 1960 comedy-drama The Apartment, yet both occupy that strange subgenre of film: the ‘alternative’ Christmas movie. Mention It’s A Wonderful Life, Home Alone or Elf to anyone, and they’ll all but smell … Continue reading »
No genre of cinema has an internationally recognised calendar date set aside, on which fans are expected to undertake marathon DVD screenings, besides horror. (Admittedly, one could make the case for Valentine’s Day neatly dovetailing with romance films, but unless you’re feeling the warm embrace of a loved one, February 14th should not be spent … Continue reading »
by Padraic Coffey My, how Ben Affleck has grown. Despite winning an Oscar while still in his twenties for co-writing Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon, an overview of Affleck’s subsequent acting career smacks of unfulfilled talent. Pearl Harbor, though enormously profitable, was savaged by critics and earned Affleck a nomination for Worst Actor at … Continue reading »
by Padraic Coffey Darryl F. Zanuck, the multi-Oscar winning American film producer, once dismissed the arrival of television in the 1940s as a moribund fad. “People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night”, he asserted. Time has proven this one of Zanuck’s least prophetic statements, and with every passing year, … Continue reading »
by Padraic Coffey The one unavoidable question facing Walter Salles’ adaptation of On the Road is, why now? Why more than thirty years since the rights to Jack Kerouac’s revered 1950s beatnik text were acquired by Francis Ford Coppola for his production company, American Zoetrope? Why more than fifty years since the book was originally … Continue reading »