S Andrew Swann | February 10, 2010
Remember Rollerball? The original 1975 version with James Caan? One of the interesting premises of the movie was the collapse of the nation-state in favor of the corporation. That premise was somewhat prescient, anticipating one of the main tropes of cyberpunk by almost a decade. The idea is commonplace now, a shorthand for some deep [...]
Category: movies, politics, science fiction, speculation |
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S Andrew Swann | June 2, 2009
I can’t speak for the book, not having read it. However, I saw the movie this weekend and I think that I agree with the consensus that it is a better story than it’s companion sequel/prequel The Da Vinci Code. Now the prior move was entertaining to a certian extent, but it suffered gravely from [...]
Category: movies |
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S Andrew Swann | May 18, 2009
Since I think I have to turn in my SFWA card if I don’t express an opinion on this movie, I went this weekend. And well, IMHO, it rocks. That is probably old news to everyone, and my opinion is probably no surprise to anyone who knows my history as a J. J. Abrams fanboy. [...]
Category: movies, science fiction |
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S Andrew Swann | January 27, 2009
Earlier I posted about truthful book covers discovered from mightygodking. Now, (via Smart Bitches through a post that only seems to exist in my RSS feed), Holy Taco brings you honest movie posters.
Category: lol, movies |
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S Andrew Swann | January 23, 2009
First off, the wonderfully demented Z-budget film, Astro Zombies, alas John Carradine, what the hell happened to you?
Category: movies, video |
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S Andrew Swann | October 8, 2008
A recent email reminded me of a panel I was on at at Context. The subject was about making dystopias, which seems an oddly timely subject. One of the things we discussed a little bit was the fact that there can be a number of different kinds of dystopia, depending on what the author [...]
Category: movies, science fiction, writing |
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S Andrew Swann | September 5, 2008
There seems to be an occupational hazard in SF movies, to start well— great premise/character/setting— and go completely off the rails in the third act. This may be due to the fact that film is a primarily visual medium, and sometimes, when trying to tie a story onto the visual set-pieces, the writing lags [...]
Category: movies, rants, science fiction |
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S Andrew Swann | July 6, 2008
Just saw Hancock, the latest in the current explosion of superhero movies, and I am left with the overwhelming sense of a missed opportunity. This is not to say that it’s a bad movie, there are parts that are quite good. Unfortunately, right after the big reveal midway in, the film loses its [...]
Category: movies |
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S Andrew Swann | June 5, 2008
Disclaimer #1: I liked the Movie.Disclaimer #2: I am not gay.
Now, I’m not going to claim that Sex and the City is some high water mark of American filmmaking. It is unabashedly what it is, a piece of escapist fantasy— the relationship equivalent of an action movie with sex replacing the cars blowing up [...]
Category: movies |
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S Andrew Swann | May 8, 2008
I just saw Iron Man and, IMO it is probably one of the best superhero adaptations made since Superman. It could have gone so very, very, wrong. We have a prolonged origin story, the driven hero with personal demons, the avuncular villian we see coming a mile away, a political subtext about weapons proliferation [...]
Category: movies |
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