Solo: A Star Wars Story
An engaging but unnecessary bit of backstory for one of blockbuster cinema's most beloved characters.
Sam Raimi
-
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
—
Directed by
Simon Abrams -
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert -
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
—
Written by
Roger Ebert -
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert -
Spider-Man (2002)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert -
The Gift (2001)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert -
For Love Of The Game (1999)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert -
A Simple Plan (1998)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert -
The Quick And The Dead (1995)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert -
Indian Summer (1993)
—
Stick
Roger Ebert -
Army Of Darkness (1993)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert -
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
—
Directed by
Roger Ebert
* This filmography is not intended to be a comprehensive list of this artist’s work. Instead it reflects the films this person has been involved with that have been reviewed on this site.
Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: February 15, 2018
The latest on Blu-ray and DVD, including Wonder, Only the Brave, Roman J. Israel, The Ballad of Lefty Brown, and Walking Out.
30 Minutes on: "The Hudsucker Proxy"
You know, for kids!
Man on the Outside: The Films of Willem Dafoe
A look at the career of Willem Dafoe.
Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: August 24, 2017
A guide to the latest and greatest on Blu-ray and DVD, including three Criterion releases, The Wall, and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.
The Consummate Everyman: Goodbye to Bill Paxton
The RogerEbert.com staff says goodbye to Bill Paxton.
What Nightmares May Come: How the "Resident Evil" Films and Games Work Together
A history of the "Resident Evil" films and video games, how they've influenced each other, and how the two latest entries split.
Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: September 1, 2016
A look at the latest and greatest on streaming services and Blu-ray, including Orson Welles on Criterion, "The Nice Guys," "The Jungle Book," "Me Before You" and more!
Pity and Terror: Fede Alvarez & Stephen Lang on "Don't Breathe"
An interview with writer/director Fede Alvarez and actor Stephen Lang about their new film, "Don't Breathe."
Hollywood Gave Up on You: The Summer Movies of 2016
A look back at how this summer's best offering, Netflix's "Stranger Things," makes the failure of this season's blockbusters even more difficult to ignore.
Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: November 5, 2015
The latest and greatest on Netflix, VOD, and Blu-ray, including The End of the Tour, Southpaw, Inside Out, The Gift, Army of Darkness, Kwaidan, and more!
“Ash vs. Evil Dead” is a Groovy, Good Time
A review of "Ash vs. Evil Dead"
The Unloved, Part Fifteen: "The Lone Ranger" & "Heaven's Gate"
This month's Unloved looks at two films deemed disasters: Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" and Gore Verbinski's "The Lone Ranger"
If We Picked the Winners 2015: Best Supporting Actor
The RogerEbert.com pick for the Best Supporting Actor of 2014.
Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Festival Features a Few Possible Breakouts
Dragons in Anatolia: The Beauty of Cannes Hustle
A daily report from Michael Oleszczyk on the unique double feature of How to Train Your Dragon 2 & Winter Sleep.
Dear Hollywood: Hiring women directors could rescue the superhero movie. Love, half the human race.
Susan Wloszczyna wonders if women at the helm might be just the thing to revitalize the foundering, repetitive comic-book movie genre.
#143 November 21, 2012
Marie writes: When I first learned of "Royal de Luxe" I let out a squeal of pure delight and immediately began building giant puppets inside my head, trying to imagine how it would look to see a whale or dragon moving down the street..."Based in Nantes, France, the street theatre company Royal de Luxe performs around the world, primarily using gigantic, elaborate marionettes to tell stories that take place over several days and wind through entire cities. Puppeteers maneuver the huge marionettes - some as tall as 12 meters (40 ft) - through streets, parks, and waterways, performing their story along the way." - the Atlantic
(Click images to enlarge.)
#124 July 18, 2012
Marie writes: Intrepid club member Sandy Kahn has found another auction, and this time it's all about Hollywood! Note: the spaceship on the cover is a screen used miniature from "Aliens" (1986). Estimate: $80,000 - $120,000
Go here to download a free copy of the catalog in .PDF
The rise and decline of the superhero
Published with Press Play on Indiewire
With the unparalleled box office success of The Avengers, superheroes are back in the spotlight. Most comic book aficionados are delighted with the recognition. But believe it or not, there are those such as myself who are dismayed at how superhero films, though more popular than ever, seem to be losing their luster.
A Simple Plan
May Contain SpoilersSometimes ordinary people becoming evil are more frightening than Dr. Hannibal Lector or Frank Booth. Villains like them are downright scary, but they are basically outsiders with a monstrous nature beyond our common sense. In contrast, the characters in Sam Raimi's crime thriller "A Simple Plan" (1998) are nice, ordinary people we can identify with, at least in the beginning. We can recognize their human wishes, desires, and motives. We can understand why they are driven into the plot while it's getting bloodier and more complicated. As a result, it is frightening to observe them doing horrible things, and one question immediately pops up in our minds - what would I do if I were in their circumstance?
The most taxing people in movies
For tax day, the editors at MSN Movies came up with an idea for contributors to write short essays about the most, ahem, "taxing" people in modern movies. Each of us picked a person whose presence, behind or in front of the camera, we find wearisome and debilitating -- as in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of taxing: "onerous, wearing."
You've probably already guessed my choice. I've written quite a bit about why I find Christopher Nolan's post-"Memento" work lackluster, but this exercise gave me an opportunity to condense my reservations about his writing and directing into one relatively concise piece:
Let me say up front that I don't think Nolan is a bad or thoroughly incompetent director, just a successfully pedestrian one. His Comic-Con fan base makes extravagant claims for each new film -- particularly since Nolan began producing his graphic-novel blockbusters with "Batman Begins" in 2005 -- but the movies are hobbled by thesis-statement screenplays that strain for significance and an ungainly directing style that seems incapable of, and uninterested in, illustrating more than one thing at a time: "Look at this. Now look at this. Now look at this. Now here's some dialogue to explain the movie's fictional rules. Now a character will tell you what he represents and what his goals are." And so on ... You won't experience the thrill of discovery while looking around in a Nolan frame. You'll see the one thing he wants you to see, but everything around it is dead space. [...]
There will be blood
May Contain SpoilersRevenge is served raw and simple in "Bedevilled"(2010). The movie delivers exactly what it promises to us, but that is not for free. There are barbarous scenes that make you wince, and then there are bloody scenes that make you cringe, but this South Korean revenge thriller has gallons of emotions to spurt on the screen in its sad, wretched character. It carefully prepares its ground while seemingly following the typical formula of revenge movies featuring abused heroines. It continuously accumulates explosives beneath its surface as the plot progresses. And then, when the time comes, it explodes its anger magnificently like a harrowing bloody aria.
Dafoe admires Lars, but "his impulses are often perverse."
Has there been a more harrowing and courageous performance this year? Willem Dafoe plays a wholly evil man occupying a wholly evil world in Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist," a new film that challenges its viewers so boldly that some have fled from the theater. Von Trier's films often stir up heated discussion, but never has he made a film quite this formidable.
Was Natalie Wood really John Wayne's daughter, or what?
Q. So, how coincidental is this? “2001: A Space Odyssey” includes a character named Dr. Heywood Floyd. The new movie “Moon” evokes “2001” powerfully for you and is directed by someone whose birth name is Duncan Zowie Heywood Jones. Heywood isn’t exactly a common name. Maybe he was born to direct this movie.
Opening Shots: Spider-Man 2
From Kris Pigna:
"Spider-Man 2" begins with an extreme close-up of a woman's face, a dissolve from the last image of the opening credits. Against a stark white backdrop, she stares right into the camera, deeply, with the kind of eyes that are easy to fall in love with. "She looks at me every day," Peter Parker says in voiceover. "Mary Jane Watson. Oh boy. If she only knew how I felt about her." The camera slowly pulls out on this ideal, dreamlike image.
"But she can never know. I made a choice once to live a life of responsibility, a life she can never be a part of." The camera pulls out far enough to reveal we're actually looking at a billboard, a perfume advertisement Mary Jane posed for. "Who am I? I'm Spider-Man, given a job to do. And I'm Peter Parker, and I too have a job." The camera pulls out farther, and we see Peter come into frame on his pizza-delivery moped, gazing at the billboard over his shoulder with full attention. Suddenly we hear a man calling his name, and Peter's attention is snapped. So is the dream.
