10 Essential Martial Arts Heroines

Too often, female characters are reduced to sidekicks, damsels, sex objects, and caricatures. Golden Swallow is the daughter of a local governor. Shes far more than just the blackly comic relief she initially comes off as. His weapons look like garbage. She yells like a barbarian. His eight-stroke style looks like a young girls dancing etc. Things only get worse as Koda turns out to be an actual ninja (a disgrace!...

March 8, 2018 · 2 min · 297 words · Paula Thompson

The Flash: Who is Jay Garrick?

DC’s original speedster is one of the most important superheroes in comic book history. Here’s a flash course in Jay Garrick. This article contains spoilers forThe Flashseason 2. Jay Garricks arrival onThe Flashwas a foregone conclusion since the very first episode of season one. And theres no more iconic symbol of Earth-2 than Jay Garrick, the original Flash. And its only fitting that hes played by TVs original Flash, John Wesley Shipp....

March 7, 2018 · 2 min · 241 words · Erik Griffith

Christopher Nolan and the Oscars’ Strained Relationship with Popular Directors

Christopher Nolan lost his first Best Director nod at the Oscars. We examine his place among populist auteurs who make the Academy wary. Even a genre filmmaker like Guillermo del Toro took home Best Picture and Best Director. To be fair, a number of popular movies have won major Oscars. It was even commonplace before Harvey Weinstein redefined what an Oscar film was,beginning around 1999. It is arguable hes been due since he went overlooked forMementoin 2001....

March 5, 2018 · 2 min · 289 words · Lisa Turner

19 Oscar-Worthy Sci-Fi Movie Performances

Does it matter that the genre and its best performances are regularly overlooked by most mainstream awards bodies? But consider this: cinema is by now a long-established artform. The best sci-fi movies arguably achieve the same thing. Where else is the sense of mystery and triumphant discovery felt more keenly than in, say,Solaris? What other genre could explore the nature of addiction with the same humor and pathos asA Scanner Darkly?...

March 3, 2018 · 3 min · 454 words · Dawn Williams

The Top 25 Underrated Movies of 1988

Many were considered failures either critically or financially. Others were low-key releases at the time and have gradually built up a cult following. All are well worth a watch. But the film he made before couldnt have been that much more different. She plays Angela de Marco, the eventual widow of Alec Baldwins mob member Frank. But it is very much worth the effort to do so. Take away Tom Hanks and the Oscar nomination, and instead you get Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage....

March 3, 2018 · 3 min · 437 words · Bethany Baird

The Sandman: The Essential Horror Comic of the ’90s

While The Sandman had plenty of literary aspirations, it was always a horror comic at heart. Those first eight issues was a sort of horror comic. Sandmanwas a unique project in that it explored myths and legends from every angle and iteration. It was a non-linear endeavor, jumping around through time and space as quickly as it jumped around point-of-view. Cain and Abel and the Witches would soon return in other titles, becoming iconic Vertigo staples....

March 2, 2018 · 4 min · 778 words · Rhonda Russo

The 10 Best Movies of 2017

The year of 2017 is long over now. However, things were never quite so bleak as they first appear. And within the confines of entertainment alone, weve witnessed a series of phenomenal films. More importantly still though, many of the movies aregood. Some could even be as simple as a woman and fish-man finding love. And yet, one that crosses over into our reality with little need for allegorical artifice isThe Post....

March 1, 2018 · 2 min · 325 words · Casey Perez

The Underrated Movies of 1987

From anime to pitch-black thrillers, here’s our pick of the underrated movies of 1987… Sometimes the challenge with these lists isnt just what to put in, but what to leave out. Likewise Joe DantesInnerspace, a fabulously geeky, comic reworking of the 60s sci-fi flick,Fantastic Voyage. Buy Dolls on Amazon 19. Everything suddenly makes sense when you notice that Cannon Films Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus are among the producers. We want lots of guns!...

February 23, 2018 · 3 min · 444 words · Angel Tucker

The Unmade Films of Kevin Smith

This article comes fromDen of Geek UK. Kevin Smith has always had to fight to get his films of the ground. The latter camp of couldve-beens is what were talking about today. Although details are scant, Smiths pre-Clerksfeature wouldve consisted of three half-hour chunks containing entirely independent stories. A strange anthology movie featuring massive concepts condensed into chunks? That couldve been great. He also wanted Braniac to fight polar bears and have a cute Chewbacca-like pet....

February 22, 2018 · 5 min · 870 words · Mason Stevens

The Many Innovations of The Legend of Zelda

Ocarina of Time,however, introduced a lock-on system that would prove to be nothing less than revolutionary. Non-player characters could be spoken to and objects inspected with little more than the press of a button. Most importantly, Z-Targeting revolutionized combat in a 3D environment. Ad content continues below It was such a brilliant system that the entire games industry immediately took note. Buy all of your Legend of Zelda games, console bundles, and merch here!...

February 21, 2018 · 1 min · 155 words · Christopher Lam

Who Are The Two Producers Credited on Every Batman Movie?

They are Michael Uslan and Benjamin Melniker. Nothing odd there, apart from the small matter of them having absolutely nothing to do with the film. But they did pick up a cheque and a credit for their troubles. But whats interesting about Uslan and Melniker is that theyre credited on every Batman movie since 1989. In all, the pair are listed on just shy of 40 Batman productions. All the more remarkable, because they were only hands on in any degree on just one of them....

February 21, 2018 · 2 min · 219 words · Don Robinson

11 Movie and TV Characters That Donald Trump Resembles

Donald Trump is about to make his State of the Union speech. Where have we all scene this scene before? Listen closely for a second. That is what passes for presidential in the modern era. Feel like youre in an episode ofThe Twilight Zone, yet? Thats okay, so do we! In fact, much of Trumps bizarre rise to political prominence has felt like something out of fiction. I imagine he isnt above calling his opponents buttheads either, but thats purely speculation....

February 19, 2018 · 3 min · 516 words · Christopher Hensley

13 Modern TV Comedies Set in The 80s and 90s

To mark the release of Netflixs 90s-set Everything Sucks!, here are a dozen more recommended nostalgic comedies… This article comes fromDen of Geek UK. The 90s felt so good that some of us never left. Some of us are still there. This Friday welcomes new nineties-set high school comedyEverything Sucks!to Netflix. To mark its arrival, here are thirteen other modern TV comedies set in the recent past… 23s premature cancellation is that it freed up creator Nahnatchka Khan to work onFresh Off The Boat....

February 16, 2018 · 2 min · 358 words · Stephanie Mcclure