Corona | Coming Attractions

Review: The Avengers

I liked The Avengers a lot.

That said, I worry that writing a review while still riding my Avengers high will shortchange readers. I've been waiting my entire life to see a live-action Avengers movie, and I've been in a state of pleasant confusion ever since I saw the first set pics. I still can't believe an Avengers movie has been made--much less that I could ever be given the opportunity to see it. 

Review: Wrath of the Titans

When they announced a remake of the 1981 Harryhausen stop motion Clash of the Titans I did cringe.  However, with Raiders of the Lost Ark screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan behind the script, I held back my cries of ‘nooooo’ and waited to see it.  I was pleasantly surprised and quite enjoyed it.  The strong cast led by raspy voiced Sam Worthington did indeed help. Still, I was surprised that it merited a sequel. Friday brings you Wrath of the Titans and this time the Titans are pissed and out for blood.

Review: John Carter

It was in 1917 that John Carter first traveled to Barsoom. Nearly 100 years after the publication of that first tale Disney has made an expensive movie titled John Carter, one that takes several elements from the first three books that Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote about his Martian hero. Did director Andrew Stanton pull it off, and realize the epic look and feel that captured the imaginations of millions of impressionable kids that grew up to be Hollywood filmmakers and science fiction novelists?

Book Review: The Hammer Vault

There are just not enough gorgeous coffee table hardcover books that feature Christopher Lee about to sink his Dracula fangs into a beautiful sleeping woman. The Hammer Vault is the first to my knowledge that features this painted visage on its cover, which is in fact a reproduction of the movie poster artwork for Hammer Films’ 1957 release of Dracula, which starred Lee in his first role of many as the Count.

Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

So let me be upfront with you right away: I’ve never watched the first Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Guy Ritchie. In fact, I hadn’t even seen a Guy Ritchie movie until I saw his Sherlock Holmes sequel, A Game of Shadows.

The Adventures of Tintin: Tag-Team Movie Mini-Review

The Adventures of Tintin hit European theaters in October. Atrejub and I went to see it on opening weekend. Here are our individual takes on it.  

Book Review: Oeuvre: Drew Struzan

Last year The Art of Drew Struzan was published by Titan Books, and for any film aficionado who’s ever been a fan of the man’s impressive work painting movie posters, it was a must-have. If you want more of Struzan’s beautiful movie work, then his latest collection will satisfy your craving.
If, like me, you wanted to learn more about Struzan’s body of work, his beginnings and what he paints as personal projects, then this new book is a must have.

Review: The Thing

Let me begin by stating the obvious: following in the footsteps of John Carpenter’s The Thing isn’t an easy thing to do – pun intended. Although Carptenter’s movie bombed when it first came out in the summer of 1982 when E.T.: The Extraterrestrial was America’s outer space visitor of choice, VHS and cable brought The Thing to a wider and appreciative audience.

Review: Fright Night

Back in the dog days of summer 1985, me and my best friend caught an afternoon showing of a new movie called Fright Night. It wasn't marketed as one of the big summer movies of '85 (Back to the Future had turned out to be the event movie to see at that time) but what Fright Night had was an understanding with its fans.

Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

If there were one familiar director working in the Hollywood system that Marvel Studios could trust to bring an origin story of Captain America to the screen it would be Joe Johnston. Twenty years ago Johnston showed his appreciation for golden age superhero adventure when he directed The Rocketeer, proving that a brave superhero always cut a good figure when he wore a leather bomber jacket.

Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Michael Bay has gotten the giant robots fighting movie back on its tracks. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a vast improvement over the second film in the franchise.

Review: Game of Thrones, Episode 10

Weighing in at just over 800 pages, A Game of Thrones is full of plots and sub-plots, primary and secondary (and tertiary and ancillary) characters, major and minor leitmotifs, and foreshadowing of foreshadowing – to say it is a dense narrative is an understatement in the extreme, particularly considering its status as only the inaugural chapter of a much larger tale.  This column (It Is Known: An Analysis of Thrones) will act as a companion piece to both series, novel and television, analyzing each installment’s character beats and plot points as well as scrutinizing the transition from page to script.  What it will not do is spoil the story; the hope and intent is elucidation, not ruination.

Review: Cars 2

Cars 2 might very well be the first Pixar film that's a complete Disney marketing construction, made to sell more bedsheets, toys, coloring books and the eventual Cars-themed part of Disneyland. While I found the first film the weakest of Pixar's offerings to date, it still had novelty, fun character design and a couple of heartfelt moments. Cars 2 feels like the next day's warmed over leftovers; you're going to eat it but only because there's not much else in the fridge, or you're just too lazy to cook up something new.

(Yeah, I know, I'm making a food analogy about a movie that has talking cars in it, but what else can I do?)

Book Review: The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman

Anyone that knows anything about the world of movie stuntmen surely knows the name Vic Armstrong. He's been working in the biz for nearly 50 years, first doing all the dangerous leaps, falls, shimmies and fights that actors can't (or won't) do in front of the camera. The movies that he's worked on, and the heroes that he's stunt-doubled for, are icons of cinema, like James Bond, Indiana Jones and Superman. He's moved up from being a stuntman to a competent second unit director to a stunt coordinator. Can you imagine the stories this guy could tell you about working with Sean Connery or Harrison Ford or Christopher Reeve?

Review: Game of Thrones, Episode 9

Weighing in at just over 800 pages, A Game of Thrones is full of plots and sub-plots, primary and secondary (and tertiary and ancillary) characters, major and minor leitmotifs, and foreshadowing of foreshadowing – to say it is a dense narrative is an understatement in the extreme, particularly considering its status as only the inaugural chapter of a much larger tale.  This column (It Is Known: An Analysis of Thrones) will act as a companion piece to both series, novel and television, analyzing each installment’s character beats and plot points as well as scrutinizing the transition from page to script.  What it will not do is spoil the story; the hope and intent is elucidation, not ruination.