IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Emperor's New Groove

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/emperorsnewgroove.mp3] Originality, even when it’s forced, is a rare and wonderful thing these days. Sometimes it comes about due to the constraints of budget or equipment. Sometimes the expectations or demands of a client or superior change. However it happens, if a production can manage to recover, even if it goes in an entirely new… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Emperor's New Groove

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! From Paris with Love

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/frompariswlove.mp3] You should never be afraid to seize an opportunity when it appears. The next big idea that changes your life may come out of somebody else being a dick. You may walk into a room without any intention of meeting somebody new, and the next thing you know you’re taking wedding vows. It’s the… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! From Paris with Love

Being Critical

When I cross-posted yesterday’s review on the Escapist, a couple of people pointed out that the card game in that abyssmal movie was grossly misrepresented. Fair enough. Despite the fact that breaking the flow of the game to explain what a card is and does is actually something that happens all the time in actual… Continue reading Being Critical

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/yugioh.mp3] There is a difference, in my mind, between a request and a challenge. A request is somebody asking an artist to do something for a personal reason – they have a particular subject they want exalted, or a pet peeve they’re dying to see run into the ground. A challenge, on the other hand,… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Kick-Ass

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/kickass.mp3] A lot of production companies, investors and even film-makers like to assume that we, as a movie-going audience, are stupid. They think we can’t handle movies with deep characters, complex plots or themes that transcend a work and try to tell us something about ourselves. So more often than not, a movie about giant… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Kick-Ass

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Batman

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/batman.mp3] The right-hand column of my blog (you fine Escapist folks know where it is if you’re a follower of mine so I won’t reiterate its URL) haunts me. I put a few things on my Netflix queue that, for one reason or another, I think would be interesting to review. The recent remake of… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Batman

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Sherlock Holmes

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/holmes.mp3] Necessity is the mother of invention. Along with being something Sherlock Holmes himself might utter while investigating a case, this idiom is also the reason I’m reviewing Guy Ritchie’s recent feature-film treatment of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective. I was originally planning to subject myself to the apparent mediocrity of The Taking of Pelham… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Sherlock Holmes

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Hangover

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/hangover.mp3] Crazy nights and weekends are the stuff modern legends are made of. They do things like deprive you of money, give you interesting hickeys, or keep you from posting a regular blog feature on time. Most of the time, though, you at least have the benefit of remembering how you got into a situation… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Hangover

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Total Recall

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/totalrecall.mp3] Philip K. Dick is what I would consider a luminary of the genre of science-fiction. He wrote quite a few stories that dealt with concepts like free will, identity and the nature of drug abuse. Somewhere between the adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that became the sci-fi classic Blade Runner, and… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Total Recall

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Adventures of Robin Hood

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/robinhood.mp3] Long before things like 3-D, CGI, THX and all those other wonderful acronyms came along, films were seen as extensions of the stage. Actors brought their best Shakespearean bombast, sets were designed as you would the sort of staging you’d have to quickly break down in the dark between acts, and directors framed and… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Adventures of Robin Hood