Avengers: Endgame (2019) Review
The most contrived blockbuster of the decade. The 4 reflects honest evaluation of one of the most commercially successful films in cinema history.
Genre: Adventure (Page 6)
ActionIron Man (2008) Review
Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, and the cave construction sequence that built a franchise. The casting decision that built Marvel Studios.
ActionThe Avengers (2012) Review
Joss Whedon's ensemble breakthrough, Tom Hiddleston's Loki, and the film that proved interconnected superhero cinema could function at scale. The 8.5 reflects honest evaluation of the film that proved interconnected superhero cinema could function at scale and the entry that…
AdventureHoney, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Review
Rick Moranis at his peak, practical effects that put CGI to shame, and Disney back when it made original family adventures. The Blu-ray release is out of print and trades at collector prices.
AdventureThe Greatest Road Movies
Twenty road movies covering every register of the genre — from Easy Rider's counterculture elegy to The Straight Story's 240-mile lawnmower journey to Mad Max: Fury Road's two-hour chase. The road does not take you to a destination. It takes…
AdventureGreatest Fantasy Movies – Worlds Beyond Reason
Twenty of cinema's greatest fantasy films, from Excalibur to Pan's Labyrinth. The 1980s golden era, Lord of the Rings, and one catastrophic trilogy — five decades of the genre.
ActionForeign Action & Adventure – Beyond Hollywood
Twenty of the world's greatest action films from France, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and Finland. The action cinema Hollywood spent decades trying to copy.
AdventureStar Wars: A New Hope (1977) Review
A New Hope is the film that created modern blockbuster cinema, and it did so by being something very specific: a myth engine. Lucas wasn't writing charact.
AdventureThe Abyss (1989) Review
The production achievement of The Abyss is extraordinary even by Cameron's standards. The Deepcore rig is a superbly designed setting, confined, functional, full of the specific texture of working machinery that Cameron consistently brings to his industrial environments.
AdventureThe Empire Strikes Back (1980) Review
Empire earns its 8 by doing what no Star Wars film before or since has managed: it takes the universe seriously. Lucas's original Star Wars is a myth engine, archetypes, simple morality, the pleasure of a world with clear rules.
AdventureRings of Power Review
The landscapes occasionally earn a 7 in isolation. In Tolkien's legendarium, Galadriel is one of the most powerful beings in Middle-earth.
ActionThe Lord of the Rings Review
Peter Jackson's three films, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, are the best fantasy adaptation ever made and among the best films ever made in the genre. The extended editions are the…