A few years ago the BBC adapted Shakespeare’s first four canonical histories Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, and Henry V under the collective title of The Hollow Crown, and a little while after that I reviewed each installment as part of my ongoing Brush Up Your Shakespeare series. Well, the BBC recently…
The Boxtrolls is a quirky stop-motion animated film by Laika, the creators of other Academy Award nominated films, Coraline and ParaNorman. While not as great as its other two films, The Boxtrolls is still a fun adventure with well written protagonists, entertaining antagonists, and a rather unique premise. The story goes that 10 years ago,…
I’ve been in the desert. The New Mexican desert. I don’t know about y’all, but this scenery makes me think of one thing and one thing alone: the cowboy movie. I’m not basing this on any sort of well-researched fact or collection of statistical data, but I’m willing to bet all my prestige and credibility…
Last weekend marked the unofficial start of summer, as people celebrated a muggy Memorial Day weekend by firing up the grill, spending time with friends, and heading to the shore. I celebrated by immediately getting a cold. Sapped of energy and the inclination to socialize, I did what any sensible film geek under-the-weather would do…
I’ve been contributing to this blog every week for about the last three and a half years, and in that time have published 193 Second Breakfast articles. Today is my 194th. About fifteen percent of those articles have focused on Shakespeare adaptations or movies starring Vincent Price and/or Peter Cushing. I even wrote an entire,…
One of my main complaints about Japanese animation is that there is often inherent sexism involved. I especially cringe at the copious amounts of fan-service meant for a male gaze in anime. The horror/comedy/adventure anime known as Soul Eater isn’t exactly an exception to this rule. However, it does have some excellent examples of progressive…
Typically, when a movie gets labeled as one of the “feel-good movies of the summer”, there’s a set of expectations that accompany such a distinction. Gentle, breezy humor, romance, and an ending that ends well for our protagonists are, more or less, the order of the day. Less typical of the “feel-good” movie is, say,…
Rooster Illusion 