Featured Movies

Star Trek Into Darkness

The new Star Trek, the movie I've been most excited about in months, is here! And it didn't let me down. This one has more of an involved story and focuses on the deepening bond between Kirk and Spock. Yes, it's an action-packed blockbuster with little room for contemplation, but within that framework, they deliver a film that respects the characters and the lore while looking amazing and providing big spectacle.

Chronicle

Three high school friends find an alien rock that leaves them with the power to move things telekinetically. As their powers grow, they essentially become superheroes, and one of them, unable to overcome his bad home and mental situation, starts using his powers for evil. It's a clever, low-budget exploration of the whole superhero thing, that manages to tell a good story with decent characters.

Iron Man 3

This movie prompted an existential exploration in me as to WHY do I [and others] continue to want to see these movies when they are--aside from switching out a few elements--all exactly the same? This one has Iron Man instead of Kirk or Duane Johnson or Vin Diesel, but it's just the same long and loud series of action and explosions with no character or story involvement.

The Beyond

This, regarded by many as Lucio Fuci's "masterpiece," is not really all that great. A woman inherits a hotel in a swamp that she wants to turn into a center for swamp-based tourism, except for that pesky problem of the hell portal in the basement, which she just doesn't have enough caulk to fill. This does have one quite original and electrifying sequence, however, that might be worth seeking it for.

The Unique CdM Rating System...

...Evaluates a movie's goodness AND badness! OLIVIAS represent GOODNESS, DIVINES represent BADNESS

Scintillating Essay

How bad IS 'John Carter?'

It's the flop of 2012, and it's supposed to be horrendously awful. But exactly HOW bad? Let's ask some of the writers on the IMDb, who were so enraged by the experience they felt compelled to publicly lash out.

Enthralling Videocast

The Birds: Explained!

Here you will encounter my answer to the enduring question about this film: Why do the birds attack? I point out that if you pay attention to the non-attack material, you can see that the bird attacks are the physical manifestation of the mother's rage against rival's for her son's affection.

Readers Respond

Your biting wit, your incisive analysis, your humanity, your cynicism--they all make for a cocktail that I could imagine was what Bette Davis had drunk just before her famous "Fasten your seatbelts" line in All About Eve.

-- Wayne, Kansas

Two Random Photos

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