Pelham 123: The Slow Train to Nowhere

In this week's edition of Henry Stewart and I's feature Blockbluster we look at Tony Scott's remake of beloved 70s heist movie The Taking of Pelham 123, a very dull reboot with very little action and even then it's of the most arbitrary and forced sort. The original offered a look at a city in the midst of an economic crisis, and though Scott attempts something similar it's painfully clear that we're being addressed by an Angeleno. Denzel Washington and John Travolta are fairly innefectual in the lead roles, though James Gandolfini clocks the best performance as a nameless mayor very obviously ment to connote Mike Bloomberg. Click here to read the whole discussion.

(photo credit: © 2009 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

The Hangover

In a recent edition of Henry Stewart and I's weekly feature Blockbluster we took a moralistic look at the latest Todd Phillips bromance The Hangover. Though it was extremely funny, its also followed a typically offensive, racist, classist, misogynist and juvenile bachelor-party-in-Vegas formula – with the mildly inventive difference that the action is glossed over via an ellipsis, and the actual comedy is in the piecing together of the events that transpired on that wild evening. Click here to read our whole discussion.

(photo credit: Frank Masi, Warner Bros.)

Drag Me to Hell: The Ultimate Eviction

In a recent edition of our weekly film discussion Blockbluster, Henry Stewart and I looked at Sam Raimi's recent return to the horror genre, Drag Me To Hell. Though we both enjoyed the film, its fairly offensive gender and racial politics were problematic. Meanwhile, it was an interesting, entertaining and supremely genre-literate exercise in class identity and anxiety, and seemed appropriate for a culture that seems paralized by the prospect of downward socio-economic mobility. Click here to read our whole discussion.

Night at the Museum II: Stay Out of Washington

A few weeks back Henry Stewart and I reviewed Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian for our weekly feature Blockbluster at The L Magazine's website. It turned out to be much worse than either of us had expected because it not only lacked any decent action sequences, but also squandered its ridiculous cast of comedian superstars (Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Luke Wilson, Steve Coogan, Christopher Guest, Ricky Gervais, etc.). The stubbornly unfunny movie at least featured some cool effects (a Jeff Koons balloon animal brought to life, for instance), and a terrific performance by Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart – though she was offensively recuperated by a kind of infantilist patriarchal substitution in the final scene. Read all of Henry and I's discussion here.

Filmscene: Star Trek

In the latest installation of Henry Stewart and I's discussions of the latest multiplex spectacles for The L Magazine we tackle J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. In it, we discover a film supremely concerned with origin stories and father figures, yet relatively devoid of mothers. It also approaches what we'd imagine an Obama-era blockbuster might look like, but really has more to do with Clinton- and Reagan-era politics. Still, its epic, entertaining and visually exquisite narrative of displacement, refugees, extermination and time travel is a welcome update for the tired Star Trek franchise. Read the whole discussion here.

Filmscene: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

In the latest installment of Filmscene, Henry Stewart and I discuss the various problems and covert political conceits at work in the newest addition to the X-Men franchise, Wolverine's war-loving origin story. Gavin Hood's X-Men Origins: Wolverine skips around from the Northwest Territories to Lagos (via the beaches of Normandy and jungles of Vietnam) to Three Mile Island, turning so many moments of modern history into aestheticized tableaux. The coming of age story also invites comparisons to Star Wars and Lost, and – predictably – an incredibly sad showing for female characters. Read the whole conversation here.

Filmscene: Friday the 13th

Check out the massive review-by-way-of-discussion that Henry Stewart and I wrote for The L Magazine about the latest (and 12th) installment in Jason Voorhees's Friday the 13th franchise (which, of course, opens today).