Little introduction is needed for today's Guide, so we won't bother. Simply put, these are the staffer's favorite Holiday movies and/or television shows. Chime in with your own in the comments, or share your bah humbuggery. 'Tis the Season, y'all.
Bad Santa: When I was a wee lad, I spent one Christmas Eve staying up as late as possible staring at the roofs of the row homes across the street, trying to see that fat sumbitch who visited all the goyim homes but wouldn't give this little Jew boy some holiday cheer. Needless to say, I saw no Santa Claus. But had I, I suspect that -- because this was Philly -- he would've been an awful lot like Billy Bob Thorton's Willie T. Stokes -- a rude, vulgar, thieving, lecherous, drunken Santa. That's my kind of Santa, and that's why Bad Santa is my kind of Christmas flick.
Bad Santa: When I was a wee lad, I spent one Christmas Eve staying up as late as possible staring at the roofs of the row homes across the street, trying to see that fat sumbitch who visited all the goyim homes but wouldn't give this little Jew boy some holiday cheer. Needless to say, I saw no Santa Claus. But had I, I suspect that -- because this was Philly -- he would've been an awful lot like Billy Bob Thorton's Willie T. Stokes -- a rude, vulgar, thieving, lecherous, drunken Santa. That's my kind of Santa, and that's why Bad Santa is my kind of Christmas flick.
- 12/23/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
Breck Eisner's The Crazies is coming out tomorrow, which is a remake of a horror film so little seen that most people don't even realize it's a remake (for the record, it's a remake of a George Romero 1973 film). It's one of about 100 horror movie remakes that have come out in the last century (most of those in the last decade or so). But hell if any of them are any damn good -- it's so bad, in fact, that my list of the top five horror movie remakes jumps the shark right after number four.
But why? Why hasn't a studio been able to make very many decent horror movie remakes? It's a fairly easy explanation, really. Horror films are low-risk investments, if they're produced correctly . Most horror films will manage to eke out in the range of $30 to $60 million at the box office, but there's a ceiling,...
But why? Why hasn't a studio been able to make very many decent horror movie remakes? It's a fairly easy explanation, really. Horror films are low-risk investments, if they're produced correctly . Most horror films will manage to eke out in the range of $30 to $60 million at the box office, but there's a ceiling,...
- 2/26/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
The Informant!: "Many of Steven Soderbergh's films in the past eight or nine years can be understood in light of the director asking himself a different hypothetical question: What if I made a slick caper movie cobbled from the emotional remnants of the 1960s? What if I made a stilted, form-driven science-fiction movie cobbled together from the emotional remnants of the 1970s? What if I made a historical drama using period filming techniques cobbled together from the emotional remnants of the 1940s? Etc., etc. Where Soderbergh's earlier films seemed genuinely interested in examining what it meant to pick a certain storytelling approach while never losing sight of the central narrative, his later work is often willfully unclassifiable, as in the deeply flawed and navel-gazing Ocean's Twelve or the passion project Che. But with The Informant!, Soderbergh's finally made a movie that doesn't know whether it's a limp comedy or a slack thriller.
- 2/23/2010
- by Intern Rusty
Law Abiding Citizen: "Law Abiding Citizen is a terrible movie, but it didn't have to be. I suppose you could say that about a lot of films, but this one in particular dabbled in a few ideas that were above its pay grade, so to speak. It hinted at being a film about our judicial system, about exposing its flaws, about breaking them open and revealing the sometimes ethically and morally insidious nature of the law, and the way efficiency often trumps justice. But it never digs into those ideas, instead devolving into a clunky and ham-fisted action-thriller that eschews logic in favor of hollow sentiment and a body count." - Dustin Rowles
Good Hair: "If there has to be a voice for black culture, you could do worse than Chris Rock. In answering an innocent inquiry from his four-year-old daughter about her hair, Rock finds answers that are beautiful,...
Good Hair: "If there has to be a voice for black culture, you could do worse than Chris Rock. In answering an innocent inquiry from his four-year-old daughter about her hair, Rock finds answers that are beautiful,...
- 2/16/2010
- by Intern Rusty
Little introduction is needed for today's Guide, so we won't bother. Simply put, these are the staffer's favorite Holiday movies and/or television shows. Chime in with your own in the comments, or share your bah humbuggery. 'Tis the Season, y'all.
Bad Santa: When I was a wee lad, I spent one Christmas Eve staying up as late as possible staring at the roofs of the row homes across the street, trying to see that fat sumbitch who visited all the goyim homes but wouldn't give this little Jew boy some holiday cheer. Needless to say, I saw no Santa Claus. But had I, I suspect that -- because this was Philly -- he would've been an awful lot like Billy Bob Thorton's Willie T. Stokes -- a rude, vulgar, thieving, lecherous, drunken Santa. That's my kind of Santa, and that's why Bad Santa is my kind of Christmas flick.
Bad Santa: When I was a wee lad, I spent one Christmas Eve staying up as late as possible staring at the roofs of the row homes across the street, trying to see that fat sumbitch who visited all the goyim homes but wouldn't give this little Jew boy some holiday cheer. Needless to say, I saw no Santa Claus. But had I, I suspect that -- because this was Philly -- he would've been an awful lot like Billy Bob Thorton's Willie T. Stokes -- a rude, vulgar, thieving, lecherous, drunken Santa. That's my kind of Santa, and that's why Bad Santa is my kind of Christmas flick.
- 12/24/2009
- by Dustin Rowles
One of my favorite features here on Pajiba is our Under Appreciated Films series, which was initially prompted by the popularity of our The Best Films You've Never Seen post way back in 2006 designed to call your attention to several films that have flown under the radar in past years. Accordingly, I'd be remiss if, before leaving the Aughts behind, we didn't take one last look back at the some of the great overlooked films of the decade, none of which made it on any of our Top Ten lists.
The criteria is simple: In order to be considered, the film had to make less than $3 million at the box office. Moreover, these films were excluded from consideration, if only because we've already beaten them to death with praise and either you've already seen them or you never will: Rocket Science, The Wackness, Let the Right One In and Brick.
The criteria is simple: In order to be considered, the film had to make less than $3 million at the box office. Moreover, these films were excluded from consideration, if only because we've already beaten them to death with praise and either you've already seen them or you never will: Rocket Science, The Wackness, Let the Right One In and Brick.
- 12/22/2009
- by Dustin Rowles
This decade's Secret Shames are, more often than not, the next decade's Hangover Theater films. It's a decade-long process, really. Movies debut on the screen to terrible reviews, eventually get aired on television cable on a loop, and then viewers inexplicably get caught up in them, revel in their atrociousness, and a consensus begins to form until films once thought to be terrifically heinous can be collectively appreciated on the so-bad-it's good scale. The next thing you know, it's in your DVD collection, and you're waking up on a Saturday morning covered in your own drool and begging your roommate to pop in fucking Joe Dirt because you can't bear anything more intelligent.
Over the years, Secret Shames have been a popular topic on Pajiba -- it takes an intelligent audience, I suppose, to own up to their guilty pleasures without fear of reproach. And as someone familiar with thousands...
Over the years, Secret Shames have been a popular topic on Pajiba -- it takes an intelligent audience, I suppose, to own up to their guilty pleasures without fear of reproach. And as someone familiar with thousands...
- 12/8/2009
- by Dustin Rowles
Every decade is a seemingly thin decade for horror movies. Outside of romantic comedies, it might be the most poorly executed genre that Hollywood has to offer. We are ceaselessly and ruthlessly bombarded with wave after wave of derivative, rushed, brainless, cheesy, and most of all -- not scary -- horror movies on an almost monthly basis. I find that I'll eventually see almost all of them, and my satisfaction rate is so low its almost unmeasurable. A good horror movie can be many things -- scary, spooky, atmospheric, gory, clever, interesting. It should have characters that you care about, and whatever the source of the horror is, be it ghosts, demons, serial killers, or family members, it should make you grip your armrests a little, make you gulp, make you feel some kind of tension.
There have been some decent horror movies during the course of this decade that...
There have been some decent horror movies during the course of this decade that...
- 12/8/2009
- by TK
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