Rather than one of them writing an individual review for Star Trek Into Darkness, Tim and Bob thought it might be fun to team up Kirk-and-Spock style to discuss J.J. Abrams’ second Trek film. Major spoilers to follow … Tim: I’m going to break a cardinal rule in film analysis and admit I’m of two [...]
By all accounts, NBC’s Hannibal should not be a show I’m even watching, let alone breathlessly anticipating every week. For starters, it’s a prequel, that laziest form of storytelling that offers much in the way of fan service but little in the way of drama or surprise, as the audience always knows exactly where the [...]
Stop-motion wizard Ray Harryhausen, one of the great titans of fantasy cinema, died today at the age of 92. His legacy will last for as long as there are monster movies, and we would be remiss if we didn’t do our part to help commemorate his life and work. So go watch this video compilation [...]
Massive spoilers of Iron Man 3 to follow. Seriously, don’t read this if you haven’t seen the movie yet. In the Marvel Comics universe, the Mandarin is Iron Man’s greatest villain — an Asian scientist and fighter who gains superpowers courtesy of ten alien rings constructed using technology far more advanced that even Tony Stark [...]
The Cult Spark Podcast crew is back to preview the 2013 summer movie season, walking you through all the films you should be excited to go see during the next four months. Additionally, Tim outs himself as a Scott Pilgrim vs. the World hater. Bob cops to having never seeing a single Fast and Furious [...]
Evil Dead, the reboot of Sam Raimi’s 1981 horror classic, isn’t the abomination you might have feared. It’s respectful and technically solid, and there are stretches where director Fede Alvarez shows he possesses some of the raw skills Raimi himself was putting to good use more than 30 years ago. But none of this makes [...]
The Veronica Mars movie Kickstarter project — a new way for entertainment corporations to drain your wallet or a nifty solution for sidestepping soulless movie studios entirely? Our podcast team tries to find an answer in this installment of the Cult Spark Podcast. (Spoiler alert — they mostly end up just fighting about it.) Also [...]
Good news, people. There’s going to be a Veronica Mars movie, a continuation of the mostly great 2005-07 TV series that featured Kristen Bell as a whipcrack-smart pixie detective who solves crimes while navigating the hells of high school and later college. Though the second season was a little bit of a comedown after the [...]
Oz: The Great and Powerful, the first new Sam Raimi film in four years, comes to theaters this weekend, and our podcast crew seizes the opportunity to dissect the Evil Dead maestro’s full filmography. CHUD’s Tim Kelly gives us his take on Oz, and then the whole team dives into Darkman, Drag Me to Hell, [...]
Welcome to Reboot Court, where we drag an upcoming film remake in front of the judge — that would be me — and determine whether or not a do-over is a good idea. Court is now in session … The original film: Mad Max (d. George Miller, 1979) The story: In a dystopian world bled [...]
The first time I ever actively noticed David Costabile was in season one of Damages, where he played Rick Messer, a crooked, murdering police detective responsible for doing Ted Danson’s dirty work. The guy was pure scumbag. You couldn’t help but feel your stomach lurch whenever he was on screen. Costabile was so good in [...]
In our podcast we recently released as part of Die Hard Week, I remarked that, to me, the Die Hard franchise was still creatively viable as it had yet to put forward an installment as creative bankrupt at, say, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well, that was then … A Good [...]
