Author: Rainestorm

  • The Disquiet Man

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    In counterpoint to the sound and fury that signals summer’s end, Dutch director Anton Corbijn serves up a quiet meditation on the loneliness of vocational murder in The American. If The Expendables is a callback to 1980s muscle-man pics, and Machete a throwback to 1970s exploitation flicks, The American is a think-back, recollecting cold-war thrillers… Read more

  • Everything old…

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    Never let it be said that Sylvester Stallone doesn’t know his audience. After railing against the ascent of what he calls “velcro muscles” that he claims have defined action movie stars in the last two decades, Stallone resurrects the big-muscle action movie with his 1980s throwback, The Expendables. Not since Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator has this… Read more

  • How Acronyms Ruin Movies (HARM)

    You can blame the Internet. You can blame cell phone texting. You can blame email. Thanks a lot, king of the world I blame James Cameron. Once upon a time, Mr. Cameron made a little film called Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which, to my recollection, did reasonably well for its day. The marketing behind the… Read more

  • Ridley at 33

    Ridley Scott is my favorite contemporary director. One of the few whose movies I will see by sheer virtue of his directorial involvement. His eye for photography is fantastic and his narrative pacing ebbs and flows like gentle surf. His education as a set designer has led him to create fantastic movies from the seed… Read more

  • Snake Plissken slithers again.

    Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Sahara helmer and former Disney CEO offspring Breck Eisner is in negotiations with New Line Cinema to direct the remake of John Carpenter’s low-budget Escape From New York. Generally speaking, I abhor remakes, and the veritable plethora of them lately is enough to make me wonder why I bother going… Read more

  • What is Past is Prologue.

    This month in movie history. While art in any form, be it films or books or music, is sometimes mired in the current or even the next big thing, looking back can afford a glimpse into that very present and future. So this month, I decided to take a little stroll down memory lane and… Read more

  • Best. Year. Ever.

    It’s a requirement of every blog. At the end of each year/decade/millennium, every cineaste, film fan, movie maven, what-have-you, is obliged to recap his or her favorite flicks of that timespan. Read more

  • It’s a lot like (my) Christmas.

    We all have our own personal movie favorites to watch at Christmas time. For most the preferred film is It’s a Wonderful Life. For me it’s an eclectic mix of expected and unexpected films that fills me with holiday cheer. Read more

  • Wealth Advisors

    In a world of Madoffs and rip-offs, wary (and weary) consumers still need financial advice.   Crisis. It’s the mot de choix of just about everyone describing the financial state of the world over the last year, and California has been one of the favorite targets of pity. Dealing with that crisis has virtually supplanted… Read more

  • Golden Hanger Awards Light Up San Diego Fashion

    San Diego doesn’t often come to mind when counting the world’s fashion Meccas. Yet on a Saturday night in Fashion Valley (of course), one could see a fashion show as vogue and vibrant as could be expected in New York or Italy. Read more