newcritics

Let’s just stipulate up front: It’s hard to mess up the vampire story. Attractive people, baroque settings and outfits, a hint of danger and the forbidden… the thing
really sells itself. When you mess it up - Francis Ford Coppola’s overwrought Bram Stoker’s Dracula comes to mind - it’s usually by overdoing it, not under.
In [...]

At this late date, the biggest obstacle to refreshing the James Bond storyline is the fans.
Everyone, it seems, comes to the table with expectations. There’s even the set of Roger Moore fans who come with expectations… which is just sad, if you ask me. But, more seriously, there are the devotee-purists of Ian Fleming’s original [...]

The title of the new Bond film begs attention be paid to its distinct words. “Quantum” is a great Latinate word meaning “the smallest discrete amount of any quantity.” As for “solace”:
“This flower is fair and fresh of hue,
It fadeth never, but ever is new;
The blessed branch this flower on grew
Was Mary mild that bare [...]

The action films of the 1970s shot in and around New York embrace a curb-level realism - an obsession with gritty locations - that no studio or backlot can possibly reproduce. The storefronts, dented cars, barren parks and filigreed subway els dress movies like The Seven-Ups, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, and the French [...]