video | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Video! On Why Faithfulness is Not a Measure of Quality in Adaptation…

Posted on February 26, 2023 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will typically be separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, with ongoing debates about the fidelity of shows like The Rings of Power, The Witcher: Blood Origin and The Last of Us, it seemed like a good opportunity to discuss the art of adaption. In particular, the question of whether faithfulness and quality are in any way related to one another.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: in the frame, the last of us, the rings of power, the witcher: blood orgin, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On “Die Hard” as a Christmas Movie…

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Darren

This week, with Christmas just around the corner, it seemed like a good opportunity to revist an older video, exploring how Die Hard isn’t just a Christmas movie, but is a truly great Christmas movie.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bruce willis, christmas, die hard, escapist, in the frame, john mcclane, the escapist, video, yuletide | Leave a comment »

299. Going Overboard (-#16)

Posted on August 13, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this time with special guests Jess Dunne and Luke Dunne, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This week, Valerie Breiman’s Going Overboard.

Shecky Moskowitz is a cruise ship waiter who dreams of being a stand-up comedian. However, he finds himself at odds with the ship’s resident comedian, Dickie Diamond. Shecky’s comedic ambitions become decidedly more complicated thanks to a series of overlapping plots involving rock band Yellow Teeth and General Noriega.

At time of recording, it was ranked 16th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: adam sandler, amateur, babes ahoy!, billy bob thornton, Billy Zane, celebrity, comedy, funny, going overboard, imdb, insult comedy, jess dunne, luke dunne, milton berle, podcast, stardom, The 250, the breakout role, the breakout role podcast, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On How Streaming and the Algorithm are Shaping Modern Franchises…

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will be completely separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, we took a look at a broader cultural trend: the way in which streaming services and the algorithms that drive them are reshaping modern franchise media in a way that makes them more aesthetically conservative. When the algorithm drives studios to push towards recycling familiar ideas and iconography, it discourages any attempt to do something new or interesting with these long-lasting properties. As a result, many of the larger franchises have become hollowed versions of their past glories.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Conservative, Content, familiar, fandom, in the frame, star trek, star wars, streaming, the algorithm, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Lightyear is a Solid Sub-Orbital Adventure”

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute film review of Lightyear, which is in theatres on Friday.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: animated, buzz, buzz lightyear, escapist, lightyear, pixar, review, sox, the escapist, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On How “Star Wars” Learned the Wrong Lessons from Solo…

Posted on May 31, 2022 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will be completely separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

With the arrival of Obi-Wan Kenobi on streaming, it seems like a good time to take a look back over Disney’s ownership and management of the Star Wars brand. In particular, Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was the moment where everything seemed to go wrong for the company’s vision of the larger franchise. It should be possible to learn from past mistakes, and Solo certainly provides an ample amount of education material, but can Disney learn the right lessons?

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: in the frame, star wars, the escapist, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On How “Star Trek” Gave Up on the Future…

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will be completely separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

With the end of the second season of Star Trek: Picard and the launch of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the larger Star Trek franchise, which has become increasingly backwards-looking in recent decades. While a lot of fans will place the blame on the franchise’s more recent output, the truth is that this nostalgic impulse took root much earlier than many fas will acknowledge.

Filed under: Star Trek | Tagged: in the frame, nostalgia, pop culture, star trek, star trek: enterprise, star trek: voyager, the escapist, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On the Reverence for the Irreverent “Ghostbusters”…

Posted on November 18, 2021 by Darren

So, it’s been a fun road for the video companion series to In the Frame at The Escapist, but all good things must come to an end. It looks like this will be the last episode of the series, at least for a little while. It’s been a pleasure.

That said, it’s a hell of a topic to go out on, as we discuss the strange reverential cult that has developed around Ghostbusters, with the wry and ironic eighties comedy increasingly treated as something of a holy text for a certain generation of fans. It’s a very strange illustration of how nostalgia warps and distorts the very things that it claims to remember.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist magazine, Ghostbusters, in the frame, omar ahmed, podcast, the escapist, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On What Makes “The Suicide Squad” the Year’s Best Blockbuster…

Posted on August 29, 2021 by Darren

So, as I have mentioned before, I am doing some film critic work at The Escapist. Part of that includes long-form video criticism, such as this piece which is now available to watch at YouTube, editted by the wonderful Matt Laughlin, looking at what makes The Suicide Squad the best blockbuster of the year to date.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: blockbuster, James Gunn, matt laughlin, the escapist, the suicide squad, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On How “The Suicide Squad” Uses Idris Elba…

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Darren

So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with every second Monday’s article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

With the release of The Suicide Squad last week, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at one of the things that the film did very well. In particular, the movie used its lead actor to great effect. The Suicide Squad is a movie that understands Idris Elba’s movie star persona and understands how it enhances the general mood of the film around it.