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Genre: Action

In Search of Sacrifice: The Drama of the Family in Godzilla Minus One

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2023’s Japanese film Godzilla Minus One is more than a monster flick—it’s a true family movie. Not to be confused with CGI-heavy American Monsterverse films like Godzilla x Kong (2024), GMO is a piece of old-fashioned movie magic. What it lacks in budget—the film was made for a mere $15 million!—it more than compensates for in story, acting, and an incredible use of budget-conscious effects that somehow look better than Warner Bros.’ $150 million popcorn flicks. And yes, GMO is a popcorn flick, but it’s so much more. The movie…

Escaping the Void: A Review of Thunderbolts*

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t done itself any favors since Endgame (2019). Between emasculating beloved male characters, inserting contemporary ideology at every turn, and generally sacrificing good storytelling on the altars of agenda, Disney has managed to turn a multi-billion-dollar franchise into a string of box office duds. Thanos with his gauntlet couldn’t have ruined things any more thoroughly than has Disney with its blinkered ideological commitments. But amidst the wreckage of the post-Snap MCU, the studio has managed to produce at least two decent films. One was Guardians of…

Pure Murder: A Review of Gladiator II

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I never want to see this movie again. Granted, this might sound a bit harsh coming from a Classics undergrad who spent most of his Classics Club movie nights rewatching the first installation of this movie franchise—yet I remain steadfast: I never want to see this movie again. I have no issue with some of the creative liberties and historical inaccuracies adopted by Ridley Scott that people too often bemoan in movies like this (such as a newspaper being read in a café or sharks in the Colosseum). All those…

Ford vs. Ferrari: Manhood at the Crossroads

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“I had no idea!” says Henry Ford II, the calculating man, the money-general, weeping as he encounters—for the first time up-close—the sheer power of a metal wonder made by human hands. It’s a pivotal moment, yet James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari pulls a dozen of these maneuvers with all the cool madness of a Ken Miles or a Carroll Shelby. Mangold delivers a tightly-written and multi-layered study of two kinds of men: those who master metal monsters and those under the mastery of a different sort of beast. When the…

It’s Not the Plane; It’s the Pilot: A Review of “Top Gun: Maverick”

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Standing before a handful of elite F/A 18E/F pilots, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell tells them the hard truth: pulling off this mission will take a miracle. More than one. Looking only at the plot of Top Gun: Maverick,  a moviegoer would be forgiven for assuming the same about this film. And he would be dead wrong, because Top Gun: Maverick is the only movie you have to see this year. On paper, it sounds like a hundred nostalgia-fueled Hollywood cash grabs: an aging Maverick is called into NAS North Island…