It’s the future and we’re all cybernetically enhanced human beings. Whether it’s a replacement limb, better eyesight, or even neural access to the Internet, everyone’s jacked in and everyone’s just a bit anxious about how far humanity can go. At what point does an enhanced human become a robot, not human at all? For Ghost in the Shell lead character Major (Scarlett Johansson), this is a highly personal question as she learns that her brain was…Read More
There’s no question that the epic 1959 Ben-Hur deserved its cavalcade of Oscars. People remember the chariot race scene for a reason: even all these years later it’s a breathtaking achievement in first person action cinematography and it’s hard to imagine how they managed to bring such realism to a scene without the benefit of computers, green screen and models. The story’s about more than a Gladiator-like tale of a rich person who falls to…Read More
There’s a certain story arc that just about every Luc Besson film has in common, a theme likely inspired by Hitchcock, of the “everyman” caught up in events far beyond their understanding. Even the earliest Hitch works like The 29 Steps explore this theme to great effect. It works well because we then quickly identify with the protagonist and yearn to see them succeed and overcome the challenges that they encounter on their quest for the mythic…Read More
