HISTORY SHOWS AGAIN & AGAIN HOW “GODZILLA” POINTS OUT THE FOLLY OF MEN
By Greg Popil A massive, looming figure towers over the new quasi-remake, sort-of reboot of “Godzilla.” This figure, once reduced to a one-dimensional comedy player, has grown over the years to inspir...
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“NEIGHBORS” FINDS HUMOR IN THE FEAR OF CHANGE
By Greg Popil Over the past decade, both as a writer and actor, Seth Rogen has mined laughs out of the paralyzing fear that comes from the changes inherent in growing up. Beyond their nonstop barrage...
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THE AMAZINGLY OVERSTUFFED SPIDER-MAN SEQUEL
By Greg Popil Spider-Man does look genuinely amazing in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” Sequences showing Peter Parker’s alter ego swinging between skyscrapers or sharpshooting web strands to catch bad g...
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INOFFENSIVE “MANSIONS” A FITTING CODA FOR WALKER
By Greg Popil It’s unnecessarily cynical to buy into the old saying that death, for an entertainer, is a good career move, but it’s also hard to deny that an actor’s posthumous work will always be mor...
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IMPOSSIBLE TO “TRANSCEND” DULL STORY
By Greg Popil Since before the time that the Greeks used the tale of Icarus to warn against flying too close to the sun, stories and art have been used as a natural governor on humanity’s desire for p...
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ARONOFSKY’S “NOAH” IS DARING, FLAWED AND AMBITOUS
By Greg Popil At the end of the day, is anyone really more qualified to direct a movie about Noah and the Ark than Darren Aronofsky? More than a few eyebrows were raised when it was announced that t...
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“CAPTAIN AMERICA” SEQUEL BLOWS UP MARVEL FORUMULA
By Greg Popil “When I went under the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn’t say what we lost.” Those words, spoken by Steve “Captain America” Rogers in 2012’s “The Avengers,” plan...
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WES ANDERSON’S “HOTEL” A LOVE LETTER TO LOST TIMES
By Greg Popil Has there ever been a writer/director whose films bridge a wider gulf between what should not work and what does work than Wes Anderson? In the years since his 1998 breakthrough master...
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“MUPPETS” SEQUEL DRAGGED DOWN BY RELEVANCE OBSESSION
By Greg Popil When did cultural relevance become such an essential part of the Muppets experience? Sometime after the tragic death of creator Jim Henson in 1990, the Muppets franchise began a slow sli...
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NEED FOR A BETTER SCRIPT
By Greg Popil You have to give the creators of “Need For Speed” this much credit: They don’t lack guts when it comes to throwing down the gauntlet in terms of living up to the legends of its genre. ...
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