The Matrix Rebooted
Back at the turn of the century, The Matrix was the coolest thing in sci-fi. I was a fan of the movie, like so many others. But 16 years later, the movie and its...
Tagged: movies
Media Fragmentation at a Halloween Party
Back in the mid-20th century, most pop culture came from just a few media sources. There were just three TV channels here in the US. Bands like the Beatles dominated music. And virtually all...
Sharknado vs Shark NATO
The Syfy Channel makes a lot of low-budget movies involving monsters and natural disasters. Their latest monstrosity is a movie called “Sharknado”. As the title implies, it is all about tornadoes full of man-eating...
DVD Special Features
DVDs aren’t as popular as they used to be, but despite competition from online video streams, we still watch a lot of movies on DVD and BluRay. We also watch a lot of DVD...
Act III Failures
This article is about the ends of stories, so of course it contains major spoilers. Almost every narrative follows a three act pattern: beginning, middle and end. Act I sets up the premise and...
How Weird Al Invented Reality TV
“Weird Al” Yankovic is a national treasure. For over 30 years, he’s made humorous parodies of pop hits. From Michael Jackson to Nirvana to Lady Gaga, Weird Al’s career has changed with the times....
Episode 2: Who Owns Star Wars?
Just a couple weeks ago, I made the argument that George Lucas doesn’t own Star Wars. My argument was that, while he retained the legal rights to the sci-fi franchise, he had lost creative...
Tech Nostalgia: RCA Selectavision
When it comes to watching movies at home, DVDs are on their way out, and Blu-Ray discs have yet to pick up the mantle. As more and more people stream their movies directly from...
Who Owns Star Wars?
Note: This article was written just a couple of weeks before George Lucas sold the Star Wars Franchise to Disney. And while I doubt that Lucas read my article, I’m glad he came to...
Disney Princesses in a Democratic Republic
The Walt Disney Company has built a entertainment dynasty around princesses. Over the years they have come out with a whole line of fairy tale heroines. These Disney princesses — Ariel, Belle, Snow White,...
