James Harleman's Blog, page 10
July 11, 2014
The Problem of (Deliver us From) EVIL
The latest horror entry from director Scott Derrickson, Deliver us from Evil, is not the strongest entry in the horror genre. However, as one part police procedural with the added component of the demonic, it’s more accessible to moviegoers who avoid the genre. Scarier than an episode of Sleepy Hollow, it nowhere approaches the creep […]
July 9, 2014
Oh God… You’re in my Fiction?
Nury Vittachi recently published an article on the Science 2.0 website entitled “Scientists Discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke“ and, while the article talks more specifically about how “a metaphysical outlook may be so deeply ingrained in human thought processes that it cannot be expunged” the article makes the natural […]
June 12, 2014
X-Men: Reviews of Future Podcast
Sometimes you need to do things as a team. Wolverine learned this over the course of seven films, and now goes back to disciple the man who discipled him in X-Men: Days of Future Past. I decided, like Logan, to jump in and do a review as a team with Mikey Fissell and other cohorts […]
June 11, 2014
Cutting to the Core: Finding the Meta-narrative
In 2008 I was asked to write an article for Collide Magazine. In a lot of ways this treatise on story served as a primer for what would eventually become my book(published in 2012), and after six years of hosting the article on the EchoHub website they’re closing up shop… so I thought it would […]
May 14, 2014
Never LEGO of hope for reconciliation
“Nobody ever said I was special!” – President Business In our last look at The LEGO Movie(soon to be on Blu-ray/DVD) there will be *a lot of spoilers*(you’ve been warned) because the ending was amazing and I – for one – didn’t see it coming. When the film broke the fourth wall (literally, as LEGO […]
March 11, 2014
Learning to LEGO of toxic lordship
The LEGO Moviemight wind up on my short list for movie of the year, despite all the tantalizing offerings from Godzilla to Dinobots and myriad Marvel movies on the horizon. A lot of children’s films likeToy Story,Wreck-It Ralphand evenFrozentend to make solid points, butLEGOmay be one of the more insightful all-ages films I’ve seen in […]
February 19, 2014
LEGO and let God.
by guest reviewer Andrew Thompson Does “the man upstairs” desire us to simply follow instructions, going about our days and routines, thinking “everything is awesome”? Or is he indeed a master-builder who has given us limitless creativity to create new and different narratives in life?The Lego Movie takes us into the stop-motion animated world of […]
February 14, 2014
Frozen’s Water Part 3: Where it MELTS
In Batman Begins, Rutger Hauer’s character leans over a young Bruce Wayne and tells the boy he’ll keep the company safe until the lad is old enough to run it. It’s a nice touch – a cameo – that establishes pivotal credibility to time between flashbacks in the life of a fictional character. It helps […]
February 13, 2014
FROZEN’s Water Part 2: Where it’s SOLID.
“Can I say something crazy?” Disney’s Frozen isn’t just funny (we lauded the humor in our first post) and while we can enjoy great moments (like an excited Anna meeting the regal Hans by the boat dock) there’s something very important being set up in that scene… in fact, something is intentionally being set up […]
February 11, 2014
FROZEN’s Water Part 1: Where it’s a GAS!
“Oh, look at that. I’ve been impaled.” When the first previews came out for Frozen, I confess: it didn’t impress me. It looked more like a silly Ice Age sort of movie, which may be funny in its own right but not on it’s way to being the next Disney epic. I blame the marketing […]
