The second installment in the Hobbit films comes out on Friday  And maybe you’re interested in seeing it, but don’t want to commit 3+ hours to watching or re-watching the first one.  And so I provide The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: The 5-Minute Version.   SCENE 1: Bilbo Baggins’ Home There is a knock at […]

When I was a teenager, there was the massive tome Roger Ebert’s Movie Home Companion.  It made me want to see Taxi Driver, and Casablanca, and The Godfather, and It Happened One Night; not because it seemed like you had to if you wanted to claim to like “great” movies, but because he made them […]

This is the Spoiler Space for today’s examination of 3 films made better if they take place in the minds of the protagonists.  If you’ve come here first, you might want to read the original discussion first. And, as should be painfully obvious at this point, these addenda will give away the endings of the […]

(This page will overview only the general plots, but not reveal key events. Be sure to visit the Spoiler Space page if you’ve seen one or more of the films – or don’t care about having the ending revealed – and want to discuss specific, key elements of the films) The Grey (2012) – Liam […]

The whims of pop-culture taste can be cruel and impulsive.  Fashion, music, television… nothing is guaranteed to last for any length of time.  Today’s “Gangnam Style” is tomorrow’s “Macarena” (literally – I mean, they’re basically the same song).  But sometimes the victims of culture shift seem to come out of nowhere.  In response, I present […]

Now that Disney has purchased LucasFilm for 4 billion dollars and announced the planning of indefinite new Star Wars installments, everyone’s wondering what they have in mind.  Basing things off of the books that have been written, or will they go in new directions?  Well, in a Byronic Man exclusive, I am pleased to present, […]

Yesterday, you tested your Halloween readiness by trying to identify movie monsters. If you didn’t read yesterday’s post, you may be dangerously unprepared for Halloween, so if you want to take a moment and do that, now would be a good time.  It’s okay, we’ll wait. Hm hm hm… I wonder if we’ll get very […]

Here at the Byronic Man, we’re all about safety.  So, just in time to be prepared for Halloween, see how many of the movie monsters below you can identify!  (We’re looking for characters, not actors or movie titles).  Good luck, and no cheating!  You know what they say about cheaters:  “Winners never cheat, and cheaters […]

“What is the ocean,” a character toward the end of Cloud Atlas replies to the charge that he is about to waste his life on a cause that can’t make a difference, “but millions of drops of water?”  It is this idea more than anything else – the interconnectivity that makes life greater than the […]

We’ve explored The Good. The Bad. Now it’s time to look at The Contentious: the top 5 sequels for inspiring shocked looks and cries of “What?!” when hearing someone else’s opinion about it. 5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  Why people hate it: The original Terminator was a water-tight science-fiction action movie.  The sequel throws out […]

And now, part 2 of The Bad, in our sequels rundown, The Good, The Bad, and The Contentious.  If you missed The Good, it’s here, if you missed numbers 10-6 of The Bad, it’s here. 5. The Hangover, part II.  Sequels sometimes use the follow-up to branch beyond the original – try something new, build […]