Tag hollywood

Inception (2010)

The Thirteenth Floor. Existenz. The Matrix. Movies that more or less, in their respective segments, defined a time, set a trend. That was 1999 and while the first two movies became ‘cult’, mostly due to their lower budgets and respective promotion, the latter ended up being a megahit that drew praise from geeks, critics and […]

That Parade of Clichés that we call Cinema

Excellent, albeit over-the-top. But so are most Hollywood productions anyway. I mean over-the-top, not excellent. =)

Remembering WarGames.

Back in April I wrote a short post on how Hollywood is royally screwing the classics by remaking them, using WarGames and 'The Dead Code' as an example. I guess this means I shouldn't be repeating myself, but it turns out Wired has a pretty cool tribute on the film that I think is worth pointing to. After all, this is a movie that shaped many of my generation's 'hackers', so if you're ever into WarGames or the early hacking culture, it's worth a read.

Screwing up the Classics, "Straight to Video".

It may not be a cinematic masterpiece, or even a particularly good movie, but WarGames (1983) was one of the few Hollywood flicks on the contemporary 'hacker' subculture set in a quasi-realistic environment and one that has since become a 'classic' of the genre. It's also one of the few movies by Lasker and Parkes (another being Sneakers from 1992 --- notice the similarities?). It's a shame then, that --- as with countless other films --- the studios chose to pick up the franchise once again. But even if this might make some sense to some, what certainly doesn't is following a movie like WarGames with a B-grade, straight-to-DVD release. I guess expecting the studios to get a clue is a bit too much...