Has there ever been a summer that proved to be as important - not just personally, but historically - to comic book fans as 1989? Surely the last decade or so has produced its share of must-see superhero adventures, but before Tim Burton’s Batman was release on June 23, 1989, the idea of wall-to-wall wallcrawlers was little more than a cobweb stuck to the bottom of discarded studio call sheets. Burton’s aggressive, dark reimagining of Bob Kane’s iconic character quite literally changed the face of comic book adaptations, and ushered in the era of superhero movies, even if it would take another ten or fifteen years to find the right balance between real-world grit, splash-page heroism, and tongue-in-cheek self-awareness. Meanwhile, the rest of the summer of ‘89 was no less exciting, featuring sequels, comedies, dramas and plenty of fare that defied categorization - which, in all likelihood is why it defied the box office gods en route to home-video glory. And while we could no doubt devote countless column inches to recounting every film from that fateful summer, here’s a decidedly more svelte list of the entries that most aroused our imaginations and inspired us to suckle at 1989’s summer-movie teat. Filed under: Summer Movies Continue reading Our Favorite Summers: 1989 Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mother’s Day is bittersweet for me because my own mother passed away 11 years ago. In recent times, though, the sweet far outweighs the bitter, because I have wonderful memories of our time together watching — and loving — movies. When I’d come home from school in the afternoon, we’d talk and watch old movies on a tiny, black and white TV. When everyone else in my family thought I was crazy for waiting in line for hours to see Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind , she told me about waiting in line for hours as a young teen to see Gone With the Wind . When she was dying of cancer and I visited for a couple of weeks from out of state, we spent hours watching old movies together. In honor of all of our mothers, I’ve compiled a list of seven of the most awesomest movie moms. But this isn’t a competition; it’s just a list, and it’s just a highly personal reflection of my own thoughts, so please feel free to share your favorite, most awesome movie moms in the comments. 1. Geena Davis as Samantha Caine / Charly Baltimore in The Long Kiss Goodnight As Elisabeth Rappe rhapsodized recently , “the charm of the movie is that her psychotic nature is buried within a happy-go-lucky mom who enjoys baking muffins and wearing ugly Christmas sweaters.” Home-made muffins are nice and all, but wouldn’t it be cool if your mother could assassinate those bullies who keep beating you up after school? Not saying she would, of course, though that would have been a tantalizing prospect for me. Of course, the flip side is that you’d better behave … or else ! Filed under: Fandom , Cinematical Seven , Lists Continue reading Cinematical Seven: Most Awesomest Movie Moms Permalink | Email this | Comments