Tentpole Trauma

In hindsight the odd marriage of burgeoning director Brian De Palma and superstar songwriter Paul Williams seems a recipe for 70s era success, but sadly their Faustian collaboration Phantom of the Pa…

Cinematic adaptations of bestselling author Stephen King are often a safe bet, and yet neither attempts at bringing his novel Firestarter to the big screen have generated significant heat at the box …

Possibly the most interesting director to emerge in the last decade is Robert Eggers, so the news that he was crafting a 90 million dollar Viking blockbuster with his tireless penchant for verisimili…

Riding the trend of YA dystopian adaptations and with the power of Peter Jackson behind it, Christian Rivers’ big budget steampunk extravaganza was poised to crush the competition when it hit theater…

The stories of the Brothers Grimm have endured throughout history, and arguably no director is better suited to adapting them than the wildly imaginative and irreverent Terry Gilliam. And yet, when h…

A resurrection of the Robocop franchise was in the works for nearly a decade, and the post Marvel superhero boom seemed a perfect time to debut a new take on a crime fighting cyborg cop. But despite …

In 2001 both Robin Williams and Edward Norton were at the peak of their careers, so a black comedy team-up that lampoons the Barney the dinosaur phenomenon seemed a solid concept on paper. Add Danny …

Director Walter Hill was riding high off the success of The Warriors and 48 Hrs when he was given the green light to make his high budget rock n’ roll fable Streets of Fire. But despite the presence …

In 1995 the post apocalyptic genre was in full swing, so an adaptation of a hip, grunge friendly indie comic book property like Tank Girl looked like a good idea. Sadly, the resulting film from Rache…

The prospect of grafting an outdated radio serial superhero onto a Seth Rogen comedy by way of surrealist filmmaker Michel Gondry seemed dicey by the most generous metrics, and the resulting effort, …

Considering the success of 2016’s Suicide Squad, a solo outing focusing on Margot Robbie’s celebrated portrayal of super villainess Harley Quinn seemed a no-brainer for the struggling DCEU. But despi…

It’s always a challenge to bring a cult comic book character to the big screen successfully; in the case of 2000 AD’s gruff, helmeted lawgiver Judge Dredd, the attempt was made twice, both in 1995 an…

While no one was expecting Richard Kelly’s 2001 sci fi brain-boiler Donnie Darko to be a tentpole film, it’s meager box office returns were disappointing even for such a low budget genre feature. But…

Excalibur meets Star Wars — in 1983 that elevator pitch was all that was needed to green light the big budget sci fi fantasy epic Krull. But despite a seasoned director at the helm and high productio…

Double the Will Smith means double the boffo box office, right? Well, when it came to Ang Lee’s 2019 sci fi spy thriller Gemini Man, not so much. Despite Lee’s assured direction and the star power of…

We’re doubling down on trauma this week by discussing two Terminator films in one episode! How can a once blockbuster sci fi franchise that  sprang from the mind of James Cameron fail to revive itsel…

A Men in Black ripoff starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as mismatched afterlife cops — who wouldn’t want that right? Well, it turns out pretty much no one, but that doesn’t mean that Robert Sch…

Ahoy mateys! The careers of director Renny Harlin and star Geena Davis were as hot as their romance in 1995, so what better way to celebrate their love than to make a mega budget pirate movie? Unfort…

Attempting to capitalize on Johnny Depp and Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean heat with a fresh take on a classic western IP probably seemed like a good idea back in 2013. Add to that rising star and…

It took nearly 20 years, but Warner studios finally managed to coax the Wachowskis — well, one of them at least — to resurrect their most viable franchise, the Matrix. But considering the lackluster …