Essays and commentaries
Dark City essay | June 2025
Dark City is not based on a comic book, but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise. After all, its director Alex Proyas had just made The Crow, based on the grimy, gothic comics of James O’Barr. Critic Roger Ebert – a huge admirer of Dark City – said in his initial review that the film “capture[d] the kinetic energy of great comic books”. And the theatrical cut of the movie opens with a voiceover: “First there was darkness. Then came the strangers. They were a race as old as time itself. They had mastered the ultimate technology. The ability to alter physical reality by will alone…” The decision to add this expository voiceover, made by New Line Cinema, was described by Proyas as “rubbish really” in a 2008 interview – but for the film’s original viewers, the stage was set with a dense download of superhero-style lore that made you feel like you’d already missed a decade of back issues.
Buy Dark City Limited Edition here.
The Last Video Store visual essay | December 2024
A darkened video store can be a frightening thing. Walking the aisles, you’d become aware of all the films you hadn’t seen. Maybe even shouldn’t see. Obviously, the horror section – with its lurid, grimy covers – promised that there was something hidden away that would absolutely mess you up if you watched it one night. This is a fact that THE LAST VIDEO STORE is well aware of. And me as well. Like many film critics of a certain age, I cut my teeth as a ’90s video store guy, much like Kevin of Blaster Video. I may not have been there for the “format wars” like he was, but I was there to see VHS stagger and fall before the DVD.
Buy The Last Video Store Limited Edition here.
Demolition Man essay | December 2024
Perhaps the funniest joke in Marco Brambilla’s Demolition Man – a movie released in 1993 – comes in its very first scene. Its seemingly dystopian Los Angeles, complete with a burning Hollywood sign, is set in the far flung future of… 1996. It almost puts the sci-fi series Max Headroom‘s setting of “twenty minutes into the future” to shame. Quickly, we’re introduced to ultra-macho cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), facing off against cackling psychopath Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) in an abandoned building. Admittedly the building doesn’t last long. Its fate was sealed by the movie’s title, star, and genre.
Buy Demolition Man Limited Edition here.