tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79097432011-04-22T00:30:05.075-04:00A blog about Movies, DVDs, and the Meaning of LifeCorey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-85683398036651830072009-05-27T16:20:00.003-04:002009-05-27T16:35:27.880-04:00

Terminator Salvation (no colon, apparently) is a terrible film. I tell you this upfront so that any good thing I may have to say about it will be qualified by the knowledge that in the end Terminator Salvation is a terrible film. How terrible? Likely not the worst film ever made, and probably not the worst film of this year, but almost definitely a giant waste of $10. Luckily I saw it for free.

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-60425059651179846322009-04-09T03:27:00.002-04:002009-04-09T03:34:38.213-04:00

Trailers are easily the bane of the film world. Whether it’s their uncanny ability to oversell the action or comedy in a film, or feature all the best jokes or stunts, or even give away massive spoilers, trailers often seem to exist solely to ruin the movie-watching experience. The most unfortunate case is when a trailer simply sells a film as something it’s not. In almost every instance of this

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-44773497639914804582009-04-02T18:09:00.002-04:002009-04-02T18:19:28.220-04:00

Nicolas Cage in a new sci-fi action-thriller could only mean disaster. That was the mindset accompanying me as I walked into the theatre to watch Knowing. Imagine my surprise when I found myself totally gripped by the premise and the story. It shouldn’t have been that surprising though: the ever-ambitious filmmaker, Alex Proyas, who was responsible for both The Crow and Dark City, directed

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-82067453304900094552009-03-13T15:14:00.003-04:002009-03-13T15:30:44.055-04:00

Horror films rarely interest me. They generally aren’t scary, and rarely do they offer even a glimmer of originality. Of course, this only means that when a horror movie is scary and original it becomes a breath of fresh air like few others can. The “zombie” genre seems to provide the most room for inventiveness, even though the premise itself is extremely one-note. Dawn of the Dead, The Evil

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-16728697337626140582009-03-05T13:54:00.006-05:002009-03-05T14:10:08.416-05:00

There is really only one way I can approach Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the seminal graphic novel, Watchmen. Others might be able to view the film on its own terms, or as a piece removed from its source material, but I cannot. I’m a fan of the graphic novel, and I am relatively familiar with most of its ins and outs. This fact on its own shouldn’t stop me from being able to divorce the film from

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-33153437848679851552009-02-20T02:24:00.001-05:002009-02-20T02:31:13.787-05:00

Not many films can be considered timeless. The Wizard of Oz is often considered timeless, as are films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Casablanca. These are all films that have not only stood the test of time as great works of art and entertainment, but films that also seem to transcend the time period in which they were made; Raiders was made in the 80s, but it certainly doesn’t feel like an

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-7904460481609737992009-02-11T02:07:00.010-05:002009-02-16T17:36:38.694-05:00

Most action movies, and in fact most mainstream movies, act as vehicles to test out Murphy’s Law, which loosely states: anything that can go wrong will go wrong. The idea is to have everything go wrong and then have a hero come in to fix everything. It makes sense because if things didn’t go wrong then there would be no conflict needing resolution and we’d have no movies. Liam Neeson’s new movie,

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-52907841823531626752009-02-09T17:31:00.004-05:002009-02-09T17:52:14.938-05:00

Most people seem to forget that The Nightmare Before Christmas was not actually directed by Tim Burton. Unfortunately Henry Selick rarely gets the credit owed to him as a great artist due to the overshadowing of Tim Burton on his career. I know people who even believe Selick’s stop-motion adaptation of James and the Giant Peach was directed by Burton. Hopefully Selick’s new film, Coraline, will

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-16902962129335928112009-01-29T16:00:00.004-05:002009-01-30T13:31:33.885-05:00

The President of the United States of America is perhaps the most important and influential occupation in the World. Along with the title comes a general sense of reverence and awe. You would think that this quality of inspiration there would be more films about American Presidents, but unfortunately it seems awe of position does not translate to quantity of film. Interestingly, the President

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-10694206564432108022009-01-17T22:54:00.002-05:002009-01-17T23:04:18.923-05:00

Sometimes I go to movies to be transported. Sometimes I go to get a harsh dose of reality. And sometimes I go see a movie just to have a damn good time. These are the Pirates of the Caribbeans and Transformers of the world. These are the Troll 2s and Snakes on a Planes. These are the My Bloody Valentine 3Ds.My Bloody Valentine 3D is a remake of an old low-budget Canadian horror film. I haven’t

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-23599714490419794402009-01-14T20:32:00.003-05:002009-01-17T23:04:58.143-05:00

So it has come to this. I have seen most of the noteworthy films of 2008 and it is time to formulate a list and rank them to reveal which films stand above the rest as the best of 2008. Click "Read More" to... read more.10. JCVDJCVD brings "meta" to a whole new glorious level, with perhaps the most surprising performance of the year. Jean-Claude Van Damme is superb playing himself and the film

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-47185986241832400262009-01-14T20:08:00.005-05:002009-01-17T23:05:52.333-05:00

I remember the first time I saw No Country for Old Men: I came out of the theatre knowing I’d seen something, but I did not know exactly what that something was. I ended up seeing the film a further four times in the theatre and named it the best film of 2007. Watching Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, The Wrestler, provided what was essentially the opposite experience: I left the theatre with the

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-4532358325693926572009-01-07T11:35:00.014-05:002009-01-17T23:06:19.881-05:00

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was one of my most anticipated releases of 2008 due to one simple factor: David Fincher. The man is a master of the art of direction and two of his films (Se7en and Zodiac) place among my favourite films of all time. When I heard that Fincher was going to be directing the big-screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, I knew instantly that it would

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-55784789896621638412009-01-06T12:26:00.014-05:002009-01-17T23:06:46.668-05:00

To say that Tom Cruise has been the subject of a huge popular backlash would be a severe understatement, but should an artist’s public antics and religious (cultist?) beliefs colour the perception of their art? I know many people (particularly Jews) who refused to see Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto due to his alleged bigotry. Gibson might be a bigot, a sexist and an anti-Semite, but I could care less

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-84494082507443030382008-12-21T17:21:00.017-05:002009-01-17T23:07:58.913-05:00

The FilmOne of my favourite sub-genres within sci-fi is the time travel movie. The concept of time travel is itself mind-blowing enough to make even a simple comedy like Back to the Future reach a level of greatness that few comedies can. When explored further, time travel reveals itself to be a complex and very abstract concept that can be dealt with within the compass of many philosophical and

Corey Atadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16606209663081160261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7909743.post-3135281242819815232008-12-17T05:45:00.008-05:002009-02-01T21:11:10.060-05:00

There always has to be a first; this is it.I welcome you to The Hamster Factor.I have meant to start a blog for a long time now, but didn't really know what it would be about. But I've figured it out. Movie reviews! Because you can't have enough online film critics. Most of the site will be comprised of movie reviews, but I will also try to review the latest episode of whatever TV show I may

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