Author: Simon Hardy Butler
Hope and Glory: ‘Odd Man Out’ and the Need for Cinematic Recognition
Why isn’t Carol Reed’s heavy-hitting 1947 drama Odd Man Out better known? I wondered this recently after revisiting the film on television—following a period of not having seen it for quite a while. My taste for it has never waned, but I had forgotten some of the nuances that are present in this very complex,…
Getting Vocal About Voiceovers: The Problem With Movie Narration
While watching the abominable, pretentious film The Longest Week (2014) the other night, I became aware of a horrifying trend—a cynical, mean-spirited pattern so insidious that it threatens our own culture and everything we prize surrounding it. That’s right. I’m talking about unnecessary movie narration … one of the most disturbing problems the world is…
Interviewing Honey Badger’s Randall: A Life Worth Narrating
These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone familiar with the Internet who hasn’t heard or uttered the phrase “Honey badger don’t care” or the more profane “Honey badger don’t give a s**t,” both of which have entered the lexicon via the immensely popular YouTube video The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger (2011). That short—featuring seemingly…
The ‘Ishtar’ Effect: Changing Perceptions and the Allure of Objectivity
I didn’t think Ishtar (1987) was all that bad. I know, I know. It was one of the big box-office bombs of the 1980s, raked over the coals for its bloated budget and not-as-funny-as-it-should’ve-been script, among other issues. Yet I have to wonder if it really lives up (or down) to its reputation, given the…
Stinging in the New: 10 Lousy Movies Not to Watch in 2015
Come 2015, humanity will be deluged with a slew of new movies, both studio and independent. There are some I’m looking forward to. And then there are others that I wouldn’t see if even I were threatened with being thrown into a vat of rancid, boiling butter by the vindictive ghost of Attila the Hun.…