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1 day ago | 
vitalthrills.com | Joshua Starnes
Somewhere out there is a man, a singular force of nature upon whom rests the sole responsibility for keeping the entire world from tearing itself to shreds through willpower, an unerring belief in the natural grace of humanity and a supreme willingness to hurl himself from great heights armed with nothing but a smile and the understanding that… somehow… all of this will get figured out in the end.
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3 weeks ago | 
firingthecanon.net | Joshua Starnes
The making of the original Star Wars is replete with stories of the obstacles George Lucas and his team of intrepid craftsmen had to overcome in its realization, and the inspired solutions and compromises they were forced into which became the texture of the film its admirers adored and memorized. (And woe be to anyone who challenges those compromises later).
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Feb 12, 2025 | 
firingthecanon.net | Joshua Starnes
It’s time for a reset. For Captain America, for Sam Wilson, for Marvel, for everyone. After the story and character conclusion of Avengers: Endgame the continued joint story structure of Marvel has looked around for a new focus to push itself into the future and in the process spread itself progressively thinner through ever more films and television series. What did it all mean? Where was it all going? No one seemed to know and nothing seemed to be sticking.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
vitalthrills.com | Joshua Starnes
Filled with enough family upheaval to stuff a John Osborne play and a stellar action turn from star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kraven the Hunter is too beholden to its superhero roots – and too afraid to push its familial drama as far as possible – to get the most out of its disparate pieces.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
firingthecanon.net | Joshua Starnes
The existential question plaguing Lucasfilm since the purchase by Disney has been “what is Star Wars?” Founder George Lucas, of course, had a clear (if changing) answer to that which he was unafraid to pursue to the frequent consternation of the fanbase. Disney’s need to appease that fanbase lead to much tortured soul searching as the initial plan of “give them copies of the movies they said they liked” quickly ran into inevitable diminishing returns.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
firingthecanon.net | Joshua Starnes
A return to the gladiator arenas of ages past – that is 24 years ago when the first Gladiator premiered – Ridley Scott’s new sword and sandals epic appreciates the need to get more out of his premise if we’re getting dragged on another tour of ancient Rome while suffering under the inescapable rules of the sequel.
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Sep 27, 2024 | 
vitalthrills.com | Joshua Starnes
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is a grand experiment. A frustrating but enthralling dive into Coppola’s vision of what film (and, by extension, life itself) are, have been and could be. After nearly thirty years of development and an influx of his own personal resources to ensure maximum creative freedom, Francis Ford Coppola’s potentially final film is as deliberate and obvious an agglomeration of its creator’s view on film (and life) as any director has ever committed to the screen.
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Jun 29, 2024 | 
firingthecanon.net | Joshua Starnes
A prime trope of horror films is that the people in them exist only to die. Not in the existentialist sense that everyone is (although what a horror film that would make) but with a much more immediate requirement to produce the endorphin rush of survivors reflex as seeming innocents reach the peak of life’s inherent unfairness. The teenagers who keep stumbling on Leatherface’s remote Texas ranch house aren’t individuals to be mourned or pitied.
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May 10, 2024 | 
vitalthrills.com | Joshua Starnes
The original Planet of the Apes was classic ’60s science fiction in the sense that it was focused on its central theme of man’s misuse of the planet and how easily nature could turn against us, but not necessarily on interesting plot or dialogue to carry its ideas to far beyond its natural borders. It was too in love with its own metaphor for that.
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Apr 6, 2024 | 
firingthecanon.net | Joshua Starnes
Simultaneously kinetic and thrilling, and long and drawn out, Dev Patel’s directorial debut Monkey Man is a study in contrasts, both succeeding wildly and falling short and frequently within the same scene. Diving into the world of gratifying vengeance, Patel is an instantly accomplished action director and star, keeping his and our eye on his end goal no matter how dizzingly his camera and stuntmen move across the screen.
