After Hours

#11 in my ranking of Martin Scorsese's films. Martin Scorsese obviously has a dark sense of humor. After Hours, his only outright comedy, is the tale of a young man who travels across Manhattan to meet a girl in the middle of the night and ends up being chased down by a mob convinced he's…

Lone Wolf and Cub: The Definitive Ranking

I was expecting more from the Lone Wolf and Cub franchise. It was the IMDb ratings of the individual films (that never go below 7 and occasionally go over 8) and the fact that the Criterion Collection released it. All of that led me to believe that these movies were more than trash cinema that…

Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell

#5 in my ranking of the Lone Wolf and Cub franchise. And so comes to an end the original six films of the Lone Wolf and Cub franchise, completed before the end of the manga, denying a complete end to the conflict between Itto Ogami and the Yagyu clan. In the hands of director Yoshiyuki…

Writing Update – 2/17/21

I finally finished it. I finished the first draft of my 6th novel. It took me over a year, far longer than it should have, but it's finally done at 412 handwritten pages. Why did this take me so long? First was the lockdowns. I had a writing system in place at my office where…

The King of Comedy

#15 in my ranking of Martin Scorsese's films. This is a pitch-black comedy about fame, celebrity, and the lack of communication in a world dominated by the illusions of mass media. It also feels like an alternate universe treatment of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver where, instead of getting a job with a taxi company…