“The Haunted Mansion” (2023) finally gets the Disneyland ride juuust right…

*****SPOOKY SPOILERS AHEAD!***** First Time’s Not Quite the Charm… Before I get into 2023’s “The Haunted Mansion,” I wanted to drop a few lines about the first live-action version of “The Haunted Mansion,” which debuted 20 years ago (feels like both yesterday and forever ago).  2003 is a time when formerly R-rated comedy superstar Eddie…

A meta-movie remembered; “Last Action Hero” 30 years later…

*****EXPLOSIVE SPOILERS!***** In the 1980s and 1990s, the action movie had evolved (or devolved) into expensive, overwrought, testosterone-soaked chunks of cinematic product.  Producers like Joel Silver, Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer, et al, made their fortunes creating over-the-top police fantasies where rogue cops packing semiautomatic heat set right all the world’s wrongs in a couple of…

Sequencing the DNA of “Gattaca” (1997)…

Back in 1997, there was buzz about a new sci-fi film called “Gattaca” which caught my eye; it was written and directed by Andrew Niccol, who would later be credited with writing 1998’s “The Truman Show” as well as directing “SimOne” (2002) and other innovative, underrated movies (2005’s “Lords of War” is another). Danny De…