Author: Michael Thomas

Ranking the Justified Seasons

Our Justified Coverage
Ranking the Justified Seasons
Ranking the Justified Big Bads
Ranking the Appearances of Deadwood Actors On Justified
Top 11 Justified One-Off Appearances
The 10 Best Justified Supporting Characters

Justified was one of the most fun shows of this century. It is a rare television show in the modern that understands the basics of television programming (TV is supposed to be fun) but that you can still execute it so well that it feels like something more than just a way to get audiences to watch commercials.
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Ranking the Justified Big Bads

Our Justified Coverage
Ranking the Justified Seasons
Ranking the Justified Big Bads
Ranking the Appearances of Deadwood Actors On Justified
Top 11 Justified One-Off Appearances
The 10 Best Justified Supporting Characters

Justified loved their “Monsters of the Season” structure for their show and employed it each season with minimal variation. This article will rank them. Continue reading Ranking the Justified Big Bads

Top 12 Justified One-Off Appearances

Our Justified Coverage
Ranking the Justified Seasons
Ranking the Justified Big Bads
Ranking the Appearances of Deadwood Actors On Justified
Top 11 Justified One-Off Appearances
The 10 Best Justified Supporting Characters

Justified evolved into a show that featured primarily serialized stories where very few characters of any significance popped up only once. Some of the rare ones who did though were genuinely great. Here are the eleven best examples of one-off characters on the show.
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Ranking the Werner Herzog Documentaries

 

Herzog Articles
Ranking the Werner Herzog Documentaries
Ranking the Werner Herzog Fiction Films
Review of Werner Herzog’s The Twilight World
Ranking the Nosferatu Films

Still Need to Watch: The Flying Doctors of East Africa, Handicapped Future, The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck, La Soufrière, Huie’s Sermon, God’s Angry Man, The Dark Glow of the Mountains, Herdsmen of the Sun, Echoes from a Sombre Empire, Jag Mandir, Bells from the Deep, The Transformation of the World into Music, Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices, Wheel of Time, The White Diamond, Encounters at the End of the World, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Into the Abyss, On Death Row, From One Second to the Next, Into the Inferno, Meeting Gorbachev, Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

Werner Herzog is one of the greatest filmmakers who has ever stepped behind the camera. I am merely at the beginning of my journey of exploring and studying his documentaries so far, but I am going to share my early findings on what I consider to be his best and most essential work.

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Ranking the Christopher Nolan Films

“Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.”

Christopher Nolan is a fascinating director. He is perhaps best understood by comparing his first film (Following) and his most recent film, at the time of original publication (Tenet). Both films best capture what he seems to value most in movies: mood & atmosphere. He is not a plot-detailed oriented director. At least, there is little to no evidence to suggest he values that. He cares about the feeling watching a movie gives you. The story of his films is the pull between that desire to pursue focusing on a film’s vibes and Hollywood conventions that focus more on plot and traditional means of characterization. The results have been mixed to say the least but rarely boring. Continue reading Ranking the Christopher Nolan Films

Ranking the Evil Dead Films

Evil Dead is a really good explanation of what makes movies fun and interesting (talented artists with a stylistic/thematic POV) and what makes them demoralizing (Corporate IP Slop). You can basically figure out which of the movies are good based on how each of them got made. Here is how I rank them.

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Ranking the Indiana Jones Films

The Reel World’s Indiana Jones “Content”
Make sure to listen to our site’s podcast episode on Raiders of the Lost Ark.
8 Thoughts on the Harrison Ford Episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
The 7 Worst Parts of Indiana Jones & the Crystal Skull
Ranking the Indiana Jones Films

The Indiana Jones film series was never one I gravitated towards much as a child (especially in comparison to my beloved Star Wars).

As such, I do not have a lot of feelings of nostalgia tied up with them. Nevertheless, revisiting them as an old has been interesting and satisfying.

Harrison Ford is obviously one of the greatest and most compelling movie stars of all time, and George Lucas is utterly fascinating as a larger than life cinema entity. (Spielberg is Spielberg.) Here is how I rank the films. Continue reading Ranking the Indiana Jones Films