Our 10 Favorite Disney Animated Villains
With Disney's latest re-imagining of Maleficent burning through the box office, it got us here at Ruby Hornet thinking. We've had Disney on the brain for quite some time, so we'd figure we share some of that with you all. Geoff Henao, Alex Katz, and I have put our heads together to come up with a list of our ten favorite Disney animated villains.
So for this list, it means no Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Ghibli, or even live-action villains. It's just villains crafted by the House of Mouse itself (if there's enough interest, we may visit those later). Finally, this isn't a definitive list by any means. It's just our ten favorites as of this writing. With all of that said, check out our Ten Favorite Disney Animated Villains!
Five Notorious American Remakes of Foreign Films
Hollywood remakes and reboots are a dime a dozen. There's an old adage that trends and fads are cyclical, and this notion couldn't be more true when it comes to films. Take, for instance, all of the remakes, reboots, and sequels that have been announced recently or already have films in development: The Goonies 2, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and today's wide release of Godzilla are just a handful of films that have been in the news this past month alone. While reboots are one thing, American remakes of foreign films are a whole other bag of controversy and criticism. There are so many amazing foreign films that go unseen or underrated simply because they don't share the same Hollywood quality, whether it's due to production costs or the simple fact that they're in a different language. However, many of them do garner attention at film festivals and are great enough in their own merit that they inevitably appear on our radars.
For better or worse, money talks, and when it comes to a successful film that, for some reason, goes unseen by the average American audience, leave it to Hollywood to nab the rights to said films and do things their way. Nine times out of 10, the American remake bombs in one form or another, whether it's at the box office or from critical reception. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule, albeit they're few and far between.
In commemoration of Godzilla's release, Alex and I have teamed together to write a little bit on five notorious American remakes of foreign films, both already released and in development. I hope you enjoy our selections!
Top 10 Valentine's Day Films
February 14th: The worst day of the year for every single adult in America. Social networks are full of love doves, digital flowers and candies, and desperate song dedications to significant others (and/or unrequited loves). As you can tell, I'm not the biggest fan of Valentine's Day, whether I was single or taken. Nevertheless, it's hard to ignore what is arguably one of the largest Hallmark Holidays of the year. To commemorate the day full of chocolate hearts and over-priced dinners, Mackenzie O'Brien and I have teamed together to make a list of our Top 10 Valentine's Day Films.
However, I've included a twist to the tried-and-true formula. Whereas Mackenzie played the straight-and-narrow route with some legitimately romantic films, I've chosen some romantic films with some dark elements to them that may or may not have happy endings. Whether you're a hopeless romantic or romantically hopeless, check out Ruby Hornet's official list of Top 10 Valentine's Day Films. I can guarantee there'll be selections here to entice anybody.
Top 10 Films of 2013
2013 was an interesting year for me. In March, I attended my second SXSW for my old outlet, Flixist. With a running knowledge of how SXSW is organized and ran, I was able to take SXSW head-on with amazing coverage for some of the year's best festival films. It was at SXSW that I also met Virgil Solis, who after tricking him into thinking I'm an awesome guy, asked me to join the Ruby Hornet team to build the site's Film vertical. The rest is history.
Over the past year, I've seen a lot of great films at both SXSW and the Chicago International Film Festival, as well as the typical Hollywood blockbuster films that had their theatrical runs. I'll admit, I haven't seen every major film I wanted to in 2013, but that's what home media is for, right? After more than 50 films I've reviewed (and even more that I hadn't reviewed), I've compiled a list of my Top 10 Films of 2013. Everything from Hollywood blockbusters to film festival darlings to under-seen foreign films is included on here. Hopefully, you'll agree with some of my choices, disagree with them, and find yourself intrigued to check out the more underrated films on this list.