Simon Thompson presents his top ten Stephen King adaptations…Stephen King is an author who needs very little introduction if you have lived on planet earth for an extended period of time and have access to all the latest up-to-date communication technologies. With a vast, prolific output of novels and short stories spanning all the way […]
Takeshi Kitano: From Comedian To Auteur
Simon Thompson takes a deep dive into the career of Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano…Takeshi Kitano’s life and artistic career have been spent pushing against convention and his career has been shaped by a series of fortunate events rather than any plan. Kitano started in the entertainment industry, first after a random beginning as a comedian and […]
Terry Gilliam: An Auteur of the Fantastical
Simon Thompson takes a look at the fantastical career of Terry Gilliam…Terry Gilliam is a brilliant fantasist, whose work often returns to the theme of juxtaposing the soul crushing mundanity of everyday life with the surrealistic dreamscapes of one’s own imagination. In a Hollywood of bean counters and abacus pushers, Gilliam is a true auteur […]
The Top 10 The X-Files Episodes
Simon Thompson with his picks for the best episodes of The X-Files…My relationship with The X-Files is similar to my love of a band that was once incredible but doesn’t know when to pack it in. No matter how god awful that I Want To Believe movie was, or how much of a mixed bag […]
10 Adaptations That Completely Missed the Mark
Simon Thompson presents ten adaptations that completely failed their source material…The science of what makes a good adaptation is a bit like cooking a complicated stew with an ultra-specific recipe, in the sense that you can have most of the right ingredients, but if even one or two things are a little off what you […]
Brian De Palma: A Career In Pushing Boundaries
Simon Thompson delves into the career of Brian De Palma…Brian De Palma is a filmmaker whose career is a Rorschach ink blot for various commentators to project their own perceptions on. To some he’s a brilliant and daring master of suspense, an American Alfred Hitchcock, while to others he’s a cheap purveyor of sex and […]
The Top 10 Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes
Simon Thompson presents his picks for the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation…Anybody who knows me personally for any length of time knows that I’m a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, given that I never shut up about movies, TV shows, games, and books that I love in general. The […]
The Top 10 Batman: The Animated Series Episodes
Simon Thompson presents his picks for the top ten episodes of Batman: The Animated Series…To describe Batman as a pop culture institution would, quite frankly, be an understatement. Ever since his creation by Bill Finger and Bob Kane (who it turns out took a tonne of credit and profit from his creative partner but that’s […]
Ralph Bakshi: A Forgotten Pioneer
Simon Thompson takes a deep dive into the career of pioneering animated filmmaker Ralph Bakshi…This is only tangentially related to the topic at hand but I’m going to draw this parallel anyway; when the great American author Hubert Selby Jr died and a documentary was made about him and one of the talking heads being […]
Incredible TV Shows That Were Cancelled Too Soon
Simon Thompson with ten great television shows that were cancelled too soon…Over a lifetime of watching TV shows, I’ve come to realise that television show life expectancy is the exact opposite of boxing. In boxing great fighters almost always continue when their best days are long behind them, but when it comes to TV a […]
