Jake Cole

LATEST ARTICLES ( 682 )

• Steven Spielberg: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

  

  In defense of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there is at least some kind of push to make the movie distinct from its predecessors. Read more

  Posted on 14 April 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Random List: 10 Great Live Albums

  

  I've been exceedingly busy lately with the tail end of my internship, graduation preparation and a job hunt, so I've watched few movies and even started to writ... Read more

  Posted on 11 April 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• 50 Book Pledge #11: George R.R. Martin — A Storm of Swords

  

  My favorite aspect of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, judging from its first three installments, is its respect for consequences. Read more

  Posted on 08 April 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• The Beat Hotel (Alan Govenar, 2012)

  I know so little about the Beat Generation. All I was taught in school were excerpts of On the Road and a shambles of a class reading of "Howl" in college. Read more

  Posted on 05 April 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• John Carter (Andrew Stanton, 2012)

  

  Unfairly, if inevitably, compared to a number of science fiction films which gutted Edgar Rice Burroughs’ source material, John Carter admittedly doesn’t feel... Read more

  Posted on 02 April 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Finnegans Wake: Book I, Chapters 1-4

  From the very first page of Finnegans Wake, I knew I was in for a rough ride. Beginning in the middle of a sentence that will eventually be completed by the... Read more

  Posted on 31 March 2012 BOOKS

• Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott, 2005)

  I've been meaning to write a defense of the director's cut of Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven (one of my favorite movies of the Aughts), for some time now, so ... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Life of Brian on Friday Night, Saturday Morning

  It's a Life of Brian kind of day, to my surprise. My blogging buddy Ryan over at The Matinee chose the film for his latest Blind Spots entry (my own, for... Read more

  Posted on 27 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  

  [This is my March entry for my Blind Spots selections]Robert Bresson famously referred to his non-professional actors as models, and he even more famously... Read more

  Posted on 27 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Steven Spielberg: Munich

  

  An act of American obliviousness sets in motion the events of Munich. At the 1972 Olympics, a group of American athletes stumble across some Palestinian men... Read more

  Posted on 26 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Steven Spielberg: War of the Worlds

  

  It's just as well that War of the Worlds was hobbled upon its initial release by the lingering effects of Tom Cruise's infamous couch-jumping whatever. Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• 50 Book Pledge #10: Geoff Dyer — Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a...

  

  I received a review copy of this for Spectrum Culture, which I requested the second I heard about the book's existence. It didn't disappoint: Dyer's incessant... Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2012 BOOKS

• Reading Diary: Finnegans Wake

  

  I had not planned on keeping a running journal of my reading of Finnegans Wake, James Joyce's final, most elaborate opus, the way I did for Ulysses. Read more

  Posted on 24 March 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• 50 Book Pledge #9: Suzanne Collins — The Hunger Games

  

  I feel toward this book and its subsequent adaptation the way I do about Jurassic Park: both have amazing conceits and advantages unique to each form of the... Read more

  Posted on 24 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012)

  

  The characters of The Hunger Games all have dirty fingernails. This is the primary insight to be intuited from director Gary Ross' incessant close-ups on the... Read more

  Posted on 23 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• My Night at Maud's (Éric Rohmer, 1969)

  

  As my first experience with Éric Rohmer, My Night at Maud's struck me instantly with its gift for dialog. As highbrow and probing as the speeches in any Godard... Read more

  Posted on 22 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)

  My love of the handful of Jane Campion works I've seen inexplicably failed to get me to watch The Piano with any speed. Happily, I finally got the chance to... Read more

  Posted on 21 March 2012 MOVIES

• 21 Jump Street Review

  

  21 Jump Street is such an unnecessary remake that even the film itself acknowledges its own pointlessness. It's a moment of upfront honesty rarely seen in the... Read more

  Posted on 19 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• 50 Book Pledge #8: George R.R. Martin — A Clash of Kings

  

  A Game of Thrones ends with enough cliffhangers that the other six entries in this still-unfinished saga could each be merely a continuation of one of the key... Read more

  Posted on 17 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)

  

  [This is my second entry in my Blind Spots series]F.W. Muranu's final German film, Faust, is a glorious send-off for the Hollywood-bound filmmaker. Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES