by Mike Parnell | Dec 10, 2003 | Opinion
The writer of Ecclesiastes was right. There is nothing new under the sun. Tom Cruise has made a career out of playing, basically, the same person over and over again. His characters are generally men with hints of greatness, but having tragic flaws. They are haunted...
by Mike Parnell | Nov 26, 2003 | Opinion
Some great books become great films. “Forrest Gump” comes to mind, as does “To Kill a Mockingbird.” These movies succeed because they bring to life characters that transfer easily from page to screen. It is now hard to read either book without...
by Mike Parnell | Nov 19, 2003 | Opinion
There was a time when Hollywood made big pictures. Wide panoramas filled large, curved screens. Those big screens held larger than life characters driven by ambitious ideals and values. But, as Norma Desmond declared in “Sunset Boulevard,”...
by Mike Parnell | Nov 10, 2003 | Opinion
It started with a bang and ends with a whimper. “The Matrix” presented a universe wherein what we saw and inhabited was not real. Reality was unknown, but there was a man, Neo, with the ability to bring salvation to the millions caught in this Matrix....
by Mike Parnell | Oct 20, 2003 | Opinion
When most people think about comics, they think of superheroes clad in spandex, capes flying in the wind, going about their derring-do. Yet, in the last two decades of the 20th century, comics transitioned in many ways. Stories were not just about the spandex bunch;...
