Spoilers ahead for the worst kept secrets in the history of spoilers. Filmmakers have become so seduced by the glory of pulling off a surprise that they’ve lost sight of the true value of surprise in storytelling. We laugh about Star Trek Into Darkness and Spectre, but it’s time for the good surprises to take […]
When Stephen Colbert announced he would retire his Colbert Report character in taking over The Late Show, it was bittersweet. While it will be exciting to see how Colbert can play in a bigger sandbox, it would be sad to see that character go. For a few years between 2004 and 2008 or ’09 I […]
This is probably going to be the sequel that people don’t like as much as the original. I’ll have to redeem myself in part three, or maybe this will be the superior sequel and everyone will say I should stop, but I’ll still write more because I’m Franchise Fred. Now that I have explained how […]
If you have been reading my reviews and articles, or following me on Twitter, for a few years, you probably know that I am Franchise Fred. I truly believe there should always be sequels to everything, indefinitely, no exceptions. So I thought it was time to give the origin story of Franchise Fred. I have […]
I’ve been really disturbed this summer to read reports on the failure of Tommorrowland that refer to it as an original film. Industry standards like The Hollywood Reporter and Variety have labeled it as an original. The analysis of Tomorrowland is a separate issue. As a simple matter of classification, Tomorrowland is adapted from a pre-existing intellectual […]