Top-5 — Woody Allen Films of the 80’s

[Posted by: Justin Wagner]

Woody Allen has always been a busy filmmaker, showing astonishing productivity and consistency throughout his career, and while in the 80’s he made 10 films, it was still one of his least fruitful decades. During the ending of the 70’s – beginning with Annie Hall – he ventured into a more sophisticated, dramatic comedy that would hint at the future filmmaker he would become. A year later he released Interiors which marked the first time he would direct a dramatic film. While these changes in style were new to Woody Allen, he would advance upon these changes very successfully in the 80’s with his increase of comedy/dramas and his new leading lady, Mia Farrow. Though the 80’s showed him making some of the best films of his career, it also was the start of him making bad films, or as bad as a Woody Allen picture can be. Let’s take a look at the best films Woody Allen has to offer from his career in the 80’s.

Top-20 — Movie Fonts You Can Download (Free!)

[Posted by: Alex Miller]

Sometimes the marketing of a movie becomes just as iconic as the movie itself.  Fonts are a big part of the branding. Hell I could have posted my grocery list for the week in the above font, and besides thinking “Wow this dude is gonna have a heart attack in 5 years,” you would of course know that it was the Back to the Future font.  So after seeing this font posted by the BTTF Facebook page (yeah I really love that movie), I got to thinking what are the best movie fonts out there? Well don’t worry because I’ve done the legwork for you and included links to download them!  (WARNING: Do not use these fonts to type your master’s thesis with…I learned that lesson the hard way.) 

Top-5 — Unnecessary Remakes

[Posted by: Eric Raymer]

Matt Reeves’ vampire coming-of-age film Let Me In hits theaters October 1st – which means it’ll come out just a little shy of two years after the original Swedish version (Let the Right One In). There’s been somewhat of a backlash from fans of the original since the remake was announced, and accusations of the new film being dumbed-down for a U.S. audience are flying left and right. Reeves has defended his work, saying that the original itself was a remake of a novel, and that his film is just a “variation on a theme.” The marketing for the new film has done a pretty good job of distinguishing it from the Swedish film, but at the end of the day, it’s the same story. It’s not uncommon for major studios to “Americanize” foreign films by remaking them with well-known actors and without subtitles. Sometimes a larger budget can bring a little more flash to source material that couldn’t quite pull it off. Other times… Well, it’s usually best to try and forget about those. Some of the worst remakes occur when a director tries to remake something (foreign or otherwise) that succeeded in the first place. Regardless of Let Me In‘s eventual fate, it’s probably not going to be as bad as the following cinematic catastrophes.

So Bad It’s AWESOME — Wizards of the Lost Kingdom

[Reviewed by: Alex Miller]

Hundreds of movies come out every month and most of them suck. But every now and then there is a movie made that is so incredibly, unbelievably, insanely bad that it’s actually AWESOME.  This is one such movie (and I use that term loosely).  Wizards of the Lost Kingdom almost made my head explode.  Combine an insanely stupid plot, the worst (and therefore best) characters ever conceived, entire scenes LITERALLY physically cut&pasted from other (bad) movies, and effects so bad that I’m pretty sure you would have to go out of your way to make them that ridiculous.  Just to further prove my point, see that VHS cover for the movie? See the “wizard” on top of the flying lion above a “lost kingdom” holding a sword?  Well that never even happens in this movie!  Click the jump for my Top-5 Ways it Rips Off Other Movies Like Star Wars!

Guest Article — Top-5 Pixar Shorts

[Written by: Kelly Alyse]

Today’s guest writer is our friend Kelly Alyse! A film student at the University of Sussex in England, she currently runs her own film site called The Film Obsession.

In 1984, something was created that from then on would cause an overwhelming feeling of excitement in each and every person when they went to see a Disney Pixar film. That something was “The Adventures of André and Wally B” – Pixar’s first short (well sort of). John Lasseter made groundbreaking work involving the short tale of the cute characters of André and Wally B, using incredibly emotion and charm from a computer at the time. From then on, Lasseter played a huge focus to Pixar’s success and with now around 20 shorts, each evolving into something greater, more entertaining and completely original each time, they’re a big part to our cinema-going experience every time we set out to see a new Pixar film. “Day and Night”, the latest of the little features has an immense amount of work gone into every detail making it possibly the most memorable and most appealing to audiences. Taking this out, I have explored the different shorts and come up with a top five which you must watch in order to gain the real satisfaction of the artwork these films use.

Top-5 — Films to Watch if You Liked Inception

[Posted by: Eric Raymer]
[Site Update: There is now a Top-5 Menu selection which shows you all of our “Top-5” lists]

Christopher Nolan’s Inception is one of the best films I’ve seen this year, mostly because of its unique Matryoshka doll plot structure and the way it blurs the line between dream and reality. I like movies that give me a little credit as a viewer and ask me to bring my brain to the theater instead of leaving it at home. If you want some more mind-twisting films that also dabble in dreamscapes, check these out. In no particular order:

Top-5 — Notes from our first month!

Dorkosphere has now been up for 1 month and I have to say it has exceeded all my expectations! Thanks to everyone who has followed us this far!

In 1 month we have had:
1. >1,000 visits! (Only 150 of which were in the first 2 weeks)

2. >200 people follow us on our brand new Twitter page!

3. >100 people visit the site yesterday!

4. >30 original stories/reviews posted!

5. Received a private twitter message from Duncan Jones the Director of “Moon” and the upcoming “Source Code”! (Fanboy Moment)

Thanks again from all of us! I hope you enjoy the site at least half as much as we enjoy making it!

Top-5 — 80’s Kids Movies!

[Author: Alex Miller]

No this isn’t VH1’s I Love the 80’s! This is our list of the Top-5 80’s Kid’s Movies! We’ll take a look at each one and give you some fun facts about them you may not have been aware of! Click the jump for the full list and let us know in the comments what your favorite 80’s kids movie is!