Russ Fischer, Author at The Playlist

‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Is Fan Fiction On A Galactic Scale [Review]

December 18, 2019 8:05 am

The dead don't die. Everything old is new again. Characters in the galaxy imagined by George Lucas in 1977's "Star Wars" may believe that balance is achievable, but in real life such a thing seems all but impos...

‘Terminator: Dark Fate:’ Linda Hamilton Elevates A Franchise Remix With Few New Ideas [Review]

Russ Fischer

October 22, 2019 9:09 pm

Features, News, Reviews

“The Terminator” series has wrestled with an identity crisis for years. Are these movies lean, pulpy, cyberpunk cousins to heady sci-fi such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," or apocalyptic nightmares in which high-m...

‘Shazam!’ Is A Playful & Vibrant Star-Making Machine For Zachary Levi [Review]

Russ Fischer

March 26, 2019 9:52 am

Features, News, Reviews

We're deep enough into the era of superhero movies that new films don’t just adapt an old character anew; they graft familiar forms and genres to comic book stories. “Shazam!” is the latest Warner Bros. film to...

‘Border’ Is A Compassionate, Empathetic Monsters Ball [NYFF]

Russ Fischer

October 10, 2018 4:45 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

Tina’s upper lip quivers as she sniffs the air. She’s in uniform, watching as passengers stroll through an airport terminal corridor. She’ll pull one off to the side and find hidden booze, drugs, even secrets. ...

If John Waters Made ‘Barton Fink’ The Result Would Be ‘The Greasy Strangler’ [Review]

Russ Fischer

October 4, 2016 5:22 pm

News

This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Cinema history is marked by the efforts of a few genuine provocateurs and many would-be shock purveyors. But based on his latest feature,...

Kevin Smith’s ‘Yoga Hosers’ Is A Flabby, Goofy, Comically Inert Dad Joke Movie [Review]

Russ Fischer

August 29, 2016 5:42 pm

Reviews

This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Kevin Smith's “Yoga Hosers” is a flabby, goofy, comically inert cartoon that pits two teen clerks against Canadian Nazis and little creat...

‘The Big Chill’-Esque ‘The Intervention’ Is Sharp-Tongued & Smart [Review]

Russ Fischer

August 24, 2016 5:17 pm

Reviews

This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. "The Intervention" looks on its surface like a comprehensive Sundance bingo movie. A set of four couples, tied together by family, blood,...

‘Captain Fantastic’ Starring Viggo Mortensen Is A Dishonest Fantasy [Review]

Russ Fischer

July 5, 2016 5:18 pm

Reviews

This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. It’s so easy to fantasize about Viggo Mortensen as the kindly patriarch of a reclusive survivalist family. He would be a stern but compas...

Samuel L. Jackson and Alexander Skarsgard star in "The Legend of Tarzan."

‘The Legend Of Tarzan’ Starring Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie & Christoph Waltz Is A Swing And A Miss [Review]

Russ Fischer

June 29, 2016 9:27 am

Reviews

When tackling classic adventure stories, "modernization" can mean two very different things. One end of the spectrum is formal, where a new telling rebuilds the entire context for a story, giving us a new under...

The Uninspired ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ Is Recycled, Disjointed Mush [Review]

Russ Fischer

June 25, 2016 11:19 am

Reviews

20 years gone, the world has changed since Roland Emmerich first lured audiences into theaters with images of major landmarks blown to smithereens. In 1996 "Independence Day" played like old-school disaster-mov...

The 15 Best Sci-Fi Sequels

Russ Fischer

June 23, 2016 2:40 pm

Features

Making a great science fiction sequel may be easier than creating a killer comedy sequel, but not by much. Producers have been turning out second (and third, and fourth) chapters to continue stories of space an...

Daniel Radcliffe & Paul Dano Have A Surreal Fight For Survival In ‘Swiss Army Man’ [Review]

Russ Fischer

June 23, 2016 1:55 pm

Reviews

Daniel Radcliffe is a dead body that gives life in the infinitely strange and terminally unsatisfying "Swiss Army Man." The feature directorial debut from inventive and successful music video directors the Dani...

Interview: Nicolas Winding Refn On ‘The Neon Demon,’ Instagram & Wanting To Make A Spy Movie

Russ Fischer

June 22, 2016 3:40 pm

Interviews

2016 marks the twenty-year anniversary of Nicolas Winding Refn’s emergence as a feature writer/director. His 1996 debut, the street-level Danish crime film “Pusher,” led to a string of other gritty stories of m...

The 20 Best Fantasy Films Of The 21st Century So Far

Nikola Grozdanovic and Russ Fischer

June 9, 2016 1:19 pm

Features

Aside from the brief craze in the 1980s when “Krull” and “Conan” and the like roamed theaters, fantasy had never been a particularly popular genre for filmmakers to tackle —principally because it was too expens...

‘The Conjuring 2’ Has Great Scares In Search of A Serviceable Story [Review]

Russ Fischer

June 2, 2016 1:00 pm

Reviews

Two notorious real-world paranormal incidents from the 1970s get new treatment in “The Conjuring 2,” director James Wan’s sequel to his 2013 horror hit. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as Lorraine and Ed...

Author Russ Fischer