Microkhan by Brendan I. Koerner

Entries Tagged as 'movies'

Flipping the Perspective

April 11th, 2023 · Comments Off on Flipping the Perspective

Whenever I’m stuck on a writing project—an all-too-frequent occurrence—I usually try to find my way forward by contemplating a single question: How can I shift what I’m trying to say without reaching for cliches? Because a lot of the time, the reason I’m banging my head against the wall is because I’m taking an approach […]

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How to Pull Off an Ending

October 20th, 2022 · Comments Off on How to Pull Off an Ending

In the name of getting better as a writer, I’ve been grappling with the aspects of the craft that I’m pretty terrible at. High up the list is final paragraphs—I just struggle so much with concocting a hefty parting thought that naturally connects to all that has come before. On the rare occasions I manage […]

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Negative Space

September 26th, 2022 · Comments Off on Negative Space

In the course of revising a Wired story I’ve been working on, I’ve had to dive into the technical history of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. That little research tangent brought me in contact with this lengthy piece about Douglas Rain, the Canadian actor who voiced HAL, the movie’s murderous AI system. There’s a […]

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Vanishing Act

September 23rd, 2022 · Comments Off on Vanishing Act

As someone who’s occasionally been tempted to retreat from the professional life I’ve built, I’m pretty curious about what’s happened with the director Martin Brest. He went from churning out a solid-to-great film every few years, including one of my all-time favorites, to being a non-entity in the movie business: Nearly two decades have elapsed […]

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Routine Magic

October 26th, 2021 · Comments Off on Routine Magic

I’ve been revisiting some older movies as of late, in a so-far futile effort to convince Microkhan Jr. that cinema existed and flourished before, say, 2002. In doing so, I’ve become increasingly enamored with the wizardry of practical effects, which are often the product of a sort of technical genius I can scarcely comprehend. The […]

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Bound for Moscow

April 12th, 2013 · Comments Off on Bound for Moscow

The low-grade 1972 thriller Skyjacked plays a brief but important role in my upcoming book. Here’s a brief excerpt of the chapter in which I describe why this lesser Charlton Heston flick made a splash at the box office: The film was controversial due to its subject matter, and numerous TV stations refused to run […]

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Rubber Suit Blues

November 28th, 2012 · Comments Off on Rubber Suit Blues

Wobbling beneath the weight of two major projects at the moment—my next Wired opus and the copy edit for The Skies Belong to Us. In my brief absence, please marvel the awesomely sophisticated space monsters from 1962’s Planeta Bur, a masterpiece of Soviet sci-fi schlock.

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Layer by Layer

October 26th, 2012 · Comments Off on Layer by Layer

Out and about today, corralling some killer photos for the next book. Back on Monday with a lengthy exploration of turtle riding.

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“A Boy Has Never Wept nor Dashed a Thousand Kim”

August 29th, 2012 · 3 Comments

Even if Rutger Hauer had stopped making art before the turn of the millennium, he would still occupy a hallowed place in the Microkhan pantheon for his trailblazing work in Surviving the Game. Fortunately for us, the Dutch actor continued to hammer away at his craft in the early part of this century, including a […]

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Phase Three

August 23rd, 2012 · Comments Off on Phase Three

Plunging into the third and final draft of the book today. Please occupy yourselves by checking out this stupendous collection of secret-hideout illustrations from The Secret World of 007. The laboratory complex beneath Piz Gloria is a personal favorite, primarily for its impeccable collection of stolen art.

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Knockoffs: Grizzly

August 17th, 2012 · 4 Comments

In honor of Shark Week, I feel compelled to pick a killer-animal-on-the-loose flick for our second installment of Knockoffs. A year after Jaws set the standard for the genre, 28-year-old William Girdler made Grizzly, which rather shamelessly presented itself as a ursine-centric alterative to Steven Spielberg’s box-office hit. When one of your movie’s taglines is […]

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Penultimate Push

July 30th, 2012 · Comments Off on Penultimate Push

Endeavoring mightily to complete the second draft of the book by day’s end. Revel in the awesome that is Pearl Chang, and catch you back here tomorrow morning.

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The Perils of Going Legit

July 25th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Perils of Going Legit

I’m one of those blokes who will argue ’til the end of time that The Godfather: Part II far surpasses the original. That’s largely because of the whole Vito Corelone backstory, which includes the single greatest flawed gangster of all time. But I also dig the quiet tension created by Michael Corleone’s vacillation over his […]

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Hubris, Thy Name is Vanna

June 27th, 2012 · Comments Off on Hubris, Thy Name is Vanna

There was a time when Vanna White aspired to be more than just another game-show letter turner. Like all television personalities, she longed to cross over into the world of film, so that someday her name would be mentioned in the same breath as Hollywood’s great. Unfortunately for White, her acting chops leave something to […]

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There is Hope for Us Yet

May 21st, 2012 · Comments Off on There is Hope for Us Yet

Slammed this Monday on business-y stuff—primarily trying to find a new tenant for the old Harlem headquarters. (Anyone in the market for a two-bedroom in a historic neighborhood? Holler.) Back tomorrow with something thoughtful; in the meantime, revel in the fact that some great humor does, in fact, translate across disparate cultures. So heartwarming that […]

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So Close, So Far Away

May 3rd, 2012 · Comments Off on So Close, So Far Away

Just about thirty hours to go ’til my book deadline. Furiously trimming adverbs and trying to inject much-needed moments of humor and profundity. Sit tight.

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Flying Too Close to the Sun

April 17th, 2012 · Comments Off on Flying Too Close to the Sun

If all had gone according to plan, I would’ve handed in the complete first draft of my next book today. But, much to my discredit, I’m stil a whole chapter away from completion, plus a few more days’ worth of revisions. I can take some small comfort, at least, in knowing that I’m probably not […]

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“Very Big in Europe This Season”

December 22nd, 2011 · Comments Off on “Very Big in Europe This Season”

Invoking the khan’s prerogative to spend a day focusing on the book. But let’s be honest: Is there really anything I could write that would be as glorious as Lorenzo Lamas in an early ’80s Breakin’ knock-off? Methinks the answer is “no.”

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“I’m Smart…and I’m Your Friend”

October 31st, 2011 · Comments Off on “I’m Smart…and I’m Your Friend”

In honor of Halloween—and in deference to the fact that I gotta split early today for trick-or-treating—I’m once again paying homage to the cinematic evildoer who caused me countless childhood nightmares: undead utopian cult leader Reverend Henry Kane. I dare you to come up with a more terrifying horror-flick villain—the man oozes menace out of […]

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Old Wounds

October 27th, 2011 · Comments Off on Old Wounds

How long is a public expected to wait before it can see its national traumas depicted on the silver screen? Here in the U.S.A., that estimated time period seems to get shorter with each passing generation: While over a decade passed between the end of America’s involvement in Vietnam and the debut of Platoon, there […]

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After the Peak

September 30th, 2011 · Comments Off on After the Peak

During this past week’s procrastinatory idylls, I had a chance to read two very different accounts of how folks deal with the fallout of fame. The first was an excerpt from an upcoming biography of the late Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton, a man who basically apart after his playing career was over. His […]

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The Ponchos: A PG-13 Masterpiece

September 9th, 2011 · 4 Comments

I can probably count on two hands the number of movies I’ve paid to see twice in a movie theater. Virtually all are classics that I’ve caught as revivals: The Godfather II, A Clockwork Orange, and The Bridge on the River Kwai immediately pop to mind. But there is also a decided oddball in the […]

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The Ponchos: Ruocheng Ying in The Last Emperor

August 19th, 2011 · 2 Comments

After a hiatus of a few weeks, it’s time to award another Poncho, the greatest honor that Microkhan can bestow upon the minor players of cinema. As a few of you may recall, the prize is given to supporting actors for the utterance of memorable single lines—lines that, in far less capable hands, would have […]

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The Human Fly, Cont’d

July 27th, 2011 · 2 Comments

Though I can’t quite claim to have solved the mystery of The Human Fly’s identity and current whereabouts, which I wrote about a month ago, I’m happy to report that Microkhan has at least uncovered another thread to the tale. Canadian film director Steve Goldmann popped by the blog to point us toward his documentary […]

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Keeping It Far Too Real: The Blackjack Ward Story

July 7th, 2011 · 2 Comments

While snooping about some old Google-able papers the other day, I stumbled across this true-crime tidbit about a 1940 murder case involving a pair of Hollywood extras. The killing took place in Gower Gulch, a street corner where former cowboys would gather in hopes of being picked to appear in B-grade Westerns—much like day laborers […]

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“The One That Shall Not be Named”

June 30th, 2011 · Comments Off on “The One That Shall Not be Named”

Friend o’ Microkhan Tristan Patterson is the man most responsible for hipping me to the post-baseball travails of Pedro Guerrero. He is also an immensely talented writer and director whose latest project, Dragonslayer, justifiably took home top honors at the latest SXSW Film Festival. Patterson himself provides a summary of the film that makes it […]

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The Ponchos: Sean Young in Wall Street

June 10th, 2011 · 2 Comments

After a long hiatus, it’s finally time for the esteemed Microkhan jury to hand out another Poncho, an award given to supporting actors who utter memorable throwaway lines that often outclass everything else in their film. You might recall that the first-ever Poncho went to its namesake, Richard Chaves, who played one of The Arnold’s […]

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“Maybe a Kiss in the Dark, Maybe a Knife in the Back”

May 18th, 2011 · Comments Off on “Maybe a Kiss in the Dark, Maybe a Knife in the Back”

Today’s all about putting nose to grindstone and writing about the greatest hammer thrower who ever lived, so not much time to Microkhan, alas. But I leave you with a delectable treat: the trailer to 1973’s Wonder Women, which absolutely should have triumphed over The Great Gatsby for the Best Costume Design Oscar. Just check […]

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Transporting Hammerheads

May 17th, 2011 · 2 Comments

I surely can’t be the only aquarium patron who, when confronted with a vast array of exotic sealife sealed behind glass, can only wonder how the largest of those captive animals was transported to their new homes. Sharks, of course, present special challenges, given their size and potential ferocity. And no shark species has proven […]

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What’s in Wyoming?

April 26th, 2011 · Comments Off on What’s in Wyoming?

Limited time to work today as Microkhan Jr. still has one day left of spring break, which he has apparently decided to spend attempting to coax me into serial games of hide-and-seek. Trying to grab a few hours here and there to focus on what pays the bills ’round this humble yurt, and that means […]

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