Brief thoughts on The Dark Tower.

I've often considered myself someone who respects Stephen King's stories more than I love them. While he's earned every accolade for crafting one of the most unique creative voices in literature, I often find the strengths - and weaknesses -  in his text are usually better accentuated by the interpretations of other writers, and with a bibliography as vast as his, has resulted in films among some of the greatest (The Shawshank Redemption) and some of the worst (Maximum Overdrive) of all time.

But I doubt any of them has had as rocky a road as The Dark Tower, based on King's popular long-running series, centered around the everlong battle between gunslinger Roland of Eld, and the devilish sorcerer the Man in Black. After several attempts spanning well over a decade, the final film makes it way to the screen under Nikolaj Arcel and Imagine Entertainment, and the first of two King adaptations this year (with the reimagining of IT to release next month). Sadly, I'm left wishing that The Dark Tower's bumpy production didn't show.

Brief thoughts on Okja.

Okja, when we first meet her in her title movie, roams around her countryside home without a care in the world. A spectacular, genetically modified "Super-Pig" who's been bred solely for the purpose of being killed for food at a mature age, Okja is a precious and innocent being of nature, that were the corporations trying to get hold of her were to have their way, would warp and mangle into a viciously mutated and marketable product. But maybe Okja is representative of more than just food, as seen through writer/director Bong Joon-Ho's eyes in his latest film from Netflix.