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Who knew that Ben Stiller, the funnyman behind Zoolander and There’s Something About Mary, was the right man to bring James Thurber’s classic short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to the big screen? Of course, much of the short story is absent from Stiller’s adaptation, but that was always a certainty (beautiful though it is, the original story is hardly enough to fill a short, let alone a major studio tentpole). What Stiller does manage to do, however, to my great surprise, is capture the adventurous heart of his title character.

Part of what makes Stiller’s characterization so enjoyable is how he nails the mannerisms of the Everyman. Working as a negative assets manager for the fictional Life magazine, Walter is quiet and awkward, more inclined to drift off into daydreams than actually look at what’s in front of him. Without alienating the character from the audience,...

Blood And Sand (1922) Direction: Fred Niblo Cast: Rudolph Valentino, Lila Lee, Nita Naldi, Rosa Rosanova, Walter Long, Charles Belcher, Leo White, Rosita Marstini Screenplay: June Mathis; from Vicente Blasco Ibáñez's novel, and Tom Cushing's play Recommended Rudolph Valentino, Nita Naldi, Blood and Sand Bullfighting has never appealed to me, so I approached Fred Niblo's Blood and Sand with caution. Now that I've seen it, I am relieved that there was no actual footage of this hideous blood sport. Niblo's film version of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez's novel and Tom Cushing's play offers more reference to the practice than any actual details. Rudolph Valentino dominates [...]...

Every Sunday, Film School Rejects presents a film that was made before you were born and tells you why you should like it. This week, Old Ass Movies presents the controversial story of how the Kkk saved the south and how D.W. Griffith invented every camera trick you love. The Birth of a Nation (1915) Directed by: D.W. Griffith Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, and Walter Long Growing up under the shadow of a grandfather who was a Civil War historian living in Arkansas, a grandmother who knew just as much, and two parents who collected antiques from the era, it was difficult to live in the present – especially around Christmas time when everyone would get together and exchange Mourning Jewelry and buttons that fell off the coats of dying men to be buried in the loam of Mississippi. It was also a melting pot of history and visions of where we, as...