Looking back, I think that two movies shaped and/or reinforced my views on “the criminal mind,” the folks who rob, cheat, vandalize and threaten as if they were born to it. “Donnie Brasco” (1998) set in stone my hunch that what Deep Throat said about the Watergate Burglars and the GOP leadership holds true for […]
Classic Film Review: Hoffman’s at his toughest doing “Straight Time” (1978)
Some films achieve “classic” status and even become pop culture shorthand, but eventually find themselves dismissed as overly-earnest, “of its time,” or even “self-parody.” More than one Stanley Kramer production of the ’50s on into the ’70s has suffered that fate. A self-conscious/socially-conscious filmmaker, it’s hard to think of anybody in the modern cinema that […]
Classic Film Review: “The Defiant Ones” (1958) hold up a lot better than expected
This could be the greatest high brow movie battle of all time, pitting Roger Ebert’s favorite movie against the most decorated movie of the 80s. Amadeus was released in 1984 to critical praise and is the fictional biography of Mozart, the famous composer, and his story shares a lot in common with Ebert’s favorite movie, […]
Greatest of the High Brow: Beethoven vs Mozart
T.S (Jeremy London) and his friend Brodie (Jason Lee) go to the mall after their girlfriends break up with them. Hijinks ensue. I feel I’m not in on the joke. While I’m aware that Clerks preceded this film I still feel as if I’m wandering in an abyss while everyone praises this film. First, the […]
It’s hard to think of a movie, short or feature-length, a TV show or a play that, setting out to ridicule the critic profession, hasn’t landed a few sucker punches and body blows. Jon Lovitz, paunchy and animated for TV, always reviewing movies in T-shirts studios give out to advertise their movies, Bob Balaban’s owlish, […]
Movie Review: Horror fan stuck among serial killers, all in “Vicious Fun”
In 1946, a London writer, Juliet (Lily James) exchanges letters with a Guernsey farmer, Dawsey (Michiel Huisman) and she begins to learn about what the islanders endured during World War II under German occupation. I read the book on which this film is based a while ago. I’m also (as of August 2020) a resident […]
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
Title – The Wages of Fear (1953) Director – Henri-Georges Clouzot (Manon) Cast – Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli, Peter van Eyck Plot – When an oil well ignites in flames deep in a remote section of South American wilderness, a group of four men are enticed via significant financial incentives to transport a […]
Classic Review – The Wages of Fear (1953)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Nowadays, it is so difficult to differentiate the truth from lies. False allegations and conspiracy theories are easily being spread to be sold as the truths. But the only person who knows what is the truth and what is not is the one who becomes a ‘target’ of it. […]
Tribeca 2021: “Enemies of the State”
Christoph Waltz stars in and makes his directorial debut with “Georgetown”, a too-crazy-to-be-true crime drama that’s actually based on an true story. Well, sort of. The film is written by screenwriter David Auburn and is taken from a 2012 New York Times Magazine article by Franklin Foer titled “The Worst Marriage in Georgetown”. I haven’t […]
The new trailer for “Till Death” may leave you a little uneasy about taking a romantic getaway with your significant other. The new thriller from first-time director S.K. Dale and screenwriter Jason Carvey sees Megan Fox leading a small cast working in a snowy single location. The trailer sets up the premise nicely and if […]
“There’s something sinister in the woods.” It’s not a direct line of dialogue from NEON’s upcoming eco-horror film “Gaia” but it could have been. This eerie new chiller from director Jaco Bouwer utilizes the tried-and-true creepy forest setting to great effect, sucking us into another bizarre and unsettling deep-woods scenario that melds mystery with the […]
It’s quiz time! Get your buzzers ready and let the tedium take you down an inescapable river! This week we’ve got antiheroes – my favourite archetype, of course. Where would we be without antiheroes? Still stuck with the typical, boring good guy? That would be sad. But luckily, cynical, immoral, sociopathic and cold hearted cowards […]
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 8 out of 10. Klute was the first of the Pakula paranoid trilogy – The Parallax View came three years later, and All The Presidents Men five. So why have I done it in this perverse order? I’ll be asking the questions, young padawan! Really, it should be called Bree (Jane Fonda), because […]
Klute: Character Study Or Detective Thriller?
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 7 out of 10. Well, this show has been all the rave recently, and in my typical fashion, I went into this one hoping that I’d be able to go against the tide and rip Mare of Easttown to pieces. Unfortunately, I won’t be doing that, but it’s not exactly a laudation either… […]
Moreish Mare of Easttown Proves You Can Have Too Much Of A Good Thing
Prisoners – MOVIE REVIEWKeller’s daughter goes missing and when he soon realises that the police are taking longer than he thought, he decides to take things into his own hands by going out to find his daughter’s kidnapper himself. However, his mental health begins to decline and so he starts doing things he will soon regret leading him […]
Two white South African men are for fighting for equal civil rights. However, whilst trying to spread their message using leaflet bombs they are arrested and charged to 10 years in one of the countries most notorious prisons, Pretoria. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Daniel Radcliffe stars Tim Jenkin in this one of a […]
Escape From Pretoria – MOVIE REVIEW
Pity the fools who can’t appreciate the magnificent mayhem of “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” the screaming, bustierre-busting glories of Salma Unleashed. Whatever middling “charms” the carnage-packed caper “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” wrung out of pairing up Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson in 2017, casting Salma Hayek seriously ups the comic ante in this slaughterhouse of […]
Movie Review: “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard”
Full disclosure: I was never a part of the original “Space Jam” craze. I was 25-years-old when the movie came out in 1996 and never felt inclined to see it during its initial release. I watched it later (at least most of it) and nothing about it has stuck with me. I say that to […]
First Glance: “Space Jam: A New Legacy”
Dancing is an important element that helps tell the story of love, passion, struggle, pain and even death. It also reveals the identity of the one who performs it and of those who watch.
From director Jamila Wignot, “Ailey” is a beautifully crafted documentary that centers around Alvin Ailey, an African-American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
This recently restored film is an interesting look at George Romero and a controversial subject. The Amusement Park (1973) was a discarded film, originally created by Romero as a commission work for the Lutheran Service Society in Pittsburg, but not widely used and thought lost. The original 16mm reels were sitting in Romero’s basement aka […]
One Day YOU will be old – The Amusement Park review #georgeromero