Part of the purpose of the Blind Spot series is to challenge myself to watch classic films outside of my comfort zone. These are usually films I’ve heard great things about but have been hesitant to watch for one reason or another. 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde definitely fall into that description. A landmark of its […]
Blind Spot 65: Bonnie and Clyde
Well, isn’t this just adorable? “The Paper Tigers” is a martial arts action comedy filled with punch-ups, knock-outs, insults and one-liners. Well-acted, with actors who know how to throw a kick and land a punch — and a punchline — stuntman and editor turned writer-director Quoc Bao Tran has made a debut feature that tells […]
Movie Review: EveryDaddy was “Kung Fu Fighting” — “The Paper Tigers”
When it comes to action stars Jason Statham just has “it”. I can’t clearly define what “it” is, but you know it when you see it. It’s a healthy mix of charisma, grit, and physicality. Since Statham’s leading man breakthrough in 2002’s “The Transporter”, he has shown over and over that his anti-hero brand is […]
Time: 92 minutes Age Rating: Torture & Sadistic Violence Cast: Tobin Bell as John Kramer Costas Mandylor as Detective Mark Hoffman Scott Patterson as Agent Peter Strahm Betsy Russell as Jill Tuck Julie Benz as Brit Meagan Good as Luba Gibbs Mark Rolston as Agent Dan Erickson Carlo Rota as Charles Director: David Hackl Although Jigsaw […]
Imagine the nerds from “The Big Bang Theory” stumbling into the plot of “Taken,” or pretty much any Liam Neeson out-for-revenge thriller. Now imagine them Danish. That’s “Riders of Justice,” the dark, bloody, sweet and sometimes hilarious comic thriller from Anders Thomas Jensen. He scripted the Oscar-winning “In a Better World,” which had similar messaging […]
Movie Review: Danish, Dark, Bloody and…Sweet? “Riders of Justice”
Robert Mitchum was a high-mileage/hard-miles 57 when he took on Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye Philip Marlowe in 1975’s “Farewell, My Lovely,” a character immortalized by Bogie in “The Big Sleep” in a story of that had been filmed twice before, in the film noir-mad 1940s. He wasn’t too old to take the part, but […]
Classic Film Review: Mitchum is Marlowe in Chandler’s “Farewell, My Lovely” (1975)
Throughout my many years of covering and reviewing movies I’ve been pretty vocal about my belief that Guy Pearce is (and for a long time has been) one of the most underrated and undervalued actors in the business today. He’s charismatic, incredibly diverse, and easily one of the industry’s busiest workers (he has FOUR films […]
REVIEW: “The Seventh Day” (2021)
Any Bond film was going to pale in comparison to Goldfinger, but even so Thunderball was a remarkably weak effort – and easily the weakest film in the Sean Connery canon. Neither as light on its feet as Goldfinger, nor as taut or propulsive, Thunderball mainly unfolds in the Bahamas, where Bond has to thwart […]
Embracing your inner badass. So this is about an everyday person (Bob Odenkirk). He’s an unremarkable family man, and he would not stand out in a crowd. On a night where his home is robbed, the dominos start falling which will lead to him going on a mayhem-filled spree. Now I was looking forward to […]
“The Sleepless” is drama and romance at its most elemental and charming — just two insomniacs, meeting and chatting on a long walk through the empty streets of Brooklyn at dawn. Sometimes cute, occasionally touching and generally charming, it won’t go down as one of the great “just a conversation” films. The dialogue doesn’t paint […]
Movie Review: “The Sleepless” and Lonely Strangers meet in Brooklyn’s Wee Hours
Truth be told, Christopher Walken has always worn his pants grandpa-high, his hats a little out-of-date. And he’s always grown a mean goatee, even in his silvery “legend of the cinema” years. So it’s no stretch thinking of him as a grandfatherly Saskatchewan canola farmer getting his back up when pushed around by Big Ag […]
Movie Review: Walken vs Monsanto, “Percy vs. Goliath”
During the war, a titled family object to their squadron leader son’s engagement to the daughter of a factory worker. This is a film I watched due to the desire to expand my repertoire of films. Amazon Prime certainly is the place to find the sorts of films people forget. It’s also quite an obscure […]
Title – Wrath of Man (2021) Director – Guy Ritchie (Snatch) Cast – Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Josh Hartnett, Jeffrey Donovan, Scott Eastwood, Niamh Algar Plot – Follows the mysterious H (Statham), a violent man who works at a cash truck company in Los Angeles and a man who gets caught up in a dangerous […]
Film Review – Wrath of Man (2021)
Without Remorse is based on the 1993 Tom Clancy novel of the same name. It’s fitting the novel was written in the early 90’s, the film is a throwback to the early 90’s action films that flooded theaters and currently live on basic cable. The story follows John Clark (Michal B Jordan), a member of […]
The struggle against the government. So as you can probably guess, this is about Billie Holiday (Andra Day). The feds don’t like her singing her song “Strange Fruit” since it’s about lynching. You can’t arrest someone for singing a song, so they try to bring her down for drug addiction. This is her story. Now, […]
Silencing a Song – The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021)
I always like to have a variety in this blind spot series, so for April I decided to watch the 1967 romantic comedy Two for the Road. As a huge Audrey Hepburn fan this is one I had heard about but never seen and was excited to check off my list. It’s interesting because this […]
Blind Spot 64: Two for the Road
The phrase “sullen teen” doesn’t know borders and has symptoms one can recognize anywhere on Earth. The frown is there just to break up the monotony of the omnipresent scowl. “Please” and “thank you” are the hardest words in any language to master. Smoking? Sure. But only if it infuriates adults. And even those who […]
Movie Review: A Polish teen in Ireland, “I Never Cry”
Spotting Jenny Agutter’s face somewhere amongst the chewing-gum Bayeaux tapestry of The Avengers was something of a culture-shock; back in the early 70’s, she was a go-to girl for iconic British cinema, from Nic Roeg’s Walkabout to The Railway Children. David Greene’s I Star Counting! probably wasn’t one of her better-known flicks, but this restoration […]
Avast, landlubbers, today’s movie selection deals with the rarely-seen topic of sea monsters! But before you lay out your harpoons and start double-tracking the vocals on your sea-shanties, this is a Spanish art-film about sea-monsters on the Mubi channel, so don’t expect 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea shenanigans. Lois Patiño’s film feels like what would […]
With About Endlessness, Roy Andersson once again weaves together short vignettes that uncover the intricacy and vulnerability of the human condition.
ABOUT ENDLESSNESS: Roy Andersson’s Latest Is A Splendid Existential Work
