Cop Land is a film that could have easily been a long mini-series with all its got going on in the plot. Garrison, New Jersey in this movie is a town populated entirely by NY city cops. It’s a nice quiet little community, as you would expect, and mortgages are quite reasonable; plus it sure as hell beats living in the same dump they all … Continue reading Cop Land Review
David Wagner (Tobey Maquire) seems like the kind of teenager I used to be back in the 90s, that being a teenager obsessed with the past and especially the culture of bygone eras, in his case the 1950s, opting to spend hours in front of the TV watching old reruns instead of engaging in the shallow culture he finds outside. Only instead of Andy Griffith … Continue reading Pleasantville Review
What a strange and wonderful movie! And also, a movie that is sadly quite overlooked in the careers of both lead actors. Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), is a self-centered, Manhattan shock jock in the vein of Howard Stern mixed in with a little bit of Rush Limbaugh. At least that’s the persona he puts on when on the air; at home in his luxurious high … Continue reading The Fisher King Review
I was a little younger when I first saw this movie, and I did not fully appreciate it to the extent I do now. I was watching it expecting a satisfying formulaic action movie, and of course, if you watch No Country For Old Men expecting that, you are going to walk out pissed. In a way though I am glad I had the original … Continue reading No Country For Old Men Review
This was an interesting movie to watch for me, but I warn you going in, it may not be for the “uninitiated” any more than your typical screening of the Rocky Horror Picture show would be enjoyable for someone who either hadn’t seen, or worse, didn’t like that particular movie. The Big Lebowski was the first cult film of the “Internet era”, and I recall … Continue reading The Achievers Review
The worst thing about The Color of Money is that it is a sequel to The Hustler (for trivia buffs, also the first movie I ever reviewed on this site) and of course, it does not live up the heights set by that level of a classic. Almost no film could. That said, if one can view this movie without thinking of the former, which … Continue reading The Color of Money Review
Barton Fink is one of my favorite lesser known Coen brothers movie. In it John Turturro plays a brilliant stage writer for Broadway (from whom the movie gets its name) who gets lured to Hollywood in the 1940s to write screenplays for big studios. Turturro is perfectly at home as the naïve, paranoid stereotypical writer caricature who would prefer to write reality based social commentary … Continue reading Barton Fink Review
Spaghetti westerns might have just as easily been called Sergio westerns—as the three greatest directors of the genre all shared that same first name. Everyone knows Leone was the first, but probably at this point only real history/movie nerds know the other two–Sollima and Corbucci. Sergio Corbucci directed this classic Pasta Western back in 1966. The story is yet another play on Yojimbo, with a … Continue reading Django Review
Mellisa McCarthy is my wife’s favorite current actress. Her movies are a guilty pleasure for her as much as old Adam Sandler movies were for me back in the day. It’s the cinematic equivalent of comfort food, maybe not good for you, but good nonetheless. I am hit and miss with her movies. I find her shtick to be about as one note as your … Continue reading Spy Review
I literally cannot fathom how it took me so long to finally getting around to seeing this. Clint Eastwood has been on my Mt. Rushmore of actors since I was a fetus, and Jeff Bridges is also on that list. This movie sees them in different points of their career, Bridges is a young cocky little hippy named Lightfoot who opens the movie by stealing … Continue reading Thunderbolt and Lightfoot Review
The Untouchables is a near perfect mix of cinematic ingredients. Even though it was filmed in the late 80s this is not a modern gangster movie like Goodfellas, or even the Godfather. This is basically a “Hayes Code” era film that somehow escaped in a time machine and wound up where it did. That said it is beautiful movie, wonderfully shot by Brian De Palma, … Continue reading The Untouchables Review
Jason Statham is just getting out of prison and is bound for vengeance against Ray Liotta, who plays the big bad mob guy who screwed him over back in the day. While in prison Statham’s character befriends two geniuses who teach him how to win at virtually any kind of confidence game in existence. While in pursuit of said vengeance though, Statham’s character winds up … Continue reading Revolver Review
Johnny Depp will star as Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in the upcoming movie “Black Mass” this month. I am quite anxious to see it. So with that in mind I went back and watched Johnny Depp’s other famous gangster movie in which he played real life undercover agent “Donnie Brasco” who infiltrated a crew in one of the five families during the 1970s. This … Continue reading Donnie Brasco Review
This movie is to Goodfellas kind of what El Dorado was to Rio Bravo or Rio Lobo (Rio Lobo would be more the Departed in this comparison though I guess). An indirect remake with many of the same actors in a different setting. When the premise is as good as Goodfellas, who’s gonna complain? Joe Pesci gets to play perhaps his most memorable and most … Continue reading Casino Review
On the list of adjectives one might use to describe Tom Hanks, “badass” is probably way down on the list. However, Hanks manages to portray one quite convincingly here in mob enforcer Tom Sullivan. This was Sam Mendes’ first movie after his critical darling American Beauty. It is a visually captivating film, both in the set stylings as well as the way Mendes captures movement. … Continue reading Road to Perdition Review
Foxcatcher is a meticulously crafted, well researched, and fantastically acted film. That said, I found it to be kind of a dull and ponderous movie, although this is the kind of thing you don’t watch for entertainment as much as for the experience. Steve Carrel plays John DuPont, a spoiled billionaire by birth opens up the wrestling program that gives this movie its’ name. When … Continue reading Foxcatcher Review
If the real west were half as violent as depicted in this movie, we would have let the Indians keep it. A bounty hunter with a touch of conscience played with equal parts bravado and grit by Michael Fassbender keeps his true motives a secret from the naïve and gawky Scottish teenager (Kodi Smit-McPhee) for whom he’s offered to serve as bodyguard and guide while … Continue reading Slow West Review
Two years before the events in this movie Van Morrison recorded one of my favorite albums of all time, Astral Weeks, as a homesick tribute to his home of Belfast. The mystical place he was singing about though was already nothing but a memory by the time he made that very ahead of its’ time album, and by the time the events in this movie … Continue reading ’71 Review
Watching this film is like going to a high school reunion and getting cornered by that guy who was the class clown twenty years ago, and discovering he has not changed his clothes, or bothered to learn any new material in the intervening decades. You find you are amused just by their appearance and the nostalgia factor for a bit, but you quickly make an … Continue reading Dumb and Dumber To Review
Hey, North Korea, you really could have saved yourself a lot of time and trouble and just let this one pass. It likely would have fizzled out based on its’ own merit rather than having the help of an entire news cycle controversy to drive up sales. James Franco and Seth Rogen belong in better movies than the likes of this. They’re both fine actors, … Continue reading The Interview Review
