My wife is among the world’s biggest Tim Burton fans, and this of course, is one of her favorite movies. Growing up I recall loving it too. It’s strange looking back now how little actual screen time Michael Keaton gets in the title role here, but it’s telling how much that he manages to do with said screen time. Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin carry … Continue reading Beetlejuice Review
At the end of Evil Dead 2 Ash, (who while not killing the undead demonic hordes of the world is a humble retail sales associate at S-Mart) jumped into this time vortex thingy-what-have-you or whatever and it transported him back to medieval times where he must use his cunning badassedry to help save a simple people from the evil that lurks among them. To save … Continue reading Army of Darkness Review
Still trapped in the same cabin from part one, Ash, the sole survivor from last time out, still finds himself battling the undead. To keep things interesting a few interlopers and visitors pop up here and there, but mostly, this is Ashley’s inner-badass coming out party bay-bay. Evil Dead 2 is the film most people think of when they think of the Evil Dead franchise … Continue reading Evil Dead 2 Review
As we get nearer to Halloween, I was struggling to think of more horror titles to fit in with the QDR series when the ‘Evil Dead’ franchise popped in my head. This works as a double tie-in with the Halloween season, plus the new TV series starting this fall starring none other than Mr. Bruce Campbell in the role that only he can play. My … Continue reading The Evil Dead Review
I’m a sucker for old Roger Corman flicks and other such “D-Movie” shenanigans, but this movie was just a really lazy and rushed affair. I’m not one to normally harp on the superiority of remakes, but the 1986 musical version of this story is superior in just about every way. I found this flick as part of a big collection of horror movies in the … Continue reading The Little Shop of Horrors 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
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
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
Let’s be honest here. You weren’t expecting this movie to be good, and neither was I. At best we were all hoping perhaps it would be passably entertaining in that way that certain movies that you watch on basic cable at two in the morning can sometimes tend to be. But alas, no. Hot Tub Time Machine 2 could be used by John Cusack’s agent … Continue reading Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Review
This movie is like the Goodfellas of porn. I saw Boogie Nights at an age I most certainly should not have seen anything of the type, but it has stuck with me years later for reasons that have jack shit to do with nudity or porn. For me this movie isn’t so much about the porn industry as it is about the era of excess … Continue reading Boogie Nights Review
Probably about a third of all modern comedies can trace their spiritual ancestry back to Animal House. This was one of my favorites growing up, but I worried how it would hold up now, and surprisingly, it flowed nearly as well as it did all those years ago. John Belushi is still a pure force of nature as Bluto Blutarsky, and he steals the movie … Continue reading Animal House Review
This is an overlooked movie in John Hughes series of Chicago based comedies, but one that is near and dear to yours truly’s cantankerous old ticker. Macaulay Culkin had a remarkable childhood film career, and by all accounts, a disastrous childhood. Aside from his two very successful featured roles in the Home Alone movies, I believe this movie to be his best work. Much of … Continue reading Uncle Buck Review
Tom Hanks is one of the biggest box office stars of all time, so it is usually worth taking note of which of his movies don’t become huge smash hits. A month or so back I reviewed such a movie with Larry Crowne, and here today we have another in The Terminal. This movie has Hanks playing a man from the fictional nation of Krakozhia … Continue reading The Terminal Review
In the first Bill and Ted movie, the two teenagers upon whose shoulders the fate of humanity rests passed a school history report contest to ensure the future of their band, which will be the driving force to the future utopia in which as George Carlin tells us at the beginning “even the dirt is clean…” Now it’s the sequel, and instead of traveling through … Continue reading Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey Review
The future of the world depends upon the band Wyld Stallions forming after two teenage misfits played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter getting an A+ on their high school history report final. With said future in jeopardy George Carlin of all people hops into an old school 20th century phone booth and travels through the portals of time to set things right. I must … Continue reading Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Review
I know for a fact that I am under-rating this movie in this review, but I don’t feel too bad about that. The reason I sought out this movie in the first place because it was the favorite film of the man who made me want to write about movies, Roger Ebert. Ebert reviewed this movie at least three times in his life, and the … Continue reading La Dolce Vita Review
I’m a sucker for good coming of age movies, and for music history movies, and this is another one, like Almost Famous that is directly in my wheelhouse. This movie tells the story of the fictional one hit wonder band known as the Wonders (originally the Oneders—not pronounced Oh-needers by the way) who go from obscurity to overnight sensation with the success of the very … Continue reading That Thing You Do! Review
Man on the Moon is not a wrestling movie really, but a good portion of it is devoted to Andy Kauffman, who was an ahead of his time comedian and avant-guard provocateur and his dabblings in pro wrestling. It all started out with him wrestling women as a comedy skit, and evolved to him actually taking the act to actual wrestling arenas in the Tennessee … Continue reading Man on the Moon Review
