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Tag: drama

Entertainment

Killing Season (2013) Review

William McPherson

  The premise here is interesting, the talent is extraordinary, the action and atmosphere is fine, but the end result is one of the most befuddling messes I can long remember. The premise is this; 20 years after the Bosnian war, a retired US soldier now living out in the Appalachian countryside finds a strange hitch-hiker with a secret past. Turns out said hitch-hiker was among a group of enemy soldiers that he had (almost) executed two decades prior. Now he has come for his long awaited…

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Entertainment

Almost Famous Review

William McPherson3 Comments

Almost Famous is a movie I not only love, but was important to me in my formative years, and my life in general. It tells the story of William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a 15 year old kid on assignment for Rolling Stone magazine. He has to cover an up and coming rock band during what critic Lester Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) calls the dying days of Rock N’ Roll. Along the way, Miller falls in love with a “groupie” (although she would object to the term) named Penny played by Kate Hudson. Penny…

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Entertainment

La Bamba (1987) Review

William McPherson

  In the grand scheme of music history Richie Valens, or Valenzuela (Lou Diamond Phillips) was a minor figure in music history, and his biggest claim to fame is that he died in the same plane crash that took the life of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, but his story is such a great little slice of the American dream that it makes for great cinema. This movie opens, and is frequently interrupted by apocalyptic visions of death via a falling plane that puts a cloud of gloom over the entire…

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Backfire Netflix Review
Entertainment

Backfire (2017) Review

William McPherson

I’ve seen plenty of movies which required its audience to turn off their brain. ‘Backfire’ (2017) is one of a select few that also requires them to turn off their souls. Note: their brains should still be turned off as well. I had moderate hopes for a mid-level shoot em' up based on a promising premise that hooked me in the Netflix description and made me decide to give this film a shot. Two urban thugs attempt to rob and then gun down a couple out on a date night. The couple turns out to have…

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High Fidelity
Entertainment

High Fidelity Review

William McPherson

For many of my teenage years and into my twenties I was one of those dorky retro kids obsessed with old vinyl records and bands that, if my friends had heard of, they did not care about. I say that because when a film is made about a sub-culture, it is important to get that sub-culture right, and High Fidelity does just that, in a way that is equal parts tribute and lampoon. The Jack Black character for instance who is the very cliché of a know it all music snob constantly making his own…

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Savages
Entertainment

Savages Review

William McPherson

Two beach bums, one with a military past, and both in an open three way relationship with a hot blonde named Ophelia, start a homegrown marijuana business that becomes very successful. Said business attracts the wrong kind of attention from a very powerful Mexican drug cartel. So, together with the aid of a dirty DEA agent played by John Travolta, the trio will go to war against said Cartel, lead by Salma Hayeck. Also, Benicio Del Toro licks and occasionally rapes people. Ew. Oliver Stone, a…

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Sideways
Entertainment

Sideways Review

William McPherson

It’s a real treat to stumble across a movie like ‘Sideways’. I’d never heard of this before stumbling across a showing on HBO last night, but considering it had two of my favorite character actors in Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, I figured it was worth a shot. Giamatti plays one of the best roles of his career here. His character, Miles, is a put-upon middle school English teacher who has been divorced for two years, and is struggling to get over his ex as well as get a novel published…

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Black Mass
Entertainment

Black Mass Review

William McPherson2 Comments

What an unnerving film—and just in time for Halloween too. ‘Black Mass’ is an interesting exercise in genre bending/blending. There are really two films playing simultaneously. The first is the historical account of real life gangster James “Whitey” Bulger—a sociopathic killer who used his political connections to reign over South Boston (Southie) for several decades. This offers nothing new to the well-trodden ‘gangster’ genre and plays like Martin Scorsese on Quaaludes. The second movie is not…

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American Beauty
Entertainment

American Beauty Review

William McPherson

This movie is to a dull suburbanite family existence, what Office Space was for a dull corporate office job—a fascinating glimpse at what it may be like to escape, with a reminder of the cost one would have to pay. People often forget that "American Beauty" is a comedy, because of how dark and deep it is willing to go, but it is, and at times a very funny one at that. It is also one of the most painfully human movies of my generation telling the story of a middle aged sad sap named Lester (Kevin…

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Cast Away
Entertainment

Cast Away Review

William McPherson

This review contains spoilers. SPOILERS I SAY! If you haven’t seen it, just move it along here folks. Now, onto business. Cast Away is a great movie that could have been an even better movie, in my opinion, if they lopped off more from both the beginning and closing sections of the movie. Tom Hanks plays a UPS man who is every Tom Hanks cliché rolled into one, a sweet, loving, and generally well liked by everyone kind of guy. He has a fiancée that he is about to wed, before fate and his job put…

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Gangs of New York
Entertainment

Gangs of New York Review

William McPherson

Gangs of New York represents the kind of old school cinematic excess such as Ben Hur and the Ten Commandments, with massive sets and thousands of extras, but with a modern arsenal of special effects to give it a little extra oomph. Daniel Day Lewis plays Bill the Butcher, the old school gangster kingpin of New York in the 1860s. Lewis plays Bill as a shrewd politician, and brutal schemer. His performance, like in most of his films, is the movie. Leonardo Decaprio plays the son of the man who…

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Leaving Las Vegas
Entertainment

Leaving Las Vegas Review

William McPherson

Ben is a divorced screenwriter, recently fired, who has given up on life altogether. A chronic alcoholic, he has decided to take what money he has left and go to Vegas where he plans on drinking himself into an oblivion. Along the way he meets a Vegas hooker named Sera (Elizabeth Shoe) who takes pity on him, and he on her, and they begin a romance so emotionally raw and messed up that it makes Fifty Shades of Grey look like a nursery rhyme. Nicholas Cage has starred in a ton of pointless, lousy…

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Cop Land
Entertainment

Cop Land Review

William McPherson

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 have to work in. This is so thanks to “Uncle Ray” the boss of the town--- a mobbed up cop played by Harvey Keitel. In a town populated by cops, the actual police…

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Pleasantville
Entertainment

Pleasantville Review

William McPherson2 Comments

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 or I Love Lucy he is addicted to reruns of a classic TV show called "Pleasantville," set in a much simpler place and time where everyone adheres…

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The Fisher King
Entertainment

The Fisher King Review

William McPherson

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 rise apartment, he’s just a regular guy. All that changes one night when an off handed insensitive remark triggers an unstable caller to commit a mass…

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Color of Money
Entertainment

The Color of Money Review

William McPherson

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 I admit is difficult, there is a very good film here. Martin Scorsese is at the height of his stylistic powers here in this period between Raging Bull and Goodfellas. Paul…

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Barton Fink
Entertainment

Barton Fink Review

William McPherson

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 rather than standard genre movies such as Lassie or whathaveyou. Of course he winds up hating Hollywood and…

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Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Entertainment

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot Review

William McPherson

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 a car, and Eastwood is an old bank robber in hiding who opens the movie as the pastor of a church, before literally being run out of the congregation by…

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The Untouchables
Entertainment

The Untouchables Review

William McPherson

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, with a classic score by Ennio Morricone (and with period music by Duke Ellington); and then you add in the dialogue from David “F*** You”…

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Donnie Brasco
Entertainment

Donnie Brasco Review

William McPherson

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 is one of my favorite “gangster” movies, for one because it seems to be a little more self aware (without going over the top) than your…

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