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
The Arrow on JoBlo.com had perhaps the best quote on Ex Machina I could find anywhere when he wrote about this movie “Ex Machina was Frankenstein meets The Island of Dr. Moreau by way of Basic Instinct.” which just about sums this flick up for me. Quirky introspective Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) is a twenty something intellectual who works as a coder for a big corporation … Continue reading Ex Machina 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
This is the kind of mystery movie I didn’t think they made anymore, but I’m damn glad to see they still do. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike play Nick and Amy, a couple that fell in love young and wound up moving to rural Missouri and turn into your average miserable couple with a bored wife and a dunce husband. The movie begins on their … Continue reading Gone Girl Review
Desperado is the sequel to the independent critical darling “El Mariachi” and a prequel to the epic “Once Upon a Time in Mexico”. Of the three movies this one is by far my favorite, even though I know Mariachi is the one I am probably supposed to like the most. I do respect it immensely for what it achieved with such a small budget mind … Continue reading Desperado Review
This is one of my favorite horrible movies. It has every bad movie cliché in the book, a ton of gnarly character actors, questionable acting, awful writing, pointless plot twists galore etc, and is centered around a bunch of guys dressed like Santa trying to rob a casino. What’s not to like? To attempt to explain the plot in full with all the spoilers would … Continue reading Reindeer Games Review
Seeing a younger Bogart in the prime of his forceful personality and screen presence is really something to behold. People forget the guy was already in his 40s when he got his first big break in the early 40s. This movie captures him in his physical prime in his mid 30s playing a desperate gangster trapped in a roadside diner awaiting his final reckoning with … Continue reading The Petrified Forest Review
I grew up an only child for all intents and purposes, but I have a brother with mental disabilities who is quite a bit older than me, so in a weird and very fitting way, this movie hits very close to home. Now, my own brother doesn’t have the gifts for memory that Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man character here displays, and my dad isn’t some … Continue reading Rain Man Review
Titanquisitor 