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Tag: drama

American Hustle
Entertainment

American Hustle Review

William McPherson2 Comments

stle is the best movie to come out of 2013, but it is for damned sure the most fun one to have made it to the big screen. Wow, what a fun ride that was. I am going to spend the next few hundred words or so just completely gushing about this movie with no pretense of objectivity or any other journalistic credos so read on at your own risk if you will.  I always get a little nervous going into a movie that has received so much critical acclaim, as sometimes such acclaim only serves to raise the…

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Double Indemnity
Entertainment

Double Indemnity Review

William McPherson

I’ve been meaning to see Double Indemnity forever now, but only just finally got around to it after stumbling across a special edition copy in my school library. I’ve reviewed a couple other pieces of classic film noir on this blog and intend to do more. Film Noir is one of my favorite genres of film; it may in fact be my all time favorite, were it not for my love of classic westerns as well. When I think of the very abstract idea of cinema itself the mental picture I get is a smoky, black and…

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Good Will Hunting
Entertainment

Good Will Hunting Review

William McPherson

  In a way this movie is like Rain Man for jaded intellectuals. Will Hunting is every bit as advanced as Dustin Hoffman’s character was in areas such as possessing a photographic memory of every academic book known to man, and solving mathematical equations that would cause even Einstein to light his hair on fire. He also is just as emotionally regressed and unable to make effective decisions for himself, although in a markedly different and more easily concealed way than the aforementioned…

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2 Guns
Entertainment

2 Guns Review

William McPherson2 Comments

The following introduction is a little spoilery, but it doesn’t really reveal anything that will compromise enjoyment of the movie in my opinion, but anyway, read at your own risk, or simply skip down to the next one. Denzel Washington stars as undercover DEA agent Robert "Bobby" Trench, while Mark Wahlberg plays undercover Naval Intelligence officer Michael "Stig" Stigman. Together the two of them plot to rob a bank in which they think contains money belonging to a Mexican drug cartel that…

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Before Midnight
Entertainment

Before Midnight Review

William McPherson2 Comments

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their roles as the love-struck couple of Jesse and Celine here in this third installment of Richard Linklater’s “Before” series. Before we get into anything else, as expected, Hawke and Delpy continue to have astonishing chemistry together and are both very fine actors who deliver knockout performances here. In the previous two movies, they were still getting to know each other and playing a tantalizing and torturous game of romantic cat and mouse. In this…

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Van Helsing
Entertainment

Van Helsing Review

Gary Smith

For a movie I had no intention of watching in the theater, this was a pretty good movie. The legendary monster hunter Van Helsing (Jackman) must go to Transylvania to fight Dracula and help Anna (Beckinsale), who’s family can not enter heaven until Dracula is dead (I suppose that would be the best word to use). Along with appearances by Mr. Hyde (of Dr. Jackyl and Mr. Hyde fame), the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s monster, it’s a virtual who’s who of the monster world, complete with an ugly little…

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Before Sunset
Entertainment

Before Sunset Review

William McPherson1 Comment

Before Sunrise begged the question, would you be willing to alter your entire life around one fateful night’s chance meeting? In that movie two twenty something’s met-cute on a train, wandered the streets of Vienna, and fell in love all the while walking and (endlessly) talking about everything under the sun. This movie asks basically the same question now that these two reconnect ten years later, this time in Paris, except now the stakes are higher and they both have more emotional baggage than…

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Entertainment

Casablanca Review

Gary Smith2 Comments

It has been months since I last posted an edition of the once weekly Classic Cinema Wednesday review series, and now really does seem like the perfect time to bring the series back (albeit not weekly) with the 11th installment. Why is it the perfect time? Well it’s quite simple; I have finally watched that other film that many people consider to be the finest movie ever made... Casablanca. It’s pretty fitting too since the last time I did one of these it was a review of Humphrey Bogart’s “The…

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Before Sunrise
Entertainment

Before Sunrise Review

William McPherson5 Comments

A guy (Ethan Hawke) and a girl (Julie Delpy), both in their early twenties, meet on a train bound for Paris in summer 1994. It doesn’t take them very long at all to discover that they have a remarkable chemistry together, and as such they begin a conversation on that train that will last the rest of the movie, and for two more movies following that. A huge torrent of dialogue flows between them as they discuss everything from their childhoods, past relationships, religion, romance, and any and…

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Being Flynn
Entertainment

Being Flynn Review

William McPherson

America has produced only three great writers as we are told in this movie’s opening narration voiced by Robert De Niro in the character of Jonathan Flynn, that being Mark Twain, J.D Salinger, and himself. He is, as a matter of indisputable fact, quite delusional. And it is this movie’s object to make him both eccentrically lovable and existentially loathable at the same time, a task it mostly succeeds at thanks in large parts to the acting talents of Robert De Niro and the natural good will you…

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Rio Bravo
Entertainment

Rio Bravo Review

William McPherson4 Comments

Has there ever been a movie that more effectively utilized a ‘cold opening’ better than Rio Bravo? We start with a dark and murky but still well crowded bar, a down on his luck and desperately drunk Deputy and a smug Gunman who first jokingly offers the Deputy a drink, and then tosses a silver dollar into a spittoon for him on the floor. These are the first images we witness in this classic Howard Hawk’s western released all the way back in 1959. The Deputy, played here in a show stealing…

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The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Entertainment

The Redemption of General Butt Naked Review

William McPherson

Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion have made one of the most emotionally arresting, morally challenging, and thought provoking documentaries that I have seen in my recent memory with ‘The Redemption of General Butt Naked”. That said I’m not sure it was a movie worth making, or a story that deserves telling though to be totally honest. Furthermore I’m equally uncertain about whether or not I should even be reviewing it and thus giving it even more free publicity. That being said, the movie is…

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The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Entertainment

The Ballad of Cable Hogue Review

William McPherson2 Comments

A smart director knows when he has pushed the limits far enough in one direction and needs to find a new approach and come at us with something altogether different and fresh. To be sure Sam Peckinpah did push the limits to the very outer edges and much more in terms of violence and bloodshed with his classic 1969 western masterpiece known as ‘The Wild Bunch’. So with that, in much the same way as the Coen brothers normally take a break to reboot after a big serious film like their classic…

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Out of the Past
Entertainment

Out of the Past Review

William McPherson2 Comments

If the Maltese Falcon is to be considered the grandfather of the Film Noir genre, which many have claimed it to be over the years, then ‘Out of the Past’ is definitely the genre’s chief biological father. For when you break down this movie to its basic D.N.A components, you see a perfect and incriminating match. As here we see the next generation of noir film making in which the genre was both advanced and finally perfected and completed. You also you see for one of the first times the classic…

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The Big Heat
Entertainment

The Big Heat Review

William McPherson2 Comments

The first thing we see in ‘The Big Heat’ is a pistol being loaded behind the desk of Officer Tom Duncan. Duncan, a dirty cop on the payroll of Mike Lagana, the crooked mobster who has a strangle hold on the city he works for, has finally reached his breaking point. We hear the report of a gunshot and see Duncan collapse, still at his desk. His wife rushes down the staircase to investigate the noise and then witnessing the aftermath, naturally, screams in horror. The camera zooms in to the…

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Leap of Faith
Entertainment

Leap of Faith Review

William McPherson

Jonas Nightengale is a traveling evangelist, who goes from town to town conning people out of their money in return for his dog and pony Jesus show. One fateful day his tour bus breaks down in a sleepy Kansas town in the middle of a bad drought. Not being one to forgo any opportunity to cash in, he decides to set up and ply his trade there, despite the wishes of town sheriff (Liam Neeson) who worries that the traveling conman is out to fleece the poor citizens of his town. Also along for the…

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Safety Not Guaranteed
Entertainment

Safety Not Guaranteed Review

William McPherson1 Comment

Darius, a young fresh faced intern at a large upscale Seattle magazine, along with her fellow intern, a college student and very serious young Indian teenage named Arnau, volunteers to go help Jeff, a senior writer at their publication, find the man who submitted the above classified ad in order to do a humorous and altogether sardonic and sarcastic piece for their next issue. Jeff, who could care less about the story or the crazy time travel guy except that he is mildly amused by it all only…

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Entertainment

Looper Review

William McPherson3 Comments

Along with being a pretty enjoyable Sci-Fi suspense picture, I have the weird duty to report that 2012’s ‘Looper’ may be the overall best movie about mass suicide and attempted child murder that I’ve ever seen. Not that I have seen that many films like this mind you, nor do I particularly hope the genre catches on; but for what it is, which is basically an amped up B-Movie Sci-Fi thriller (which was advertised as the second coming of ‘Inception’ unfortunately) with a better than average cast and…

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The Third Man
Entertainment

The Third Man Review

William McPherson7 Comments

As a big fan of classic film noir it is to my utter embarrassment to have to admit to not having until now, finally seen ‘The Third Man’ in its entirety. The final motivating factor that pushed me over the edge was a statement written by my movie reviewing hero, the recently deceased Roger Ebert, when he said that whenever he met someone who had never seen ‘The Third Man’ or ‘Singin In The Rain’ (another movie I will get around to seeing eventually, although I am not the biggest fan of musicals…

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The Words
Entertainment

The Words Review

William McPherson

Here’s a fact I defy anyone to challenge. No movie, television show, book or any other piece of fictional entertainment containing a main character named “Rory” has ever been any good. I will personally shake the hand of anyone who can find evidence to convince me otherwise. (Provided said person is willing to pay for their own travel, lodging, and food if the journey to collect said handshake proves to be a longish one.) In a way it really pains me to write this review, as Bradley Cooper, who…

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