Good Games. Good Movies. Good Wrestling. Good Times.
MAKING INTERNET FUN AGAIN
Titanquisitor — MAKING INTERNET FUN AGAIN
FROM THE ARCHIVES

Tag: movie reviews

Once Upon a Time in the West
Entertainment

Once Upon a Time in the West Review

William McPherson2 Comments

When I think back on the elements that most of my favorite westerns share, a few things come back time and time again in nearly each of them. First, great cinematography and epic settings. Check. Then you must have a memorable score such as the whistling in the “Dollars” trilogy or the old standard title songs from “My Darling Clementine” and others. This movie has one of the most dramatic and enduring scores of any movie ever. What makes it even more effective that it goes against the grain of…

CONTINUE READING →
Entertainment

The Salvation Review

William McPherson

There’s an old divide among western fans that is probably mostly forgotten by modern viewers. A few years back I wrote what I consider to be the review I am the proudest of here, of my all time favorite western, Rio Bravo. Rio Bravo was made as answer to “High Noon” starring Gary Cooper since both Howard Hawks and John Wayne disliked the storyline of the lead hero having to slunk around town asking for help from cowardly townsman for a problem that, according to their more Hemingway like way of…

CONTINUE READING →
Entertainment

Fury Review

William McPherson

It has been said also that you cannot make a movie about war without glorifying war. Francis Ford Coppola tried with Apocalypse Now, Oliver Stone tried with Platoon, and Stanley Kubrick tried with Full Metal Jacket. But in the end all of these movies failed to take that “new car smell” off of humanity’s second most popular pastime for the past few millenniums. In the book Jarhead later turned into the movie of the same name, Anthony Swofford recounts how he and all of his fellow recruits during…

CONTINUE READING →
Entertainment

Bridge to Terabithia Review

Gary Smith1 Comment

I first saw Bridge to Terabithia in 2008, a little over a year after it had released in theaters. It was on a movie channel, Starz I believe. I had never read the book, but I remembered the trailer for it and was excited to see it. I was expecting a fantasy Narnia style film, so I definitely got more than I bargained for. If you've seen this film, and I really hope you have (if not, please do), then you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, spoilers later on. Josh Hutcherson stars as…

CONTINUE READING →
Beyond The Law
Entertainment

Beyond The Law Review

William McPherson

Sometimes it’s best to leave childhood favorites in your childhood. This might have been one of those cases. I would have been around ten to twelve years old when I first saw “Beyond The Law”, which also would have been my first exposure to the idea of biker gangs and such, and at the time I thought it was just about the coolest film ever made. It’s filled with loud Harleys, wild bikers, tons of groovy rock music, and plenteous obscenities, violence, and nudity galore! (Yeah, my parents probably…

CONTINUE READING →
Winter's Tale
Entertainment

Winter’s Tale Review

William McPherson

Here’s the main thing that bothered me at the end of Winter’s Tale. How in the hell did Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell get drawn into what is essentially Twilight for history buffs? This movie is helmed by Akiva Goldsman, an uneven director in the past who has given us both the wonderful ‘Cinderella Man’ and the ambulance chasing would be cash cow “The Da Vinci Code”… In this movie he is faced with the task of adapting a far less controversial novel, but one that is very beloved. I will note…

CONTINUE READING →
Entertainment

The Expendables 3 Review

William McPherson

In this third installment of the Expendables franchise we learn a little bit about the origins of Barney Frank and Lee Christmas’ (Stallone and Statham) gang of do-gooder mercenaries. Apparently the team was originally co-founded with Frank by a man named Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) who eventually tired of being the run around man of various government agencies and decided to form his own crew of “Expendables” to make himself crazy rich/powerful, unfortunately he did this by killing a lot of…

CONTINUE READING →
Life Itself
Entertainment

Life Itself Review

William McPherson

Roger Ebert lived the last six or seven years of his life with no voice, other than a computer generated one he typed into in the final few years. This movie in both a figurative and a literal sense, is about giving Ebert his voice back. At least, that was what it was about before he passed away, which he unfortunately did during the filming of this documentary. After that, the movie’s focus shifted inevitably to become more of a eulogy and tribute to the man himself. I waited a long time to see…

CONTINUE READING →
Easy Rider
Entertainment

Easy Rider Review

William McPherson

One of my favorite mini-genres of movies is the latter day western. In these types of movies, set normally in the early 20th century, you see the last of the true cowboys fighting the expansion/encroachment on their way of life that was surely coming with the rapidly advancing technology and population boom of that time. There’s indeed something quite romantic about being the last of a particular breed, at the closing epoch of a famous era. Easy Rider is that kind of movie, but for the 1960s…

CONTINUE READING →
Entertainment

Road To Paloma Review

William McPherson

First things first, fans of current day WWE will not be able to watch this movie without mistaking Jason Momoa for wrestler Roman Reigns. In fact there have been reports that when WWE showed the advertisement for this film during their live events, that many in the crowd assumed it was Reigns as well in the lead role, and with the way he is positioned in the company right now it would make sense for them to give him some outside exposure via a movie role quite like this one. That this is a WWE…

CONTINUE READING →
Mud
Entertainment

Mud Review

William McPherson2 Comments

Ellis and Neckbone live on the banks of the Arkansas river. What an amazing place to grow up this must be. Ellis stays on a houseboat with his father and mother, who are going through problems he cannot even begin to understand, but that may soon cost him his entire known way of life. In the evenings he sneaks off with his best friend, the aforementioned Neckbone, to explore the river and the many hidden treasures contained therein. One such adventure leads them to a small island, where they…

CONTINUE READING →
A Million Ways to Die in the West
Entertainment

A Million Ways To Die In The West Review

William McPherson4 Comments

We picture the west in vast panoramas, great big blue skies, open prairies, with miles upon miles of amazing, yet challenging and often life threatening terrain, symbolizing opportunity and risk, the “Manifest Destiny” of the 19th century and the quintessential “American Dream” of the 20th century, all punctuated by a booming Elmer Bernstein soundtrack and Big John Wayne smiling at us from afar atop his trusty mount. Seth MacFarlane pictures the west as a giant sweaty pile of cow manure with no…

CONTINUE READING →
Neighbors
Entertainment

Neighbors Review

THE MONKEY

Neighbors tells the story of Mac and Kelly Radner (played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) who are a couple in their young 30's with a new house and a new baby. Though they miss going out and staying out late with friends to a certain degree they also are very happy with their new life as parents. Then a wrench is thrown into their lives in the way of a frat that moves in next door. At first Mac and Kelly want to appear cool to the college kids rather than come off as the "uncool old couple" but it…

CONTINUE READING →
Nebraska Review
Entertainment

Nebraska Review

William McPherson7 Comments

I, along with many others, have harbored a deep irrational and unfair grudge against Bruce Dern ever since his role in “The Cowyboys” back in the 1970s where he became forever known as the man who shot John Wayne in the back. Other men had done the same deed over the years, but thanks in part to Dern’s memorable lanky facial features and his signature drawl, he was the one who would be immortalized for the deed. Now finally, at age 77, it appears Dern has finally found “redemption” from his past…

CONTINUE READING →
Bridge on the River Kwai
Entertainment

Bridge on the River Kwai Review

William McPherson1 Comment

“Madness! Madness! Madness! “ That is the enduring battle cry of ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’, a movie about stubborn obstinate people who stick to their guns regardless of the consequences. It is a war movie in the sense that it takes place during a war, but it has more in common with Indiana Jones than it does with Saving Private Ryan. ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ was made in 1957 by David Lean, the great movie maker also known for directing the epic ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ as well as many other high…

CONTINUE READING →
The Monuments Men
Entertainment

The Monuments Men Review

William McPherson2 Comments

Richard Roeper, who you may remember as the former television partner of the late Roger Ebert of ‘Ebert and Roeper’ fame, writes in his review of ‘The Monuments Men’ that this is a “solid albeit slow building film with few dull moments.” I like to imagine if Roger were still alive (and never lost his ability to speak,) and ‘Ebert and Roeper’ were still on the air that right after Roeper dared utter that nonsensical line on the show that Ebert would pick up a nearby phonebook and thwack him in…

CONTINUE READING →
Night of the Hunter
Entertainment

Night of the Hunter Review

William McPherson

It isn’t easy being a widow. Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) finds that out the hard way when her good intentioned husband Ben (Peter Graves) finds himself hanging from the gallows after robbing a local bank. The movie is set during the depression, and bank robbing at the time was about the noblest form of outlawry to be found, especially to many down and out sodbusters who blamed greedy bankers for sucking up their entire life savings while they had to sit and watch their families nearly starve…

CONTINUE READING →
Escape Plan
Entertainment

Escape Plan Review

William McPherson6 Comments

My wife can’t stand Sylvester Stallone. Hates the way he looks, hates the way he talks, and hates the predictable turn most of his movies take. She represents a large group of people who harp on the guy’s faults, and I am not here to argue that those faults do not exist. I am just here to say they mostly don’t bother me when Stallone is put to use in a movie that is best suited to his particular strengths. Escape Plan, much like the abysmally boring ‘Bullet to the Head’ is not one of those…

CONTINUE READING →
Homefront
Entertainment

Homefront Review

William McPherson

There was a much more interesting movie that bookended Homefront’s main story. It was about a long haired Jason Statham infiltrating a biker gang lead by a guy called Danny T, played by Chuck Zito, and it ended with a giant police raid, featuring an intense standoff in which T’s son basically commits suicide by cop as a dozen or so uniformed officers make it rain exploding squibs on his chest while Danny T looks at Statham and swears vengeance. At this point I want the movie to go back in time…

CONTINUE READING →
Prisoners
Entertainment

Prisoners Review

William McPherson

Keller Dover is an uber-macho survivalist who keeps a basement full of canned goods and assorted Zombie Apocalypse gear all set up in neat alphabetically ordered shelving units. During a Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s house, both his daughter and his friend’s daughter go missing in an apparent kidnapping. Normally kidnapping movies save the kidnapping for at least a little ways into the movie to establish a pattern of everyday life. This movie instead goes for the shock route of placing the…

CONTINUE READING →