Living for the Cinema

Five years ago, this sprawling heist movie/crime drama came out to mixed reviews and solid box office.  At the time of release, many dismissed it as a knock-off the 1995 classic Heat.....which it is somewhat is.  But since then, it has garnered quite a cult following on cable and streaming for that VERY reason: it's a fun, engaging knock-off of Heat. :) And it features a nutso leading perform...

Remember Cannon Films?  They were an independent production company started in the '70s run by two Israeli cousins (Yoram Globus, Menahem Globus) who wanted to bring their cinematic ambitions to the United States....and they released a LOT of movies, most of which were considered schlock in retrospect.  But every once in a while, they would release a GENUINE quality film and this was one of t...

Thirty years ago, director Spike Lee released what at the time was his magnus opus...this highly ambitious biopic of the eponymous iconic civil rights leader played by Denzel Washington.  We are taken through the entire life of Malcolm and his journey from street gangster to prominent spokesman for the Nation of Islam.  His words and actions as an activist inspired millions while dividing many oth...

Three years ago, most audiences were delighted by the breezy ensemble mystery comedy Knives Out directed by Rian Johnson and starring an impressive cast lead by Daniel Craig playing the brilliant detective Benoit Blanc.  The film was a surprise box office hit when it came out so to no one's surprise, a sequel was planned and that sequel has also been directed by Johnson bringing back Craig&ap...

Big Jim is back!  I'm referring to James Cameron of course, the Oscar-winning director of Titanic who also gave us such modern classics as Aliens, The Terminator, Terminator 2, and most recently Avatar which came out in 2009.  Despite a lengthy production process and going massively overbudget, that film shocked every one to become a worldwide phenomenon - it starred Sam Worthington as Jake a...

This year's series of holiday-themed movies concludes with a body-switch comedy from 1988 starring Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage as a father and son who - you guessed it - switch bodies as a result of a mishap with an ancient artifact.  What results are hijinks involving middle school bullies, board meetings, heavy metal concerts, motorcycle chases, department stores, etc.....and this all ta...

Ten years ago, we saw the release of Kathryn Bigelow's follow-up to The Hurt Locker, a film which not only won Best Picture at the Oscars but for which she became the first woman to be Best Director as well.  She and writer Mark Boal decided to tackle the comprehensive subject of the US' ongoing ten year search for Osama Bin Laden....and history occurred just before they started filming,...

Thirty-five years ago, writer/director Oliver Stone released the follow-up to his searing Vietnam War drama Platoon which came out the previous year winning Best Picture among several other Oscars.....and this time, his focus was on stock brokers? :o Of course his late father had been a stock broker so this was a very personal subject for Stone and he even brought back the star from his previous f...

The Holiday Movie Season continues.....and strangely enough, this one has quite the pedigree: it's directed by Renny Harlin who gave us the underrated Christmas actioner Die Hard 2: Die Harder and it's written by Shane Black who gave us the Christmas classic, Lethal Weapon.  Beyond that, it stars Oscar winner Geena Davis as Charli Baltimore, a former government assassin who contracted am...

Twenty-five years ago, this biting satire loosely based upon Robert Heinlein's military science fiction novel of the same name was released - there was much fanfare as it was a very expensive production co-financed by two different studios and was directed by Paul Verhoeven who had recently given us Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and Robocop.   The problem was that most folks who initially saw...

Our ongoing parade of holiday movies continues with likely one of the more beloved ones of the 21st Century with this charming tale of Buddy, the oversized Christmas Elf played by Will Ferrell back when he was still an active cast member of Saturday Night Live.  As Buddy is not always fitting in at the North Pole due to his unusual size for an elf, he decides to venture to New York City to seek ou...

Based upon their Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation (and novelization) from just a few years ago, this docudrama tells the true story of New York Times' journalists Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zooey Kazan) in their exhaustive effort to get to the bottom of rampant sexual harassment and workplace abuse in Hollywood....mainly at Miramax Pictures under the thumb of Harvey We...

'Tis the season for holiday movies!  And what better way to kick off this season than revisiting this Christmas-themed horror gem from the '80's directed by Joe Dante, starring Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates?  The REAL stars are actually the creatures of the title of course - they can start as cute, furry little things known as Mogwai.  But if you violate two of the three rules - do...

It's time to return to the fictional African kingdom introduced to us in one of the strongest films from the Marvel franchise which was also the RARE superhero movie to receive significant awards attention.  Black Panther actually received seven Oscar nominations including for Best Picture and ended up winning three - not bad! Ryan Coogler also returns to direct though unfortunately the star...

Thirty years ago, this small little UK thriller from writer/director Neil Jordan took the world by storm - it was a surprise hit at the box office, received near universal critical acclaim, and it also received seven Oscar nominations including for Best Picture.   What ended up being the main driver for much of this film's buzz and success was that it contained a "The Twist" which m...

Forty years ago before this film directed by Ted Kotcheff came out, star Sylvester Stallone was generally associated with the popular character of Rocky Balboa which was created by him six years prior.  Well all of that changed with the surprise success of this taut action thriller released in the fall of 1982  - this was the introduction to audiences of his OTHER beloved character, John Rambo.  R...

True crime dramas have been all the rage on various streaming services and here's a new one on Netflix which is affecting and disturbing, but also a bit different in its approach.  Directed by Tobias Lindholm, we are told the true story of a Pennsylvania nurse who was suspected about twenty years of murdering dozens of his own patients in subtle ways at various local hospitals - his name is C...

Forty years ago, Sydney Pollack directed one of the most acclaimed and most successful comedies of all time with this gender-bending sorta-romantic comedy starring Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey.  Dorsey is an unemployed actor who suddenly finds success disguised as Dorothy Michaels, a suddenly successful actress who becomes of the leads of a popular daytime soap opera.  Jessica Lange plays Juli...

More than thirty-five years after its release, Die Hard remains among the most influential action films of all time.  Since its release, we have seen dozens of movies following its formula of having ONE good guy within an enclosed space having to take down a group of bad guys lead by a terrorist mastermind.   This came out only four years after Die Hard and pretty much followed that formula to a T...

What better way to close out this scary season than to revisit a gothic horror romance from one of our greatest living directors, Francis Ford Coppola, who directed The Godfather Trilogy among several other modern classics.  This adaptation of the classic 1897 vampire novel of course tells the epic tale of Count Dracula himself played with wild abandon by Gary Oldman clad in various memorable cost...

This latest addition to the DC Cinematic Universe stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the titular hero….well he’s not actually a hero, more of an anti-hero who has been bestowed the almighty powers of the gods, THIS is his origin story.  Along with that, we also get introduced to the Justice Society lead by Hawkman played by Aldis Hodge who is joined by Doctor Fate played by Pierce Brosnan along wi...

Spooky Season continues with this late ‘90’s throwback to sci-fi horror which is very reminiscent of both Alien and The Shining – this was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson who gave us the Resident Evil series.  It’s basically a very gory haunted-house-in-space thriller which flopped upon initial release 25 years ago but has since gained quite a cult following.  And for good reason because it feature...

Happy 30th Anniversary to one of the most influential independent films of the 1990’s.  This was the directorial debut of future Oscar-winner Quentin Tarantino – he also wrote the screenplay and co-stars as Mr. Brown, who is part of a criminal gang assembled to perpetrate a large diamond heist.  The overall story focuses on both the lead-up and aftermath of said heist…..and everything that goes wr...

Thirty-five years ago, we saw the release of a vampire thriller from a hot new director which truly connected with audiences and is beloved to this day – that film was The Lost Boys and it remains pretty beloved to this day.  This was the OTHER vampire thriller released that same year – it was the second film to be directed by future Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow and it stars Adrian Pasdar as Caleb...

Fifteen years ago, the screenwriter of The Bourne Trilogy delivered his directorial debut and it was quite a memorable one!  Tony Gilroy both wrote and directed this complex legal thriller starring George Clooney in the title role as a legal “fixer” who solves problems for the clients of his law firm that their lawyers really can’t touch.  And now Michael comes upon a problem involving one of thos...