Living for the Cinema

Elvis Presley remains one the most popular rock and roll performers since the inception of rock and roll – his music dominated the pop music landscape in the 1950’s and he remained a rock & roll icon through his unfortunate death in 1977.  His life has been dissected, discussed, and of course has been portrayed in several movies going back decades.   Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Buz Luhrmann...

Happy 30th Anniversary to this classic fictionalized sports drama about the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) which was started in 1943 during World War II as a temporary replacement or Major League Baseball as most players were serving overseas at the time – it featured several great female athletes from account the country who had never had the opportunity to pla...

Forty years ago, this sci-fi horror thriller was released as director Carpenter’s follow-up to Escape From New York and Halloween, both of which were quite popular and pretty groundbreaking for the time.  It was a remake of the horror classic The Thing From Another World directed by the late great Howard Hawks – it has a top-flight cast of veteran actors lead by Kurt Russell including Keith David,...

Luca Guadagnino directs this touching coming of age drama about a 17 year old aspiring musician named Elio (Timothee Chalamet) living with his parents in Italy who falls in love with Oliver (Armie Hammer) the archeological grad student who is staying with them for the summer.  The film is set during the Summer of 1983 and we are treated to sequences of dancing, swimming, bicycling, sumptuous meals...

What’s the BEST way to capture vital information from a renowned terrorist who’s currently in a coma with the only potential source being his extremely paranoid brother?  Well if you’re living within the heightened world of this crazy action thriller directed by John Woo, the most obvious suggestion would be for you to surgically swap faces with that terrorist who’s in the coma. :o As wild as this...

Just when you thought it was safe to try to interact with genetically developed prehistoric creatures….here’s another sequel to this long-running franchise to maybe pour some more cold water on that idea.  Yes we are back in the world of raptors, T Rex’, and Chris Pratt looking manly which he certainly does.  And every one else is back too from the original 1993 movie including Sam Neill, Laura De...

Two trashy urban thrillers from the 1990’s are about to turn 30 and gratefully, they feature top-flight talent! In Unlawful Entry, Kurt Russell and Madeline Stowe play a mild-mannered couple who become the focus of an increasingly unhinged police officer played by Ray Liotta – RIP. ☹ And in Single White Female, Bridget Fonda stars as fashionable Manhattanite who just broke up with her cheating boy...

We kick off Pride Month 2022 with this Oscar-winning biopic directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) which delves in the life of slain civil rights activist Harvey Milk who took the city of San Francisco AND the country by storm by becoming the first openly gay politician elected to major office in 1978.  His story is both inspiring and touching, with much of the structure of this film and sev...

Apparently the star of this movie has been in the news a lot lately?  Well let's revisit the film and the role that helped cement him into superstar status nineteen years ago....and that would of course be Johnny Depp playing the iconic Captain Jack Sparrow, resulting in not only a blockbuster franchise featuring him at its center but an Oscar nomination he would receive for this VERY role in...

He still feels the need, the need for speed!  Maverick (Tom Cruise) is back after more than 36 years – he’s still toiling with the Navy as a Captain and still likes flying jets.  He has now been called back to the Top Gun academy at Miramar by his superiors….to train a NEW crop of flyers for a top secret mission.  Those new flyers include various characters with various call-signs including Hangma...

In honor of Memorial Day, let’s revisit one of the earliest films from a true titan of cinema, the late great Stanley Kubrick – this was only the third feature film he directed, and it came three years before what many consider his true breakout film, Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas.  Douglas stars in this as well as a Colonel in the French Army during World War I who is ordered to lead his battal...

We kick off our Second Season with this gem from the mid '90's.  Back in the early ‘90’s, a young aspiring filmmaker from Austin made his first movie for $7,000 with much of the financing coming from selling his body for science – the filmmaker was Robert Rodriguez and his first feature was the celebrated El Mariachi, an inventive action film about a guitar player-turned-assassin seeking...

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Dutch, the head of an elite mercenary extraction squad who are sent deep into the Latin American jungle to “rescue” some high-level US diplomats.  And they are quite the crew also including CIA operative Dillon played by Carl Weathers, Mac played by Bill Duke, Billy played by Sonny Landham, and Blaine played by Jesse “The Mind” Ventura – they have all of the fire-pow...

Five years ago, acclaimed director Christopher Nolan gave us his first film to be based true events after a career mostly devoted to mind-bending fantasy or science fiction.  And the subject matter is undeniably cinematic: the May 1940 evacuation of more than 400,000 Allied troops from the French coastal town of Dunkirk – this was a key turning point of World War II as these troops were generally...

The second part of CLASSIC SEQUEL WEEK brings us another classic franchise entry from the Summer of 1982 – the crew of the USS Enterprise are back and they’re involved in some hairy stuff.  James T. Kirk (William Shatner) is now an Admiral for the Star Fleet and while joining the rest of the crew for what was originally going to be a “routine training mission” he finds out about the return of an o...

It’s CLASSIC SEQUEL WEEK and for the first review of two memorable franchise films which are about to turn 40, we start with this third entry in the Rocky saga – our hero Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) has just defeated Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) for the championship belt and is on top of the world.  But a new threat has emerged, and his name is Clubber Lang played by Mr. T. :o Throw in Hulk...

It’s that time of year when the weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer, it’s early May so WHAT does that mean?  Of course, it means the NHL Playoffs are just beginning!  And what better way to commemorate the kick-off for professional hockey’s playoff season than to revisit one of THE Most Beloved Hockey Movies of All Time….which happens to star one of THE Greatest Movie Stars o...

Have you heard of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?  Yup the Billionaire Playboy (Robert Downey Jr.), the Big Green Guy (Mark Ruffalo), that frozen dude with the shield (Chris Evans)….oh right The Avengers!  Well ten years ago, we saw the release of their first team-up movie into theaters and in case you didn’t hear, it was a HUGE success.  Now seems as good a time as any to revisit this superhero epic di...

Tom Gormican directs and Nicholas Cage stars as….Nicholas Cage, the famous Oscar-winning actor/former movie star who has spent much of the past decade acting prolifically in many smaller movies but still remains a household name.  He’s struggling to find exciting new work as an actor and decides to take up on the offer of wealthy olive oil tycoon from Spain who pays him $1 million to attend his bi...

In honor of Alien Day (4/26…named after the planet where the alien is first discovered by humans, known as LV-426), let’s revisit the sci-fi horror classic which started it all.  This was only the second feature to be directed by Sir Ridley Scott near the beginning of what would eventually become an illustrious career including Gladiator, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, and The Martian.   The s...

It's our 100th Episode!!!!  This Brazilian crime epic came out just under twenty years ago and has earned its place in the discussion for THE greatest films so far this century.  And for good reason because it is expertly co-directed by Oscar-nominee Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, along with featuring a plethora of local Brazilian talent in front of and behind the camera.  The story mainl...

Brian DePalma directed this Prohibition Era crime epic about the eponymous Untouchables and their mission to take down Al Capone, who is ruling the city of Chicago through extreme violence.  The Untouchables are lead by Elliott Ness played by Kevin Costner and Capone is played by DeNiro.  However the most memorable player is Ness’ right-hand and mentor, Malone played by the late great Sean Connery...

Lawrence Fishburne stars in this urban crime thriller as an undercover cover working his way up the drug trade around Los Angeles before he eventually goes TOO deep….hence the title.  Jeff Goldblum also co-stars as a local drug lawyer who he becomes partnered with – both actors give among the best performances of their respective careers in a film which just turned 30 but still holds up as of the...

When this movie came out almost twenty years ago, the expectations just were NOT very high as Matt Damon wasn’t considered an action hero, the director (Doug Liman) wasn’t considered an action director, the series of novels it was based upon had waned in popularity, and most big budget Hollywood action movies at the time were much louder and more bombastic….along the lines of recent hits produced...

45 years ago when this first came out, you would have through it might be considered a pretty big event as a big budget follow-up from the recent director (William Friedkin) of The Exorcist and The French Connection….and playing its lead, the star (Roy Scheider) of Jaws. :o As it turns out, it was a VERY troubled production being released by a studio which had no idea how to market it so they didn...