Living for the Cinema

Remember when The Dark Knight came out in 2008 and how much of a phenomenon it was?  Well, most do but most do NOT remember this shorter, knockoff version of a similar story released about 15 months later in 2009.   It stars Jamie Foxx as a District Attorney playing literal cat-and-mouse with this story’s version of the Joker….that would be the homicidal Clyde played by Gerard Butler who after los...

For the last week of 2021, we will be taking a break due to the holidays and some unexpected illness - we'll be ok and be back to releasing new episodes next week. ;) Therefore we are releasing an older episode from last year - this is last year's Oscar winner for Best International Feature Film!  What better way to ring in the New Year than to treat yourself to......Another Round! ;)  ...

For the last week of 2021, we will be taking a break due to the holidays and some unexpected illness - we'll be ok and be back to releasing new episodes next week. ;) Therefore we are releasing an older episode to celebrate  today's (December 28) birthday of The Greatest Actor of All Time......DENZEL WASHINGTON.  Denzel turns 67 today and what better way to celebrate than revisiting one...

LANGUAGE WARNING It’s the end of the world as we know it….but do we feel fine? ☹ Two astronomers played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio discover a comet headed towards Earth in six months and it has the potential to destroy all of us.  To try to save the planet, they spread the word to every important figure they can find from Rob Morgan playing the head of NASA’s planetary defense…to C...

It’s the Spidey Event of the Season!   Peter Parker/Spiderman (Tom Holland) is back and this time around, he’s coping with the unexpected release of his identity to the public…..along with all of the fallout that comes with that to friends and family.   He comes to his fellow Avenger, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), to cast a spell to fix things but what results is an unexpected opening into t...

Could this be the ultimate Christmas movie??  Well, it depends on who you ask... It’s the timeless story of New York police detective John McClane played by Bruce Willis on his first visit to Los Angeles – he’s there to see his wife Holly played by Bonnie Bedelia and she happens to be at an office Christmas party.  But this party ends up being crashed by a group of unexpected guests led by Hans Gr...

When this came out in 2003, it was marketed as “The Ultimate Romantic Comedy.”  The story takes place over the Christmas holidays in London and stars a who’s-who of top-flight UK acting talent including the late great Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keira Knightly, and even a few notable Americans including Laura Linney and Billy Bob...

So just under thirty years ago, Tim Burton directed a sequel to his HUGELY successful Batman movie of 1989….and he made it even weirder….AND it’s a Christmas movie no less.  Just in time for the holidays, it’s time to revisit this bizarrely entertaining Bat-Sequel starring Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader, Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Danny Devito as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin,...

‘Tis the season for holiday romantic comedies (not to mention those airing nightly on the Hallmark Channel) which also feature ALL of the cliches and rom-com tropes you have come to know and love!  Here's a Christmas movie that broke out last year for a few reasons: 1) it features an A-List cast, better production values (it’s actually shot on-location), and…. 2) at its center is a lesbian co...

“Football Week” continues with this football drama set in Alexandria, VA in 1971 and “based on true events.” Starring Denzel Washington as Herman Boone, coach of the T.C. Williams “Titans” a varsity football team from the first racially integrated school in its district also fielding the first racially integrated football team in that district as well.   Needless to say, not everyone is getting al...

What happens when you combine the talents of the director of "Top Gun" (Tony Scott), the writer of "Lethal Weapon" (Shane Black), with the star of "Die Hard" (Bruce Willis), and the producer of both "Lethal Weapon" AND "Die Hard" (Joel Silver)?? You get a dark, funny, and ultra-cynical buddy-action comedy, pairing up Willis’ grizzled, chain-smoking...

WHO YOU GONNA CALL??? The director of this new Ghostbusters movie, Jason Reitman is actually the son of Ivan Reitman who directed the first two Ghostbusters movies.  This time around, he has given us a direct sequel to the original 1984 classic.   The action is now set in the Oklahoma country where the progeny of the late Dr. Egon Spangler has resettled in a country house and farm that he left the...

Eddie Murphy plays the con-man Billy Ray Valentine and Dan Ackroyd plays a spoiled investment banker Lewis Winthorp – one is barely making it while the other is living VERY comfortably... Let's see what happens when they…..trade places! 😉  Of course, they’re not doing this on their own – it’s all plotted by the evil and powerful Duke brothers played by Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche who also g...

WARNING- ONE SCENE WITH EXPLICIT LANGUAGE                Could this be the Best Thanksgiving Movie ever?  Well, it’s definitely a contender as written and directed by the late, great John Hughes.  It stars Steve Martin and John Candy as two mismatched strangers attempting to travel home to Chicago for Thanksgiving – along the way, they deal with a lot more than they bargained for traveling via all...

After 5+ years of endless online discourse regarding this film’s quality and what it means, it’s time to revisit this superhero epic directed by Zack Snyder.  In case the title didn’t already convey this, this film presents us with a burgeoning conflict between Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill) as they both attempt to protect the citizens of their respective home cities, Gotham City...

Contrary to what many believe, the Western genre is still alive….and thriving thanks to Netflix.   Here we have a good, old-fashioned tale of rival gangs, redemption, and revenge from a very talented filmmaker directing his first feature no less.   Directed by Jeymes Samuel, it stars Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Idris Elba, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, and Lakeith Stanfield – just a dream team of A...

Happy 35th Anniversary to what is considered by many to not only be one of the seminal films about the Vietnam conflict but one of the Greatest War Films of All Time. It was a major breakout for its creator Oliver Stone who himself was a decorated veteran of that war – for this film, he won both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay as he spent many years after returning home writing this scr...

EXPLICIT MATERIAL AND LANGUAGE WARNING    What happens when a local fraternity moves in next door to a young couple with a newborn baby?   Well, hilarity of course thanks to this raucous comedy from director Nicholas Stoller who had also directed past comedic gems including "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Get Him to the Greek."   Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play the young couple...

Just under thirty years ago, three-time Oscar Winner Oliver Stone directed one of the most controversial major studio films of all time and it was about one of the most consequential events of the latter half of the 20th Century….the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.   But it wasn’t just about the assassination of a sitting President, it was even more so about the CONSPI...

Eight thousand years into the future, the most valuable commodity in the universe is the Spice Melange on the desert planet of Arrakis, otherwise known as “Dune.”  Warring planets and factions will fight for control of it including the Houses of Atreides and Harkonnen – if this sounds familiar, that’s because it is the basis for the story of “Dune” the seminal 1965 sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert AN...

As Halloween approaches, what better way to celebrate than to watch one of the more underrated horror films of the 1980s.   This is the story of Charlie (William Ragsdale), a mild-mannered teenager living in suburbia who lives with his mother – one day, two strange new neighbors move in next door and one of them seems to have some VERY strange nocturnal behaviors.  One of those neighbors happens t...

Just in time for Halloween, let’s review one of the craziest horror thrillers from the ‘90’s which came out almost thirty years ago and was directed by the Master himself Martin Scorcese….as his follow-up to a little film called Goodfellas.   It stars Robert DeNiro as ex-con Max Cady who is out for revenge against the attorney Sam Bowden who failed to keep him out of jail 14 years earlier played b...

S P O I L E R     R E V I E W Michael Myers is back in Haddonfield and guess what he’s doing? Well, the title kind of gives that away but beyond him, also returning is Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode along with Judy Greer as her daughter Karen – Laurie is still recovering from the brutal events of the previous film as this movie picks up literally RIGHT where that one left off.   As a result, se...

1996 was one great year for movies including a big studio RomCom starring George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer which came out just under 25 years ago.   They’re playing mismatched (or are they?) Manhattanites racing around the city, juggling work commitments and kids….all the while falling in love? 😊  Michael Hoffman directs this breezy, funny romp featuring two movie stars at their peak!  Host:...

 S P O I L E R   R E V I E W Well, it’s finally here….the final James Bond starring Daniel Craig, and wow does he go out with a bang!   The story kicks off with 007 retired living with the lovely Madeline played Lea Sidoux but of course….the criminal underworld comes calling as he once again gets enmeshed with the terrorist organization SPECTRE lead by Christoph Waltz’s Blowfeld along with a myste...