Like most people, I spent my youth hanging out in the aisles of video rental places like Hollywood and Blockbuster. One day, I came across a shelf that had VHS and DVD copies of Eye See You starring Sylvester Stallone and wondered “How did I miss this?” I still read Entertainment Weekly, before the writersContinue reading “‘Eye See You’ Coded But Has Some Life”
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
‘Finestkind’ Gets Lost In Sea Of Cliches
Prior to becoming an Oscar-winning writer and filmmaker, Brian Helgeland spent his youth off the coast of New Bedford, Mass., fishing for scallops. He grew up in the area, lived there and worked around the blue-collar fishermen who have scruffy beards, haven’t bathed in a week, swear like sailors and return to port to drinkContinue reading “‘Finestkind’ Gets Lost In Sea Of Cliches”
‘The Holdovers’ Is A Return To Great Form For Alexander Payne
Alexander Payne seems to be in an unintentional rivalry with Wes Anderson on who can make the most quirky movies about the most unrealistic people stuck in the truly realistic settings. Payne seems a little more hardcore than Anderson, willing to go the extra mile to be more outrageous to tell a story. He doesn’tContinue reading “‘The Holdovers’ Is A Return To Great Form For Alexander Payne”
‘Jacob’s Ladder’ Is A Nightmare That You Never Want To Experience
Christmas may be over but a movie like Jacob’s Ladder isn’t technically a Christmas movie. It’s set in the dreary late fall/early winter of December for a reason. It’s about the darkness a man experiences following a traumatic experience. Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) was once a philosophy professor but after his youngest son, Gabe (MacaulayContinue reading “‘Jacob’s Ladder’ Is A Nightmare That You Never Want To Experience”
‘Tombstone’ Retells How The West Was Won, For The Most Part
The story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had been told so many times before that in the early 1990s, attempts were being made to tell it like it really happened. Earp himself dabbled in acting before his death at 80 nearly 95 years ago. And early filmmakers weren’t really consumed with telling the truthContinue reading “‘Tombstone’ Retells How The West Was Won, For The Most Part”
‘The Last Voyage Of The Demeter’ Never Does Find Right Course
I’ve often thought that the tale of what happens on the Demeter ship in Bram Stoker’s Dracula would make a good movie. Imagine being in a ship in the middle of a body of water many miles from land with a killer on board but no way to stop it I had a more differentContinue reading “‘The Last Voyage Of The Demeter’ Never Does Find Right Course”
‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’ Is A Wonderful Storytelling Achievement
Every now and again, a movie is released that isn’t favored by many critics and doesn’t do well at the box office but finds its audience, respect and admiration later. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty opened on Christmas Day in 2013 to polarizing reviews. Produced on a huge budget of $90 million, it madeContinue reading “‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’ Is A Wonderful Storytelling Achievement”
The Filmmaker Who F@#%ing Loves Christmas
For many cinophiles, they don’t care for the Hallmark Christmas movies or whatever family-friendly “instant classic” Disney tries to present each year. No, there’s one filmmaker whose pretty much made it his goal to focus as many movies he can around the holidays. A lot of people may not know the name Shane Black. ButContinue reading “The Filmmaker Who F@#%ing Loves Christmas”
‘Christmas Evil’ A Noteworthy Entry For The Killer Santa Horror Subgenre
There’s just something about Santa Claus that is so creepy when you look at it. He’s an omniscient omniprescient person who is immortal and is able to travel around the world like The Flash (or Quicksilver for the MCU fans) and deliver presents. Popularized in A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore, he’sContinue reading “‘Christmas Evil’ A Noteworthy Entry For The Killer Santa Horror Subgenre”
‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol’ Turns 40
Disney has done two feature movies of the Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. One featured the Muppets and Sir Michael Caine and it’s loved by many. The other featured Jim Carrey as Ebeneezer Scrooge and directed by Robert Zemeckis during his three-dimensional digital animation phase and is considered by some to be too scaryContinue reading “‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol’ Turns 40”
Zane Says 