After Hours was the first movie where Scorsese worked with legendary cinematographer Michael Ballhaus – sparks would immediately fly and a cinematic love affair would be born. Griffin Dunne was perfectly cast as a Kafka-esque lead character suffering a bizarre night of big city antics that begins to feel like some sort of nightmarish fever…
From Producer Ridley Scott and based on the shocking, true events of March 13th, 1997 comes the alien invasion movie Phoenix Forgotten. When several mysterious lights appeared over Phoenix, Arizona in 1997 they came the inexplicable phenomenon known as ‘The Phoenix Lights’. Still, until this very day the phoenix lights remains the most famous and…
The fifth film in a franchise that should have probably ended 3 films ago is just another indication of the public telling Hollywood that they really couldn’t give a sh*t anymore about Optimus Prime and his band of metallic brothers. Everyone loves a movie explosion but having them forced down my throat at every turn…
23 years ago, Tony Scott cheated on Jerry Bruckheimer with Joel Silver and the results were the over-the-top and totally flamboyant The Last Boy Scout, a mean and nasty action flick from the acid-tinged typewriter of genre-master Shane Black. Pairing Bruce Willis with Damon Wayans, on paper, probably seemed like a great idea (to someone…
The King of Comedy is my #3 Martin Scorsese picture behind Goodfellas and Raging Bull. This is a brilliant black comedy, with an aggressively funny and hugely obnoxious performance from Robert De Niro. Jerry Lewis is utterly brilliant here, all dead pan and stern seriousness, completely unimpressed with De Niro’s idiotic pestering and absurd shenanigans….
Brian De Palma’s sleazy, sexy, and visually intoxicating 1984 film Body Double is many things at once: A critique of Hollywood, a retort to film critics, an homage to Hitchcock, a lurid thriller with sex and violence ramped up to a nearly comical degree, and a self-reflexive essay on the auteur behind the camera….
For the most part, and with only a few recent exceptions, the studio-funded American action picture is dead. The PG-13 rating, the homogenized superhero film, and an over-reliance on CGI have become the new norms, with films like Con Air, The Rock, Air Force One, Face/Off, and Bad Boys 2 never feeling like they could…
I don’t get too hung up on poetic license and the reshaping of history when it comes to glossy and well-meaning Hollywood biographical tales, so in that regard, I enjoyed last year’s Oscar nominated drama Hidden Figures from director Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent). This is the compelling story of three African-American women who led the…
It took me a few viewings to totally appreciate Hal Ashby’s barely released 1986 film 8 Million Ways To Die, which was the eclectic and troubled helmer’s unique spin on the crime film, and would serve as his final major motion picture. This was the first attempt to adapt the Matt Scudder detective character from…
This is a shamelessly entertaining film with lots of heart and a tone that bounces all over the place. Gregory Hoblit’s underrated 2000 genre-bender Frequency was a modest hit with critics and audiences at the time of its release, and while it’s hardly a great movie, it’s so much fun to watch, and it stands…
Origin Wars is a brand new science-fiction adventure set in a fantastically realised, and wholly original, universe. With it’s high quality trailer and beautiful aerial dog-fight cinematography with hard hitting action and incredible CGI and practical effects Origin Wars has stepped up the indie film genre’s quality department. If you squint, you’d easily think you…
Luc Besson’s wild and wacky sci-fi action film The Fifth Element is one of the most insane pieces of eye-candy ever devised, with a cartwheeling sense of manic energy, absolutely stunning production values, an overstuffed screenplay, and performances that range all over the map in terms of tone. I can vividly remember seeing this film…
I’m not exactly sure what all the bitching and moaning was about (56% at Rottentomaotes – are you kidding me?!), but from where I sit and view cinema, the new Netflix original movie War Machine, from hot-shot director David Michod (Animal Kingdom, The Rover) is a pointed, extremely funny, and often times sad commentary on…
John Wick, directed by Chad Stathelski and David Leitch, is a modern take on the classic theme of revenge. This is done in a slick, stylized, engaging and edgy way. In celebration of this film arriving in cinemas 10th April courtesy of Warner Brothers, lets take a look at the top 10 revenge movies that…
John Carpenter’s 1981 classic Escape from New York, which the filmmaker wrote in the late 70’s as a direct response to the Watergate scandal, was not a movie that I grew up repeatedly watching as a kid, even though I’m definitely a “child of the 80’s.” That being said, I was always aware of its…
If you’ve ever experienced a long distance relationship, chances are you’ll be able to relate to the central themes in the 2011 film Like Crazy from filmmaker Drake Doremus (Breathe In, Equals). This is one of my favorite movie romances in a very long time, and every time I watch the film in full or…
