If you’ve been watching movies for any length of time, there’s no doubt you’ve heard the work of Hans Zimmer. One of the most prolific and popular musical score composers ever, Zimmer’s work dates back to the 1980’s but really took off in the 1990’s. More recently, he has scored… Continue reading
If you like bizarre, confusing tonal shifts wrapped around a sloppy, never-believable-for-a-minute story, look no further than Labor Day. A Lifetime movie with good actors, the film represents the first true misstep of writer/director Jason Reitman’s (Juno) career. This is one strange film, with melodrama that doesn’t dig deep, uncomfortable,… Continue reading
A lean, old-school espionage thriller that never tries to be more than it is, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a very pleasant surprise and possible franchise starter from director Kenneth Branagh. Based upon the character created by the late Tom Clancy (not based on any novel this time, just the… Continue reading
The Wolf of Wall Street is Martin Scorsese’s best movie since 1995’s Casino, and that’s saying something as Marty’s output is consistently very good. The film, based upon the life of stock broker Jordan Belfort, is a completely out-of-control three-hour spectacle of sex, drugs, greed, and comeuppance. The cuts from… Continue reading
First Road House, now this. Variety is reporting that Ed Helms has been cast as Lt. Frank Drebin in Paramount’s reboot of The Naked Gun. As we all know, he’ll be attempting to fill the shoes of the iconic Leslie Nielsen, perhaps the greatest dry humor actor ever. Word is… Continue reading
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away is a fine product to showcase the enchantment and amazement of a number of Cirque shows, but it’s nothing more than that. The film is a “greatest hits” of sorts for Cirque fans, beautifully filmed under the direction of Andrew Adamson and produced by James… Continue reading
Flight marks director Robert Zemeckis’ first foray (and second ever) into the R-rated landscape since 1980’s hilarious and underrated Used Cars. Just to cover all the bases, we have full frontal nudity, binge drinking, and hard drug use before the film’s doomed plane even takes off. Zemeckis is trying to… Continue reading
Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third in the Earth-destroying series, delivers the goods, plain and simple. Correcting many of the mistakes from its immediate predecessor, Transformers 3 is an epic, exciting popcorn film whose last hour is so relentless and visually breathtaking that all-out sensory overload is a foregone… Continue reading
Let this be said right off the top: Rango is a visual masterpiece and one of the finest works of computer animation to date. Seen theatrically on a DLP projector, one can only sit in awe of the attention to detail, lush locations, and incredible textures. It’s all so amazing… Continue reading
Disclaimer: I don’t know the first thing about the source material. Not that it matters. I can imagine any fan of the series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, sitting in the theater, slack-jawed, at this dreary, joyless, and boring effort from M. Night Shyamalan. Where’s the fun? We’re talking about characters… Continue reading