Terminator 2: Judgment Day was my very first R-rated film. I remember, as a 10-year-old, watching it at a friend’s house. My Mom was none too pleased to find out I had seen such a violent film. For me, it was like Christmas. Even without fully understanding the finer details of… Continue reading
If you’re in the hunt for beautiful, touching, and emotional movie music, 1997’s Face Off original score would seem an unlikely starting point. Known primarily for director John Woo’s signature ballets of violence and an over-acting clinic by stars John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, Face Off did moderately well at the box… Continue reading
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
You know fun? Think the exact opposite of that and you’ll be in the right mindset for Sabotage, an exceedingly dreary and uninteresting revenge/whodunit that easily ranks as one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s worst films. Stripped of his larger-than-life persona and forced to play a grieving widower and leader of a… Continue reading
Non-Stop features such a brilliant set-up that you spend most of the film wondering if it can pay it off. The answer is no. But for three-quarters of the run-time it is a taut, tense thriller that demands and keeps your attention. Once the Big Reveal is made, things go… Continue reading
The new RoboCop is a lot like the old RoboCop in that a lot of people are shot and killed. Whereas the 1987 film conducted its business with a sly, dark sense of humor and an ear for social commentary, this 2014 remake (or is it reboot?) plays everything with… 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 opening sequence of Lone Survivor, utilizing real and raw footage of the agony and determination it takes to become a Navy SEAL, is great stuff. Had the rest of the film been built with this focus and care, Lone Survivor could have been really special. Instead it’s a pretty… Continue reading
Captain Richard Phillips: There’s got to be something other than being a fisherman or kidnapping people. Muse: Maybe in America, Irish, maybe in America. Captain Phillips is an astonishingly well-made thriller, and that’s saying something considering the majority of the audience already knows the ending. Perhaps the most suspenseful and… Continue reading
Gravity is unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and in today’s Hollywood that really resonates. Most movies I have seen before, and most movies you have seen before. There’s no doubt that variations of the film’s bare-bones story have been done before, but writer/director Alfonso Cuaron, in his first directorial effort… Continue reading