While I wasn’t a huge fan of director Terrence Malick’s 2011 Best Picture Oscar nominee, “The Tree of Life”, the trailer made for Malick’s latest film, “To the Wonder”, is fantastic. In fact, it’s one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a long time and it gave me hope that “To the Wonder” would […]
The tagline for the action dramedy “Pain & Gain” is “This is a true story”. The studio probably did that because, after seeing the film, most people won’t believe that the characters were real and the situations actually happened. Here’s another thing that’s true: Director Michael Bay’s first non-“Transformers” movie since 2005’s “The Island” is […]
“The Place Beyond the Pines” is a generational crime drama from director Derek Cianfrance. He re-teams with his “Blue Valentine” star Ryan Gosling, who plays Luke. He’s a motorcycle daredevil rider who performs in a traveling carnival. Luke meets-up with former girlfriend Romina (Eva Mendes). He soon finds out that has a child with Romina […]
“A Good Day to Die Hard” is the fifth installment in this loooong-running series. Seriously, the original came-out 25 years ago! But Bruce Willis can still kick butt. Sadly, that’s not enough to make “DH5” a winner. Once again Willis plays (now veteran) NYC cop John McClane. He learns that his son Jack (played by […]
Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Alan Arkin – three of Hollywood’s most respected veteran actors. Together they have a total of 3 Oscars, 6 Golden Globes, and 5 SAG Awards. And they star together in the action dramedy “Stand Up Guys”. No, it’s not about stand-up comedians, though they do all get to deliver some […]
Last June, Fox released the horror-action-drama “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”. While it was an “out-there” concept, the movie worked. It was fun, exciting, creative and it took it’s seriously enough to be historically accurate (with that one, big exception). Before it’s theatrical release earlier this year, MGM and Paramount had “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” […]
Part political thriller, part crime caper, with a little romantic drama thrown in, “Broken City” was one of the first big releases, and first bombs of 2013. Mark Wahlberg stars as Billy, a NYC detective who becomes a private eye after an incident that occurred seven years earlier forces him to resign from the police […]
Director Kathryn Bigelow took Best Director Oscar honors for 2009’s low-budget war drama “The Hurt Locker”. That film was released in the summer, got a small amount of early buzz but was the talk of Hollywood by awards season. Now, with “Zero Dark Thirty” Bigelow proves that she’s one of the best directors working today. […]
In 1998, a 27-year-old Matt Damon won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with friend Ben Affleck for co-writing “Good Will Hunting”. Since then Damon’s become better known for his acting talent and familiar roles, most notably Jason Bourne in the “Bourne” films. But with “Promised Land” he returns to writing and with a new partner, […]
“Django Unchained” comes from the insanely creative mind of Quentin Tarantino – the Oscar winning writer/director of “Pulp Fiction”, “Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2”, and 2009’s “Inglourious Basterds”, for which then relatively unknown actor (to American movie audiences) Christoph Waltz won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Waltz reunites with Tarantino for “Django”. This time […]