2013 was a break-out year for actor Benedict Cumberbatch. As if his playing (you know who) in “Star Trek Into Darkness” wasn’t enough, he also had roles in Awards Season contenders “12 Years a Slave”, “August: Osage County”, and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”. And there was some early buzz surrounding Cumberbatch’s work as […]
The tagline for “Rush” is “Everyone’s Driven by Something”. I was driven to see Ron Howard’s latest because of the very promising trailer (even though it gives away too much). “Rush” has a good cast, a well-respected director and an Oscar nominated screenwriter – Peter Morgan. And I was driven by something during the film: […]
Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman was marketed as the star of “Prisoners”. Jackman plays the father of one of two abducted children in this mystery/crime/thriller. But it’s Jake Gyllenhaal who receives most of the screen time as the intense, straight-forward detective in charge of solving the case and saving the kids. “Prisoners” immediately grabs you, […]
Making a dark comedy based on one family’s life on the run from the mob: Interesting. Casting Robert De Niro and Tommy Lee Jones as the two main characters: Genius. Having Martin Scorsese as executive producer of the film that not only references the great director but works his classic movie, “Goodfellas” (which starred De […]
Vin Diesel is best known for the hugely-successful “Fast & Furious” movies. One of his other breakout roles was introduced in 2000’s “Pitch Black”: Richard B. Riddick. A sequel, “The Chronicles of Riddick”, followed in 2004. Nine years later, the cult character returned in the definitively titled – “Riddick” – one of the worst films […]
“In a World…” was the iconic opening line spoken by late movie trailer voice-over pioneer Don LaFontaine. Actress Lake Bell (“No Strings Attached”, “It’s Complicated”) uses that piece of dialogue as the basis for her feature film directorial debut of the same name. She also wrote the screenplay (a winner at Sundance) and stars in […]
The trailer for “Closed Circuit” leads you to believe that this is going to be an action/suspense thriller about hidden cameras and the fact that we’re being watched at all times. But it turns out that’s not what “Closed Circuit” is about AT ALL! There are no action scenes (other than a two-second, minor car […]
“The Spectacular Now” stars Miles Teller as Sutter, an 18-year-old high school senior whose philosophy is to live in the moment/live in the “Now”. While I can relate to that, Sutter isn’t taking his “Now” too seriously. He works at a clothing store, but doesn’t care much about academics or his future. He likes to […]
British comedy duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, along with director Edgar Wright, have collaborated on modern cult classics “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”. The third film in their self-titled “Cornetto” trilogy is “The World’s End”, a comedy about drinking beer and this past summer’s continuing theme of zombies that, by the end, […]
“Elysium” is writer/director Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to his 2009 Best Picture Academy Award nominee “District 9”. He teams-up again with that film’s breakout star, Sharlto Copley, who joins Oscar winners Matt Damon and Jodie Foster in yet another of 2013’s movies in which Earth is no longer a great place to live. Let’s spin the […]