Another 48 Hrs Although it is still one of the more entertaining sequels of the era, Walter Hill’s follow-up to his seminal action-comedy is nonetheless hamstrung by rigidly sticking to the formula established in the original: Introduce the villains first thru a violent opening scene, show the audience Nolte’s Jack Cates character in action in […]
Any Given Sunday Before it turned into the watered down, money hungry, showbiz spectacle where the hype and revenue earned by ratings was more important than the game itself, the sport of football was one of the last examples of truly primal, almost bestial displays of open combat allowed and enjoyed in our culture, where […]
Apocalypse Now From the hypnotic opening shot (with Jim Morrison almost acting as the voice of God as he sings “The End”) to the solemn final minutes, Francis Ford Coppola’s Grand Masterpiece (worlds better than his beloved Godfather movies) in some ways can be seen as truly the Ultimate Film, seemingly about the Vietnam War […]
Appaloosa Going into this I feared the worst, that this film would resemble Kevin Costner’s Open Range, a boring pretentious western with a leaden script and story. Fortunately Ed Harris (who directs, stars, writes, and produces) doesn’t quite give us that here. Regardless, Harris’ Virgil Cole is a perplexing creation. Obviously patterned after the neo-conservative […]
Army Of Darkness When it came time for the third chapter in The Evil Dead Trilogy, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell decided to dispense with the isolated horror theatrics and go forward with a sprawling epic (at 80 minutes) action comedy that continued the story and lineage already established by the ending of Evil Dead […]
As Good As It Gets Romantic comedies often fail for a number of various reasons. For one, you have the two leads who are both designed to be pretty and perfect yet come across as being inherently unlikable simply because so much of their lives and personalities come off as being so movie star fake. […]
Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford With the glorious exception of Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid, it’s almost never a good idea to introduce a modern political sensibility into a period western, but that’s exactly what we get here, as the legendary Confederate outlaw Jesse James is unwisely revisioned into […]
A-Team: Director’s Cut Growing up in the 80s and watching all the action and cop shows of the era was like having a chance to hang out with some old friends once a week, with witty repartee and believability that kept you coming back time and again, unlike today. This 2010 release, an updated version […]
Austin Powers In Goldmember The Austin Powers Franchise more or less was always an exercise in comedy self indulgence for Mike Myers, one that saw him always work with a very tight knit regular ensemble cast (Seth Green, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling and Verne Troyer as Mini Me starting in Part 2) and […]