Some superhero movies in the ‘80s and ‘90s were really bad. The Punisher is my favorite comic book character, and 1989’s The Punisher tanked because it was both a bad movie and a bad adaptation of the comic. The quality of the films with Marvel characters really ramped up with Iron Man and carried forward […]
Love him or hate him for any reason, Tom Cruise remains an international movie star and box office draw. Some movie companies stake their budgets on these facts, and it doesn’t always work out. Over the past two decades, the Mission: Impossible franchise has featured some of Cruise’s best work in that time period. Characterized […]
In a summer that already debuted Avengers: Age of Ultron, we didn’t really need more superhero movies. If you look over the upcoming schedule of Marvel films, they are almost all designed and scheduled to be blockbusters. Imagine my surprise when I saw Ant-Man on a similar list a couple of years ago. Ant-Man?! I […]
It’s tough to think of Arnold Schwarzenegger and not immediately recall such classic lines as “I’ll be back” or “Hasta la vista, baby.” These two are from The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day respectively. Although there are lots of other things going on in both films, including buff badass Linda Hamilton, Schwarzenegger is the […]
In the ‘90s, there was a sitcom on Fox called Herman’s Head in which four actors portrayed the emotions at odds in lead character Herman’s brain. The show was funny and creative, and it lasted for three seasons. When I first heard about Inside Out, I immediately thought of Herman’s Head. If this animated Pixar […]
A young girl’s inner emotions struggle to cope with major change in Pixar‘s intriguing animated film Inside Out. 11-year-old Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) has lived a bit of a charmed existence up to this point in her young life. She’s popular with all of her friends, she’s a natural hockey player and she has two […]
Certain movie scenes stick with you forever. Some are iconic for everyone like the finales of Casablanca or Gone with the Wind, and others are more personal. One of those scenes for me is the T. rex attack on the jeep in Jurassic Park. I remember seeing it the first time in a packed theater. […]
A scientifically engineered dinosaur wreaks havoc on an unsuspecting theme park in Jurassic World. In 1993, director Steven Spielberg unleashed a monster of a film on a voracious populace. Jurassic Park boasted exceptional special effects, a creative story, several strong performances and some very memorable lines. Audiences couldn’t get enough. The fourth installment in Hollywood’s […]
Disaster movies are an entirely different breed. In most cases, they are over-the-top special effects showcases where the goal is to see how much destruction they can cram into the running time. Unfortunately, special effects are getting cheaper and more prevalent, so today’s disaster movies show no restraint. San Andreas is such a movie. It […]
A determined L.A. fireman struggles to save his endangered family in the earthquake thriller San Andreas. Just below California’s beautiful coastal cities lies a restless sleeping giant capable of reducing its towering skylines to a hulking mass of twisted wreckage with one fatal blow. Should the giant awake, in the form of a long-overdue earthquake, […]
A nerdy, eccentric engineer finds love and wonder in the curious documentary Sunshine Superman. Carl Boenish knew a thing or two about overcoming daunting obstacles. As a child, Carl was stricken with polio, losing the use of his legs for nearly a year. Once back on his feet, nothing could keep him grounded. Boenish would […]
I’m happy to admit that I’m a big fan of Disney animated films and theme parks. That doesn’t mean that I inhale everything Disney without restraint. I have my limits. There was a dull time when Disney churned out such dreck as Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure and Cinderella III: A Twist in […]