I had a great time on spring break in Fort Lauderdale back when college kids could get away with almost anything. Ultimately, we never did much damage and certainly didn’t harm the residents. We pretty much stayed to our area of the resort and the tourist bars that were all decked out for spring break. […]
Enough years have passed since the ‘60s and ‘70s that many of the radicals, war protesters and antiestablishment groups have mellowed out, grown up or simply lost their drive. The members of the Weather Underground were more extreme in their actions and motivations in that they committed acts of violence and vandalism that would be […]
Emotional remnants are the sign of an impactful film. How many times have you left a theater and forgot most of a movie by the time you make it to a bar or restaurant? Could you say the same for a film like Schindler’s List? Love it or hate it, that Steven Spielberg drama left […]
Three seemingly unrelated families struggle to deal with basic human interaction and empathy as a result of technology that seems intent to push us all further apart in Disconnect. The latest film from director Henry Alex Rubin (Murderball) focuses on social media and its direct impact on the lives of people very much like the […]
An emotionally disconnected teen struggles after the unexpected death of her father forces her to confront a distant mother and an uncle she never knew existed in Stoker. 18 year-old India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) suddenly finds herself thrown into unknown territory when her beloved father (played in flashback by Dermot Mulroney) is killed in a […]
I love creepy, moody films whether they’re thrillers, horror flicks or some combination thereof. The work of some filmmakers like David Cronenberg, Tim Burton and David Lynch just ooze unique characteristics and techniques that identify them. Korean director Park Chan-wook fits in with that company, too. Known best as cowriter/director of the Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy […]
I really hate when filmmakers develop unnecessary sequels to perfectly good stand-alone movies just to try to capitalize on the success of the originals. More often than not, the sequels are lousy and derivative, and they bomb with fans and at the box office. The sequel to The Blair Witch Project is the most obvious […]
It’s so very hard to elicit real tension and fear in a movie. When it’s done right, it’s a magical thing. I love and crave those moments. I keep going back to it, but The Orphanage is really a perfect ghost story that way. On the other hand, some films spend a lot of time […]
When you look like Dwayne Johnson and sometimes enter an arena as The Rock, it’s tough to escape tough guy roles and action movies. Diversions include bad films like Tooth Fairy. Although there’s a living to be made as an action star, it’s no surprise that Johnson wants more challenging roles. Snitch—not to be confused […]
Dwayne Johnson is the star of Snitch, a new action/drama about a small business owner named John Matthews, who has to go to the extreme to get his son out of a very tight noose. When it comes to Johnson I have to continually wonder if I’ll ever see him in a film where I’m […]
The latest Nicholas Sparks novel to be filmed is Safe Haven. It’s another romance surrounded by elements that threaten an otherwise obvious love affair. I must admit that I’m a huge fan of The Notebook which has gotten me no shortage of curious looks from various friends but I still contend it’s a great love […]
I wish that I had a winning formula for anything — perhaps video game design or writing — that would produce money at a regular rate with different versions of that same formula. Nicholas Sparks seems to have a knack for writing romantic dramas that get turned into movies starring pretty actors kissing in the rain. Some […]