Living for the Cinema

Throughout the illustrious career of Oscar-winning director James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar), this remains his ONLY film which can be considered a financial failure.  It was his very much his first "blank check" project following the mega one-two punch of The Terminator and Aliens which were his previous two films.  Like those two beloved hits, he was once again crafting a sci-fi thriller but this time around.....this part...

Right smack in the middle of his run of playing James Bond in four consecutive movies, Pierce Brosnan took a SLIGHT detour in this remake of a sorta-classic from 1968, the romantic thriller of the same name starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.  This is a somewhat modernized remake as we follow the exploits of a billionaire playboy named Thomas Crown (Brosnan) who also moonlights as an art thief....and the crafty art bounty hunt...

Will Ferrell starts as the titular Ron Burgundy, a popular San Diego news anchor in the mid '70's who sees his world turned upside down when his station eventually hires a woman(!) to be a potential co-anchor on his news program.  Her name is Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), she's excellent at her job, they start dating, they fall in love.....and complications result.  This satirical comedy was directed b...

Frank Oz (What About Bob?, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) directed this satirical showbiz comedy with a truly unique premise: a now desperate movie producer named Bowfinger is positively set on filming a new movie on the fly with a popular movie star named Kit Ramsey....who doesn't know that he's being filmed. :o Bowfinger is played by Steve Martin who also wrote the screenplay and Kit Ramsey is played by Eddie Murphy.....and s...

Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is BACK.....for the first time in 30 years no less. :o We return to the ongoing adventures of the fast-talking, unflappable Detroit police detective who keeps finding excuses to visit Beverly Hills....this time to attempt to help out his now-grown daughter (Taylor Paige) who is now a defense attorney and his old friend Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) who is now a private detective working with her.  Also r...

For the third entry in this successful sci-fi/horror franchise, the story kicks off at the very beginning of this worldwide alien invasion....in New York City, the city that never sleeps.  So now these terrifying creatures who are mainly attracted to sound waves....are landing in the ONE place with the most NOISE. :o Our main character this time around is Samira played by Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o who finds herself in the mi...

Twenty-five years ago, this high-energy German-language action thriller started to take the world by storm as it was also released in the U.S. becoming an instant cult phenomenon.  The story it quite simple: Manny (Moritz Bliebtreu) is a young drug courier living in Berlin who has just bungled an important money delivery.....he's scared and desperate, so who does his call?? Why his Flaming Red-haired girlfriend...the titular L...

This period crime drama has often been described as "Goodfellas with Motorcyle's" as it chronicles the saga of a Midwestern motorcycle club or "gang" in 1967 adapted from a non-fiction photo-book of the same name.  The story focuses on Kathy (Jodie Comer) who is new to this world and has fallen in love with one of the drivers, Benny (Austin Butler) the charismatic, generally quiet biker whom she falls in lo...

Directed by the late, great Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Serpico, Network) and in honor of his 100th Birthday (!), this courtroom drama stars the legendary Paul Newman as a semi-alcoholic Boston attorney taking on what might be his most challenging case yet!  The family of a pregnant woman - recently sent into a permanent coma in the care of a Catholic-run hospital possibly resulting from the negligence of staff on site caring for h...

In honor of Pride Month and celebrating this film's upcoming 30th Anniversary, it's time to embark on the exciting adventures of three drag queens travelling across the Australian Outback on a bus which actually shares its title with this movie. :) This Oscar-winning cult hit was directed by Stephen Elliott and stars Terrance Stamp, Guy Pearce, and Hugo Weaving....yes THAT Hugo Weaving just about five years before his big...

In honor of the Juneteenth holiday and just in time for the 35th Anniversary of its U.S. release, this is very likely THE signature filmmaking achievement from one of our most important filmmakers.  It was written by, directed by , and also happens to start Oscar-winner Spike Lee in a relatively straightforward fictional tale (though loosely based on some true events) of THE hottest day of the summer in one particular neighborhood ...

Just in time for Father's Day, here is a fondly remembered action comedy starring two legends which was first released 45 years ago this month.  Those two legends are Peter Falk (TV's Columbo) and Alan Arkin (Oscar-winner for Little Miss Sunshine) who play two VERY different fathers whose respective son and daughter are about to get married.  Falk plays Vince who's an agent for the CIA while Arkin plays Sheldon who i...

Adapted from the French smash hit of stage screen "La Cage Aux Folles," this raucous farce about two VERY different families about to join via marriage was directed by the late, great Mike Nichols who directed modern classics of various genres including The Graduate, Catch-22, Working Girl, Silkwood, and Carnal Knowledge.  It was a smash hit back in the spring of 1996 and was also one of the first Hollywood blockbusters t...

Acclaimed Five Time Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, Before Sunrise) has returned with his latest opus which received a TON of strong buzz on the festival circuit last year....and was then purchased by Netflix and held for a mostly streaming release this year. :/ It's the SEMI-true story of a fake cop named Gary Johnson (Glenn Powell) who worked with the local police to help draw in and ...

Thirty years ago, this high-concept action thriller loosely described as "Die Hard on a Bus" surprisingly took the world by storm.  It was directed by Jan De Bont (Twister) and stars Keanu Reeves with an uncharacteristically short haircut (for him) as Jack, a young up-and-coming LAPD cop learning the ropes from his more veteran partner Harry played by Jeff Daniels.  Together they get roped into a high-rise hostage situati...

Welcome to the Living for the Max series.  Over the past 45 years, there has been no other film franchise QUITE as inventive nor as consistently exciting as The Mad Max Saga….four films mostly chronicling the post-apocalyptic adventures of lone wolf Max Roxatansky played three times by Mel Gibson and most recently by Tom Hardy.  As each film has been directed by Australian cinematic genius George Miller, they have each reflected hi...

"The Magic Is Back!"

That was the official tagline in the marketing for this highly anticipated sequel to '87's Lethal Weapon when it was first being released just under thirty-five years ago.   We were rejoining the story of two very different Los Angeles cops who became friends at the end of the previous film....wild-haired, suicidal widower Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and slowly retiring family man Rog...

COPPOLA WEEK continues!  Fifty years ago sandwiched between his two multiple Oscar-winning masterpieces of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola finally had studio support to write and direct this passion project which he had been working on since the mid '60's.  The story focuses on Harry - a surveillance expert played by Oscar-winner Gene Hackman - who has recorded a mysterious tape of a couple h...

In time for its upcoming 45th Anniversary, Memorial Day AND the recent resurgence of its Oscar-winning director screening his long-developed passion project (Megalopolis....hopefully coming out later this year), what better time to revisit a film which itself was a long-gestating passion project for Francis Ford Coppola?  All of the crazy stories behind its troubled projection have seemingly been remembered as much as the film itse...