Living for the Cinema

Fifty years ago, recent Oscar winner Francis Ford Coppola returned to write and direct what was likely one of the most highly anticipated sequels in the history of cinema.....and barely two years after the original film (The Godfather) had set the world by storm not only setting box office records but winning several Oscars including Best Picture.  How could any film live up to that?  Well in the opinions of most who saw it, THIS o...

STRENGTH AND HONOR!

The legendary Sir Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner) returns to Ancient Rome to direct this long-awaited sequel to his Best Picture-winning, blockbuster smash from twenty four years ago, Gladiator.  This continuation takes place around sixteen years later as the legacy of the both Maximus and the late Emperor Marcus Aurelius has seemingly waned.  Rome is now even more corrupt with two childish, manic tw...

Forty years ago this December saw the release of the most popular AND influential action comedies of all time.  This was star Eddie Murphy's immediate follow-up to his two breakout hits the previous years, 48 Hrs. in '82 and then Trading Places in '83, only THIS time he was the sole star above the title for the first time.  And Eddie did not disappoint with this fish-out-of-water comedy about a Detroit cop named Axel...

Closing out a decade comprising two iconic hits (Heat, The Last of the Mohicans), Oscar-nominated director Michael Mann decided to next collaborate with Oscar-winning writer Eric Roth (Forest Gump) on this docudrama about a controversial story which ran at the highly-rated news-program "60 Minutes" just a few years prior.  This news segment focused on an interview with "Big Tobacco" whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand ...

The Pope has suddenly died and a new one must be elected via a titular conclave as soon as possible at Vatican City.  Cardinal Law (Ralph Fiennes) has been tasked with running this conclave and must not only ensure that every viable candidate has been properly vetted but that the nominating and voting processes are fair among all other cardinals.  And what results is akin to a courtroom/legal drama with several of the usual trappin...

David Ayers (Suicide Squad, The Beekeeper) directs this brutal war drama which takes place during the last days of World War II along the German front.  We follow a crew riding within a tank known as the titular "Fury" which is lead by Brad Pitt's grizzled veteran nick-named "Wardaddy."  Pitt leads a stellar cast including Michael Pena, Shia LeBouf, Jon Bernthal and Logan Lerman, the latter of whom plays No...

In the grand tradition of such intimate war epics as Dunkirk and Black Hawk Down, Oscar-winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) directed this ground-level journey of two young British army privates (Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay) who are sent on an urgent mission during World War I to deliver a message that will hopefully stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap set by the enemy.  And everything which tran...

DIVORCE WEEK continues (and concludes) with this game-changing domestic drama directed by Robert Benton (Places in the Heart, Nobody's Fool) which not only nominated for nine Oscars but would also win five Oscars including Best Picture for 1979.  Starring as the titular Kramer's are Dustin Hoffman as Ted and Meryl Streep as Joanna - they are a young married couple living in New York City with their young son Billy (Justin...

What happens when you take one of Hollywood's most popular on-screen couples at the time and pin them against each other in a movie about divorce?  Thirty-five years ago, newly minted director (and co-star) Danny DeVito was apparently the first to attempt to answer that question....and he did so with the big-time movie star pairing which he had co-starred recently in two popular romantic action comedies (Romancing the Stone, J...

If a very handsome and friendly young veteran named David visited your home one afternoon with a warm smile and some very kind words about your son whom he served with overseas....wouldn't YOU invite him over to stay?  That's the main question which kicks off this lean, mean horror thriller directed by aspiring genre master Adam Wingard (You're Next, Godzilla Vs Kong) and starring Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Cuckoo) ...

There's a serial killer around New York city going around murdering people in increasingly bizarre ways while also leaving increasingly minute details behind as clues.  Denzel Washington plays the brilliant criminologist Lincoln Rhymes who has been paralyzed from the neck down but can still solve clues while bedridden and Angelina Jolie plays Amelia, a plucky young beat cop-former model with a natural eye for forensics and...y...

LIVE FROM NEW YORK....

For any one born after 1975 (or before), "Saturday Night Live" has been an American entertainment institution...an irreverent weekly platform for up-to-the-minute comedy featuring promising performers, many of whom would go on to be massive stars in various media.  But it wasn't always that way....and director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In the Air) has decided to take to that night in Oct...

ONE TWO, Freddy's coming for you...
THREE FOUR, Better lock your door...

Forty years ago this November saw the release of one of the most influential horror films of all time directed by the late, great Wes Craven who would gradually be acknowledged as one of the true masters of the horror genre having directed iconic genre classics before this (The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left) and after, most nota...

Michael Douglas, Mullets, and Motorcycles....what else do you need? 🤔

Well you also have the legendary Japanese movie star Ken Takakura, vibrant young Andy Garcia, gorgeous visuals from cinematographer Jan de Bont, sadly the last performance from Yusaka Matsuda, plus THE first great action score from Hans Zimmer.  Oh and it's directed by Sir Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise) though you could forgiven for thi...

Forty years ago this Fall, we saw the release of one of the most influential genre films of the Modern Era, this low-budget sci-fi horror thriller directed by a young upstart named James Cameron....this being his first full-on feature film.  It was a simple tale about a mild-mannered young waitress named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) who unknowingly holds a very unique position to fight a future war against the machines, the imposi...

Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula) has finally done it....he has completed his long-in-the-works passion project, an original story which he began developing as far back as the late '70's.  It's about the fictional futuristic city of New Rome where a brilliant architect (Adam Driver) has been tasked with redesigning the city to become more like a ut...

The FIRST Rule About Fight Club is....
Do NOT TALK About Fight Club

Of course when this action satire directed by David Fincher (Seven, The Social Network) first opened twenty-five years ago to mixed reviews and mediocre box office, it still HEAVILY talked about by a certain segment of the population which just could not get enough of it.  It featured two iconic characters played by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton at the p...

Thirty years ago, director Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential, 8 Mile) helped introduce us to what was seemed like a very novel concept on-screen for the first time: "MERYL STREEP, ACTION HERO."  Up until this point, Streep had already been nominated for multiple awards along with winning several - she was and still IS considered Our Greatest Living Actress who had delivered memorable performances in mostly serious dramas tho...

"Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?"

That's not only the tagline for this movie but for the fictional experimental drug which is offer to our main protagonist.  Demi Moore (Ghost, Indecent Proposal) plays Elizabeth Sparkle, a middle-aged actress/fitness guru who has been fired from the TV show she hosts on her 50th birthday.  She feels rejected, cast aside, and fearful of losing more of wh...