[7] Director Sidney Lumet (Network, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead) brings Ira Levin’s hit play to the big screen, showcasing Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve as warring playwrights who resort to real murder to further their careers. Caine plays the mentor desperate for a comeback after suffering a series of duds. Reeve plays the idolizing student whose written a new play Caine thinks will …
[3] It’s the 1600s and Europe is torn apart by religious warfare. Omar Sharif plays a Catholic villager who must help his people get along with their Protestant occupiers, led by Michael Caine. Caine’s militia have the power to wipe the Catholics out, pillage, rape and do whatever they like. But Caine takes a liking to Sharif and vice-versa. So everybody just gets along and hopes …
[7] Christopher Nolan successfully reboots the Batman franchise by taking a cue from Bryan Singer (X-Men), who showed the world how much better a comic book movie could be by taking its subject matter seriously. While the approach works for this Batman film, I must admit that I personally prefer my Batman movies to be hyper-stylized and gothic as all get out, which Tim Burton …
[8] Without the burden of exposition, Christopher Nolan molds his Batman sequel into a compelling crime drama that probes deep into the frightening psyches of Bob Kane’s characters. No Batman movie, or comic book movie for that matter, has ever been so character-driven or intricately plotted. It’s complex, emotional, disturbing, and almost a masterpiece. I still have reservations about Christian Bale as Batman, but the …
[6] Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser vie for the affection of a beautiful Vietnamese woman against the backdrop of the French-Indochina War. Philip Noyce (Dead Calm, Patriot Games) is the second director to bring Graham Greene’s novel to the screen (after Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1958 version), and does a good job balancing the intimate character drama against the political intrigue. I like how the movie presents …
[6] Richard Attenborough (Gandhi, Chaplin) reenacts the elaborate but doomed Operation Market Garden, a World War II strategy the Allied Forces valiantly attempted to execute in order to defeat German Forces in the Netherlands. A Bridge Too Far is a three-hour Cliffs Notes version of a historical event, largely plot-driven, with a lot of cross-cutting storylines being juggled at all times. The all-star cast get little …
[3] I went into Jaws: The Revenge (the fourth movie in the series) thinking, ‘Hey, it can’t be worse than the third one.’ And I was right. It’s exactly as bad as the third one. Though for slightly different reasons. Part four brings back not only the shark, but the Brody family. Lorraine Gary reprises her role as Mrs. Brody, now widowed, and her two …
[4] Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine all return for another game of magicians playing cat and mouse. (Isla Fisher is noticeably replaced with a new character played by Lizzy Caplan.) I enjoyed the first Now You See Me, and I like the entire cast for both movies. But sometimes that’s just not enough. The sequel tries to add …
[7] Christopher Nolan wraps up his Batman reboot trilogy by pitting the vigilante superhero against the villain Bane and introducing Catwoman into the mix. Coming in with low expectations (how could they top the last one?), I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. The first half is rather cumbersome to get through, but never boring. The last half ratchets up both …
[8] Brian DePalma serves up a twisty Hitchcockian thriller about a female slasher hunting a prostitute who witnessed her last murder. Michael Caine stars as the shrink who tries to help the call girl, who’s played by Nancy Allen (Mrs DePalma at the time). But it’s Angie Dickinson who delivers the film’s most memorable performance as a married woman who nervously initiates a one-night stand. …
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