[7] Viggo Mortensen travels with his young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) across a post-apocalyptic wasteland in this bleak drama based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. The premise is intriguing, far more than the movie dares explore, even with an R-rating. The storyline hangs on the intimate relationship between father and son. Viggo is frighteningly open with the boy, explaining how they’re going to have to …
[7] Paul Newman reunites with director Martin Ritt (Hud, The Long Hot Summer) for this ensemble Western based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. It’s an Eastwoodesque performance from Newman, playing a reticent loner raised by Apaches who ends up having to protect a stagecoach crew that initially thumb their noses at him. I don’t think the ending was particularly well executed, but the characters …
[7] Agent 007 must stop an arms dealer from starting World War III in the 15th installment in the long-running franchise. Timothy Dalton makes his debut as James Bond. The Living Daylights is less campy than many previous Bond films, attributed largely to Dalton’s more serious take on the character. What it lacks in cheeky charm, it makes up in action. The script does a spectacular …
[4] Sean Connery returns for his final outing as James Bond in Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball and the only Bond film not produced by Cubbi Broccoli’s EON Productions. Since it’s an “unofficial” entry in the franchise, you won’t hear Monty Norman’s famous theme music anywhere, nor will you see another snazzy title sequence from Maurice Binder. And who are these strange …
[7] John Ford reteams with frequent leading man John Wayne in what is often considered one of the best Hollywood westerns ever made. Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a loner returning home from the Civil War. After his brother’s family is murdered by Camanches, Ethan begins a five-year search for his kidnapped niece (Natalie Wood). Wayne plays more than a charicature of himself for once, bringing …
[5] Licence to Kill is the anti-Bond. Timothy Dalton is out for revenge in this one (his second and final outing in the role), and the performance is desperately missing the character’s trademark nonchalance. Without it, it just isn’t Bond. It’s one of a number of generic 80s action flicks fueled by revenge, centered around the drug trade, full of explosions, and scored by Michael Kamen …
[3] Gordon Scott makes his debut as Tarzan in this entry. He’s a taller, beefier Tarzan — kinda cute, but certainly the dumbest of the lot. Poachers are in the jungle (again), and a well-meaning animal doctor is accidentally leading them into an area of the jungle ripe with big game. There’s also a skiddish African tribe called ‘the Sukulu’ drifting around in the screenplay. …
[7] Christopher Nolan serves up a wartime survival flick about Allied soldiers stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk, France, while the German army surrounds them. The water was so shallow, warships couldn’t pick up the troops, so loading the hundreds of thousands of soldiers was simply impossible. But the battle later became known as ‘The Miracle of Dunkirk,’ as hundreds of civilian boats came to the military’s …
[7] John Wayne worked pretty much right up until the end of his life, and even in that last decade there are gems to be found. Chisum stars Wayne as the title character, John Chisum, a New Mexico cattle baron who ends up in a battle with a greedy tycoon named Lawrence Murphy (Forrest Tucker). As Murphy buys up all the local business in town …
[8] Director Kevin Reynolds (Waterworld, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves) delivers his best effort to date with this telling of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. Jim Caviezel stars as Edmond Dantes, a man betrayed by his friend Fernand Mondego (Guy Pierce) and falsely imprisoned for thirteen years in a hellish prison. Richard Harris plays the elderly priest who accidentally burrows his way into …
Copyright © 2025 | Theme by MH Themes