Mr. Skeffington (1944)

Mr. Skeffington (1944)

[5] Bette Davis stars as a woman who marries a banker (Claude Rains) to protect her brother from embezzlement charges. Claude Rains' character knows full well that she's marrying him for his money, but hopes that in time she'll grow to love…
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

[4] Around the World in 80 Days is a three-hour-long, episodic adventure that's high on spectacle and low on story or character. I wager it played better to a 1950s audience interested in seeing a cliche-ridden "It's a Small World"-like pastiche of…
Road House (1989)

Road House (1989)

[6] Road House is so ridiculous, it's kinda awesome. For starters, Patrick Swayze (and his mullet) play a bouncer/philosopher with lethal fight moves to match his zen attitude. He says no to anesthetic when he gets his cuts stapled shut, he slams…
Cherry 2000 (1987)

Cherry 2000 (1987)

[7] Cherry 2000 is good corny fun. It takes place in a somewhat post-apocalyptic 2017 (almost there!) where gender dynamics and sex politics have gotten so complicated, that many men prefer to bond with robots rather than flesh-and-blood women. That's the part…
Body Heat (1981)

Body Heat (1981)

[7] Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist) made his directorial debut with Body Heat, about a woman who convinces her lover to murder her husband. You'll never see William Hurt or Kathleen Turner sweatier (or hotter) than this. The film…
Nightcrawler (2014)

Nightcrawler (2014)

[8] Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a morally bankrupt ambulance chaser who sells gruesome crime video to L.A. television stations. First-time writer/director Dan Gilroy paints an interesting portrait of a disturbed man who may reflect our times more accurately than we're ready to…
What Lies Beneath (2000)

What Lies Beneath (2000)

[7] Is Michelle Pfeiffer seeing a ghost in her lakeside home, or is she just losing her mind? That's the premise behind this intimate thriller from director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Back to the Future). Pfeiffer does a fine job and Harrison…
Pulse (2006)

Pulse (2006)

[1] Pulse is astonishingly bad in almost every way imaginable. The only nice thing I can say about it is that leading lady Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) seems to be doing the best she can with the material. But other than that,…
Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl (2014)

[7] Ben Affleck stars as a man whose wife appears to have been violently abducted from their home. Due to his unusually calm demeanor, the local law enforcement and the public both begin to think he might have killed her, but the…
Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar (2014)

[8] Christopher Nolan (Inception, Memento) co-writes and directs this emotional sci-fi adventure about a farmer (Matthew McConaughey) who leaves his family during the last generation of human life on Earth, hoping to find a new planet for the species to call home.…