Bill Paxton

[7] Following in the tradition of Irwin Allen disaster movies like The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure comes this tornadic thrill ride from director Jan de Bont (Speed). Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets) and Bill Paxton (Frailty) star as estranged scientists who fall back in love with each other while chasing tornadoes during an especially stormy couple of days in Oklahoma. Their …

[8] Director James Cameron (Terminator, The Abyss) re-teams with Arnold Schwarzenegger to bring this action comedy to the big screen. Arnold plays a married man who keeps his occupation a secret from his wife, played by Jamie Lee Curtis. What Curtis doesn’t know is that he’s not really a computer sales person. He’s actually a spy for a secret government agency. When Arnold learns Curtis …

[7] Director Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, The Hurt Locker) serves up a stylish, brooding vampire tale set in the southwest. I dig Bigelow’s tone, atmosphere, and terrific casting. Bigelow tapped into the Aliens ensemble to cast Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, and Jenette Goldstein as a family of nomadic vamps. Paxton and Henriksen bring much-needed energy to the somber storytelling in a pair of fearless, over …

[8] An orphaned teen (Jimmy McNichol) becomes fearful of his aunt (Susan Tyrrell) after she kills a man in their home. But that just scrapes the surface of Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker. Add in that the aunt has incestuous desire for the boy and plans to keep him with her forever — full athletic college scholarship be damned. She even starts poisoning him. Also add in that …

[7] Actor Bill Paxton makes his feature directorial debut with Frailty, in which a man recounts to an FBI agent how, as a boy, his religious-freak father forced him and his young brother to help murder alleged ‘demons’ and bury their bodies. Matthew McConaughey plays the storyteller, Powers Boothe plays the FBI agent, and Bill Paxton plays the scary dad in the flashback-driven half of …

[6] The sequel to Predator drops Arnold Schwarzenegger and transplants the action to Los Angeles. Danny Glover stars as a cop trying to break up warring drug gangs when the Predator drops into the action and leads him on a mysterious hunt for clues. Gary Busey shows up as a secret government military man, and Glover’s got police support from the likes of Maria Conchita …

[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 acknowledge. Nightcrawler shows its hand pretty early on, but Gyllenhaal and co-star Rene Russo, playing a cutthroat TV news producer, keep you engrossed …

[7] It’s the future and an alien race has just about taken over all of Europe and Asia. Tom Cruise enters this scenario as a cowardly military spokesperson forced into the front lines of combat by a shit-if-I-care general (Brendan Gleeson). During his first big battle with the aliens (who look like Rastafarian tumbleweeds), Cruise’s character dies… and wakes up a day earlier, but with …

[3] In a dystopian world full of garbage and stained walls, an unfunny comedian (Judd Nelson) starts growing a third arm out of his back. His super-annoying friend (Bill Paxton at his worst) sees the aberration as his ticket out of hell and exploits it for all its worth. A smarmy talent agent (Wayne Newton) decides to rep them, and an even bigger agent (Rob …

[10] James Cameron accomplishes a rare feat with a sequel that doesn’t shame the original and succeeds on its own merits.  Aliens is so different in tone than the original Alien, I think of it as a sequel only in name (this goes for all the Alien movies).  In a smart move, Cameron decided not to compete with Ridley Scott in the areas of horror …