[4] Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play terminally-ill cancer patients who decide to make one last go at their ‘bucket list’ — a list of things to see and do before they die. I usually trust director Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride) to deliver the goods, but this one’s a misfire for me. The opening act is naturally a sad one, …
[8] Jack Nicholson stars as Warren Schmidt, a recent retiree who tries to reconnect with his daughter after the sudden death of his wife. He embarks on an RV trip to stop the daughter’s wedding to an unworthy used car salesman, but the effort only succeeds in further alienating her and underscoring his own uselessness. About Schmidt is another wonderfully droll comedy from writer/director Alexander …
[7] Dennis Hopper co-writes, directs, and stars in this counter-culture cornerstone about two hippies (Hopper and Peter Fonda) who embark on a cross-country motorcycle road trip from Los Angeles to New Orleans, trying to figure out how to live their lives and survive harassment from small-town hicks. Easy Rider is a fairly avant-garde movie for a Hollywood studio to release. It eschews a traditional narrative …
[8] A curmudgeonly obsessive-compulsive (Jack Nicholson) falls for a charming waitress (Helen Hunt) and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a gay neighbor (Greg Kinnear) in As Good as It Gets, another comedy/drama hybrid from the sometimes brilliant mind of James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News). In lesser hands, this one could have turned out a tonal mess, but Brooks and the cast …
[6] Jack Nicholson directs this slice-of-life story adapted from the Jeremy Larner novel about a obstinate college basketball player (William Tepper) whose pretentiousness almost keeps him from being drafted into professional sports. But the film also centers on two other characters. Karen Black plays Tepper’s girlfriend, a character who can’t decide whether to leave him or stay with him. (Is she confused by the women’s liberation …
[7] After success with House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, and Tales of Terror, Roger Corman further exploited Edgar Allan Poe’s name with The Raven. But this time, the film bears little resemblance to Poe’s story. Instead, legendary sci-fi scribe Richard Matheson wrote a fairly engaging comedic tale about three dueling wizards. Vincent Price plays the first wizard, mourning over the death of his …
[5] An odd and perhaps ill-fitting choice of material for director Mike Nichols (The Graduate). Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer give decent performances, but James Spader leaves a greater impression as a backstabbing protege. Wolf focuses more on the psychological effects of becoming a werewolf and skimps on the visceral thrills. I have a problem with the way Nicholson reacts to his transformation — he …
[4] Meryl Streep stars as a food critic reluctant to remarry. But who can resist the charm of Jack Nicholson? The two marry and squeeze out a kid, and then sure enough, he cheats on her and the infidelity escalates from there. Heartburn is written by the late Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle) and directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate), and given that pedigree, it’s …
[9] Martin Scorsese helms this dramatic thriller about an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a gang mole in the Boston police (Matt Damon) who race to uncover each other’s identities while a powerful mobster (Jack Nicholson) manipulates them both to his own, nefarious advantage. The Departed, inspired by the true story of Irish mobster Whitey Bulger, hits the ground running and never lets up on …
[9] It’s hard to believe we once lived in a time when superhero movies didn’t monopolize the multiplexes. Such a time was the summer of 1989, when Warner Brothers’ very first big-screen version of Batman was due to be released. Many declared the film a folly. Indeed, a superhero film hadn’t been successful since Superman II nearly ten years earlier and most of the world …
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