The Perfect Storm (2000)

The Perfect Storm (2000)

[6] Director Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One, The Neverending Story) pits George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg against a killer storm at sea in The Perfect Storm, a true story based on a novel by Sebastian Junger. Clooney plays the captain of a…
The Basketball Diaries (1995)

The Basketball Diaries (1995)

[5] Leonardo DiCaprio gives a strong early-career performance in this film based on the life of Jim Carroll, a promising young basketball player and writer whose life was derailed by drug addition in the late '60s and early '70s. The film transplants…
Boogie Nights (1997)

Boogie Nights (1997)

[9] Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's ode to the '70s porn industry brings poignant depth to its sensational subject matter. It's also an amazing showcase of top-notch acting and directing. Anderson is a rare creative talent, as skilled with actors as with the…
We Own the Night (2007)

We Own the Night (2007)

[8] Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg star as brothers working on different sides of the law in this crime drama from writer/director James Gray (Ad Astra, The Lost City of Z). Wahlberg's character follows in the footsteps of their father (Robert Duvall),…
Ted 2 (2015)

Ted 2 (2015)

[6] Ted the foul-mouthed teddy bear wants to have a baby with his human wife, but the government doesn't acknowledge Ted as his own person. This sets Ted, his human pal played by Mark Whalberg, and a new lawyer friend played by…
Daddy’s Home (2015)

Daddy’s Home (2015)

[5] I was sick with bronchitis when I stumbled across this movie's sequel, Daddy's Home 2. And that movie succeeded in giving me a few chuckles and smiles when I was feeling down. So now that we're all in quarantine during the…
The Lovely Bones (2009)

The Lovely Bones (2009)

[3] Maybe Alice Sebold's novel is a different and more worthwhile experience. But not having read it, I'm pondering what the hell I'm supposed to take away from Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lovely Bones. The movie is about a dead…
Daddy’s Home Two (2017)

Daddy’s Home Two (2017)

[6] I was home sick with bronchitis and in desperate need of a diversion. I flipped onto Hulu and found Daddy's Home Two. I'd never even heard of Daddy's Home One, but I saw that this comedy sequel had John Lithgow in…
All the Money in the World (2017)

All the Money in the World (2017)

[8] Ridley Scott (The Martian, Alien) directs the true-life tale of the 1973 Getty kidnapping. After masked men whisk 16-year-old John Paul Getty III off the streets of Rome, his mother tries to get the ransom money from the boy's grandfather, John…
Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

[7] Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell headline this true story about the largest oil drilling disaster in American history. Deepwater Horizon is essentially a disaster movie in the grand tradition of that subgenre, but director Peter Berg is sensitive to the fact that…