[8] Peter Ustinov directs and co-stars in this adaptation of Herman Melville’s unfinished novel of the same name. Ustinov plays the captain of a British ship sailing to battle against France. His master-at-arms, John Claggart (The Wild Bunch‘s Robert Ryan), is a sadistic man who entraps the ship’s crew in criminal charges and lies about allegations. When a new, doe-eyed recruit named Billy Budd (Terence …
[8] Jacob’s Ladder is a terrific example of what can happen when an inspired screenplay gets into the hands of a great director and a capable leading actor. I’m talking about Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost), Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction), and Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption), respectively. Rubin’s script is a fever dream of a tale, following a New York Vietnam vet who’s losing his grip on …
[8] A young teen Billy (Asher Angel) is called upon by mystical forces and given the ability to turn into an adult superhero (Zachary Levi) at will. Together with help from his new foster brothers and sisters, he learns how to handle super-speed, lightning from his fingertips, flight, and other powers. He’s also forced into a confrontation with a man (Mark Strong) possessed by the …
[8] Katharine Hepburn leads an ensemble cast including Ginger Rogers and Lucille Ball in this witty but moving comedy/drama about aspiring Broadway actresses living together in a boarding house. Hepburn’s character comes from money and wants to find out whether she has what it takes to become an actor. When she arrives at the boarding house, called The Footlight Club, she meets women both more …
[8] Nicolas Cage stars as a neurotic con artist whose life is turned upside down when his teenaged daughter (Alison Lohman) enters his life and distracts him while he’s pulling off a big heist with his protégé (Sam Rockwell). While the summary may sound heavy, Matchstick Men is actually a pretty light, fluffy movie most of the time — an interesting change of pace for …
[8] Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas play a news reporter and cameraman who try to report on a near-disaster at a nuclear power plant where safety measures aren’t being met. While the plant’s owners and the TV station hold them at bay, they work covertly with a sympathetic plant supervisor (Jack Lemmon) to get all the evidence they need to drop the bombshell story on …
[8] Jamie Bell (Billy Elliott) leads an all-star ensemble in this surreal, satiric look at the breakdown of suburban existence. The Chumscrubber is an ambitious conceptual piece, not unlike American Beauty in tone and style. But where American Beauty centered on one character’s shaky morality and lost me, The Chumscrubber stems more confidently from one of my favorite thematic tropes — human beings’ desperate need …
[8] Paul Verhoeven (Soldier of Orange, RoboCop) brings his devil-may-care attitude toward sex and morality to this slice-of-life story about three young Dutch boys who dream of escaping their restrained provincial lives by winning motor cross competitions. One of the boys, Rien (Hans van Tongeren), has a real chance of unseating the current champion (Rutger Hauer), while Eef (Toon Agterberg) struggles with his sexual identity in dark ways, and …
[8] A bunch of British people fall in love, out of love, and do lovey-dovey things in the month leading up to Christmas. Now, if you’re like me, that’s a description that will keep you from ever wanting to watch Love Actually. But since a hundred different people have insisted I watch it over the last fifteen years since it was released, I finally gave …
[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 …
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