In what can only be described as an attempt at counter-programming, August has seen not one but three films featuring mature actors and plot lines. What would normally be a welcome relief from the usual drudge that oozes across theater screens throughout the summer is actually an embarrassment of riches. Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe the 70s rock group Sweet was right when they sang Love is Like Oxygen. If that is the case, romance in modern films is barely breathing. Not that I’m complaining, but the closest thing we got in theaters last Christmas that even resembled a romantic movie was “Kate & Leopold,” starring the four hankie perennial Meg Ryan and hunky Hugh Jackman of “Swordfish.” Read the rest of this entry »

“Lantana” begins with a slow moving close-up of the tropical shrub that the film is named after. Despite the dense, thorny undergrowth, all we see are the sweet, colorful blooms. Then the camera moves in on an object. It is a woman. Her twisted, tangled body hints that she is dead. She is. Read the rest of this entry »

I live in a medium sized town about fifty-miles above Los Angeles. In 1976, our showcase movie theater was a three screen multiplex that had opened in the local mall. It was a Mann theater, and for simple folk raised on those annoying large single screen theaters, it was something to behold. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a teenager and anxious to take on the world, my mother would always tell me, “Slow down, because when you get older, everything goes so fast.” Yeah, right. So here it is, the 20th anniversary of John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” and I’m scratching my head, wondering here the last 20 years of my life went. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of years ago, Walt Disney Pictures announced they were going to remake “The Parent Trap.” I was outraged. “The Parent Trap,” starring Hayley Mills, Brian Keith and Maureen O’Sullivan, is not only a personal favorite, it’s a classic of its kind. I had no desire to see the remake, but duty called. I went in expecting the worst, and came out feeling as if I had just relived a piece of my childhood. Read the rest of this entry »

If that old saying “You are what you eat” is true, then the genetically enhanced sharks in “Deep Blue Sea” are research scientists and their assistants. The sharks eat a lot of research scientists and assistants before they are done, pumping up the level of suspense in this watery action- adventure until it is almost unbearable. Read the rest of this entry »

School shootings. Serial killers. Terrorists. Professional wrestling. Thanks a lot Andy Warhol. The dead soup painting guy once claimed that in his future everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes. Read the rest of this entry »

After having exhausted the theatrical franchise with the hits “Twister,” “Let’s Twist Again” and “Twister and Shout,” Warmer Home Video goes straight to video with their latest entry into the series. While the theatrical budgets mushroomed with each film (“Twister and Shout” cost $550 million), the video suffers from an obvious lack of ideas and budget.
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War may be hell, but could it be any more tedious than writer-director Terrence Malick’s remake of “The Thin Red Line”? Bloated and pretentious, “The Thin Red Line” is a wonderful two hour movie trapped inside a three hour marathon of confusing imagery and self-indulgent direction. Read the rest of this entry »