New feature on My Queue, My Queue Goes to the Movies (MQGTTM). These will be peppered throughout the dvd reviews as reviews of current releases, be they good or bad. In this case, mediocre…
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger
Saw Basterds last [...]
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes
I have to lead the review with the stated prejudice I went into this film with, a general dislike for Colin Farrell’s previous body of work. Nothing against the actor, it seems that the majority of his roles revolved around playing some egotistical, [...]
Directed by Martin Brest
Starring Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin
In honor of a recent madcap midnight run I just had through the city the other night, I thought it apropo to review one of my favorite road movies. Part action, part comedy, this film is 100% entertaining from start to finish with strong comedic performances [...]
Directed by Stanley Kramer
Starring Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier
Awards: Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen
In the same genre of movies like Cold Hand Luke and Midnight Run, The Defiant Ones, is the ultimate prisoner-on-the-run movie. The classic pairing of Tony Curtis and Sidney [...]
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Susan George
“Heaven and Earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad of creatures as straw dogs: the sage is ruthless, and treat the myriad of creatures as straw dogs…Is not the space between Heaven and Earth like a bellows?”
In the mood for a little of the ol’ ultraviolence? [...]
Directed by Luc Besson
Starring Pierre Jolivet, Jean Bouise, Fritz Wepper, Jean Reno
Besson’s first feature length film, the Last Combat has the unique disitinction of being the only silent, black and white, post-apocolyptic, action/comedy. Already, Besson’s style and genious presents itself in an engaging story that is poignant, thrilling, and funny.
Jolivet plays the unnamed hero, [...]
Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg
Starring: Stellan Skarsgard
Having an obsession with film noir out of college, I immediately gravitated toward Insomina, when I heard the director’s aim was to turn the genre on its head. It was this visual style, using pervasive light in a disorienting and ubitiquitous manner, combined with the powerful performance by Stellan Skarsgard [...]
Director: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson
Ah, Key Largo brings back many a memory, mostly of the hazy lot in college when my friend Mike and I would have drunken Humphrey Bogart night. Many a cinematic masterpiece we beheld, Treasure of Sierra Madre, the Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and yes, Key Largo, one [...]
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten
Awards: BFI Best British Film of the 20th Century (1999)
Quite simply, my favorite film. Out of work, novel writer Holly Martins arrives in war-torn Vienna looking for a job, only to find his only friend, Henry Lime dead. Upon investigating further, Holly comes to find that his friend was [...]
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore
Awards: Nominated for Academy Awards and BAFTAS in Cinemtography, Editing, and Best Screenplay
Adapted from PD James dystopian novel about the end of our species brought about by the inability to reproduce, Children of Men is a brilliant technical achievement and thrilling sci-fi drama that never got the attention it [...]
