80’s Action Is No Laughing Matter: Part One

You’ve heard the sayings. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Variety is the spice of life. A change is as good as a rest. And so on. Well, for most actors it’s straightforward to enjoy a wide range of roles, but action stars do have a tendency to plough the same bullet-ridden furrow. […]

Quasi

Film Title

Quasi

Synopsis

Who wants a hunchback ride?

Director

Kevin Heffernan

Cast

Steve Lemme
Kevin Heffernan
Erik Stolhanske
Jay Chandrasekhar
Paul Soter
Adrianne Palicki

Comedy troupe Broken Lizard has been trying to recapture the magic of their one legitimate hit – Super Troopers – for twenty-two years and five movies. Hoping the sixth time is a charm, they bring us Quasi. As in Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame. And they bring it to us via Hulu. That’s just […]

The Last Hurrah #3: Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008)

Oh Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey! Was the elfin Toni Basil singing about Mickey Rourke, handsome, talented bastard that he was? Probably not, but after his terrifically understated performance in the 1981 classic Body Heat as a reluctant advice-giving arsonist I guess it’s possible. At that point […]

Renfield

Film Title

Renfield

Synopsis

Renfield is yet another Dracula movie that misses the mark

Director

Chris McKay

Cast

Nicolas Cage
Nicholas Hoult
Awkwafina
Ben Schwartz
Brandon Scott Jones
Camille Chen

“Renfield” – All bite and no bark. Six years ago, Universal Studios attempted to start a franchise called Dark Universe that was supposed to feature a bunch of classic horror characters. The first movie, The Mummy, did exactly what I predicted it would do. Namely, it crushed the franchise in its infancy. With the Dark […]

The Shining

Film Title

The Shining

Synopsis

A hotel, bathed in blood, wrapped in a puzzle and stuffed up the keister of an enigma.

Director

Stanley Kubrick

Cast

Jack Nicholson
Shelly Duvall
Scatman Carruthers
Danny Lloyd
Barry Nelson
Phillip Stone

A hotel, bathed in blood, wrapped in a puzzle and stuffed up the keister of an enigma, The Shining relays the less-than-straightforward tale of a psychic boy helplessly trapped in a quagmire of perverted demons and murdered guests all wanting a fresh bite of whomever took the job of winter caretaker. That would be Jack […]

The Last Hurrah #2: James Caan in Misery (1990)

Film Title

Misery

Synopsis

Caan gets it write

Director

Rob Reiner

Cast

James Caan
Kathy Bates
Richard Farnsworth
Frances Sternhagen
Lauren Bacall

Caan did much better than a lot of actors, but his lengthy career still manages to give off a whiff of disappointment. There was never any doubt about his ability, typified by an early performance as a brain-damaged ex-ball player in 1969’s The Rain People. Here he’s very good at doing what he can with […]

The Last Hurrah #1: Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979)

Film Title

Apocalypse Now

Synopsis

“I wanted a mission and, for my sins, they gave me one… I was going to the worst place in the world.”

Director

Francis Ford Coppola

Cast

Martin Sheen
Frederic Forrest
Laurence Fishburne,
Robert Duvall
Dennis Hopper
Marlon Brando

It’s always a mystery when a gargantuan talent falls off a cliff. How can an auteur like Coppola, a man who ruled the cinematic landscape of the seventies by combining searing art with the most fantastic consistency, fail to make another great movie after 1979? A mesmerizing gift can’t just evaporate, can it? I mean, […]

The Day Of The Jackal (1973)

Film Title

The Day of the Jackal

Synopsis

A professional assassin is hired to kill President Charles DeGaulle

Director

Fred Zinnemann

Cast

Edward Fox
Terence Alexander
Michael Auclair
Denis Carrey
Tony Britton
Cyril Cusack

“August 1962 was a stormy time for France. Many people felt that President Charles de Gaulle had betrayed France by giving independence to Algeria. Extremists, mostly from the army, swore to kill him in revenge. They banded together in an underground movement and called themselves the OAS.” This was the beginning narration of what would […]

Air

Film Title

Air

Synopsis

Happy Feet

Director

Ben Affleck

Cast

Matt Damon
Ben Affleck
Jason Bateman
Chris Messina
Viola Davis
Chris Tucker
Matthew Maher

Now that we are into the beginning of the blockbuster season, we have a lot to choose from. Super Mario, John Wick, Adonis Creed, Ghostface, and a Dungeons and Dragons party are all vying for our attention. Would you believe me if I told you your best option is none of those, but instead Air […]

A Decade Of Chucking Up

During the groovy, Colosseum-set climax of 1972’s phenomenally successful Way of the Dragon, Chuck Norris took on the legendary Bruce Lee. Next to the lithe Asian superstar, he looked fat, slow, very hairy and curiously graceless. No matter, for he played his part in a terrific dust-up that fight fans still salivate over. He followed […]