Used Cars Review
RATING: (3 STARS) For his sophomore effort, following the lively and delightful I Wanna Hold Your Hand, director Robert Zemeckis went a little darker. Used Cars has the same manic energy that defined his feature film debut, but it’s applied in a satire of American capitalism that’s at times as biting and uncomfortable as it […]
Sweetie Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Sweetie is the debut film from writer-director Jane Campion, and to be totally frank, it completely shocked me. Its content is bizarre. Its composition is stunning. And its themes are both brutally heavy and totally mysterious. I can’t say I totally wrapped my head around the thing – it loses the literal […]
Beverly Hills Cop II Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) On the heels of Top Gun, the highest grossing movie of its year, it seems like an odd choice to step in and direct the sequel to an even higher grossing film from a few years ago, like Beverly Hills Cop. Even stranger, perhaps, is that this is a sequel to a […]
Beverly Hills Cop Review
RATING: (4 STARS) I’m not sure there’s ever been a clearer case a film being carried by the charisma of its star than Beverly Hills Cop. This is Eddie Murphy’s film from beginning to end – something that sort of came about by accident. Originally conceived of and written as a dark and gritty Sylvester […]
Top Gun Review
RATING: (3 STARS) I hardly remember it, but I actually watched and reviewed Top Gun almost ten years ago, when this website was in its infancy. After re-reading those 600+ scathing words, I realized I was both very right and very wrong. John at 21 thought Top Gun was cheesy and rote, and he hated […]
The Hunger Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) Get a load of the description for Tony Scott’s debut film, 1983’s The Hunger. From IMDb: “A love triangle develops between a beautiful yet dangerous vampire, her cellist companion, and a gerontologist.” Excuse me? A vampire, cellist, AND a gerontologist? They’re all here AND in the same eternal love triangle? Yes, and […]
Radio Days Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Radio Days comes at an interesting time within the Woody Allen canon. That output that follows it (excepting Crimes and Misdemeanors) for the next several years is generally regarded as a series of high-concept, well-intentioned misfires. Preceding Radio Days, of course, were Hannah and Her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway […]
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) With more than 40 titles on his resume, Woody Allen‘s career has rarely been static. He wouldn’t be working today if he made the same movie every year. While Woody Allen movies most certainly can be defined reflexively, his style is much more a matter of applying a precise tone to an […]
Die Hard Review
RATING: (4 STARS) There’s a reason why, 25 years after its release, John McTiernan’s Die Hard is such a ubiquitous film. There’s a reason why it’s been sequelized and duplicated to death. There’s a reason why, following it, Bruce Willis became a star. There’s a reason why it’s often named among the very best action […]
An Appreciation: A View to a Kill
This is the first in a new monthly series of posts called “An Appreciation” in which I’ll profile films both good and bad and try to get at my personal connection to them. This particular post was done in conjunction with the site 007hertzrumble.com. You can read more posts like it by clicking here, and […]
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Review
RATING: (0.5 STARS) It isn’t hard to see where Superman IV: The Quest for Peace goes wrong. Its awfulness hides in plain sight and renders the film as a whole nearly unwatchable. It’s a little like the sun—stare for too long, and you’ll feel physical pain. But then you start to feel a little bad […]
Superman III Review
RATING: (1.5 STARS) With the off-screen problems connected to Superman II out of the way, there was no reason Superman III couldn’t have been another thrilling adventure. Sure, Gene Hackman was out, furious at producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind over what happened with Superman director Richard Donner. But the Salkinds lured comedian Richard Pryor into […]
Superman II Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The behind-the-scenes story of Superman II is the stuff of legend, but one shouldn’t assume a project with such a messy history is itself a mess. On the contrary, Superman II (at least the theatrical version credited to director Richard Lester) is a slightly tighter, more suspenseful, and more entertaining film than […]
Full Metal Jacket Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) In the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam War, Hollywood produced a series of spectacular anti-war films—The Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Apocalypse Now. Time, it seems, doesn’t heal all wounds as, almost a decade later, Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning Platoon kicked off a second wave of Vietnam pictures. The world’s greatest director, Stanley Kubrick, […]
The Shining Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic interpretation of Stephen King’s The Shining is … interesting. Technically, he’s on surer footing than perhaps ever before (I’d argue 2001 is a bigger achievement, but in terms of scope, The Shining does more with less). Thematically, some really challenging things are going down. But Kubrick’s ability to tell […]
Blow Out Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) While Blow Out feels like a typical thriller, it earns big points for doing some truly unexpected things. I’m not talking about reinventing a genre or anything, but compared to most paranoia, “me-against-the-world” thrillers, this one is full of genuine suspense, right down to its darkly ironic final moments. It’s easy enough […]
