The Zach Braff film (writer/director/star) Garden State hasn’t aged very well. And even in 2004, some of it seemed questionable. The soundtrack that we all thought was amazing at the time wasn’t, and I have to tell you, I never liked the Shinns no matter how much Braff insisted the song would change your life….
Tag: natalie portman
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) – Taika Waititi
The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably its most absurd. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun, and that the actors aren’t having a great time, but there are a number of tonal shifts in the narrative that leaves the film feeling a little unbalanced. But that may be because of the storyteller….
Heat (1995) – Michael Mann
I continue my time with Ten Bad Dates With De Niro, as I explore a list of Ten Scenes Where Shouty Al Shows Up, and yes, Pacino does yell a lot in this movie, but it is also a masterful epic that, for the first time, saw Al Pacino and Robert De Niro sharing scenes…
Annihilation (2018): Blu-Ray Review
Releasing from Paramount Pictures to blu-ray and DVD today is Annihilation a slow burn of a science fiction film from director Alex Garland. Based, subjectively, on the trilogy of novels by Jeff VanderMeer, it’s a gorgeous looking film A strange, possibly extra-terrestrial incursion in a swamp in Florida has claimed an untold number of teams…
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005) – George Lucas
The Sci-Fi Chronicles brings me to the final entry in the Prequel Trilogy, and arguably the strongest despite some troubling moments. While still suffering from the too clean, too digital, green-screen EVERYTHING, this one feels the closest to a Star Wars movie, and that opening sequence through the space battle over Coruscant is highly…
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002) – George Lucas
The Star Wars films continue as I delve further into George Lucas’ films thanks to the Sci-Fi Chronicles. This time it is the second instalment in the Prequel Trilogy. And while a considerable step-up from The Phantom Menace, this one is still too clunky and too digital. Jonathan Hale helps Lucas out on the…
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) – George Lucas
Remember, right back before the Phantom Menace came out, when anticipation was reaching a fever pitch? I miss that. Sure we had the wonderful build up to The Force Awakens, but the gap between films was no where near as long as it had been for those of us who had been invested in…
Cold Mountain (2003) – Anthony Minghella
This beautiful, cinematic adaptation of Charles Frazier’s novel is masterfully brought to life by Minghella, who also wrote the screenplay. My last Civil War stop for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film following my screening of The Red Badge of Courage is by turns brutal, moving, and gorgeously photographed. Nicole Kidman is…
Black Swan (2010) – Darren Aronofsky
The next recommendation from my viewing of Gold Diggers of 1933 in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, is less musical, but more behind the scenes of a production, and the lead’s gradual descent into madness, in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. The beauty and sensuality of the ballet, Swan Lake, is…
Leon – The Professional (1994) – Luc Besson
Luc Besson returns to the 101 Action Movies list, bringing the exemplary Jean Reno with him in a role that was inspired by his turn in Besson’s Nikita. Mathilda (Natalie Portman) is an 11 year-old girl living with her family in a New York apartment building, she smokes, swears, and flirts with her blossoming sexuality, and…
The Mind Reels 