Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) – Tim Burton

I hadn’t seen Pee-wee’s Big Adventure since it first came to home video in 1986. Paul Reubens aka Pee-wee wasn’t on my radar before that, it was all very much Back to the Future and Miami Vice for me. So when I was introduced to it one night, I found myself laughing aloud, hugely enjoying…

We’re the Millers (2013) – Rawson Marshall Thurber

It took me a while to finally get this one. I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy it. But I was wrong. It’s charming, has some laugh-out-loud moments and features Jason Sudekis surrounded by an incredibly strong, comedic cast. Sudekis plays David, a man who has spent his entire life dealing pot. He has no…

The Cannonball Run (1981) – Hal Needham

They don’t make cast-packed comedies like The Cannonball Run anymore. That doesn’t mean it’s all good, but it is damned enjoyable. Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds were coming off Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper, and this road movie was a fun next step. Originally designed as an action film for Steve McQueen, when the…

Starman (1984) – 4K Review

Starman is on 4K and part of Sony Pictures’ release of Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection, Volume 4. I love John Carpenter movies. He’s one of my favourite directors because he’s happy to take on all genres and give his imaginative take on each of his films. Starman may have been the first Carpenter…

M*A*S*H (1979) – Mr. and Mrs. Who?, The Yalu Brick Road, and Life Time

While the 4077th tries to deal with an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever, Charles (David Ogden Stiers) arrives back in camp completely pickled, and a complete amnesiac when it comes to discussing his time in Tokyo. Happily, he took pictures, and Klinger (Jamie Farr) gets them developed in Mr. and Mrs. Who. Written by Ronny Graham,…

The Blues Brothers (1980) – John Landis

Director John Landis teams up with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in a road movie with tunes, laughs, and style. This was the movie, that I discovered in the late 80s, that introduced me to soul music, and I loved it. Featuring a who’s who of musical legends like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Cab…

Onward (2020)- Dan Scanlon

Pixar films have been magic for the audience since Toy Story first graced theatre screens, or one could argue, when Luxo Jr., made his first appearance. With their latest offering, Onward, Pixar takes us into the world of magic. It seems magic exists, we’ve just let it slide away because it was too much work…

Apocalypse Now (1979) – Francis Ford Coppola

The brilliant, Vietnam epic, an update on the Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness, is the next stop in the War genre as I continue my cinematic journey with the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. The story behind the film is almost as incredible as the film itself. Boasting a cast that…

The Talisman (1984) – Stephen King and Peter Straub

There are very few Stephen King novels I haven’t read, and even as I revisit the occasional one, I realised that I had never finished The Talisman. A copy of this book was a Christmas gift to my Mom the year it came out. She read it first, and I was next in line to…

Midnight Special (2016) – Jeff Nichols

  Owing its pedigree to films of the 80s like John Carpenter’s Starman and Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Nichols writes and directs this science fiction road movie that is best viewed with little to no plot knowledge. So suffice to say, I won’t be saying much about story points in my review….