There’s a few films that have slipped through my cinema education, Hoosiers with Gene Hackman was one of them. Sports films aren’t always my jam, but I know people who swear by this movie. With Hackman’s passing, I thought I was past due to take a look at this one. And hey look, it’s got…
Tag: small town
Rebel Ridge (2024) – Jeremy Saulnier
Jeremy Saulnier wrote and directed this tense little thriller that retreads familiar territory, but does it in a very entertaining way. Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) has cashed out of his job and heading to a small-town to bail out his cousin, and then buy a truck so the pair of them can start their own…
Salem’s Lot (2024) – Gary Dauberman
Maybe it’s all the Universal Monster movies I’ve been watching lately, but I found that, for the most part, Dauberman’s adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel (the first one I ever read), Salem’s Lot, works. I don’t like how he changed the climax of the film. He moves it out of the Marsten House…
The Andromeda Strain (1969) – Micheal Crichton
I’ve read lots of horror novels, and enjoy Stephen King’s stories but nothing I’ve read in the genre has ever gotten under my skin and unnerve me. Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain got me. I think the story got wrapped up too quickly, but the essence of the story really got to me, and seemed…
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) – Jason Reitman
Ignoring the 2016 film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife leans into its nostalgia, ties itself firmly directly to the 1984 original and while it can be seen as a little oversentimental in its final act, it checked all the boxes I needed for a Ghostbusters legacy sequel. Callie (Carrie Coon) is a single mother whose absent father died…
Murphy’s Romance (1985) – Martin Ritt
James Garner earned his only Academy Award nomination for his turn as Murphy Jones, a local widower, handyman and pharmacist in the small town of Eunice, where the newly divorced Emma (Sally Field) and her young son, Jake (Corey Haim) arrive in to make an attempt at running a horse ranch. Emma has a tough…
Imaginary Friend (2019) – Stephen Chbosky
Stephen Chobsky, perhaps currently best known as the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, gets his Stephen King on with his latest novel, Imaginary Friend, a tale of horror that pits a small town against itself in a battle of good versus evil. At the heart of the story is young Christopher, and…
Salem’s Lot (1979) – Tobe Hooper
So since I recently reread Stephen King’s 1975 novel, ‘Salem’s Lot, I thought I would watch the 1979 television miniseries that was directed by Tobe Hooper. Broken into two parts, the three-hour story was broadcast on two consecutive Saturdays, 17 and 24 November, 1979. Even at three hours, the series doesn’t feel like it’s done…
Scream 4 (2011) – Wes Craven
Kevin Williamson is back with a script that gives the Scream (and Stab) franchise the course correction it needed following the Scream 3 misstep, and right off the bat, the film has the sense of fun, and play that was messing in the third film. In fact the casting seems steps above the third film…
Beneath Her Skin (2021) – C.S. Porter
Nimbus Publishing, under its Vagrant Press, brings a new voice, C.S. Porter to the mystery genre, with their first novel, Beneath Her Skin, a lean, brisk, thriller. With the sub-title A Kes Morris File, one can assume that this will be Porter’s first foray into a series around their creation of Kes Morris, a female…
The Mind Reels 