Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart is a beautiful film yet the experience felt like spending two hours flipping through books for teenage girls in the Young Adult section of a bookstore. Not that there’s anything wrong with a grown man reading Nancy Drew, I just couldn’t stop reminding myself...

In many post-apocalyptic, sci-fi films such as Mad Max, The Road, and Resident Evil, the main characters are in search of some area of normalcy – far from the chaotic conditions of violence and starvation. Some head south where there is warm weather and less radiation, some head to the shoreline,...

If I think that Cinema Verite is an absolute snooze fest from beginning to end, does that mean I have been brainwashed by all the tasteless reality shows that have flooded America’s TV programming for the past decade, such as The Real World, American’s Next Top Model, Jersey Shore, and True Life?...

During my travels around Europe, I always got a kick out of straight-to-video American movies (typically starring Van Damme or Seagal) that sometimes played in European theaters. If only they knew that these movies went straight to video in the States. So the joke is on me when I learned that many...

When I first saw the trailer for Steven Seagal’s Half Past Dead in 2002, I shook my head in shame as I watched one of America’s best action stars of the 1990s swagger around in a silly-looking bandana in his quest to appeal to teenage audiences as he somewhat successfully attempted in his previous...

Should anyone feel bad for poor old Ray Harryhausen when a kid rents Jurassic Park instead of One Million Years B.C. – the 1966 film that starred a fur bikini-clad Raquel Welch running away from impressive-looking stop-motion animated dinosaurs? I feel a little sorry for the guy, but his 50-year reign...

Many films have been labeled “ahead of its time” upon initial theatrical release but what can we say when those films eventually feel dated as time passes? As a fan of films from every decade since the early 1900s, I don’t automatically like something more just because a film gets the prestigious...

Moviegoers eagerly awaiting Mel Gibson’s long-rumored HANUKKAH movie can now whet their appetites with HOP – the epic story of the rise and fall of the noble Easter Bunny. Filmed in glorious CinemaScope, this 4-hour Cecil B. DeMille-style motion picture features a CGI Charlton Heston as the Easter...

A suave lady’s man, exotic locations, beautiful women, speedy car chases along cliffs, boat chases, cat fights, fancy dress balls, and roof-climbing daredevils! To Catch a Thief sounds like a James Bond adventure, yet the film was released seven years before the first James Bond film. In 1955, To...

If you think the movies Office Space or Horrible Bosses are good, wait till you see The Apartment. Rewind back to the 1950s and you’ll see how The Apartment gives us the impression that working for a corporation was just as annoying and harsh as it is to work for one today. The Apartment is one...

A lot of people may ask, “how did Annie Hall take the Best Picture Oscar away from Star Wars?” The majority of those people probably never saw Annie Hall and don’t realize what an innovative and creative film this was. Just because Annie Hall didn’t spawn whiny-talking Woody...

The Whistleblower tells the true story of Kathryn Bokovac, a police officer from Lincoln, Nebraska who lost custody of her children in a divorce settlement. In search of a new job that would allow her to live closer to her kids and earn a lot of money in a short period of time, she joined the UN Police...

Restless aka Pointless aka Lifeless is supposed to be a romantic drama flick that offers neither romance nor any kind of empathy for the main characters. Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) is dying of cancer, likes reading about birds, and takes pleasure sorting Halloween candy. Enoch (Henry Hopper) is obsessed...

I only recently noticed that the biggest difference between Vietnam War movies and other war movies (WW1, WW2, American Civil War) is the humor. No one watches a war film hoping to get a good laugh, but surprisingly, the best three Vietnam War movies can be as funny as they can be serious, shocking,...

Sequels, reboots, and remakes have been getting an unfair reputation over the years. For every sequel that gets released in theaters, the “sequels always suck” conversation or the “Hollywood-can’t-come up-with-original-ideas-so-they-have-to-make-sequels-to-every-successful-film-from-the-past”...