Living for the Cinema

The beach town of Amity Island has been experiencing some mysterious attacks from a mysterious entity within the nearby ocean, resulting in some brutal deaths.  And the local police chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is concerned that it MIGHT be sharks....and he's not the only one, there's also the visiting marine biologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) who suspects that it MIGHT be a Great White Shark. :o And besides them, there's the local sea-dog Quint (Robert Shaw) who not only believes that it's a Great White Shark but that ONLY he can kill it. And we're off to the sea i...

From the director (Tobe Hooper) of The Texas Chainsaw Massacare and the writer (Dan O'Bannon) of Alien comes this crazy sci-fi horror thriller about a potential alien invasion which occurs around London after a race of space vampires (yes you read that right) come calling via Haley's Comet and an Earth-bound spaceship.  This ambitious Cannon Pictures release was a notable flop when it was first released in June of 1985 but has since garned a cult following due to several crazy setpieces, ample female nudity (from one alien in particular played by Matilda May), and.....some very inventive visual effects t...

How do you follow up a genuine once-in-a-lifetime pop culture phenomenon like the initial release of Star Wars in 1977?  Well if you're writer/director/producer George Lucas, you use your ownership of the franchise to continue the story but in a unique new direction with a new director (Irwin Kirsher) along with a new up-and-coming writer (Lawrence Kasdan) to take over most creative decisions.  You also decide to bring back most of the main cast (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse/James Earl Jones, Peter Mayhew) while deciding to introduce some exciting new characters including Yo...

Adam (John Travolta) is an intrepid reporter for Rolling Stone magazine currently chasing the biggest story of his career while in LA....when he suddenly comes up with an intriguing back-up story: how healthclubs are becoming the singles bars of the 1980's. :P  And he zeroes in on one healthclub in particular which is called "The Sports Connection" and there he becomes immersed in their world, he is mostly drawn to Jessie (Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis) who is a very charismatic aerobics instructor drawing enthusiastic crowds, though also has a past.  He begins chasing a story about her while al...

Bud (John Travolta) is a young man from the country who moves to Houston to work at the local oil refinery and starts to spend a lot of time at the local country and western bar named Gilley's where he meets Sissy (Debra Winger).  Over much dancing and drinks, they start to fall in love and eventually get married.  Since they are young and impetuous, they start to have problems....and things just get more complicated from there, but can their love prevail?  Along the way, there's plenty of great music and dancing as director James Bridges (The China Syn...

HAPPY 400TH EPISODE - Thanks to all listeners and subscribers for your continued support!!! :)

Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) are twin brothers who also are both recent World War I veterans and Chicago gangsters.  It's 1932 and they have now returned to their home town in the MIssissippi Delta to start their own juke joint.  They find the right spot and recruiter plenty of friends and family to get involved including their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) who plays a mean guitar and Smoke's ex-wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) who cooks some great catfish.  The...

For the Memories of a Lifetime.....

In the Year 2084, Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a mild-mannered construction worker just living the simple life with his loving wife Lori (Sharon Stone).  All seems well and normal, except he's been having these dreams.....about going to Mars, where apparently his eyes can get sucked out of his head if he tries to breathe freely on the surface?? :o Maybe they're not dreams, maybe he has been to Mars....and when he visits a local travel agency (sort of) named Rekall to get memories implanted about a possible t...

Exactly one year after his historic comeback in the seminal Pulp Fiction (which he received an Oscar nomination for), John Travolta followed it up with this slick and crime caper/satire adapted from the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name.  Here he plays Chili Palmer, a mob enforcer from Miami who LOVES movies, is visiting Los Angeles for the first time, and finds himself very eager to get into the movie business.  Once there, he meets a schlock producer (Gene Hackman - RIP), a scream queen (Rene Russo), a pretentious movie star (Danny DeVito), and a menacing wanna-be pr...

Welcome to the LIVING FOR THE BOYLE review series!  Daniel Francis Boyle originally hailed from Manchester, England and his filmmaking career took off thirty years ago in 1995 with the release of acclaimed cult thriller Shallow Grave.  And ever since then, Danny Boyle (as he’s officially known) has carved out a uniquely successful career not only achieving box office success several times but also winning a few Oscars along the way.  During this time period, he has also become one of MY personal favorite directors, having helmed excellent ORIGINAL stories spanning several genres including children’s fantasy, science...

Master '80's auteur Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, Silverado, Body Heat) kicked off the '90's with this dark comedy based upon the bizarre true story of a philandering husband whose wife conspired to murder him....and yet he wouldn't die. :o The husband is Joey played by Oscar-Winner Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda, Dave), the wife is Rosalie played by Emmy-Winner Tracey Ullman (Tracey Takes On) and the cast just gets more interesting from there including Oscar-nominee Joan Plowright as Rosalie's mother, Oscar-nominated River Phoenix as Rosalie's friend, PLUS Oscar-Winner William Hurt and Keanu Reeves playing...

It's 106 miles to Chicago, they've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and they're wearing sunglasses....

The brothers are Joliet Jake Blue (John Belushi) and Elmwood Blues (Dan Ackroyd)....and they're on a mission from God.  Well actually they're on a mission to save the Catholic home where they grew up and to get the band back together.  Seems simple enough but there are a LOT of obstacles in their way including US Marshalls, Chicago police, Illinois State Troopers, the Illinois Nazis, the Good Ol' Boys, and...the late, gr...

Twenty years ago, Sir Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Napoleon, 1492, Black Hawk Down) directed yet another large-scale historical drama.....this time taking place during the Crusades as we watch war escalate between the Saracins and Christian armies sent over from Europe.  And apparently no one really cared. :( The film received middling reviews and box office upon release.  

However following in the tradition of another maligned, often misunderstood genre epic which he directed back in the 1980's - Blade Runner - Ridley Scott arranged to have HIS own personal extended director's cut released to DVD, including at least forty minutes of...

John McClane is Back!  After successfully defeating terrorists at Nakatomi Plaza in the first movie and Dulles Airport in the second movie, McClane (Bruce Willis) is once again working as a NYPD cop.  Hung over and once again on the outs with his wife, he has been called back into duty to track down a mysterious new threat who's not only planting explosives around the city but is specifically asking for HIM.  This threat is named Simon (Jeremy Irons) and he apparently wants to play games with McClaine while he terrorizes the public, even threatening to blow up a loc...

Out on her first night on the beat, rookie NYPD cop Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) comes upon a robbery in a grocery store and takes down the perpetrator.  However as soon as she takes him down, things take a strange turn as one witness flees the scene with that perp's weapon.  Soon after, Megan meets a mysterious commodies trader named Eugene played by Ron Silver (Timecop, Reversal of Fortune, The West Wing) and....things get even stranger from there. :o These events kick off a slick, violent action thriller directed by Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Point Br...

Welcome to the LIVING FOR THE BOYLE review series!  Daniel Francis Boyle originally hailed from Manchester, England and his filmmaking career took off thirty years ago in 1995 with the release of acclaimed cult thriller Shallow Grave.  And ever since then, Danny Boyle (as he’s officially known) has carved out a uniquely successful career not only achieving box office success several times but also winning a few Oscars along the way.  During this time period, he has also become one of MY personal favorite directors, having helmed excellent ORIGINAL stories spanning several genres including children’s fantasy, science...

What's this?  Yet ANOTHER movie/series about a married couple who are also spies?!? :o Yes this thriller is about a couple of British spies who both work for the same intelligence agency and apparently there's a dangerous leak which has occurred at this agency.  One of them has been tasked with finding out who the leaker is while the OTHER might actually be the prime suspect....uh-oh, could be silly! :P

Or maybe not as it's written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Panic Room), directed by Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Ocean's 11), and features a...

Who doesn't love a movie focused on a party?? :) Well when they're done right at least....Animal House, Bachelor Party....and thirty-five years ago, director Reginald Hudlin (Boomerang) made his debut with one of the better ones.  It also starred a hip-hop duo no less, Kid & Play - Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin co-star as two high school friends who just want to rap, dance, and meet girls.  And that pretty much comprises the story of the movie......they just want to have fun along  the two young ladies they have their eyes on, Sydney (Tisha Campbell) and Sharane (AJ...

Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer, The Host) returns from his Oscar triumph five years ago with his first directorial effort since his worldwide smash Parasite, which remains the ONLY foreign language film to ever win the Oscar for Best Picture.  This time around, he's directing a high concept sci-fi comedy adventure taking place in the future focusing on Mickey (Robert Pattinson) who works as an "Expendable" for a growing organization looking to colonize a snowy desolate planet.  His job entails being used as a tester of various hostile environments, new viruses, potential vaccines, and any number of deadly situations which ca...

With only their third feature film (following Blood Simple & Raising Arizona), The Coen Brothers (Joel & Ethan) delivered one of the most unique crime dramas of its era...or any era.  This neo-noir takes place during the Prohibition Era in an unidentified American city which is currently enmeshed in an ongoing war between two rival criminal organizations, one lead by Leo (Albert Finney) and the other lead by Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito).  Leo's main advisor and most trusted lieutenant is Tom (Gabriel Byrne) whose fears and machinations are at the core of this story.  And through Tom, we get to enc...

Thirty years ago this month, acclaimed director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm) gave us a terrifying viral thriller which at the time MIGHT have seemed like pure fiction....but WAS it? :o 

Well regardless it was a big hit and featured a stacked cast featuring Oscar-winners Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and Cuba Gooding Jr plus Rene Russo and the late, great Donald Sutherland. (How did those last two never receive Oscar nominations??) A brand new deadly virus has travelled from overseas via an innocent monkey who stowed away on a s...

Six years before she would achieve success and acclaim with The Substance, recently Oscar-nominated French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat directed this nasty little grindhouse thriller.  It's a simple story about a young, aspiring actress/model named Jen (Matilda Lutz) who is staying with her wealthy MARRIED boyfriend Richard (Kevin Janssens) for the weekend at his remote vacation home out in the desert.....when company comes calling with Richard's two hunting buddies (Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchede).  While Richard steps away, one of them assaults her and sadly when he returns, things just get worse from there....as Jen is eventually left fo...

Welcome to the LIVING FOR THE BOYLE review series!  Daniel Francis Boyle originally hailed from Manchester, England and his filmmaking career took off thirty years ago in 1995 with the release of acclaimed cult thriller Shallow Grave.  And ever since then, Danny Boyle (as he’s officially known) has carved out a uniquely successful career not only achieving box office success several times but also winning a few Oscars along the way.  During this time period, he has also become one of MY personal favorite directors, having helmed excellent ORIGINAL stories spanning several genres including children’s fantasy, science...

This is the story of Monica and Quincy who both grow up next door to each other in Southern California, apparently enamored of two things: the game of basketball and each other.  And as they grow up, they both develop into excellent basketball players and we also watch as their relationship develops.  Omar Epps (Higher Learning, Juice) eventually plays Quincy who is the son of a retired pro basketball player (Dennis Heysbert) and has aspirations of following in his father's footsteps.  And Sanaa Lathan (Brown Sugar, Alien Vs. Predator) eventually plays Monica who is trying to develop into a pro...

Twenty-five years ago, director Curtis Hanson (8 Mile, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) followed up his widely acclaimed crime drama classic LA Confidential with this quirky adaptation of the Michael Chabon novel of the same name.  This tells the simple story of Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) who wrote ONE great novel several years and is having.....some difficulties....writing the follow-up.  Beyond that, he has one headmaster's wife (Frances McDormand) who he's been having an affair with, a highly impressionable much younger student (Katie Holmes) who is enamored with him, a nebbishy editor/publisher (Robert Downey Jr.) who ke...

Brady Corbet (Vox Lux) has directed a three and a half hour sprawling tale of a Jewish architect named Laszlo (Adrian Brody) who has escaped religious persecution in World War II Europe to come to America.  This epic drama kicks off with him arriving at Ellis Island in epic fashion, then restarting his career in Pennsylvania where he encounters a local industrialist named Van Buren (Guy Pearce) who hires him to take on increasingly larger projects.  Complications ensue as Laszlo achieves success but also struggles to adapt to an environment which can often be hostile to him, even more-so af...

Director Nisha Ganatra (Late Night) delivers a throwback to big studio romantic comedies from twenty years ago with this frothy musical tale of Maggie (Dakota Johnson) who is the beleaguered personal assistant to legendary pop diva Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross)...yet has a good ear and aspirations of becoming a music producer.  And while trying to help produce new music for her boss, she also happens to meet a talented young vocal artist David (Kelvin Harrison Jr) whose music she also wants to produce....they strike up a romance and things just get more complicated from there.  Also co...

Edward (Richard Gere) is a wealthy industrialist who is feeling lonely one night while on a business trip.  While cruising Hollywood Boulevard, he meets a prostitute named Vivian (Julia Roberts) and he decides to hire her for the week to stay with him....what he didn't count on was falling in love. :o And what resulted was one of the most popular romantic comedies of all time, a worldwide phenomenon which launched Julia Roberts into the stratosphere.   It was directed by the late, great Garry Marshall (Beaches, The Princess Diaries) and also co-starred Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo, and He...

Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh (The Ocean's Trilogy, Erin Brockovich, Contagion) returns to the big screen with a simple tale about one suburban family which has just moved into a new home....only to find out that they might not be alone. :o Not only that but they each have their own share of personal issues, mostly depressed teenager Chloe (Callina Liang) who has suffered a recent personal tragedy and ends up being the focus of the story.  This film has been promoted as an intimate "ghost story" but it is as much a family drama...and let's leave it a...

How do you remake a classic?  Well in the case of trying to bring back the LEGENDARY Private Detective John Shaft of the 1971 Gordon Parks cult hit starring Richard Roundtree, acclaimed director John Singleton (Boyz N The Hood, Poetic Justice) teamed with acclaimed writer Richard Writer (The Color of Money, Clockers) to....NOT remake it, they decided to "re-imagine" the character as a former NYPD cop trying to exact justice in late '90's New York City.  Oscar-nominee Samuel L. Jackson now plays the titular character with Roundtree returning to play his uncle.  This time around, Shaft is determined to...

On January 15, the entertainment world lost a truly unique and highly influential talent….David Lynch (Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man, Twin Peaks) who passed away at the age of 78 from emphysema.  Over his illustrious career, he directed twelve feature films and was nominated for four Oscars including Best Director for this acclaimed classic released in the fall of 2001.  Considered by many fans and critics to be Lynch's best film, this mind-bending mystery has since garnered a devoted following from cinephiles who have enjoyed developing and sharing theories regarding its complex plot.  The overall story mainly focuses on two women, one a...

Director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead & Spider-Man trilogies) just seemed born to apply his skills to a send-up of a spaghetti western and back in the mid '90's he got his chance.  You've got Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) at the PEAK of her star-power playing the strong-but-silent type, a gunslinger coming to the town of Redemption seeking revenge and getting roped into a gun-duel tournament....Hackman taking his Oscar-winning thug sheriff role from Unforgiven up to 11 as the main villain....journeyman players like Lance Henricksen, Keith David, Pat Hingle, and Tobin Bell all having a blast.  PLUS you ha...

Chances are if that you were watching some action thriller in the '90's featuring an airplane being hijacked, there was a strong likelihood that it starred Wesley Snipes....as this would be one of three (the others being U.S. Marshalls and Passenger 57) released during that time period with such a sequence.  And amazingly of all three, this would be the one to feature him most up in the air as Snipes stars as U.S. Marshall Pete Nessip who after suffering a tragedy on one such hijacking early in the movie decides to track down said hijackers w...

Following up starring in a string of big budget genre epics (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) in the early part of the '80's, Harrison Ford decided to detour just a bit with this smaller-scale suspense thriller directed by the legendary Peter Weir (Dead Poet's Society, The Truman Show).  Here he plays John Book, a Philadelphia police detective investigating a local murder where the ONLY witness is a young Amish boy (Lucas Haas) who happened to be travelling through the area with his mother at the time.  As it turns ou...

Big Nick is BACK!  And so is Donnie the Driver....as played by Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr. respectively, they are the only significant hold-overs from the first first Den of Thieves which came out five years.  That original LA-based crime thriller directed by Christian Gudegast (who also returns to direct this sequel) ended up being a bit of a sleeper hit and has garnered a significant following since then via streaming and/or cable.  So how do they continue the story this time around?  By bringing the overall action to both France and Belgium where Donnie (O'Shea Jack...

In the small, isolated Nevada town of Perfection, two aimless handymen Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) were just minding their own business working their latest gig when they suddenly discover strange things occurring....including the inexplicable death of some one who has hidden way up on a light pole in the middle of nowhere.  What were they afraid of....something on the ground....or underground perhaps? :o Well as it turns out, this town has been invaded by large, strange creatures travelling underground....and what results is a wild adventure which might be described as "Jaws on L...

Wilson (Terrance Stamp) is a career criminal from the UK who is now coming to Los Angeles to find out about what happened to his daughter (Melissa George) who just tragically died in a car accident....or did she?  Her father suspects that she might have been murdered and he suspects that it might have been her wealthy, older record executive boyfriend Terry played by the late, great Peter Fonda.  Along the way, Wilson recruits help from two local actors (Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzman) who were friends with his daughter and what results is a stylish, somewhat time-bending re...

Taking place within a future apocalyptic wasteland, Denzel Washington plays the titular Eli and he's traversing through this wasteland with an all-important book (hence the title)...along with a super-sharp machete blade, shotgun, killer instincts, and car battery-powered IPod Classic.  Things get hairy once he arrives in the wrong town where the local villain Carnegie (Gary Oldman) wants to take possession of this mysterious book.  And what results is an increasingly violent stand-off between Eli and Carnegie's small army of marauders lead by Redridge played by the late, great Ray Stevenson.  Along the way, Eli takes in a sort-of-protégé S...

Twenty years ago, Two-time Oscar winner Oliver Stone (Platoon, JFK, Wall Street) finally had the opportunity to direct the grand-scale historical epic which he and several of his directing peers (Scorsese, Kubrick) had been trying to helm for decades.....the story of Alexander the Great who once lead a MASSIVE Macedonian Empire which at one point comprised around half of the land mass in the Eastern Hemisphere during ancient times.  He lived one hell of a life conquering much of the ancient world and here he is played by Colin Farrell (In Bruges, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Penguin) w...

Acclaimed independent filmmaker Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine) both wrote and directed this dramedy about a Brooklyn sex worker/exotic dancer named Ani (Mikey Madison) who one night meets a wealthy young Russian named Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) at her club.  She dances for him and apparently they hit it off SO well that within a few days, they decide to get married in Vegas.  They soon return to Ivan's enormous waterfront mansion to begin married life when suddenly, some unexpected guests (Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Yura Borisov) come calling.  Well not exactly guests....they actually work for Ivan's fat...

The Griswalds Are Back!  Only this time, they're staying home for Christmas in this third entry of the highly popular "National Lampoon's Vacation" which started in the early '80s.  Chevy Chase once again returns as the enduringly hapless Clark Griswald while Beverly D'Angelo also returns as Ellen Griswald, his long-suffering wife.  And for the third film in a row, their children Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki) are played by ENTIRELY different actors.  They also have loads of extended family visiting including in-laws played by Randy Quaid, Doris Roberts, EG Marshall, Diane Ladd, William Hickey, John...