Living for the Cinema

“Living for the STREEP” Series: We are here to celebrate the career of Mary Louise Streep….now known to most as Meryl Streep who has become widely known by critics, film-lovers, and audiences as likely our GREATEST LIVING ACTRESS.  Ever since her earlier breakout roles in the late 1970’s in films such as The Deer Hunter, and Kramer Vs. Kramer, she has carved out a filmography filled with brilliant performances in memorable films spanning a variety of genres including biopics, thrillers, family dramas, AND comedies.  During this time, she has also earned a STAGGERING TWENTY-ONE Oscar nominations including...

Science teacher Ryland Grace (Oscar-nominated Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no memory of how he got there.  As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance from killing the Sun, which can save Earth.  Soon he encounters a mysterious being from another planet and together, they form a bond and embark on this mission.  This inspiring space adventure comes to us from co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse, 21 Jump Street) and was also adapted from a best-selling novel written by Andy Weir who was als...

There Can Be Only One. 

Only one Immortal that this - the Immortals are special swordsmen who can live forever, except when they are facing off against other swordsmen who can kill them but ONLY by decapitating them.  The Immortal this particular story focuses on is Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) who is from the Highlands of Scotland in the 1500's when he discovers that he has this unique designation.  We follow his adventures through several centuries all the way up the "present day" in 1985 New York City where he is now being hunted by a blo...

Oscar-nominated actress Maggie Gyllenhaal follows up her Oscar-nominated directorial debut (The Lost Daughter) from a few years ago with this VERY loose reimagining/adaptation of a portion of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  This portion of course focuses on the desire of Frankeinstein's monster (played by Oscar-winner Christian Bale) create a companion which he gets helps doing from another mad scientist Dr. Euphronius (Oscar-nominated Annette Bening) in 1930's Chicago.  The undead woman brought to life is Ida (Oscar-nominated Jessie Buckley) and she relishes her newfound freedom.  Together they embark on a Bonnie & Clyde-like adventure, raising hell wherever they go - hot on...

An undercover Boston cop (Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio) and a mole (Oscar-winner Matt Damon) in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating the Irish Mob in South Boston.  The head of that Irish gang is Frank Costello played by three-time Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson and the main handlers for the undercover cop are played by Oscar-nominee (for this film) Mark Wahlberg and Emmy-winner Martin Sheen.  Things just get increasingly complicated as investigations on both ends of the law get deeper....and the cast just gets deeper too including several notable players including Alec Baldwin, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, and Ra...

Released just over thirty years ago to acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival, this was writer/director Tom DiCillo's (The Real Blonde, Johnny Suede) love letter to the trials and tribulations of independent cinema.  It takes place most only a chaotic film set where Nick (Steve Buscemi) is the beleaguered director only looking to get ONE good extended take of the next scene for this film which he developed.  Of course he's not the only one struggling as there is also a put-upon actress (Catherine Keener) feeling pressure from all sides, an egotistical movie star (James LeGros) who's acting as...

Remember when independent cinema was actually FUN? :p Well this cult classic was released during the height of the indie boom in the mid '90's and was pretty much the launching pad for rising star Parker Posey (Best In Show, Superman Returns, The White Lotus, The House of Yes) who plays the titular character, Mary.  Mary is an aimless young lady in her '20's living in Manhattan who's good at organizing, planning parties, and not much else until one day working for her godmother (Sasha von Scherler) at the New York Public Library, she suddenly discovers what m...

Glenn Powell (Top Gun Maverick, Twisters, Anyone But You) plays Beckett Redfellow, the apparent eventual heir of a multi-billion dollar fortune from the Long Island-based Redfellow clan.....only he's the eighth in line after his late mother was pushed out of the family right before he was born.  So inspired by the sudden reappearance of Julia (Margaret Qualley) a seductive socialist he has had a crush on since childhood, he decides to embark on a unique mission to move up closer to that inheritance by murdering everyone else in the Redfellow clan one-by-one.  The Redfellow family members who are hi...

Back in the '90's, the enduring success of Die Hard helped inspire a slew of action thrillers often focusing on one protagonist taking on a group of terrorists within a confined space....and SEVERAL of them took place on airplanes including Air Force One, Passenger 57, and Con Air.  Amidst that crop came this well-liked and successful incarnation taking place on a commercial airplane headed from overseas to Washington, DC.....and hijacked by terrorists who are not only threatening to kill the hundreds of hostages on board but also bringing a dangerous bio-weapon to the launch on the East C...

A tough-as-nails cop (Chow Yun-Fat) teams up with an undercover agent (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) to shut down a sinister gun-runner (Anthony Wong) and the rest of his gang in Hong Kong.

That's the standard IMDB description for the plot of this film but as directed by master action autuer John Woo (The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, Face/Off, Mission Impossible II), it's SO much more!  Infact this is now remembered as one of the more influential action films of the 1990's featuring Woo's unique blend of balletic action, melodramatic flourishes, and doves. (Well in this case, origami d...

“Living for the STREEP” Series: We are here to celebrate the career of Mary Louise Streep….now known to most as Meryl Streep who has become widely known by critics, film-lovers, and audiences as likely our GREATEST LIVING ACTRESS.  Ever since her earlier breakout roles in the late 1970’s in films such as The Deer Hunter, and Kramer Vs. Kramer, she has carved out a filmography filled with brilliant performances in memorable films spanning a variety of genres including biopics, thrillers, family dramas, AND comedies.  During this time, she has also earned a STAGGERING TWENTY-ONE Oscar nominations including...

One master thief (Chris Hemsworth) is planning one final score to steal some expensive jewels, one burned out, veteran cop (Oscar-nominee Mark Ruffalo) is on the trail to catch him after a rash of recent robberies, and one disillusioned insurance broker (Oscar-winner Halle Berry) gets involved to claim her own piece of the action....and ALL of this takes place along Highway 101 which runs through Los Angelese.  From director Bart Layton (American Animals), this sprawling LA crime saga also co-stars several other Oscar-nominees including Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Nick Nolte, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. 

Host: Geoff Gershon

It's the late 1980's, the crack cocaine epidemic has hit New York City, and one rising drug kingpin is taking over the market - his hame is Nine Brown and he's played Wesley Snipes in what would be his breakout performance.  On his trail and trying to stop him is NYPD Detective Scotty Appleton played by Ice-T in what would be his first major on-screen perfomance.  And what results is a violent war to win the city in this heightened crime drama directed by Mario Van Peebles (Posse, Panther) who also co-stars among a stacked cast including Allen Payne, Ju...

Action visionairy John Woo (The Killer, Hard Boiled, Face/Off) directs this high-octane action thriller focused on a couple of "missing" nuclear missiles in the Rocky West and the brewing fight between two Air Force pilots who have different plans for them.  Deacon (John Travolta) hopes to use them to threaten to blow up an American city in exchange for a massive amount of money....while his former co-pilot Riley (Christian Slate) tries to stop him and secure the bombs.  Also among the cast are Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo, Frank Whaley, Bob Gunton, and Howie Long.  It also features an...

Once Upon a Time in the world of professional boxing....Apollo Creed was the champion of the world.  He eventually lost his title to Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone who would receive an Oscar nomination for his performance in this film) who would also lose the title before winning it back with Apollo as his trainer.  They remained very good friends right up until the day that Apollo tragically lost his life during an exhibition match against the feared Russian boxer, Ivan Drago.  But did you know that Apollo actually had a son right before he died??

That son...

What if your boss was a REALLY ungrateful, unpleasant person and you ended up trapped on a deserted island alone with JUST him?? 

Well that's the tantalizing premise laid for out for this raucous new comedy thriller from the legendary Sam Raimi who directed both the Spider-Man trilogy in the early '00's along with his now iconic Evil Dead trilogy.  Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner, Saturday Night) plays the boss and the beleaguered employee who has suprising survival skills is played by Oscar-nominee Rachel McAdams (Spotlight, Mean Girls, The Notebook).  And needless to say....thi...

We are approaching the 35th Anniversary of what is likely one of the most celebrated and influential movies of the 1990's.  Adapted from Thomas Harris' best-selling novel of the same name, this is the story of student FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) on her first assignment: to develop a psychological profile of the infamous serial killer, Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) who is currently incarcerated in Baltimore.  Of course, she also finds herself on a hidden mission as well dispatched by her superior, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) - she meets with the intimidating Dr. Lecter to also glean clues on...

Could this be The BEST Zombie Film EVER?  Many die-hard fans of the zombie sub-genre might say so and they might be right - this post-apocalyptic zombie epic was also directed by what most consider the creator of this genre, the late, great George A. Romero. (Night of the Living Dead, Monkey Shines, The Crazies) It focuses on two police officers (Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger) and two employees of a local news station (David Emge, Gaylen Ross) who are now on the run after a full-blown zombie pandemic in the US and eventually are able to settle at a...

Just over six months after the previous entry in this franchise (28 Years Later), we return to the post-apocalyptic world of the "infected" in the UK though this time with a somewhat different focus.  This story focuses on Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) now exploring the possibility of building a bond and possibly even treating an infected "Alpha" named Samson (Chi-Lewis-Parry).  Meanwhile we are following returning character Spike (Alfie Williams) who has now found himself mixed up with a murderous cult roving through the countryside lead by Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell).  And eventually these two stories intersect....directed by Nia DaC...

When evil terrorists have hijacked a passenger plane flying through Europe filled with mostly Americans and they're headed towards Beirut...who are you gonna call?  The Delta Force! 

Yup smack in the middle of a now legendary run of B-Grade genre films (Missing In Action, Breakin', Cobra), Cannon Films decided to make a statement with this star-studded political action thriller starring Chuck Norris (The Way of the Dragon, Code of Silence, Walker Texas Ranger) and the late, great Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou, The Dirty Dozen) who lead this titular elite squad of warriors to the re...

“Living for the STREEP” Series: We are here to celebrate the career of Mary Louise Streep….now known to most as Meryl Streep who has become widely known by critics, film-lovers, and audiences as likely our GREATEST LIVING ACTRESS.  Ever since her earlier breakout roles in the late 1970’s in films such as The Deer Hunter, and Kramer Vs. Kramer, she has carved out a filmography filled with brilliant performances in memorable films spanning a variety of genres including biopics, thrillers, family dramas, AND comedies.  During this time, she has also earned a STAGGERING TWENTY-ONE Oscar nominations including...

Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown) is a special effects man working on low budget movies in New York City when one day, the FBI suddenly comes calling and they have a unique assignment for him.  They would like for him to stage the fake murder of a mobster (Jerry Orbach) whom they recently arrested and will make a witness.  So Rollie takes on this assignment and everything goes as planned.....or DOES it? :o Suddenly the Feds are after HIM and the NYPD is on the trail too lead by Detective Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy).  And what results is a fun...

The saga of The Sully Clan and their adventures on the far off planet of Pandora continues with this third entry in Oscar-winning director James Cameron's ongoing franchise which started in 2009 with Avatar....but do we still care? :p Well according to recent box office returns, we certainly do and much of that might due to the continued spectacle of seeing these characters fly and swim and now fight fire on-screen.  The fire apparently comes from a new threat who's the leader of an ash tribe named Varang (Oona Chaplin) and as she starts to align with Colonel Quarytch (S...

From acclaimed director Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems, Good Time) comes yet another intense thriller....sort of....THIS time focusing on the trevails of Marty Mouser (Oscar-nominee Timothee Chalamet) who's an aspiring table tennis player working his way up the tournament circuit in the early 1950's.  Of course, his journey towards attempting to become a world-class ping pong athlete becomes increasingly complicated as Marty is so impulsive and selfish that he starts to get in his own way.  What results is a high-wire character study featuring an array of eccentric and/or dangerour characters whom Marty encounters along the way pl...

Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) is a hot-shot young trumpet player leading his own jazz quintet who loves the music and has a way with the ladies but can't figure out how to reconcile those two things.  He's also dating two women (Joie Lee, Cynda Williams) at the same time and can't commit to either of them.  He has also a manager (Spike Lee) who's a gambling addict and a saxophonist band-mate (Wesley Snipes) who has developed a rivalry with him.  So where does he go from here?  In this sprawling romantic musical drama, we follow his complicated story and hear...

Rest In Peace Rob Reiner

Commemorating not only the 35th Anniversary of an iconic adaptation of the popular Stephen King novel of the same name but the recent tragic loss of its director Rob Reiner who was in the middle of a sterling run of instant classics (When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, Stand By Me) at the time of this film's release.  It's the simple story of fictional best-selling author Paul Sheldon (Oscar-nominee James Caan) who gets severely injured and incapacitated after accidently driving off of a snow road o...

What happens when you take two comedy legends and place them in prison?? :o  Well in this particular case, in their second of four collaborations, you have Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles) paired up with Richard Pryor (Bustin Loose, Brewster's Millions, Blue Collar) paired up as two out-of-work-actors who end up in the wrong place and the wrong time and are convicted of a bank heist which they did not commit.  As a result, they are both sent to a southwestern prison where they team up with other prisoners to eventually escape via th...

Legendary auteur Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Time Bandits, The Fisher King, Monty Python & the Holy Grail) directs this time-bending sci-fi thriller focusing on one man's unique journey to the past to save the future.  That man is James Cole (Bruce Willis) who is currently living in a dystopian 2035 so ravaged by disease that no humans can actually live on the surface of the Earth so he has been tasked by scientists to travel back to the 1990's in Philadelphia to pinpoint the very beginning of a fatal virus which would eventually spread and wipe out most of the Earth's population.  As...

Throughout his storied career, the legendary Steven Soderbergh has directed a wide array of highly acclaimed films and/or hits (Out of Sight, Ocean's 11, Magic Mike, Black Bag, Logan Lucky, Contagion, Sex, Lies, & Videotape) and THIS is the film which earned him his only Oscar for Best Director in 2000.  This was actually one of two films (the other being Erin Brockovich) which he was nominated for in 2000 which turned out to be a TRULY stellar year for him!  It's a sprawling story about the American "War on Drugs" during the late '90's, focusing on several different characters on di...

He'll Save Every One Of Us....

Yes it's the story of Flash Gordon (Sam Jones), the fictitious quarterback of the New York Jets who inadverdently travels into deep space with intrepid travel agent Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) and crazy-but-misunderstood scientest Dr. Hans Zarkov).  They land on the mysterious planet of Mongo which is ruled by the vicious Emperor Ming (Max von Sydow) who intends to destroy Earth. :o And together, they embark on a crazy sci-fi adventure to try to save their home planet while also encountering various local leaders who may OR may not b...

"Following the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world." 

That's the official IMDB description for this Oscar-nominated documentary but does that even really describe it?  Well.....sort of.  The amateur filmmaker described is likely Theirry Guetta, a French clothing shop-owner in Los Angeles who never goes anywhere without his camera and we initially seem to follow him as he takes a very strong interest in graffiti artists.  So he starts to film various reknowned streets artists in action including Shephard Fairey, Space Inva...

Sixteen years after the previous film (The Godfather Part II) in this saga won him Oscars for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture...Oscar-winning legend Francis Ford Coppola (Apocolypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Conversation) returned to both co-write and direct this final entry in the beloved sage of The Corleone Family.  And this time around even though the film was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, it didn't win any.....and the consensus was that it was below the quality for the first two despite including acclaimed performances by its three main stars including Al Pacino (w...

In honor of its upcoming 30th Anniversary next month, here is our newly remastered (with additional content) review of one of The Greatest Films Ever!

“Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner….” – Neil McCauley, 1995

And that’s the apparent thesis for one of the most beloved films of the past thirty years spoken by living legend Robert DeNiro sitting across from fellow living legend Al Pacino.  Or is it really the main theme of the movie...

In 1930's Mississippi, three escaped convicts go on the run into the country to find freedom and treasure - they are Everett (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and along the way, they have a variety of adventures encountering any number of interesting characters.  LOOSELY based on Homer's The Odyssey, this was co-written and directed by the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, Fargo, No Country for Old Men) and unexpectedly became their biggest hit at the time.  Not only that but the bluegrass soundtrack produced by T-Bone Burnett became a surprise smash.  So let's hit the...

Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is a tomboyish FBI agent who is tasked with having to infiltrate the Miss United States beauty pageant as a contestant (Miss New Jersey) in order to prevent the threat of a bomb attack from a mysterious terrorist.....and HILARITY ensues! :)  Actually in this case it did as twenty-five years ago, this became a surprise comedy blockbuster and pretty much cemented the since-then Oscar-winning Sandra Bullock as one of our most popular movie starts in the decades since.  And she doesn't do it alone either: the stacked cast includes Benjamin Bratt, Michael Caine, Candace Bergen, an...

Based upon the 1982 Stephen King sci-fi novel of the same name, this dystopian action thriller takes place in a not-too-distant-future where just a few select corporations run everything and one of them controls most of the entertainment, including THE most popular show on TV, "The Running Man."  Our beleaguered hero Ben Richards (Glenn Powell) enlists for this high-stakes reality show which involves him...you guessed it....on the run from various "hunters" who are seeking out him with plans to kill him, anywhere in the country.  Directed by acclaimed genre filmmaker Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, Sc...

Oscar-Winning legend Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon, Taxi Driver, The Departed) directs this epic tale about The Rise and Fall of the Mob in Las Vegas, based on true events.  It's the story of how mafia handicapper Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) took over the Tangiers casino on The Strip and helped bring it to unprecendented sucess, helped by mafia enforcer Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci).  He falls in love with a local hustler named Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) and over time, their relationship deteriorates as does his handle on many crazy things being done by Nicky....and ev...

Director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, Prey) returns to the Universe of the the Predator with an interesting new take.....what if we embarked on a hunting adventure with the Predator itself as the main protagonist?  Actually the Predators are officially know as "Yautja" species and this particular Yautja is the runt of his clan named Dek played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatan.  After some unexpected family turmoil on his home planet, he is inadvertently whisked away to a very dangerous planet named Genna where he has decided to embark on his first hunt for a very rare creature.  Along the way, he...

This is the true story of how a special investigative unit (called "Spotlight") of the Boston Globe spent upwards of almost two years working to uncover a massive scandal developing within the Catholic Church involving accusations of priests who were molesting children....and the systemic cover-up to protect those priests.  And it was not only an important story but highly acclaimed to the point where this would win the Oscar for Best Picture that year.  Directed by Tom McCarthy (The Visitor, The Station Agent, Stillwater), it also features an all-star cast lead by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Li...

Thirty years ago this November, a brand new James Bond took the world by storm and he was played by Pierce Brosnan.  Only eight years after the former television star of "Remington Steele" was initially set to take on the role but then couldn't because of unexpected issues with his former network, a man who seemed born to play 007 was finally able to take on the role.  And this time around, Bond had a new actress playing his boss M, none other than Oscar-winner Dame Judi Dench.  Not only that, but also some promising new villains played by Sean Bea...