The Ballad of Cable Hogue Review

A smart director knows when he has pushed the limits far enough in one direction and needs to find a new approach and come at us with something altogether different and fresh. To be sure Sam Peckinpah did push the limits to the very outer edges and much more in terms of violence and bloodshed…

Out of the Past Review

If the Maltese Falcon is to be considered the grandfather of the Film Noir genre, which many have claimed it to be over the years, then ‘Out of the Past’ is definitely the genre’s chief biological father. For when you break down this movie to its basic D.N.A components, you see a perfect and incriminating…

The Big Heat Review

The first thing we see in ‘The Big Heat’ is a pistol being loaded behind the desk of Officer Tom Duncan. Duncan, a dirty cop on the payroll of Mike Lagana, the crooked mobster who has a strangle hold on the city he works for, has finally reached his breaking point. We hear the report…

The Blues Brothers Review

Here's the plot breakdown for the unlucky (or perhaps I should say lucky since you will get to experience this for the first time still) few of you who have not seen this movie. Jake & Elwood Blues are faced with a serious dilemma when they find out that the orphanage they grew up in…

Leap of Faith Review

Jonas Nightengale is a traveling evangelist, who goes from town to town conning people out of their money in return for his dog and pony Jesus show. One fateful day his tour bus breaks down in a sleepy Kansas town in the middle of a bad drought. Not being one to forgo any opportunity to…

Safety Not Guaranteed Review

Darius, a young fresh faced intern at a large upscale Seattle magazine, along with her fellow intern, a college student and very serious young Indian teenage named Arnau, volunteers to go help Jeff, a senior writer at their publication, find the man who submitted the above classified ad in order to do a humorous and…

Last Train To Memphis & Careless Love (Box Set) Review

In Peter Guralnick’s 1994 book ‘Last Train to Memphis’ (The Rise of Elvis Presley) and his 1999 follow up ‘Careless Love’ (The Unmaking of Elvis Presley) a post mortem rescue mission is attempted on the humanity of one Elvis Aaron Presley. Elvis Presley died a full twelve years before this writer was even born, and…

Looper Review

Along with being a pretty enjoyable Sci-Fi suspense picture, I have the weird duty to report that 2012’s ‘Looper’ may be the overall best movie about mass suicide and attempted child murder that I’ve ever seen. Not that I have seen that many films like this mind you, nor do I particularly hope the genre…

Barbed Wire City Review

Does the wrestling world really need another documentary on the late promotion known as Extreme Championship Wrestling? (1993-2001) I don’t know man, I don’t know. All I can say here is that this documentary managed not to bore me, and for the most part did a good job with what it had to tell the…

The Third Man Review

As a big fan of classic film noir it is to my utter embarrassment to have to admit to not having until now, finally seen ‘The Third Man’ in its entirety. The final motivating factor that pushed me over the edge was a statement written by my movie reviewing hero, the recently deceased Roger Ebert,…