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I love John Woo - I was lucky enough to see an early sneak screening of THE KILLER back in the day (1988) & I was so impressed with how well made the film was & the brilliant action choreography. Woo has made many great action films, some good ones and a few turkeys. This is one of the "holiday" turkeys. Ok, the gimmick of barely any dialogue - fine, you wanna try for that? Good on ya. And a revenge flick can be very satisfying but this one is so by the book, with every single trope you have ever seen that it actually becomes boring & even comical. Plus I haven't seen such a fake, phony cartoonish set of bad guys since DEATH WISH 3 - where a ridiculous fake "punk street gang" battled Charles Bronson. Here our broken, enraged father - called Godlock - get it - sorta close to God Like - wow, a stoned freshman would think that was totally cool, man - anyhoo, the Latino gang he is after in this breathes not one breath of reality - every stock cliche is there so by the end, you don't even care that Woo knows how to place a camera during a gunfight. But there IS a Christmas theme so you can always show it to Grandma next holiday season & all have a good chuckle! Ho Ho Ho!

There is something about this simple story that truly packs a punch. Jeremy Irons leading a trio of Polish workers to renovate a London townhouse. While they are working in London, the Soviets call martial law on Poland and since the men don't speak a word of English, Irons desperately tries to keep the international news away from the men. He is determined to finish the job even as problems arise and makes the money run out quicker than he expected. Irons gives a terrific performance - his character battling the deep anxiety and betrayal he feels as he hides the news of the violence and strife hitting their homeland. The scenes where Irons is reduced to shoplifting in the local grocery store are very well done and the feeling of dread that grows is palpable. I can see how this film may not be for everyone, but I am a big admirer of MOONLIGHTING.

INCIDENT IN SAN FRANCISCO is a pretty gritty 70's television movie that made quite an impression on me when I was only 10. Yes, fairly heady stuff back then for a kid but I was already above my age, etc. & I was completely pulled in by the innocent man/good Samaritan being falsely accused of murder. Richard Kiley gives an excellent performance as does Christopher Connelly - who I always liked & sadly died of lung cancer at 47 - the flick is expertly directed by TV veteran Don Medford, who directed multiple episodes of such classics as THE FUGITIVE and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. The rest of the supporting cast is filled with such terrific actors like John Marley, Leslie Nielsen, Claudia McNeal & Dean Jagger.

This film isn't for everyone but sadly school shootings have become a tragic part of America - so it was just a matter of time before films were made about them (ELEPHANT, FALLOUT, MASS, RUDDERLESS, etc) But the lead performance by Isabel May is terrific - she is a very gifted actress and she carries this film - I was also impressed with her superb work in the limited series 1883 w/ Sam Elliott, a prequel to "Yellowstone". The rest of the cast is quite good, even the late great Treat Williams is top notch in his scenes as the overwhelmed sheriff arriving at the school shooting as is Thomas Jane and Radha Mitchell. The film is well directed and it is tense, disturbing and compelling.

This is a great cast top to bottom - with some of my favorite actors. I know it's a remake of a French film and the director Guillaume Canet made one of my all time favorite thrillers TELL NO ONE (2006). And Canet had James Gray help him with the American adaptation of BLOOD TIES and I loved Gray's THE LOST CITY OF Z. But even with Clive Owen and Billy Crudup as battling brothers and a supporting cast with James Caan, Lili Taylor, Mila Kunis, Noah Emmerich, Griffin Dunne, Marion Cotillard, etc. None of them can get through the muddled script that drowns in cliches. Good brother vs bad brother, fallen women looking for redemption, ex-cons who can't stay on the straight & narrow, etc. Set in 1974, the film also jams 70's music down your throat (I've never heard Janis Ian's "At 17" used so strangely before). The film has some well acted scenes, but overall, you've seen it all before.

CHRYSTAL is a very well made low budget rural drama with a fine cast. The multi-talented Ray McKinnon wrote, directed, produced and co-stars in the film. Ive been a fan of his work for many years (his TV series RECTIFY is incredible - highly recommend it as it also draws on many of the same themes - forgiveness, tragedy, redemption, etc.) Ray's late wife Lisa Blount is superb as the damaged title character in CHRYSTAL. She died way too young of cancer in her early fifties. I'm so glad this film was made to show her talents - the scene where she sings on the porch is amazing. Billy Bob Thornton delivers another solid performance - I'm such a fan of his - from SLING BLADE to MONSTER'S BALL to A SIMPLE PLAN to the FARGO TV series - but he is heartbreaking as Chrystal's husband Joe. The supporting cast is top notch - Harry Dean Stanton, Walton Goggins, Johnny Galecki, Grace Zabriskie and even thought the singer/songwriter James Intveld does a fine job as the police officer Charley.

My movie group is a huge fan of the first SNAKE EATER - which has to be seen to be believed but we got our hands on the third installment and watched it tonight and we were howling with laughter. Lamas again with perfect hair and dead eyes and robotic line readings. A stuntman given a chance to be his sidekick "Cowboy" gives one of the worst uncomfortable performances on camera we've ever seen - he does everything but stare directly into the camera. The outlaw biker gang is one of those movie biker gangs - so not real, so cartoonish that it is unintentionally hilarious. The former pro wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow gives it his all as Goose - sadly he was dead by the age of 45 after a drug overdose. The acting is so lame, the fight scenes under rehearsed, the dialogue so bad it is hysterical - everything you want in a bad movie! Highly recommended to watch with pals and booze and weed.

Hugo Haas had a fascinating life - a top actor in his native Czech Republic, he lost everything when the Nazis took over. He escaped just in time but he lost many relatives in the concentration camps. Coming to America, he established himself as a working character actor throughout the 1940s but in the early 50s Haas started making films himself - they usually were looked down upon by the critics of the day but a few did very good box office - like PICK UP. The film is now regarded as a terrific little noir and Haas is good as well as the femme fatale Beverly Michaels. If you enjoyed PICK UP, check out some of Haas' other films THE GIRL ON THE BRIDGE, BAIT, THE OTHER WOMAN, HIT & RUN, HOLD BACK TOMORROW, etc. Yes, they are low budget but they are always interesting and filled with good performances.

Director Howard Hawks & star Cary Grant collaborated on one of the greatest comedies ever made with HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940). They liked working together and this 1952 comedy is very entertaining and the strong cast totally delivers. Some of the broad humor is a bit dated but over all Cary Grant gives it his all as does the wonderful Ginger Rogers. The superb supporting cast includes Charles Coburn, Hugh Marlowe and of course Marilyn Monroe at her most voluptuous. (The very next year she would make GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES with Mr. Hawks.) Three legendary writers - Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and I. A. L. Diamond - worked on the screenplay and there are certainly many funny scenes and verbal jokes throughout.

The fact that Ben Affleck made two excellent Boston crime films (this and THE TOWN) is very impressive and they make a hell of a great double feature. I am a big fan of Dennis Lehane - who wrote the novel the film is based on - and the screen adaptation is top notch. Casey Affleck is terrific as is the rest of the cast - with big shout outs to Amy Ryan, Titus Welliver & Amy Madigan for hitting their scenes out of the park. The film really captures the local flavor of this working class, struggling neighborhood & the early scene when Affleck & Monaghan go the run down sleazy bar The Filmore to ask questions - this scene is perfect. The way the sense of dread and danger slowly builds in the scene is masterful. I've seen this film quite a few times and each time, it only gets better. Highly recommended.

Even though Michael Imperioli tries his hardest, the screenplay & the direction are so bad that he ends up just shuffling instead of dealing. It doesn't help that the flashback scenes to when Stu was little have not one ounce of 1966 in it - plus the kid actor playing Stu is not very good - all you see his him acting, the Dad acting, you don't believe any of it, none of it seems real. And knowing about the real Stu Unger makes you even more disappointed with the film. His real story is tragic and fascinating, while this film is just lifeless and by the numbers. The wardrobe, the Venetian blinds lighting, the forced "casino pop songs" it all screams student film. I feel bad for Michael Nouri - they gave him nothing to play but cliches.

YOU PEOPLE is a mess. Trying hard to be a GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER meets MEET THE PARENTS for the 21st Century but aside from a sharp joke here and there, the film is filled with one note characters behaving so stupidly and then changing their ways at the last minute because it is the end of the movie & time to wrap this crap up & tack on a "happy ending". It's a shame because the cast is full of talented people but the script is terrible. They show Ezra (Jonah Hill) being quick and smart and funny on a podcast & then whenever he needs to talk to his boss or his prospective in-laws he becomes an absolute idiot. Why? Because Hill & Barris think people saying the absolute wrong thing at the wrong time is hilarious - they must because they use this trope like 8 or 9 times. London, who plays Hill's girlfriend, is wonderful but again, the script makes her a character with no dimension. Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives it her all but sadly, it's so unbelievable how her character behaves over & over and instead of cringe-inducing laughs, it's all just cringe-inducing.

I liked the acting on Rizzoli and Isles - not jut the two leads but the supporting cast as well, especially Bruce McGill, one of my all time favorite character actors. If you have never seen the film The Insider, do yourself a favor & watch it - McGill has a courtroom scene that is absolutely brilliant!!!!! Sometimes the writing & plot structure on this show is a bit sloppy, but Angie Harmon & Sasha Alexander are great together!! I have also read a few of the novels by Tess Gerritsen that this television series is based on & they are quite good. Of course anytime you adapt a book series to Tv things have to change but overall, the TV show captures the spirit on the characters.

The Robb White novel DEATH WATCH is excellent as is the 1974 TV movie SAVAGES - which it is based on. That gritty TV movie of the week features a great performance from Andy Griffith as the ruthless big game hunter. He is cast against type & totally delivers. Sam Bottoms is terrific as the young man who is his guide. But this 2014 feature film version is all over the place & over explains everything and keeps nudging the audience, "get it? Ya get it?" Yeah, we GET it. Douglas gives it all & he is fine but the lead here Jeremy Irvine is rather dead-eyed & lifeless (and this is BEFORE the sun-stroke)

We enjoyed this episode! We are enjoying the new fresh feeling to Season 5. Feels more like a family drama than the tired will they or won't they Trace/Abby on again/off again romance, which was tiresome and cliched. Always found Jesse Metcalfe a one note "pretty boy". But the O'Brien Family is a terrific bunch of characters - sibling rivalries, father & daughter trying to work together, marriages, business success & failures, little family moments that cut through the heart and some actual comedy. The banter between Abby & Evan was great!

This is a truly awful movie - not even SO bad that it is good - just BAD. Obviously Bruce Willis will now take a paycheck NO matter what the project is. The "script" is just every bad action cliche that there ever was and another dead-eyed robotic "performance" from Jesse Metcalfe.

LONDON BOULEVARD came & went but it is filled with terrific performances - not only Colin Farrell & Keira Knightley ("Sometimes they come over the walls") but the entire supporting cast is incredible - Stephen Graham, Ray Winstone, Ben Chaplin and David Thewlis knocks his scenes out of the park. Yes, you've seen this story before - mate out of prison, wants to try and live the straight life, not go back to prison, etc. But aside from the cliches, it all works and the compelling acting and strong scenes make for a helluva film. Highly recommended.

James Garner is perfect in this Western comedy. This film was the very first project Garner picked for his production company, Cherokee Productions. The clever, humorous script was written by the eclectic screenwriter William Bowers (who wrote everything from the excellent noir THE WEB to the gritty Gregory Peck western THE GUNFIGHTER). Garner is joined by the wonderful Joan Hackett (who sadly died way too young from cancer at the age of 49). They are joined by a top notch supporting cast of Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, Kathleen Freeman, Jack Elam, HenryJones, Harry Morgan, etc. Highly recommended.

A very well done noir with terrific performances - esp. Richard Widmark's film debut as the dangerous, slimy Tommy Udo. A great Ben Hecht/Charles Lederer script & Henry Hathaway's expert directing make the film come together in an entertaining, taut enjoyable thriller. Victor Mature is very good in this - when I was a kid the first things I saw him in were the "epics" like Samson & Delilah and I always found Mature wooden and not much of an actor. But his work in this and in other noir like Cry of the City and I Wake Up Screaming shows Mature was a very capable, talented actor

Who dat! I must explain that my family moved around a bit so when I was 8 years old and finally getting into football, I looked around for a NFL team to root for. Since I had lived in New England, Ohio and D.C. - I had no allegiance to those local teams but then I was lucky enough to meet Archie Manning in person (up in D.C.). He was so nice and gracious and asked me to root for the Saints so I said yes! Little did I know I was in for decades of heartache but I love die-hard loyal fans and Ive always rooted for them. So in 1969 when this film came out with Charlotn Heston as a Saints football player, I couldn't wait to see it. My parents heard was too "adult" for me so I had to wait until 1970 and see it on TV. Meh. It was rather plodding, the acting and the cast is good and it was directed by the eclectic Tom Gries (who had also directed Heston the year before in the excellent Western, WILL PENNY). It's exciting to see Tulane Stadium and other members of the 1968 Saints, but Billy Kilmer, the then Saints QB and would go on & play for the Washington team said "Heston was too damn skinny to be a NFL QB"

I was a big fan of ONCE - I did not see BEGIN AGAIN when it first came out and only recently watched it and I loved it. One must be in the right mood for this winning, open hearted film - it can be easily passed over as sappy or sentimental but I thought the story of two damaged people meeting each other at just the right time - to be there to help one another - is very well done and Knightley and Ruffalo are wonderful together. But what really makes the whole package work is the fantastic songs - many people were involved with the writing of the music - including Carney the writer-director but the main person behind the songs is Gregg Alexander - a very underrated, very talented musician who was the band The New Radicals in the 90's. He has a way of writing catchy melodies and Lost Stars is a marvelous song - I think my fav scene though is when they are on the rooftop and crank out that song w/ Ruffalo jamming with his daughter. Brought a smile and a tear. I'm a sucker for Carney's films because I also loved SING STREET!

THE GETAWAY is a very entertaining heist action film - I hadn't seen it in years & just watched it again. McQueen is terrific as Doc McCoy & the movie has a strong 1970's supporting cast - Dub Taylor, Sally Struthers, Bo Hopkins, Slim Pickens and the one & only Al Leitteiri (who the same year would appear as the gangster Virgil "The Turk" Sollozo in THE GODFATHER - tragically he would die from a massive heart attack at the age of 47). Ali McGraw is fine, she certainly has chemistry with McQueen (seeing how she left her husband legendary producer Robert Evans for Steve during the filming, it makes sense). McGraw was a model and not much of an actress but she certainly doesn't take away from the film. Based on the novel by superb crime writer Jim Thompson, Walter Hill did a solid job adapting it and Peckinpah (whose infamous drinking was supposedly out of control while making this) delivers an compelling chase flick with some kick ass action scenes.

The original was everything this tired remake tried to be - clever, real, insightful, darkly funny, uncomfortable, human. So please see the original film. It truly captured what a marriage is like that now has a crack in the foundation. They never should have made this flick. If Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus wanted to make a comedy about a vacation gone wrong, go ahead. But leave FORCE MAJEURE alone.

Elisabeth Moss & Michael Stuhlbarg are terrific actors & deliver very strong performances in this uneven film. The script is all over the place, the tone if off and the film can't decide if it wants to be an edgy biopic or another Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? I'm a big fan of Shirley Jackson's writing & wanted to like this movie but found it so sloppily made and un-involving, it was a disappointment.

There are quite a few problems with New York, New York, but I truly feel the good outweighs the bad. The opening scene of V-J Day is simply stunning, the camera work, the energy, the big band music and DeNiro hitting on Liza Minelli. DeNiro has amazing moments as Jimmy Doyle and never tries to shy away from how damaged and messed up this character is - like many brilliant musicians who only felt safe while playing, Doyle is lost when not playing his sax. He is selfish, petty & yet you still believe Francine and him together as a couple (at first). Minelli is terrific in this film - the 70's & early 80's were quite a time for her - between Cabaret, this, Tell Me You Love Me, Junie Moon & Arthur - she was in a wonderful place as a film actress. Her scenes trying to figure Jimmy out are quite raw and real. But the trump star of the film is the MUSIC. What a soundtrack. Aside from the iconic title song, the music is magnificent throughout - plus I love seeing such veteran character actors as Dick Miller, Barry Primus, Lionel Stander & Mary Kay Place in the movie. I can see how this might not be for everyone, but I really like this film.