Every year I make a compilation of my favorite dialogue from that year’s films. Writer-director Don Roos’ audacious comedy “The Opposite of Sex” would fill the list and then some. It’s a film filled with some of the most biting and wittiest dialogue I have heard in some time. Read the rest of this entry »

After being discharged from the local police force, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) travels to Texas with his girlfriend Maggie (Kari Wuhrer) to face down his demons and visit an old friend. Along the way, however, Jim & Maggie picks up a demented hitchhiker who has diabolical plans for the duo Read the rest of this entry »

Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest of their crew continue to battle the machines that have enslaved the human race in the Matrix. As their quest unfolds, Neo learns more about his super-heroic abilities, including the ability to see the codes of the people and things around him. Simultaneously, now, more humans are waking up out of the Matrix and attempting to live in the real world Read the rest of this entry »

A cautionary tale for men who can’t keep it in their pants, Derailed feels like yesterday’s news. Despite strong performances and a current of urgency, this contemporary thriller derails even before it leaves the station. Anyone who sat through Unfaithful Attraction or a decade worth of Law and Order will beat the plot to the punch. Read the rest of this entry »

Tales of family disintegration have been around since man first threw Mammoth blood on a cave wall. This devolution has been the basis of great literature, inspiring everyone from Shakespeare to Sontag. Dysfunctional families serve as reminders how fragile and vulnerable love and relationships can be, and their presence in movies allow us to look into the window without fear. Read the rest of this entry »

“Clay Pigeons” takes place in small Montana town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. That’s why it should come as a no surprise to Clay (Joaquin Phoenix) when his best friend accuses him of having an affair with his wife. Read the rest of this entry »

You know you’ve reached a new plateau in maturity when Hollywood starts remaking movies that were popular when you were young. Excuse me, younger. That trend, everything old is new again, continues with the make over of 1979’s The Amityville Horror, a marginal shocker which proved there is no such thing as a good deal in real estate.
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It’s Christmas in Los Angeles, and even though the weather outside isn’t frightful, what’s going on inside the sparkling Nakatomi high rise is downright scary. A group of International terrorists have taken over a high profile high rise in Century City, and there’s only one man who can stop them. He’s New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis), who becomes a reluctant hero when terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his group take over the building. Poor McClane. Read the rest of this entry »

I like it when Woody Allen is in a playful mood. While I enjoy all of his films, I like the ones that make me smile. “Curse of the Jade Scorpion” made me smile. It wasn’t one of those knee- slapping smiles, but a smile nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »

Infinitely better than “Pac Man: Deadly Fruit of the Amazon,” the latest “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” film “Cradle of Life” still feels like a souped-up version of the popular video game. This testosterone-heavy action-adventure is a big improvement over the first film, but that’s more of a left-handed compliment than an endorsement. Read the rest of this entry »

Generally speaking, with the exception of “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” and those battery- operated singing bass wall plaques, fish are not funny. Maybe it’s because they spend so much time in school. Or maybe it’s because we just don’t understand fish humor.
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While Frodo & Sam continue to approach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring, unaware of the path Gollum is leading them, the former Fellowship aid Rohan & Gondor in a great battle in the Pelennor Fields, Minas Tirith and the Black Gates as Sauron wages his last war against Middle-Earth. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer, 1975: in a tight blue-collar Boston neighborhood, three kids are playing when one is abducted and sexually abused for several days. Jump ahead: the victim, Dave, is haunted by memories and protective of his own son. Jimmy’s an ex-con, father of three Read the rest of this entry »