The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

The Middle Earth adventures of ‘Bilbo’ and The Dwarves continue in this next installment of The Hobbit Trilogy. After an unexpected (and interesting) flashback for an ‘Opening Scene’ (keep your eyes peeled for an amusing and familiar ‘wink wink’ cameo from director Peter Jackson), the action picks up right where ‘An Unexpected Journey’ left off, […]

The Last Days on Mars (2013)

This modestly budgeted (around $12 milion) sci-fi thriller wears it’s inspirations and influences clearly on it’s space-suit sleeve. Film aficionado’s (aka Geeks) will readily pick up on the nods to, and ideas from, such seminal science fiction classics like Alien (1979), The Thing (1982), Aliens (1986) and ‘Sunshine’ (2007). ‘Aliens’, especially, stood out as a […]

The Purge (2013)

Ethan Hawke is one of those actors that I don’t actively consider when I think ‘movies’, but whenever he turns up, going back to his unsuccessful sci-fi debut in ‘Explorers’ (1985), I like what he’s putting out. Lately, Hawke has become something of a growing fixture in the ‘genre’ market, with flicks like ‘Daybreakers’ (2009) […]

Boardwalk Empire (2013)

Boardwalk Empire Season 4, Episode 12: ‘Farewell Daddy Blues’ was a powerful and well-constructed season ‘closer’, with the near-operatic death of one particular character actually making me pause to see if that was ACTUALLY a feeling of ‘choked up’ that I was maybe kinda sorta feeling (it was). HBO knows their shit and I highly […]

Dead Bang (1989)

Ok, Dear Reader…it’s Confession Time. For the last little while, I’ve been maybe, kinda, sorta a lil bit addicted to ‘Miami Vice’. That’s right…’Miami Vice’, the vapid, cheese-smothered yet strangely ground-breaking TV series that ran from ’84-’90, and pretty much defined the mid-late 80s. As a kid, my folks, terrific people that they are, did […]

Europa Report (2013)

Well, that WAS impressive. Again, a lack of forewarning, foreshadowing, fore…something or another, served me well. The first and really only things that I had heard, in advance, was that this low-budget ‘found footage’ story of a doomed mission to one of Jupiter’s moons (guess which one) was a curious sideproject for South African actor […]

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

This sequel to the 2011 ‘surprise hit’ original is a good follow-up, but suffers from not being anywhere near as concise as it could’ve/should’ve been. It seems to me that director Alan Taylor, on his first foray into movies after a lengthy and distinguished career directing for companies like HBO, is more comfortable helming portions […]

Ender’s Game (2013)

Interesting. I don’t think that I’ve ever had it happen where I’m about equally ‘Meh’ about a film adaptation as I am about the original source material. For a good chunk of time, I’d heard about Bigoted Asshole Orson Scott Card’s ‘epic’ sci-fi book series, with the first novel ‘Ender’s Game’ being hailed as some […]

The Counselor (2013)

Amazing. (Shakes head slowly…and sadly). Fellow Cinephiles! The Day has come! The Day in which I must acknowledge that one of my absolutely favorite directors, Sir Ridley Scott, has FINALLY shat out a legitimately BAD movie. Up until this point, G.I.Jane (1997) was easily Scott’s worst flick (in my humble opinion), but this one has […]

The Fury (1978)

I’m an admiring fan of Brian DePalma, and have seen many of his flicks. THE GREAT: ‘Carrie’ (1976), ‘The Untouchables’ (1987), ‘Carlito’s Way’ (1993), THE GOOD: ‘Mission Impossible (1996), ‘Snake Eyes’ (1998). THE NOT SO GOOD: ‘Mission to Mars’ (2000),’The Black Dahlia’ (2006), among others. Somewhere along the way, this particular flick never registered with […]