Retrospectives

Thomas Newman is my all-time favorite film composer. I love his scores for Cinderella Man, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Road to Perdition. I don’t know a lot about music theory, but I do know that Newman’s scores…

After a recent rewatch of The Amazing Spider-Man, I have decided that, while I think Tom Holland is still the best Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield may be on the same level. The Amazing Spider-Man, which hit the big screen ten…

Thirty years ago, A League of Their Own hit theaters. Starring Geena Davis, Madonna, and Tom Hanks, it told the true story of the AAGBPL, an all-female baseball league that played in the lieu of…

That Touch of Mink is essentially a big euphemism. In the waning days of the Hays Code — the morality guidelines ruling over Hollywood from 1934 to 1968 — That Touch of Mink tiptoed around the rules like…

Living in Gotham City isn’t the best gig in the world. Living in Gotham City with Batman and Robin running around destroying half the city in the name of “justice”? That’s nearly unbearable. It’s like…

The most critical scene of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan comes very early in the film. It is Admiral James Kirk’s birthday, and he is spending his time in his room surrounded by a collection…

I’m on a Jack Ryan kick lately and nothing satisfies my craving more than Harrison Ford in that role. Patriot Games is the first of two Jack Ryan adventures that Ford embarks on. The second, Clear…

Harrison Ford only starred in two Jack Ryan films — Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger — but he defined the character with those performances. Ryan wasn’t a spring chicken in military intelligence, but he certainly was…

Christopher Nolan’s earlier films were not as big as they should have been. Films like Memento and Insomnia should have had the cultural impact that Inception or The Dark Knight had, but Nolan just hadn’t hit his stride in the public consciousness yet.…

The best stories are universal. Regardless of the period it takes place in, the language, and the culture, there is something or someone for the audience to understand as their own. In 2002, the indie…

Strangely, About a Boy strays from the romance category and embraces a whole catalog of love. The Weitz brothers — Paul and Chris Weitz — don’t limit the film to the romantic side of love, a…

I was in an ideal unbiased position to assess Conan the Barbarian on its 40th anniversary. I somehow hadn’t seen it before now. When I revealed this to a friend he reacted with, “Dear god man,…

Volcanoes are probably my worst fear. I watched Dante’s Peak and was scared, so I don’t know why I was so eager to jump into Volcano. I had no need to worry though, as Volcano was about the most ridiculous…

John Wayne and James Stewart were two of the defining actors of Westerns in the mid-20th century. Movies like The Searchers, Winchester ’73, and, of course, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are still well-received films that are…

The Cabin in the Woods is probably my most-watched film of all time by now. It’s the perfect film for any occasion. There’s so much that makes it rewatchable every year, and as time goes…

This April we “celebrated” the 20th anniversary of the steaming heap of space garbage that is, Jason X. In my opinion, this film is the worst in the Friday the 13th franchise. Jason X was…

I refuse to watch the Broadway musical Newsies because I have a strong loyalty to the 1992 Disney film version of the production starring Christian Bale. Why do I love it so much? The numbers are catchy,…

Singin’ in the Rain is a go-to movie for me. I reach for it whenever I want something familiar and fun. The comedy holds up upon repeated viewings (and, in fact, seems to grow funnier),…

Brad Pitt’s performance in The Devil’s Own is good. I think his Irish accent is melodious and I enjoy listening to it. Not being Irish myself, I can’t speak to the authenticity of it, but I…

The Lawnmower Man isn’t the most popular sci-fi film ever made in the 90s. It’s certainly a weird one. Yet, it’s strangely relevant to 2022 and the wonders of modern technology. The Lawnmower Man is about Jobe…

In 2002, the national sense of security and anxiety was at an all-time high in the aftermath of 9/11. Panic Room, a cerebral thriller with a twist on the home invasion genre, was released to…

Before watching Hart’s War, I had read no summary of the movie. I knew it took place in World War II and had Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. Other than that, I was completely in the dark.…

One of my biggest fears is volcanoes and Dante’s Peak accentuates that fact. This is generally pretty irrational, considering I live in the Intermountain West (don’t bring up Yellowstone), yet the fear has persisted my…

As an adult, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind. Work, marriage, kids, etc., can eat up our day before we know it’s gone. Sometimes we need a proverbial kick in the…

I am the youngest of three older sisters, so you can imagine the emotions that ran rampant in our household. I vividly remember watching A Walk to Remember with my sisters several times throughout my 2000s…

I only recently saw Black Hawk Down for the first time, but I was well aware of the history behind the film and knew what I was getting into. Despite the minor corniness you get…

It’s hard to imagine a movie that has more 90s hip-hop nostalgia than Juice. It was the golden age for movies like it, with Boyz n the Hood in 1991 and Menace II Society in…

I had a choice between writing a retrospective on David Lynch’s haunting Lost Highway, or this embarrassing 1992 comedy starring Sylvester Stallone and Estelle Getty. Every reasonable cineaste would naturally choose the former. One movie…

JFK has its share of flaws. Director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam veteran, displays his strong disdain for the government throughout the film. Blinded by this, some of the information included in the film is incorrect and some…

I’m probably writing this article prematurely. On my reading list, I have somewhere — beneath hundreds of other books I promised myself I would read one day — Kevin Farley’s supposedly touching memoir about his…