Not all sports stories are inspirational but most of them are, or try to be, and some of the best have messages or statements about life that transcend their sporting tales. When the Game Stands Tall attempts to be one of […]
Continue reading »Month: August 2014
The Expendables 3 (2014) ☆ ☆
I find it difficult to properly review a movie like this. For one thing, this is a movie rather than a film. Its artistic intentions are minimal and are almost all of a technical nature, concerning stunt work, martial arts […]
Continue reading »Q Planes (Clouds Over Europe) (1939) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Our thirteenth potential classic is an odd but endearing espionage-comedy-drama from Britain on the eve of World War II originally titled Q Planes (1939). It was distributed in North America by Columbia Pictures, which didn’t like that moniker and changed it […]
Continue reading »Q Planes (Clouds Over Europe) (1939)
by Barb Lentz. The five movies Bob provided me from which to choose were these: Detective Story (1951) The General Died at Dawn (1936) Q Planes (Clouds Over Europe) (1939) West of the Pecos (1945) The Wolf Man (1941) […]
Continue reading »Into the Storm (2014) ☆ ☆
I’ve been wanting to see this movie ever since I saw its preview, in which a gigantic tornado devastates a small town. In the preview, and in the film, the tornado hits an airport and lifts huge airliners into the […]
Continue reading »A Most Wanted Man (2014) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
John Le Carré has been writing espionage novels for half a century now, and some classic movies have resulted, chief among them The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), The Little Drummer Girl (1984), The Constant Gardener (2005) and two TV […]
Continue reading »Magic in the Moonlight (2014) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Woody Allen is at it again, exploring love and death in an engaging romance set in France during the 1920s. For much of the movie love takes a back seat to death, as the story centers on a spiritualist (Emma […]
Continue reading »The Onion Field (1979) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Our twelfth choice is the riveting 1979 crime drama The Onion Field, based upon the book by Joseph Wambaugh. In the 1970s Wambaugh became the dean of Los Angeles-area cop dramas, fueled by his experiences as a beat cop and […]
Continue reading »The Onion Field (1979)
by Barb Lentz. The five movies Bob provided for me from which to choose were these: The African Queen (1951) Cartouche (1962) Laura (1944) The Onion Field (1979) Reckless (1935) I chose The Onion Field because it had the […]
Continue reading »Lucy (2014) ☆ ☆ 1/2
French filmmaker Luc Besson is audacious. Sometimes that means really good, as in 1994’s Leon: The Professional, which introduced young Natalie Portman to the world. Sometimes it means really, really bad, as in 1997’s The Fifth Element, which is crazy, puerile […]
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