Reviews
Every good film deserves another take
Steel Magnolias
Some films are meant to be read. “Steel Magnolias” is one of those films where the dialogue is the lifeblood of the films. The plot isn’t really interesting and doesn’t go many places. The spine of the story is this group of close-knit friends and the...
My Bodyguard
“My Bodyguard” had a first-time director and a cast of unknowns It made $22 million from a $3 million budget, and basically launched the careers of Matt Dillion, Joan Cusack and others. Ok, Dillion was in Little Darlings that year, too, but this is the showy...
Parenthood
Ron Howard was best known as a television actor in “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Happy Days” but his resume as a director is second to no one. In 2018, he was called in to helm the Star Wars movie “Solo.” He directed the “Da Vinci Code” trilogy along with some...
Dirty Harry
“Dirty Harry” was one of those movies that was almost never made. Actors turned down the part. Studios turned down the script. It morphed from a story about a New York cop chasing a serial killer who is eventually shot by Marines, not by Dirty...
Groundhog Day
I love recommending another take to a film that’s about another take, after another and another and another. “Groundhog Day” just may be the best Bill Murray comedy, and that’s a pretty high standard. It’s probably in a fourway cluster at the top of my favorites...
Halloween
In the seventies, mainstream horror movies were more supernatural than slasher movies. From “The Exorcist” to “The Omen” to “Carrie”, it too devils and demons to be scary enough for Hollywood to invest serious money into the genre. The “escaped lunatic” with a...
Hoosiers
Some sports movies work even if you don’t like the sport. You don’t have to be a boxing fan to like Rocky, and you certainly don’t have to like basketball to love “Hoosiers.” “Hoosiers” is a sport movie that really isn’t about sports, or even about basketball...
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
The only reason I ever heard of this movie is that I saw it at least a dozen times. I lived in a neighborhood that had a neighborhood movie theater, which played final-run movies for weeks on end. “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” played for...
Nighthawks
Once in a while, a movie comes along that was decades ahead of its time. That’s “Nighthawks”. Perhaps it’s better to say it was caught between eras. “Nighthawks” is a Sylvester Stallone vehicle that should’ve performed better than it did. It paired...