After revisiting First Blood I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on the sequel. You can imagine my horror when I got it home and the tape wouldn’t play. I practically dropped to my knees and shook my fist at the sky, but I took a deep breath, ordered a new copy, …
First Blood has to be one of the most distressing movies ever made. Things go badly for John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) from the very first scene, and it only gets worse from there. After learning that his last living war buddy has succumbed to cancer, Rambo walks to the nearest town for something to eat. …
Sooo, I finally saw Rambo. It was fine. Okay, it wasn’t fine. It wasn’t fine at all. It made me mad. And I know it got decent reviews and was less crappy than anyone dreamed, but Sly TOTALLY missed the mark with this one. It’s the Rocky V of the Rambo saga, and now he …
I don’t recall ever having standards, but at some point in my young life, I must have decided that 96% action and 4% dialogue was a bad ratio for a movie. I remember feeling that Rambo didn’t hold a candle to First Blood, and must have boycotted Rambo III entirely, because when I turned it …
British intelligence has tracked a British national terrorist to a house in Nairobi, Kenya. As soon as she is identified, and the prepping of suicide vests is thrown into the equations, the question is whether or not it is polite to take out one of Britain’s most wanted on the soil of a friendly country. …
That is not to say that Spielberg doesn’t know how to make an entertaining historical film. Bridge of Spies, after an exceptionally sluggish first half hour or so, is indeed entertaining. Set in the Cold War, the always-appealing Every Man Tom Hanks plays James Donovan, an insurance attorney that ends up defending the most hated …
I went into Where to Invade Next thinking it was Michael Moore’s take on U.S. military spending and warmongering. Count me surprised (and a little relived) that the film outlines, instead, various social ideas across Europe that the U.S. should “steal” by “invading” the respective countries (which is apparently how we built our culture). Anyway, …
Based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle by journalist Kim Barker, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot takes us into the weird, absurd, adrenaline and sex-fueled world of being an expat in a foreign country. It’s where a fish out of water can land in a puddle with other discombobulated fish, except they all happen to be foreign …
When Zev Guttman (Christopher Plummer) stumbles from his bed in an assisted living facility, calling for his dead wife, Ruth, there is little to suggest that this fragile old man would be capable of caring for himself. Clearly suffering from dementia, Zev requires frequent redirection and often needs the basics of his situation explained. When …
The premise of the show is truly interesting, and should be ripe for an excellent drama, if in the right hands. It’s 1862 Alexandria, Virginia, which is smack on the border of North and South. Mansion House, a former hotel owned by the proudly Southern Green family (led by patriarch Gary Cole), has been co-opted …