Martin Scorsese’s Hugo takes a bit to find its way, but once it does it is a marvelous tale of filmmaking and wonder that is, quite possibly, the best use of 3D yet. [Read more...]
TV Without Commercials: Boardwalk Empire – 201
09/26/2011 by Leave a Comment
Last night was the season premiere of the second season of Boardwalk Empire. With big names like Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg attached to the executive producer roles the show immediately had high expectations. The first season most certainly lived up to those expectations and series premiere last night was far from disappointment. [Read more...]
Step Up 3D is the Savior of 3D in Cinema or: How to Stop Complaining About Post Coverted 3D And Realize The Potential In Native 3D Films
08/04/2010 by Leave a Comment
I never thought Step Up 3D would renew my interest in 3D at the cinema. While I was never a very negative detractor of the format, my patience has been tiring with this unfortunate run of mediocre post-conversions that we have been subjected to since Avatar. But short term memory deprived detractors rejoice, Step Up 3D is here to remind us why people got excited about the format in the first place.
The Double Feature: Inception and Shutter Island
07/23/2010 by 1 Comment
The Double Feature will take a look at a new release title in theaters (well, most of the time) and pair it with a film you can create a double feature with after you get back to the comfort of your living room.
Sometimes it will be obvious, other times not so much but I hope this gets you thinking about some other good double features of your own creation. The double feature is a bit of a lost art if you ask me, and while I am no expert at them I love figuring out a couple good films to play together.
Up first, Inception and Shutter Island!
Review: Shutter Island
02/19/2010 by Leave a Comment
Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel Shutter Island is a successful mystery thriller with a great lead turn by Leonardo DiCaprio and a plot that brings some originality to a potentially tired idea.
DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall sent to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of one of the inmates at a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. He is paired up with a new partner, Chuck, fresh off a transfer from Seattle and the two figure out in a hurry that things aren’t quite right in the facility. The lead psychiatrists aren’t helpful or cooperative, the patient in questions escaped undetected, from a locked room, and did this all barefoot in a rough terrain grounds to escape too. Added to this, a hell of a storm sweeps in over the island and strands Chuck and Teddy there and Teddy decides to dig deeper into the islands secrets that he believes are being hid within the facilities walls.
Now, go into this film as much of a virgin as possible to the material if you can. Talking anymore about the picture would be a disservice to the twists and turns it takes and while it isn’t a wholly original idea there are enough surprises and nuance to the story the make itself its own. [Read more...]
Queue Review: Gomorrah
01/11/2010 by Leave a Comment
This Italian mob movie isn’t as flashy or romanticized as many American gangster pictures are, but the films gritty and real life feel give the picture an extra weight and tension that you never know what is going to happen.
Opening with a set of hits that sets off a civil war among gangs, we follow a group of individuals that fall on both sides of the battle, young up and comers, a seemingly innocent bystander in the process, and a pair of rouge crooks reeking havoc for one bosses territory. As things progress through the film things slowly get worse and worse for those involved with the old establishment and lines are drawn with deaths tolls ratcheting up higher and higher as people grasp for power. Some of the characters we follow are the money handler who doles out weekly payments for the old time establishment, a young man who is being pulled into the crime working for an entrepreneur who deals with disposing toxic waste in neighborhoods back yards, a excellent tailor who’s employer gets him into unforeseen trouble in the competitive fashion production industry, a mother who must deal with the heat of her son sticking with the established crime bosses, and a pair of small time crooks who think they are hot shit and live life as if they were Tony Montana. The characters run the gauntlet of all the classes and people that are affected by crime whether directly involved or associated by proxy. That is the films real achievement, in showing how crime can affect anyone when things get this bad and as the final facts scroll across the screen the directors have achieved their message. [Read more...]
The Decade's Best – The Aviator (2004)
08/03/2009 by Leave a Comment
Martin Scorsese’s – The Aviator (2004)
Martin Scorsese’s biopic of the entrepreneur and aviator Howard Hughes is a marvelous, entertaining, and interesting look into the life of one of the most unique, oddest, and accomplished individuals ever to capture and live in the public eye; all grounded by an extraordinary performance by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Howard Hughes was the heir to a fortune that came from drill bits in Texas but he moved on to bigger and brighter lights in Hollywood with the dream of making movies in between his love for flying. Fueled by his dream to build the fastest planes possible and the most successful films of their age Hughes found much success and translated that into romances with the biggest Hollywood starlets of his age. He was able to accomplish all of the even while his mind slowly faded into madness due his OCD and germ phobia that would plague the later years of his life and almost destroy his reputation when trying to take on the government and Pan Am in their historic dispute over the monopoly of the sky. [Read more...]
