The Last Samurai tells the story of Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), an American war hero who finds himself in Japan training an army for the Emperor. The Emperor (Shichinosuke Nakamura) is attempting to modernize 1876 Japan in a Western fashion and needs to put down a rebellion by the samuraiContinue Reading
Based on H.R. Bissinger’s book about a small Texas town obsessed with their high school football team, Friday Night Lights is one of those overly melodramatic sports movies that make me wonder why sports movies are even made anymore. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Coach Gary Gains. His Permian High School team,Continue Reading
Have you ever thought about reality? What actually defines it? What makes you perceive things the way you do? If you have — or even if you haven’t — you’ll definitely be more aware after a viewing of What the Bleep Do We Know!?, a hybrid documentary/drama from Samuel GoldwynContinue Reading
Filmed over a 17-year period, Coffee & Cigarettes links 11 short films together with one common bond: coffee and cigarettes. Jim Jarmusch, the Akron, Ohio-born director of Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai and Down by Law, had been releasing short films in the series every few years but thisContinue Reading
In this age of computer generated effects and latex rubber masks, it’s easy to forget the pioneers who gave actual blood, sweat and tears to make the unbelievable seem real. Lon Chaney was one of those ground-breaking individuals. In The Penalty, a 1920 silent film of revenge, Chaney played theContinue Reading
In 1999, the country was shocked when two boys in Littleton, Colorado loaded themselves up with military hardware and entered Columbine High School to kill as many of their classmates as they could before killing themselves. Many people tried to explain the shootings as the result of the easy availabilityContinue Reading
Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make The Passion of the Christ. Not only did he take it upon himself to make the film but he also decided to make it in a way that was guaranteed to cause controversy. It features absolutely no spoken EnglishContinue Reading