In The Professional, Jean Reno plays Leon, a professional hitman, or “cleaner,” who takes in his 12-year-old next door neighbor and teaches her his trade. Mathilda (Natalie Portman) has narrowly escaped getting murdered — unlike the rest of her family — by corrupt DEA agent Stansfield, played with violent gleeContinue Reading
When this movie burst into theaters in 1991, it caused a bit of commotion. It was heralded by some as being an eye-opening account of life in troubled communities of inner city Los Angeles. It was condemned by others as a violent exploitation of the same issue. To anyone that’sContinue Reading
Los Angeles crime boss Mickey Cohen has been arrested and is serving a ten year sentence. A vacancy at the organized crime throne makes it open season for out-of-town thugs to try to move in and assume control. The L.A. police force, headed by Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), resort toContinue Reading
Jack Nicholson is well-known for playing less-than-stable people throughout his career. His turns as The Joker in Batman and tormented innkeeper Jack Torrance in The Shining are great examples of how far his characterizations can go. It’s time to add his latest character, the obsessive-compulsive author Melvin Udall from AsContinue Reading
Tom Hanks makes his feature film directorial debut in this rather light-hearted and enjoyable comedy-drama about a young rock-and-roll band in 1964. Now, personally, I wasn’t expecting to like this film very much. The trailers, which I’d seen umpteen thousand times on video and theater screens, didn’t exactly paint theContinue Reading
I really didn’t know what to expect from The Ice Storm. What I got was a quirky, strange, and somehow satisfying look into the self-destruction of two families in 1973 Connecticut. The Hoods are coming apart as the result of Ben Hood’s (Kevin Kline) drinking and adultery. Elena Hood (JoanContinue Reading
When Will Hunting (Matt Damon) solves a math problem on the blackboard of an MIT class, it propels him into a potentially life-changing situation that he doesn’t want. You see, Will isn’t a student at MIT, he’s a janitor. He also happens to be a genius on the order ofContinue Reading