For those of you that immediately flinch when the name Shakespeare is mentioned, and who have all but put seeing this movie out of your mind as a result, let me assure you that this movie is not a drab, dull march down the musty halls of a literary tortureContinue Reading

Antz (1998)

The first of Hollywood’s computer animated bug movies has arrived in theaters. Dreamworks’ Antz proceeds A Bug’s Life, from Disney, by almost two months. One shouldn’t confuse the two. Antz is aimed squarely at adults, while A Bug’s Life is targeted directly at children, with a little humor to keepContinue Reading

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

Boyz N the Hood (1991)

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

L.A. Confidential (1997)

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

That Thing You Do! (1996)

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

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