The original South Korean version of Oldboy is a deserved cult classic, a dark and twisted affair from Park Chan-wook. Fans of the original were hostile to even the idea of an American remake and Spike Lee’s version fails to win over the doubters. In 1993 Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin) is an alcoholic advertising executive […]
Hercules makes his second cinematic appearance of the year with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson taking on the legendary role in a light-hearted fantasy adventure. After completing the “Twelve Labors of Hercules” the legendary figure has become a mercenary with a loyal band of troops as his nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie) spreads the word of his […]
Can we all just get along? That question seems logical when looking at the world created by writer/director James DeMonaco. The sequel, The Purge: Anarchy, to last year’s surprise hit, The Purge, indicates that our world is in more trouble than we expected. We pick up a year later, on March 21, 2023, after the events of […]
Stop me if you have heard this one before: a young, good-looking couple with mismatched ideals plan a vacation in an uninhabited stretch of Northern Californian forest and are never heard from again. If you are waiting for the “but this is not what you think it is” segment of the tagline like what happened […]
Zach Braff’s sophomore directional effort, Wish I Was Here, could just as easily be called Garden State 2. With the same angst-filled humor, and melancholic mood, Braff has taken on the persona portrayed by both of his main characters; he is stuck. Wish I Was Here opens with a piece of dialogue that gets repeated […]
Criterion Collection released a Blu-ray edition of Pickpocket this week, so in conjunction with this week’s DISCussion, here is the full length review of the film and the bonus features. Robert Bresson’s revolutionary character study, Pickpocket, is one of the prolific director’s best films, and in turn, one of the greatest films in history. This […]
“How deep do you want this to go? -“How deep is hell?” The laughable lines are delivered partway through Rage. One would hope that the conversation was a self-aware, winking nod towards the audience. But as Rage continuous down the path of film hell, it becomes unfortunately clear that this film is a stinker. Rage […]
You probably already know whether or not you want to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This is a franchise with a very particular set of goals that are wholly different from the usual summer blockbuster fare out there. It wants to sweep you with spectacle every now and then (particularly in the […]
I knew nothing of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty before seeing the profoundly moving trailers for the new movie last fall. Based on a short story by James Thurber and adapted into a film way back in 1947, the new Walter Mitty lands in the hands of Ben Stiller (its director and star) and […]
Life Itself is the chronicling of the life of famed film critic, Roger Ebert. In this Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) directed, incredibly intimate memoir, we are shown footage from Ebert’s illustrious career alongside material from the last months of Ebert’s life. Playing beautifully alongside clips from At the Movies, old newsreel footage and a […]
