Before her popular supporting role in the American Pie movies, before the messy public battles with drug addiction that nearly killed her, and long before her career turnaround in Orange Is the New Black, Russian Doll, and Poker Face, a young actress named Natasha Lyonne made her first breakthrough splash starring in the 1998 coming-of-age… Read More We’re Not Regular Poor | Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
Renowned, Oscar-winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley tears across the screen with such ferocity in Sexy Beast that viewers would be forgiven for remembering little else about the film beyond his performance. That was certainly the case for me. The movie is a fairly entertaining little crime thriller, but I’d forgotten almost everything about the story… Read More Do the Job | Sexy Beast (2000)
As a young film student in 1993, I walked out of the theater ecstatic about Tony Scott’s True Romance. I went back to see it a couple more times, but couldn’t convince any of my friends to go with me. From the title, they all assumed it must be a sappy rom-com that would hold… Read More If I’m With You, Then I’m With You | True Romance (1993) 4K Ultra HD
Released in the highly-competitive 1999 fall movie season against dozens of good-to-great films from other major artists, Steven Soderbergh’s modest crime thriller The Limey slipped through the cracks and drew little attention. Although kindly received by critics, it made no money and, even a couple decades later, remains one of the director’s least-seen works. Yet… Read More You Tell ‘im I’m Coming | The Limey (1999) 4K Ultra HD
Not only was Top Gun a massive blockbuster hit during the summer of 1986, the film remained so popular over the years that, when Paramount went looking for titles from its catalog to convert into 3D during that format’s revival in the early 2010s, of course Top Gun shot to the top of the list.… Read More The Need for Speed | Top Gun in 3D (Blu-ray)
Culture often seems to move in thirty-year cycles. Growing up back in the 1980s, it felt like nostalgia for the 1950s was everywhere, as my parents’ generation hit middle age and started pining for their own youths. Now here we are another three decades hence, only to find the United States in a renewed Cold… Read More Don’t Think, Just Do | Top Gun: Maverick (2022) 4K Ultra HD
There was once a time when I followed the annual Oscars race with great interest and excitement. I even went so far as to live-blog the damn ceremony a few times at my last gig. These days, however, I can barely give a damn. I didn’t even realize the nominations would be announced this week… Read More Everything Oscars All at Once | 2023 Oscar Nominations
The biggest blockbuster hit of 1986 and one of the most (if not the most) iconic films from that decade, Top Gun has remained enduringly popular over time – enough so that a sequel released 36 years later once again blew the roof off the theatrical box office. Is it actually a good movie, though?… Read More Take My Breath Away | Top Gun (1986) 4K Ultra HD
Confession time: As someone who has reviewed movies on home video for more than two decades, I simply cannot stand to watch most DVD or Blu-ray bonus features. The days when I might get excited for a director’s audio commentary or a lengthy making-of documentary about the film I just watched feel like a distant… Read More Remember When DVD and Blu-ray “Special Features” Actually Used to Be Special?
I love movies. Let me start with that lest I sound too negative right off the bat. I’ve been obsessed with movies most of my life and have many fond memories of watching countless films on the big screen. All the time I spent in darkened movie theaters over the years played a critical role… Read More R.I.P. Cinema – Leaving the Theatrical Experience to Nostalgia
