Reviews

Risky Business is a stylish, sexy, and cool movie. The Screenplay and direction are practically flawless, the acting impressive by (at the time) a cast of complete unknowns. The Tangerine Dream soundtrack remains one of the most atmospheric and effective original scores, setting the tone of the film perfectly. Risky Business was marketed as a sexy comedy at the time of it's release in '83. In retrospect, the film is a very cynical yet clinical look at capitalism in American society.

Director Paul Brickman juxtapositions satire, tense thriller and erotic romp in this one-of-a-kind film. As it is known, this is the movie which made Tom Cruise a star. It is easy to see why here, because Cruise is excellent in his portrayal of the shy yet charismatic virginesque Joel Goodsen. Joel is a young motivated individual striving for success. His buddies are all about getting laid. Joel's concern concerning planning for his future appear to be influenced by his anal-retentive parents. Joel is quite uptight next to his partying yet equally motivated buddies. Despite the fact Joel's friends are much less handsome than Joel, they have no trouble picking up women. This this makes Joel the butt of many jokes and frustrates him him to call a prostitute named Lana(Rebecca DeMornay). When Joel finally does get laid, this creates much anxiety and many problems. After he smokes some weed and screws up, it is up to Lana the streetwise call girl to clean up the mess with her expertise on how to generate income.

Risky Business is made even more memorable by superb supporting turns by Curtis Armstrong, Joe Pantoliano and of course DeMornay. The Tangerine Dream score was quite effective in setting the the mood, letting the viewer know this is much more than a comedy. Risky Business should have been nominated for all the top Oscars in '83 alongside the best that studios had to offer that year. Not only Tom Cruise's stepping stone to stardom, Risky Business is one of the Best Films of the '80's

Tangerine Dream's terrific original score fits the movie's atmosphere so perfectly, you wonder if the film would have been as good without it. The Oscars missed the boat here. I was surprised to learn Tangerine Dream's original score had not been nominated for Best Original Score at the 1983 Oscars. Few modern day films can lay claim to such a fitting original score. This makes Risky Business a film unlike any other. That in itself is a monumental achievement.

Taxi Driver is a groundbreaking and classic film, showcasing DeNiro's brilliant performance of Travis Bickle which in my opinion tops that of La Motta in Raging Bull. DeNiro plays the ultimate loner and violent psychopath in Taxi Driver, yet he displays enough charisma causing the viewer to care for this unsavory character he portrays. This is a rare feat for an actor to accomplish. Given Paul Schrader's screenplay refrains from resorting to manipulative cliché to generate sympathy for an unsavory main character like Bickle. Robert DeNiro deserved the best actor Academy Award for this film.

Scorsese's direction is immaculate. The "Late For The Sky" sequence is a prime example of the depth DeNiro puts into his performance, conveying so much about the character he is playing without saying a single word. Harvey Keitel is very good as Bickle's foil, Sport. Foster is terrific playing a kid who is more wise to the ways of the world than Travis. Taxi Driver is flawless. A Character study of a troubled & lonely individual who feels ignored by society and driven crazy by his surroundings of urban decay. Bickle feels the only way he will ever get noticed by the girl he adores is by becoming a vigilante. This he feels will get Betsy to notice him. Travis feels he is making a difference by cleansing the city of unsavory elements and rescuing a 12 year old prostitute from her pimp, Sport, and his accomplices. The film which was made in 1976 showed a dark underbelly of society in America which still holds true today. More than ever in fact. Taxi Driver is a comment on society. Too often in the news you hear of disturbed and psychologically damaged people who obviously feel leaving their imprint on society through a shocking outburst of violence is the only way to get noticed.

Bernard Herrmann's memorable score fits the mood of the film perfectly. Michael Chapman's cinematography is perfection. The debated controversial ending is open to interpretation. When Bickle is Driving Betsy in the cab. Thus ultimately one of the many brilliant aspects of Taxi Driver, without giving too much away. A thought-provoking and fascinating cinematic experience. Taxi Driver deserves it's well-deserved reputation as a masterpiece.

"He's a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction". - Kris Kristofferson

The success of the Passion Of The Christ serves as a reminder to a very unfortunate time in American society. An era where a post-9/11 America applauded a leader who said he "sought a higher father" to start a war in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Thanks to Mel Gibson, the dark underbelly of the religious fundamentalist movement has been exposed. This is a disgusting and nihilistic piece of garbage. The purpose of POTC is to provoke anti-semitic hatred and provide masturbatory material for religious fundamentalist wackos who insist the events depicted in this film "actually happened". This film inspired a movement of dangerous lunatics who broke into the hospice of Terri Schiavo and attacked nurses working there one year after the film's release.

Hollywood will never put out a more sickeningly gory R-rated film, because it is not possible. Spatter films are of course a genre which has an audience. POTC is a splatter film hiding behind a religious agenda. How people could enjoy watching this crap is beyond me. POTC may have made a mint at the box office, but the film's goal of turning society into a bunch of psychotic fundamentalist freaks was dealt a crushing setback with the death of Schiavo. People like Gibson and George W. Bush who use religion as a blunt instrument with their attempts to divide and conquer are scumbags who are completely devoid of any worth to society. Jesus would be ashamed.

This movie is terrible. Mind-numbing, insulting, headache-inducing. 2 1/2 hours of intermittent racial humor which may not have been so offensive had it not been presented in such a stereotypical matter. Transformers 2 almost seems like the purpose of it's existence is to set the civil rights movement back by a half century at least.

Meggan Fox is an attractive woman, but come on. Is she worth sitting through 2 1/2 hours of loud, ear-punishing mind-numbing annoyance? Afraid not. This movie is a continuous violent assault on all senses. Especially taste.

Transformers 2: bad, and not in a good way. But at least it has already out grossed T4, which was nothing more than a ripoff of the first mediocre "Transformers".

Transformers 2 is a movie which should be studied in film school as a case in point for how to make a terrible movie. The spectacular opening weekend box office unfortunately indicates more films attempting to copy this bad formula are to come. A Sad comment.

At one point while suffering through Terminator 4 in the theater, I thought: "Maybe these people getting waterboarded don't have it so bad". Terminator: Salvation is a stunning train wreck of a movie. While watching, you think back to Christian Bale's leaked meltdown in which he went off on the Director of Photography, and you begin to sympathize with the actor. The thought of signing up to appear in this disaster has the potential to inflict serious damage on his star power in Hollywood. What has happened to the Bale of American Psycho and The Machinist? The flashes of brilliance he showed in those films have all but disappeared, and now appears to be a serious contender for a razzie. Don't believe the "we were filming a very serious scene" excuse. This is a film about Robots fighting each other. Bale must realize the intention of appearing in mindless summer fare such as this is to not try and one up Brando In The Godfather.

Director "McG" apparently felt it would be a good idea to make T4 seem like a ripoff of The Tranformers. This "director" may think he has a hip moniker, but his approach to this material is anything but. Bale will most likely look back on this experience as the bad decision which drove him to suffer an emotional breakdown, where he assaulted family members and lashed out at co-workers. Hopefully more audio recordings surface, because I can assure you he was going off Glengarry Glen Ross style on people behind the scenes every chance he got, and I cannot blame him. Hearing those would no doubt be 100,000 times more entertaining than the steaming piece of excrement called T4 - the franchise-killing finale to a once great science-fiction series.

"I Won't Be Back" Ah-nuld may as well have said during his CGI-ed cameo.

I am not quite sure why Leaving Las Vegas was held in such high regard upon it's release in '95. This film was an abysmal failure in just about every respect. I guess if you enjoy seeing beautiful women bare their breasts frequently, the film will succeed for you on some level. But Nicholas Cage's character is pulling more trim than James Bond. He can pound a 5th quicker than Blutarsky, while operating a motor vehicle with such precision that he can outsmart a cop on a motorcycle who actually happens to witness him chugging vodka while driving down the Vegas strip. I guess the moral of this movie is: any slim, middle aged guy with a receding hairline could wallow through life acting like a pitiful drunken buffoon with a tolerance that would probably have eclipsed Farley's, and have gorgeous women constantly throwing themselves at them.

The problem here is with the casting. Perhaps I would have been able to take this material more seriously if Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, or Zac Efron were cast instead of Cage. But even then, you're still faced with the dilemma of asking yourself: why a would a person want to kill themselves when they have all these beautiful women aggressively forcing themselves on them 24/7.

Elisabeth Shue channels Jennifer Jason Leigh as the hooker with a heart of gold. Her relationship with Cage does not amount to much more than mutual self pity for one another. Cage and Shue's chemistry seems forced. The film's frank and explicit sexuality appear to be the main selling point. Leaving Las Vegas may be memorable in terms of shock value and pushing R-rating boundaries, but that is pretty much it.

Literally every scene will leave the viewer scratching their heads. At the beginning of the movie, Cage is in a liquor store filling his cart to maximum capacity with top shelf liquor, and then in the very next scene they show him in a seedy bar begging the bartender to pour him another shot.

The scene where Cage crawls to his refrigerator and fumbles for a beverage is supposed to be a serious moment depicting the hell of going through DT's as a result of severe alcoholism. But Cage's idea of "method acting" in this scene is apeing Jim Carrey from Ace Ventura Pet Detective . Cage convulses violently as if he just grabbed a live electrical wire after getting out of swimming pool every time he takes a swig.

There is another scene at a casino where Cage wants a drink real bad and he loses it, flipping over a blackjack table in the process. Cops politely, gently escort him away with genuine sympathy. Even the dealer looks like she has fallen under Cage's spell. Whether it's a cop or a hooker, everyone Cage encounters in Vegas seem like they are extremely concerned, & care for him deeply. Even a friendly bartender working in a dive bar which gets little business refuses to serve Cage and begs him to seek help. Nobody ever seems the slightest bit annoyed by his buffoonish drunken antics - save for woman who runs a hotel and kicks them out after Cage shatters a glass table outdoors. Shue's character seems flabbergasted that the hotel manager isn't ready to take a bullet for the two of them.

Don't let Cage's Oscar win fool you. Leaving Las Vegas is a pedestrian effort in every respect. Upon it's release, Mike Figgis was hailed by critics as the next Scorsese. 14 years later, he is unheard of. Perhaps one could conclude LLV was a bit overrated upon it's release, and did not hold up over time. That person would be correct.

Top it all off with a terrible original score by Sting. Leaving Las Vegas is an thoroughly unimpressive, unintentionally laughable film that smacks the viewer in the face with it's implausibility at every turn. A movie you will not forget anytime soon.

When released in 1995, Casino was dismissed by many as Scorsese attempting to remake his own GoodFellas. But the movie, although quite similar to GoodFellas in many respects, stands on it's own. A most fast-paced 3 hour movie containing no unnecessary tedious scenes to slow it down, never failing at any opportunity to fascinate and entertain the viewer.

Enter Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a brilliant sports handicapper who takes his talents to Vegas. Ace's uncommon expertise and success with making the world of gambling pay off naturally attracts the wrong type of people in the likes of old hometown buddy now heavily connected with the Mob Nicky (Joe Pesci), and the romantic object of his affection Ginger (Sharon Stone). Sam unfortunately takes a gamble on these two and the results don't pay off as well as he would have liked. Neither Ace or Nicky are a match for Ginger, who gets in between them and ultimately plays them both for a couple of tricks.

One of the film's remarkable achievements is how expertly the story is told, and Scorsese's ability to cram so many rich details into such a short amount of screen time frequently throughout. An example of this is where DeNiro's character catches on to a couple of card players using a sophisticated cheating technique so they can communicate with one another morse code style to inform each other of their opponents' playing cards which they can see from opposing tables. The way Scorsese can illustrate such rich details during a brief montage showing how the players are able to incorporate this scam to the beat of the Jeff Beck Group's "I Ain't Superstitious" is like watching a master teaching a free class to show how it's done for other director-wannabes.

Casino also of course features fine performances from the cast - many of whom also actually happened to appear in GoodFellas. Watch for a clever nod to Frank Vincent's "Billy Batts" role in GoodFellas towards the film's conclusion.

A masterpiece in direction, film editing, and storytelling, Casino contains scenes which may be considered by some as excessively violent, and must also hold some sort of record for the amount of "F" words ever said in a film. Literally every line of dialog contains the word or variations on it. The easily offended may want to steer clear.

Certainly one of the great films in the Scorsese canon which makes for a fine companion piece for his groundbreaking classic GoodFellas. I hope Scorsese makes one final mobster film with DeNiro and Pesci. Casino proves that, as far these three are concerned, you can't get much better of a combination as far as movies go. Should my wish come true, hopefully Mr. Scorsese can find another classic rock song to put on the soundtrack to fit the mood of the story besides "Gimme Shelter" - also featured prominently in GoodFellas and The Departed.

I watched Seinfeld intermittently during it's original series run in the 90's, mostly because the people I happened to be around back then loved it, as did most everyone else it seemed. At the time, I found it to be somewhat amusing at best and headache-inducing at worst. Over the years, the show's popularity has remained intact for whatever reason. For me, "Seinfeld" does not hold up, and the majority of episodes lack any sort of social commentary or edge which could have somewhat compensated for the series' overall lackluster content. It's not surprising the infamous "contest" episode remains the show's high-water mark, and only instance when the series attempted be ground-breaking or risqué in any respect.

The character of Seinfeld is grating. Whiny, wimpy, and one-dimensional. And he never does really say anything funny. Asking: "What is the deal with airplane food?" is not at all meant to be a hysterical joke. But the way Seinfeld delivers the line will cause people to double over in laughter for whatever reason. And then we have Michael Richards with his Ed Norton Honeymooners impersonation. Kramer enters a room like a crack-addicted meth head and the audience laugh track gets turned up to 11. In real life, an oddball like Kramer would get dumped on continuously by society. But in the world of Seinfeld, Kramer is the toast of the town and a hit at every gathering. Cue the laugh track again.

And then we have George Costanza, a short, overweight, bald, middle-aged sack of worthlessness. George is a neurotic Woody Allen type, who complains about everything. If he sees a piece of lint on the floor, George will begin bellyaching about it incessantly. He has no problem getting dates with beautiful women and has a sweet job for the successful New York Yankees organization where all he does is sit in an office and collect a nice paycheck. Rather than feeling grateful and blessed, George insists on complaining nonstop about the most irrelevant aspects of his life. His parents are like nails on chalkboard, with his father yelling and screaming about obsolete and utter nonsense at every turn.

Then there's the character of Elaine, who just can't seem to find the right guy. She is not even worth getting into since I have never heard even Seinfeld fanatics act as if they particularly cared for this character. Nor do I recall any of them reminiscing about their favorite "Elaine" moment. She was pretty much to the show what Ringo was to the Beatles. No disrespect, Beatles.

For me, the most hilarious Seinfeld moment was the one that took place many years after the show thankfully ended. It was on David Letterman, with Michael Richards apologizing for his racial outburst at a comedy club caught on phone cam and leaked to the internet. Seinfeld was a scheduled guest Monday night the weekend after the video made rounds, and was plugging a season of the series being released the following day on DVD. Richards awkwardly appeared in the middle of the segment via satellite to deliver a heartfelt apology, which was greeted with hysterical laughter by the Late Show audience. Seinfeld scolded them, angrily shouting: "Shoosh, It's Not Funny!!" The fact Seinfeld needed to inform his audience it wasn't a bit proves they were never doing anything funny in the first place.

After having seen The Reader, I found myself in a state of shock, amazement, and disbelief that the same film I had just wasted 2 hours of my life on had been recipient of so many awards, as well as having the seemingly unanimous admiration of film critics lavished upon it.

The lovely and talented Kate Winslet stars as a secretary for a high-ranking Nazi Officer who years later will end up on trial for her role as an accomplice for many of the heinous crimes committed by her despicable low-life employer.

What ensues is an odd mix to be sure: a statement on Pro-literacy, an art house period piece, soft-core titillation, and a Holocaust/WW II epic. It unfortunately fails with all four.

In the film, Winslet's character carries on a torrid affair with a young man. Capitalizing on the well-known fact that Winslet is not shy in front of the camera, there are several explicit sex scenes featuring a fully nude Winslet - as is the case with countless previously released films in which she stars. I am no prude, but Winslet appears to be long past the point of being typecast in this type of role. Nothing wrong with that, but it has now reached a point where if she appears in a film in which her breasts are not bared, people in the audience may be asking for their money back.

Winslet is most certainly a fine actress, but the abundance of praise she has received for her turn in "The Reader" is mind-boggling to say the least. She has given far better performances in just about everything else I've seen her in.

Without question the sole motivation for any studio greenlighting material such as this are for Oscars. As a film fan and Oscar telecast viewer, it is rather disappointing to see the clout of Big Hollywood producers strong-arming the Academy year after year so exercises in mediocrity like "The Reader" monopolize the nominations in big categories. To see superior films such as "The Wrestler" and "Gran Torino" get snubbed in the top category is a real shame for movie fans.

Time would be much better spent reading a book for 2 hours than seeing this garbage.

Three stars for Kate, one star for Ralph Finnes portraying the boy as an adult, ZERO for the film.

Joaquin Phoenix got much praise for his role as Johnny Cash in Walk The Line - a chick flick masquerading as a biopic of Johnny and June Carter Cash. His performance - one of the rare instances of a well-deserved Oscar snub - is certainly one of the most overrated in film history. In addition to looking absolutely nothing like Johnny Cash, he fails to sound or act like him as well.

His attempts to impersonate Cash's baritone singing style were noble, but Cash was one of the most gut-wrenching of singers in popular music. He conveyed his feelings and emotions through his voice both live and in the recording studio, and was a tremendous storyteller in addition to being a singer and musician. Phoenix, unfortunately, was completely unable to tap into this aspect of the man and his music. Also, as captured in the recordings "Live At Folsom Prison" and "At San Quentin", Cash was a rather mellow individual when interacting with his appreciative audience of inmates. When the landmark Folsom gig is reenacted at the film's conclusion, Cash is depicted as wild and unhinged - almost as if his motivation for performing at the prison was to start a riot. Cash most certainly was a rebellious individual, but to depict him in a manner such as this is dishonest and irresponsible on behalf of the actor portraying him and the filmmaker, to say the least.

The movie's sole redeeming quality is the fine performance by Reese Witherspoon as the love of John's life, June Carter. Unlike Phoenix, she succeeds in capturing the charm as well as capably mimicking the singing style of the late performer.

Walk The Line is a slick Hollywood production which will surely satisfy the Lifetime movie-of-the-week crowd. But true fans of Johnny Cash and his music will be disappointed as it does not give the legend and his legacy the proper respect that is deserved.

Private School brings back memories of when I was a young kid in about 5th or 6th grade, and thinking I was pulling off the coup of a lifetime figuring out a way to see a film such as this without my parents finding out.

In retrospect, the film seems like a vehicle for Mrs. Cates. Her swimming pool sequence in "Fast Times" the year before remains fondly remembered in cinematic history decades later. Ray Walston a.k.a "Mr. Hand" even turns up in a small role. However, the gorgeous Betsy Russell steals the show as Cates' arch-nemesis.

The soundtrack is surprisingly decent, and the movie today seems like nothing more than harmless T&A fun, with a romantic element which would surely appeal to the chick-flick crowd. Roger Ebert in fact gave this a higher star rating than 'Ridgemont' if you could believe that. On the basis of Betsy Russell's presence, I can't say I blame him. This woman is smoking hot. Up there with the greatest babes of all time.

Private School = An '80s classic. It is impossible for any red blooded heterosexual male to not fall in love with Betsy Russell. If you consider yourself a fan of Fast Times At Ridgemont High, it works as an unofficial sequel. . . if nothing else.

The Right Stuff is a bold and ambitious movie, based upon Tom Wolfe's novel of the same name. It's storyline depicts a very important part of history, namely, the cold war between the U.S. and Russia. We were competing with Russia for decades over which country could hold the title of biggest superpower. The Americans versus the Commies. The threat of nuclear war between the two countries was always tangible.

The Right Stuff is a most entertaining and informative history lesson. A chronicle of the Mercury 7 program which propelled the first Americans into space. Pilot Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) basically started it all as the man who first risked his life towards this journey by breaking the sound barrier with his "Glamorous Glennis" X-1. Russia upped the ante with Sputnik soon after.

The early Yeager flight sequence where he surpasses the speed of sound is nothing short of breathtaking. Caleb Deshanel's cinematography and sfx accompanying this and other airborne dramatizations depicted here are unparalleled to anything I've seen in a movie before or since. They will have you on the edge of your seat.

The first act of The Right Stuff is mostly Yeager's story. But in addition to learning about this American legend, this portion of the film allows the viewer to get into the psyche of the test pilot. Each time you go on up in a hurtling piece of machinery to try topping the record you set previously could be your last. Risky and Dangerous, but for these guys it's a way of life, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

Yeager's groundbreaking flights set the blueprint for America's journey into space. From here we see test pilots from all over competing with each other to become the first in history to go where no man has gone before. These scenes are insightful, funny, and allow the viewer to be introduced to the personalities behind the men who would make up the Mercury 7 program.

From here, the viewer gets exposed to the behind-the-scenes politics during this pivotal point in history, showing the relationships these men have with their concerned wives as well as satirizing the prying, sometimes inconsiderate news media once the astronauts are introduced to the press. The human element and satire depicted in these scenes are still truthful and relevant by today's standards.

These pilots are competitive and naturally find differences with one another. But they eventually learn to look past their egos, realizing they're all in this together. They eventually come to terms with the fact they are now America's spokespersons, and learn to respect and admire one another along their journey.

The cast is outstanding. Scott Glenn, Dennis Quaid, Ed Harris, and Fred Ward all give top-notch performances as Alan Shepherd, Gordo Cooper, John Glenn, and Gus Grissom. Acclaimed musician turned actor Levon Helm delivers one of the best lines in Movie History. Tom Conti's winning and inspirational score ties this historical epic together, which deservedly won an Academy Award for best original score.

The running time is slightly over 3 hours, but is never boring and seems most appropriate in retrospect to tell this epic story.

The fact that Terms of Endearment won best picture over The Right Stuff at the 1983 Oscars is a travesty. The Right Stuff is a timeless classic which will always retain it's power and glory, and serves as a historical time capsule to teach future generations of moviegoers what heroism and bravery are all about.

Lewis hams it up in his Oscar winning role as Daniel Plainview. His performance is truly phenomenal. But unfortunately, this is all TWBB has going for it. There is simply not a rich enough storyline to justify the film's close to 3 hour running time. Plainview comes across as a boorish, manipulative hustler in the first 2/3rds of the film. Not until the film's final act does Lewis get to go full throttle and act like an unpredictable sadistic madman. Loosely based on Upton Sinclair's "Oil", the title of the film is misleading to say the least. I've seen more blood in the average Nip/Tuck episode. To the film's credit, the cinematography and set design are superb.

Paul Dano plays twin brothers in the movie who befriend and cross Plainview. I did not know these were supposed to be two separate characters until I read an article about the film after I saw it. Paul Thomas Anderson is hardly the cinematic auteur critics would have you believe. On the plus side, this is clearly PTA's most accomplished work thus far. At least he didn't try ripping off Scorsese's GoodFellas (Boogie Nights) and Altman's Short Cuts (Magnolia) this time around.

Long story short, There Will Be Blood shows PTA has grown slightly as a moviemaker and story teller. DDL confirms the notion he is one of the greatest actors of his generation. But that is where the praise begins and ends. TWBB is not the work of a gifted filmmaker, and is surely not one of the best movies of the year.

As a side note, I fail to understand why the MPAA gave this an R classification. This film could very reasonably have been rated PG-13.

Patrick Swayze is Dalton the 2nd best damn cooler in the business. The desperate bar owner of =the double deush needs Dalton to clean up his establishment. "Trustees of modern chemistry" have turned the Double Deuce into a slaughterhouse. Eyeballs are mopped up from the floor every night. The owner needs the the best to clean the place up. Since Wade Garrett (Sam Elliot) is getting old, he settles for Dalton.

It's different town, same story for Dalton. Wesley's asadistic egomaniac who enjoys beating people up. Says he "wouldn't be human" if he didn't. Wesley beats his young mistress, drinks a bloody mary with breakfast, and prominently displays a portrait of his "a-hole" grandfather, yet despises the heartlessness of contemporary music. J.C.Penney opened a store there because of Wesley.

Life lessons are taught:

1)Don't eat the big white mint. 2)Take the biggest guy in the world smash his knee and he'll drop like a stone. 3)Nobody wins a Fight. 4)That broad's got entirely too many brains to have an ass like that. 5)If you're gonna have a pet, keep it on a leash. 6)Being called a c-sucker isn't personal, it is just two nouns joined together to elicit a prescribed response.

The dual between Dalton & Jimmy is classic. A high point for Swayze and everyone else involved.

This is a review of the commercial advertisements for this pathetic looking piece of garbage, since I have not seen Walk Hard: The Dewy Cox Story. Never will I see it as a matter of fact. Since the ads for this crap were torture to sit through, I doubt highly I would ever consider wasting my time or money and see the actual film.

While John C. Reily may be an adequate dramatic supporting actor, he is not a lead actor and he certainly has no flair for comedy. For whatever reason, Apatow seems bent on reinventing this guy as the new Will Ferrel. Hopefully Walk Hard's disastrous and pathetic showing at the box office will put a stop to this crusade. The 40 Year Old Virgin was far from a great movie, but the funny and talented Steve Carrell made it work. John C. Reilly, to put it bluntly, SUCKS as a comedic actor and has no timing whatsoever.

To sell a feeble attempt for a movie such as Walk Hard to a fickle public, you need a guy like Carrell or Jim Carrey to anchor it. Everything about this production seems like it was destined to fail from the get-go.

To make matters worse, an article brought to my attention around the time the movie was released where Apatow boatsed about the loads of naked male genitalia was was displayed prominently in the film (no pun intended). Thanks for the warning, Judd, but I already was planning on avoiding this movie like the plague.

Anyone who would even waste their time giving something like Walk Hard a chance, you seriously have to wonder about. I have nothing against those who are attracted to their same gender, but if a movie shows excessive naked penis I am going to skip it. That's just me.

Will Smith continues his streak of bad, practically unwatchable series of films where the premise has to do with him battling aliens. Apparently, people seem to enjoy this formula because this movie made a lot of money.

I must admit that while I could not sit through this movie in it's entirety, I saw enough of it to say confidently that it was horrible. Independence Day is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Men In Black was extremely overrated. I, Robot: I could also not sit through. Part of the problem with these films is that Smith plays up his comedic, likable guy personality so much that it is practically impossible to take the brink of apocalypse storyline seriously. But the main flaw with Smith's sci-fi / action vehicles is: they bring nothing new to the table. They all seem like badly made hack jobs by filmmakers and screenwriters who are walking the fine line between originality and plagiarism.

Maybe one of these days, Smith will get a script involving him fighting aliens that will actually bring something original to the genre. But I'm not holding my breath. The success of I Am Legend ensures you can expect more of the same.

Few movies have given insight into the grim reality of show business than All That Jazz. Director Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical musical is highlighted by entertaining and terrifically choreographed numbers which give unexpected depth to the storyline. This unconventional blend is anchored by the outstanding performance of Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon. As the movie's focal point, the title character is loosely based on Fosse himself. Gideon is a man addicted to his work in show business and the vices that come along with it.

Rather than a straightforward autobiographical tale, the dramatic narrative is rather uniquely presented. All That Jazz blends conventional storytelling, musical numbers, and an astonishing first person point-of-view sequence where Gideon suffers his first heart attack. All these elements intertwine seamlessly in pushing the story along to it's grim yet inevitable conclusion. The result is a masterful work of art by a true genius. The film, however, does not get bogged down by the song and dance moments and maintains believable realism with it's depiction of a man's journey towards his own self-destruction. When Roy Scheider passed recently, I thought immediately of his memorable work in All That Jazz. This is a movie that really stays with you, and there is no other film like it.

All That Jazz was the swan song of a great decade in film-making, and brought to it a rousing yet unfortunate close. The 1970's were an unparalleled era in cinema defined by groundbreaking and truly important works of art. A time when directors took the medium as a serious form of entertainment and storytelling, while raising it into previously uncharted heights. This is one of the finest examples.

Two of the most influential Hollywood films of the 1980's were Die Hard and Fatal Attraction. These blockbusters left a blueprint for dozens of films in their aftermaths, which also wound up being moderate hits at the box office. Cliffhanger hit theaters about a year after the success of Under Siege, one of the many bastard sons of John McClaine. The original 1988 Bruce Willis action vehicle involved European terrorists planning a multi million dollar heist in the top floors of a skyscraper. It's sequel, 1990's Die Hard 2, had this scenario take place in an airport. 1992's Under Siege used the premise on board a submarine.

1993's Cliffhanger finds the terrorists attempting a big heist in midair. When the plan goes haywire, the money lands in the rocky mountains where Sylvester Stallone happens to be rock climbing with several peers. This film might as well have been another Rocky sequel, with Rocky stumbling across these international terrorists while training for his next fight by climbing the Alps.

Cliffhanger is the Die Hard formula at it's most absurd. Here, Stallone does to rock climbers what he did to Vietnam vets with Rambo 2. A he-man like Sly has no need for protective equipment or warm clothing while scaling ice-capped mountains at such high altitudes. A tank top, bicycle shorts & his bare hands suffice. But does he get even with the bad guys who kidnap his fellow mountain climbers when they attempt to recover the suitcases full of money? If you don't know, you've never seen one of the countless Die Hard clones Hollywood cranked out in the early '90's.

Cliffhanger was surprisingly one of the few Stallone vanity projects to make a profit over the past few decades. Unfortunately, it managed to bring the film careers of the lovely Janine Turner and the great John Lithgow to a screeching halt. The moral here is that sometimes success comes with failure in Tinseltown. Stallone is certainly no stranger to that.

Staying Alive is an abomination. An annoying, pointless exercise in narcissism, executed so ineptly in every way imaginable, that it holds a secure and well-deserved place in history as one of the worst films ever made.

Two elements which made the original such a surprise hit in 1977 (disco dancing and the chart-topping Bee Gees soundtrack) have been replaced by what can best be described as absurdly choreographed aerobic dry humping routines shot in slow motion along with music by - you guessed it - Frank Stallone.

As the so-called "brains" behind this monumental failure, Sylvester Stallone may as well have taken a pristine 70MM print of the original classic Saturday Night Fever, filmed himself defecating all over it, and made that the final hidden scene at the conclusion of the end credits.

Stallone also appears briefly in what has to be the strangest cameo ever - engaging in a homo erotic stare down with Manero while wearing a fur coat that looks like it was raided from Liberace's closet.

Staying Alive makes Showgirls seem like it could have been written and directed by Bob Fosse. Avoid this monumental turd at all costs.

It is rare that a movie with a premise as far-fetched as Johnny Handsome could wind up being so memorable. It helps when a top notch action director is assisted by an outstanding ensemble cast firing on all cylinders to make this story believable.

Johnny Handsome hit theaters in the fall of '89. It bombed, largely due to a weak promotional campaign by Tri-Star pictures. 19 years later, it is still unavailable on DVD. The excellent cast includes Ellen Barkin, Scott Wilson, and future Oscar winners Morgan Freeman and Forrest Whittaker. However, it is Mickey Rourke in the title role and Lance Henriksen as his arch-nemesis who truly hit grand slams with their performances. The heartbreaking original score by Ry Cooder and the rich atmosphere of the New Orleans setting also elevate this material considerably. This is not your typical revenge action picture.

The movie can best be described as a gritty, noir-ish crime drama with a sci-fi twist that maintains plausibility instead of running off the rails into comedic territory as with 1997's Face/Off. The film moves at a brisk pace, which is fine, but this fact ultimately winds up being the only flaw with Johnny Handsome. One almost gets the impression more was filmed but the studio demanded a 90 minute cut. A Special Edition director's cut DVD is warranted. A longer run time allowing for more scenes to flesh out the characters portrayed by the great supporting cast would have made this already outstanding film a true classic.

It would really be nice to see Walter Hill direct another action film one of these days. Hill and Peckinpah were the real deals. Other filmmakers (such as John Woo) strive to match the perfection of these two, but have yet to achieve it.