Recommended The Movie: Musical biopics are the worst. They tend to exhibit the most infuriating aspects of regular biopics — the many shortcuts screenwriters take to squeeze a human life into three acts and 120 pages — plus they have an added requirement: they gotta play the hits.
Rent It The Movie: At only 31 years of age, director Drake Doremus already has four features under his belt. He has proven himself to be a prolific young American filmmaker. His 2011 effort Like Crazy , unseen by me, made a minor splash as a romance that supposedly didn't condescend to its youth demographic and presented young characters who were smarter and more layered than the usual Nicholas …
Recommended Following years of steady but dead-end employment as a supporting player, actor Charles Bronson abandoned Hollywood for the European continent where, very quickly, he established himself there and in Asia as a major star. It was during Bronson's “European period” that he made some of his best films: Farewell, Friend , Once Upon a Time in the West (both 1968), Rider on the Rain …
Rent It THE MOVIE: Please Note: The stills used here are taken from promotional materials, not the Blu-ray edition under review. I'll admit, sometimes the deck is stacked.
Highly Recommended Where's the love for Stanley Kramer? Dismissed for half a century as a minimally talented producer-director of “message pictures,” Kramer is long overdue for a major reappraisal. As a producer he made some of the finest films of the late 1940s through the mid- 50s: Champion , Home of the Brave (both 1949), The Men (1950), High Noon (1952), The Wild One (1953), The Caine Mutiny …
Highly Recommended THE MOVIE: Please Note: The screen captures used here are taken from an earlier DVD release, not the Blu-ray edition under review. Often, well-meaning films that deal with issues important to their time lose their bite over the years.
Highly Recommended In 10 Words or Less Even on TV, Pixar's breakout hit is outstanding Reviewer's Bias* Loves: Toy Story , Pixar films Likes: Animated shorts Dislikes: Unnecessary sequels Hates: Most made-for-TV sequels The Movie Toy Story has one of the more interesting runs in movie trilogy history. The first film was a work of genius that required no sequel.
Recommended The Movie: Based on the play by Miguel Pinero, Short Eyes , directed by Robert M. Young in 1977 is a grim look at life in The Tombs' (The Manhattan Detention Complex, or The Manhattan Detention Center if you prefer, a prison in the lower part of the city widely considered at the time to be New York City's worst jail).
Recommended THE FILM: Click an image to view Blu-ray screenshot with 1080p resolution. Director Marc Webb seems more in command of his blockbuster comic-book adaptation The Amazing Spider-Man 2 than he did on the previous outing, which is impressive considering Webb is only two films out from his first project, indie (500) Days of Summer .
Rent It THE MOVIE: Please Note: The stills used here are taken from promotional materials and other sources, not the Blu-ray edition under review. A timely release given recent events in Gaza, the 1966 war movie Cast a Giant Shadow takes us back to the early days of Israel's quest for sovereignty. Written and directed by Melville Shavelson ( Yours, Mine & Ours ), the film is both quaint and …