Like many film fans, I have a love/hate relationship with Tom Cruise. He’s been in a lot of great movies, but he’s also one of the most narcissistic people in Hollywood, and that’s saying something in an industry where just about everyone spends more time gazing in the mirror than anything else. Even with the Mission: Impossible movies, based on a beloved TV series from my childhood, the same problem has surfaced. Certainly Mission: Impossible…Read More
Review: ’71
Years of ceaseless tension between the Protestants and the Catholics in Ireland spawned “The Troubles”, as it was called, a name that doesn’t begin to suggest the horror of neighbor fighting neighbor in cities like Belfast, cities where an alleyway, or a courtyard between two apartment buildings served as the front lines. Set in 1971 at the height of The Troubles, this riveting thriller follows young British soldier Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell) as his squadron’s pulled…Read More
Review: Prometheus
I so wanted to love this movie, I’m such a big fan of director Ridley Scott. How can a film that purports to offer the backstory behind the blockbuster 1979 film Alien not be amazing? I rank Alien as one of the ten most influential science fiction films ever made, and getting its director back behind the camera to make another epic when his last sci-fi flick was the equally superb Blade Runner seems like…Read More