Sometimes it only takes a few minutes to know that you’re wandering into a true classic, and that was the case with this 1940’s film noir entitled Out of the Past. I didn’t really know very much about it going in except that it was considered one of the best film noirs of all time and that it starred Robert Mitchum. This was my introduction to Mr. Mitchum, and I must say I can’t wait to watch more of his films. He is cool, and this movie is cool. I was absolutely enthralled in the first half, not as interested in the second half, but I very much enjoyed this movie, and it definitely peaked my interest to take a look at more film noir.

The first part of the movie is told in flashback, as a small town gas pumper Jeff Bailey (Mitchum) finds himself face to face with an old friend and he tells his girlfriend a secret past of his that’s about to catch up with him. He used to be a detective, and he took on a rather controversial case in which (more…)

Let’s not go overboard now. One of the best comedies of the decade? One of the best damn comedies ever made? I think Richard Roeper could be diagnosed clinically insane now that Roger Ebert is no longer on his show, but that’s another story entirely. For a movie that had a lot of buzz going for it and almost unanimous positive reviews from critics, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is underwhelming and, dare I say, forgettable. It’s not a bad movie by any means, but it’s fairly boring for the first hour and only gets marginally better in the second. The casting is uninspired, the cameos are endless, and the jokes are very few and far between. An instant classic comedy this does not make.

Peter (Jason Segel) leads a fairly laidback lifestyle, composing music (really more like background ambience, as he says) for TV shows, namely one in particular that stars his girlfriend of 5 plus years Sarah Marshall (Veronica Mars’s Kristen Bell). It’s a little hard to believe she’s lasted this long with the guy but to each his own (or her own I guess) (more…)

I don’t think I’ve heard so much about a movie’s ending than I have with The Yearling. I’ve heard so much about the tragedy of the movie’s ending that actually watching the movie was a weird experience, in that I almost felt like I had seen it before. It’s unexpected today to find real sadness in films aimed at kids, but in the 1940’s, filmmakers didn’t seem to mind making the children cry, seen originally in 1942’s Bambi, and then in this film. The animal that is the yearling in a darling creature that surprisingly doesn’t come into play until the second half of the movie, and by that time we’ve come to get to know the Baxter family, who will take in the animal, as long as it doesn’t destroy the garden that is the family’s source of food and money. The father is played by Gregory Peck (who would go on to play the ultimate father character in the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird) and the mother is played by Jane Wyman (who acted and particularly looked different in Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend), and together they make a strong but unsympathetic couple who may (more…)

Watching Billy Wilder’s second renowned work of the 1940’s was an even more enjoyable experience than watching his first. A couple weeks ago I took a look at Double Indemnity, the ultra-cool film noir from 1944 that marked one of the best of its genre. It was also the first hit film penned and directed by Billy Wilder. Just one… year… later… he followed it up with a film that I found to be even better, 1945’s The Lost Weekend. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, this chilling and hypnotic look at the dangers of alcoholism is way ahead of its time and still works just as well today over sixty years later. Wilder is a talented director and even better writer, and here he does a dynamic job with both.

An exceptional Ray Milland plays the main character Don Birnam, who likes to act like he doesn’t have an alcohol problem when in reality he is almost too far away from getting help. There are strong figures in his life who try to do all they can to keep him healthy, especially his girlfriend Helen, beautifully played by (more…)

There are some movies I watch I know I am going to love right from the first scene. Sometimes I’m not sure. Maybe the movie could go downhill after this, I think. But from what I knew going into Snow Angels, and watching the first few minutes unfold, I knew this was going to be a chilly and thrilling experience. Snow Angels marks my first venture into the mind of writer/director David Gordon Green, who has previously made three acclaimed films titled George Washington, All the Real Girls, and Undertow, and I’m already eager to visit his earlier work. I’m also curious to see how his sensibilities will transfer over to the Judd Apatow factory this summer with the Seth Rogen and James Franco starrer The Pineapple Express. No matter the genre, this guy can direct. Despite a downer ending that I didn’t find completely successful, Snow Angels is a terrific film and easily the best I’ve seen so far this year.

Sam Rockwell and an excellent Kate Beckinsale star in this ensemble piece that tells of a group of people all intertwined, looking for love, sludging through work and school, dodging suicidal tendencies (more…)

If you had told me two days ago that I would ever see this movie, I would’ve laughed and told you were crazy. Yesterday, if you had told me that I would like it, I would’ve attempted to strangle away your lies. But today I am here to tell you that a huge surprise has come across my way, and that surprise is Disney’s newest live-action movie College Road Trip. This movie is funny, engaging, and sincere, featuring two absolutely wonderful performances by its leads. It’s rare to find a movie in Spring that is winning in every way, especially one starring someone like Martin Lawrence, but College Road Trip actually works. I’m probably the last person to have expected to enjoy this film, but I absolutely loved it.

The movie stars the omnipresent actors Martin Lawrence, who just a month ago appeared in Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, and Raven Simone, who appears to be just everywhere these days. They play James and Melanie Porter, a father-daughter duo who hit the road for a plethora of college admission interviews (more…)