I hate being a cynic when it comes to sweet, innocent motion pictures like this, beloved by many for over fifty years, but I flat-out didn’t find much to love in Roman Holiday. The most pleasure comes in the form of watching Audrey Hepburn, in her film debut, as she’s more beautiful and radiant than ever. But more often than that, I found myself a little bit bored by the scenes on-screen. William Wyler directed the film, but it was my friend and roommate William Hyler who got me through it. His running commentary on the movie still cracks me up weeks later after taking place. What’s not to make fun of? While Gregory Peck is admirable as an actor, he feels completely out of place here. He’s not what I would call the most charismatic romantic lead, especially paired with Hepburn, who looks young enough to be his daughter. For all the people who love the movie, please answer me this. Why does Audrey Hepburn spend so much time in the beginning asleep? She works hard to escape her privileged life, all to go to bed. A little odd, if you ask me. There are small joys to the movie, brief scenes that work on their own (including a chase scene on a motorcyle), and an ending that puts a nice capper on the events, but I find it odd this film (more…)

Oh Adam Sandler, how I miss thee. The old Adam Sandler, that is. Going to see Happy Gilmore with my dad in fifth grade still ranks as one of my favorite movie-going experiences ever. Watching a really funny comedy with my dad is the best because his laugh is so loud and contagious, and the two of us just cried with laughter throughout that entire movie. While there are elements of Billy Madison, The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer, and the under-rated Little Nicky that work tremendously, nothing he’s done has come close to the laughs of Happy Gilmore. His best movie overall is Punch-Drunk Love, a beautifully written and directed romance from Paul Thomas Anderson. But since the release of that film in 2002, Sandler has essentially wasted away in useless, mindless “entertainment.” It’s always the same. Every year, usually in the summer, we get a new Sandler movie. It’s got a new concept. It’s got a hot babe. It’s got a big fat marketing campaign. And each is successful. But does anyone truly cherish The Longest Yard or Click? I would hope not. Sandler’s newest travesty You Don’t Mess with the Zohan starts off with a little bit of promise (more…)

Part of the reason last year I started re-visiting a lot of classic was to catch up on those handful of movies I was embarrassed to say I hadn’t seen. I’m a huge fan of movie musicals, but many have been astonished to learn I’ve never seen the granddaddy of them all, the Gene Kelly masterpiece Singin’ in the Rain. It’s not considered one of the best movie musicals of all time; it’s considered by many to be thee best movie musical of all time! Let’s just say my expectations were fairly high. It felt so good a few weeks back to finally kick back late one night and put this title in, because I’ve rarely had more fun with an older movie. It lives up to the hype in every way. From the fun of the storyline to the juicy and snazzy characters, from the bigger-than-expected humor to the wildly entertaining musical numbers. We all know that famous scene of Kelly dancing in the rain, but I was delighted to find half a dozen other numbers in the movie that became instant favorites. If I had one quibble with the movie, it would be that I found a dream sequence dance number later in the movie to go on about double the length it needed to be. But as those wily gangsters say, fuhgettaboutit (more…)

With Halloween just around the corner, I’m disappointed to say I haven’t seen all that much in the way of horror movies this year. What have I missed? The Strangers, a good old fashioned throwback to classic 70’s horror, and The Ruins, an awesome gruesome gorefest, are the only two horror titles I’ve seen in 2008, but what have I missed? Prom Night? Mirrors? The upcoming umpteenth Saw sequel? There hasn’t been all that much to see in the scary genre I know and love so well. Super good buzz for a European horror film called Let the Right One In has excited me a bit, but other than that, my radar has been fairly low. At least last summer we got one solid entry into the genre, so simple and straightforward it could be construed as lazy, but I enjoyed its minimalistic approach. The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple who stay the night at a family home in the middle of nowhere and get ruthlessly terrorized by three killers for no apparent reason, is definitely more effective in its set-up. We get to know the two characters and the recent conflict that’s developed between them, and they’re easy to care for. Tyler has a face that is hard not to love, in particular. When the killers start striking, it does start to become a bit redundant with one chase scene after another. However, considering that the entire movie basically all takes place in one house with two victims for ninety minutes, first time writer/director Bryan Bertino does a fantastic job creating suspense (more…)

I watched this very entertaining and somewhat eerie science fiction classic about two days before I learned that a remake was coming starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. I’m happy that I got to watch the original with a fresh eye and that I didn’t sit there thinking what Reeves would do with a role like Klaatu (the lead role of the film). Telling a quiet but internally terrifying story about an alien (Klaatu) who arrives on Earth to basically tell us to keep our wars to our own planet or risk extermination, the film is fascinating to watch from beginning to end. My dad brought me up on horror films and a lot of science-fiction films as a kid, but somehow this own had escaped my grasp, along with the 50’s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (which I took a look at soon after this). This is clearly one of the best science-fiction movies ever made, telling a provocative story very cleanly, with terrific performances and a morose atmosphere (more…)

My friend and I decided while watching the colorful but somewhat empty spectacle Speed Racer that a much more interesting movie based on similar subject matter would’ve been Mario Kart: The Movie. Come on, why not? We could’ve had Emile Hirsch playing a young Mario, lots of unique go-karts, and tracks that could’ve varied from Bowser’s Castle to Wario Stadium (with Rainbow Road being the setting for the exciting, action-packed finale). Warner Bros was shocked to find a flop on their hands with this film, but there shouldn’t have been any doubt. Nobody in the demographic this film was aiming for is old enough to appreciate what this project is based on, and those old enough to know about this character’s universe probably said no thank you (and checked out Iron Man a second time). The film itself is not without its joys. Visually, in small doses, it’s absolutely gorgeous. All of the races look super cool. The fact that almost everything in the movie is CGI didn’t really bother me. But directors Andy and Larry Wachowski (The Matrix) take such a simple story and complicate it to no ends, stretching the thing out to nearly two and a half hours. Like all three of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, there’s a better 90-minute movie (more…)

How is it really possible to choose a favorite movie? There are so many films I’ve seen in my life that have touched me in certain ways and opened my eyes. There have been a select few I watched growing up that literally got me interested in pursuing filmmaking as a career. In 1999, I went with some friends to see a movie called American Beauty, something at the time I knew nothing about, just that it had been critically praised to death. I walked out of that movie a changed person. I remember going home that night and telling my dad that I think I might want to start making movies. A year later I was shooting my first short film and I haven’t stopped since.

At least American Beauty was a little bit better choice than my first-ever favorite film. From 1994 to 1999 my favorite film was Speed, yes, that bus movie with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. While I’ve definitely gotten a little tired of it the last few years–I don’t think I’ve even watched it in at least three or four years–I still think it’s one of the best examples of pure action filmmaking. It was also one of the first R-rated movies I ever saw around the age of 10, so it had that kind of visceral impact on me as well. I fell in love with The Truman Show in 1998, but just not quite enough to call it my favorite film. Around this time I knew I had to find a different choice when people asked me, “Oh, so you’re into movies, huh? What’s your all-time favorite?” (more…)

Despite my lack of updates over the last four months, I have been keeping very busy, seeing many new and old films, and writing and directing four short films since June, with a fifth on the way this coming weekend. For any visitors of this site, I have a frickin avalanche of updates coming your way, complete with reviews of the films I’ve seen in theaters all the way back since May, all the movies of the 50’s I’ve taken a look at and neglected to write about, trailers of upcoming fall films I’m uber excited about, brand new short films of mine, and lots, lots more!!

I’m making one change to my reviews, and that is, from now on, 80-90% of my reviews are going to be short one-paragraph mini-reviews. Of course, movies that I fall in love with (like a Dark Knight) or hate with a passion (like a Halloween remake) will get some more typing space. But from now on, it’s time to keep most of these reviews short and sweet. 

Of course, having said that, my first update is going to be a nice big lengthy review of my all-time favorite film, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard. But the mini-reviews begin right after that, as I get caught up with four months’ worth of reviews.

I’ll leave you right now with the new trailer for my most anticipated movie of the rest of 2008. Just click below.