Denzel Washington (
Flight, He Got Game) and Ethan Hawke (
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Boyhood) began their careers in 1985. Washinton has a more storied career with four Oscar nominations between 1987 and 1999 (
Cry Freedom, Glory, Malcolm X, The Hurricane). The underrated Hawke had starred in movies such as
Reality Bites, Before Sunrise, Gattaca, and
Hamlet before the turn of the century. But it took Antoine Fuqua’s (
Southpaw, Tears of the Sun) gritty, determined, and so far over the top that it might be believable
Training Day for these two Hollywood heavyweights to meet on the big screen for the first time. The result is the crowning acting achievement in the careers of each actor.
Continue reading Training Day (2001) →
The Place Beyond the Pines is a place you do not need to visit anytime in the near future. Director Derek Cianfrance and Ryan Gosling (
Drive, Half-Nelson) team up for the first time since the 2010 instant classic
Blue Valentine. I can honestly say that they recaptured their magic for the first third of this movie, but ***spoiler alert***then Cianfrance went and killed off Gosling. After that, this movie tail-spun into the ground.
The Place Beyond the Pines is told in three stories (all roughly 45-55 minutes). In this review, I’m going to spoil everything. So either you’ll stop reading now and see the movie on your own, or you’ll heed my advice and read this post instead of seeing this wreck of a film.
Continue reading The Place Beyond the Pines (2013) →
It’s not going to get on many Top 10 lists (especially when released in 2010, the best year for movie releases in my lifetime), but
The Other Guys is fun. One of my only complaints about the great year for movies that was 2010 was that it lacked a great horror film and a great comedy. Though I have not seen it, I thought
Get Him To The Greek might be the comedy movie I was looking for. While that is a movie I will still watch, it no longer has the potential to be the top comedy of 2010. I believe that ranking belongs to
The Other Guys.
Continue reading The Other Guys (2010) →
Movies I Watch That Inspire Me to Critique!