HBO (now Max) has been producing its own feature-length films since 1982, averaging 10-15 releases each year. Most of these films have little to no marketing behind them, nor are they distributed by a major studio or star A-list actors. With very few exceptions, these films go mostly unseen. However, there have been exceptions. These include The Normal Heart, Bad Education, Live from Baghdad, and Behind The Candelabra. Perhaps HBO’s most celebrated and widely received original movie is the Billy Crystal-directed (Forget Paris, Mr. Saturday Night) 61*, chronicling the 1961 single-season home run chase between New York Yankees teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.
Category Archives: Thomas Jane
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Love or hate him, Terrence Malick has a unique style. Personally, he’s not for me. The New World was a decent enough film, but it left me wanting more. I had such high hopes for The Tree of Life, only for it to result in one of my most frustrating and tedious theater-going experiences ever, that I was ready to write him off. However, there is often an anomaly. For me, it was his devastatingly beautiful portrayal of World War II in 1998’s The Thin Red Line. Rightfully or not, The Thin Red Line will forever be associated and compared with Saving Private Ryan, another World War II-based Best Picture nominee of 1998. And, if I’m being 100% honest, I did not know that Malick directed the Thin Red Line until after I finished watching it.
Dark Country (2009)
Thomas Jane’s directorial debut leaves much to be desired. I enjoyed Dark Country more and more for the movie’s first two-thirds. However, the film loses me once it starts going from trying to be a believable mystery to an over-the-top parade of being there/done those moments. I can appreciate movies that force a character to go mad until he slowly reaches the depths of hell (Apocalypse Now, 1408, American Psycho, and, of course, The Shining). But if this is the result you aim for, you will need a first-time director to accomplish that. Dark Country could have gone in a dozen different directions. Unfortunately, for me, and probably for you, too, I was led on a path that left me dissatisfied.
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