THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) – 9.5/10 “The stuff that dreams are made of.” When listing the greatest film detectives of all time, the first name most think of is Sam Spade, the San Francisco-based P.I. created by Dashiell Hammett in the novel The Maltese Falcon, on which John Huston’s essential 1941 film noir is based. […]

Billy Corben. A name that automatically clicked on in my head. So I looked him up and realized that he worked on one of the ESPN’s 30 FOR 30 documentaries I was really interested in watching, BROKE. It was a documentary that mainly used stock footage and interviews without too much in the way of […]

David Fincher is one of the few director’s who might be a bigger draw than any A-list star that might be appearing in his movies.  So whether you’re on the Ben Affleck bandwagon or not, GONE GIRL is a must-see this fall and you can watch the first trailer for the murder mystery below.  It’s […]

Jesse (Andrew Jacobs, in his debut) has just graduated high school. It, as the valedictorian points out, is a time of transformation. Jesse has no idea just how right the smartest kid in class is. At his graduation party, Jesse makes an offhand comment about a downstairs neighbor and the wailing and moaning he hears […]

Art can build up but first it must destroy. We’ve all heard tales of the ‘starving artists’ who live for nothing but their work, but few could be found as dedicated to these principles as the Shinoharas, Ushio and Noriko (and their son Alex). The famed boxing painter, his wife, and their tumultuous relationship/partnership and […]

You don’t have a life. That’s what David (Vaughn) is told by his girlfriend Emma (Smulders). David has finally decided to see his girlfriend at three in the morning after a hectic day and he’s less than enthusiastic about the bombshell she just dropped on him. She’s pregnant. It’s the latest in a growing list […]

It’s practically a rule that whenever an animated film does moderately well at the weekend box office, it has to have a sequel.  But typically, the performance of the sequel will tell you whether or not the first film made money because kids needed something to do or because they actually liked it.  In the […]

Sports movie fans probably wouldn’t take the time to wonder what would happen if the Charlestown Chiefs entered the rink with the Mighty Ducks, or if Henry Rowengartner was subjected to more hours of child labor than Billy Heywood. But they have likely pondered and debated, Who would still be standing if Rocky Balboa squared […]

A car zooms down the dirty highway, kicking up dust behind it. The driver, with a silver briefcase by his side, outraces a train to get to its destination: the middle of the desert. Waiting for him is another man, a drug runner, with another briefcase. He sets a timer and waits for the explosion. […]

Freedom.  Today that’s the most important word for Eugene Brown (Gooding), who is being released after doing 17 years for bank robbery.  He is a much different man than the one who entered prison.  To remind him of this difference he is given a gift by a fellow inmate (Haysbert).  A large, carved wooden chess […]