Gino Sassani on October 24th, 2008
Pierce Brosnan only got to play James Bond for four films, which is unfortunate when you watch a film like Die Another Day. He’s always had a great presence in the part, but watching this movie gives you tremendous appreciation of what he brought to the character and to the franchise. In such a short time he made the part his own in a way that only Sean Connery had done before. Read the rest of this entry »
Gino Sassani on October 23rd, 2008
The title of Roger Moore’s 5th Bond film actually comes from a short story written by Fleming and not a novel as most of the earlier films did. To make up for the limited source material another Fleming short, Risico, was added to the mix and the screenplay would draw from both works. I’ve already said that Moore is my least favorite Bond, but I have to admit that I like For Your Eyes Only quite a bit. Coming on the heels of one of the absolute worst Bond films ever, Moonraker, it was a welcome return to a simpler adventure that relied more on the characters than gadgets and out of this world locations. Read the rest of this entry »
Gino Sassani on October 22nd, 2008
Thunderball was actually the first James Bond story that began life, not as a Fleming novel, but a film screenplay. Long before Harry Saltzman acquired the film rights to the novels, Fleming himself considered bringing Bond to film. He worked with screenwriter Kevin McCoy to write an original James Bond film. Fleming eventually grew discouraged trying to make the film, and the story elements were used to create a new Bond novel instead. When the book was released, Kevin McCoy realized that he had created many of these story elements and sued for his share of the credit and money. This would make the Thunderball story a unique one in the James Bond collection. Read the rest of this entry »
Gino Sassani on October 22nd, 2008
Live And Let Die wasn’t Roger Moore’s first brush with James Bond. It wasn’t even his second. When Saltzman and Broccoli first began assembling their team, Roger Moore was their second choice, after Cary Grant, to play the Fleming spy. Moore was doing television at the time and so was unavailable. He did, however, play the spy in a television skit spoofing the character, which is included in the special features of this release. When Sean Connery left the franchise for a second time, presumably for good, the search was on again to fill the role. Read the rest of this entry »
Gino Sassani on October 8th, 2008
Not too long after we thought we had seen the last of Indiana Jones following his Last Crusade, George Lucas had an idea. Like The Grinch, it was an wonderful, awful idea. Hard at work in his lair deep inside the Evil Empire, Lucas pounded away at the script that could please only himself. The result was something called Indiana Jones And The Saucermen From Mars. Exuberant over his own misguided genius, he showed it to his fellow Indy masterminds. Predictably to anyone not named Lucas, neither Ford nor Speilberg thought very much of the idea. Read the rest of this entry »
Gary Van Auken on October 9th, 2007
Out For Justice is a classic Steven Seagal action flick set in the mean streets of Brooklyn. Seagal plays a cop named Gino who has seen the ups and downs of the neighborhood, but has done his best to keep it safe and running as smooth as possible. His childhood adversary, turned criminal scum (William Forsythe), has turned the streets into a war zone leaving a huge trail of dead bodies in his wake. Seagal decides to ?take care of him? personally rather than bringing him to justice. Read the rest of this entry »
Gino Sassani on July 20th, 2007
Where do you start with a film like The Untouchables? I suppose you start at the beginning. This has to be the best script David Mamet has ever written. The highly stylized vision of 1930 Chicago utilizes as much of the myth as it does the fact. After all, we want our mobster dramas larger than life. For rights issues the film claims to be based on the 1959 Robert Stack television series; however, all of the participants admit the result is completely unique and original. Read the rest of this entry »
Joshua Noyes on May 31st, 2007
Director George Miller’s follow-up to his own 1979 hit Mad Max is proof that not all sequels are inferior to their originals. If anything, this brutal sci-fi action film is even more intense and exciting than its predecessor, although the state of its post-apocalyptic world has only become worse. Several years after the deaths of his wife and child, Max (Mel Gibson) has become a nomad, wandering an Australian outback that has fallen into tribal warfare conducted from scattered armed camps. Read the rest of this entry »
Jeremy Frost on November 19th, 2006
Owen Wilson plays Jeremy Burnett, a naval pilot who is on the verge of hanging in his wings due to boredom on the aircraft carrier. With two weeks remaining until he is relieved of his duties, Burnett and his partner Stackhouse are placed on a reconnaissance mission - somewhat of a Christmas day punishment. While flying their mission, the boys go off-course into a demilitarized zone, and photograph something they were not intended to see. The plane is shortly thereafter shot down, and Burnett and Stackhouse are in… Read the rest of this entry »
