Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this caper film that heists dreams instead of treasure. It is surely the most cerebral action thriller to become a blockbuster. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy. Elliot Page, Marion Cotillard, and Michael Caine costar.
Tag: Warner Bros.
‘Watchmen’ – Superhero redux on Hulu and HBO Max
Zach Snyder’s 2009 adaptation of the landmark graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons is as faithful as anyone could hope for.
‘The Iron Giant’ – A boy and his robot buddy – free on Hoopla
BThe giddiest moments of The Iron Giant (1999), a delightful throwback to the classic era of hand-drawn animated movies, deliver the most amazing little boy wish fulfillment fantasies. But there’s much more to Brad Bird’s cartoon fable in science fiction clothing and fairy tale trappings is a delightful throwback to the classic era of hand-drawn animated movies.
Clint Eastwood’s ‘Million Dollar Baby’ on Amazon Prime
Always one of America’s most undervalued directors, Clint Eastwood proved himself American cinema’s national treasure in the third act of his impressive career. Million Dollar Baby (2004), an understated, unpretentious, powerfully told drama, adapted from F.X. Toole stories by Paul Haggis, earned Eastwood his second round of Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture (his […]
Last chance: ‘Enter the Dragon’ – Bruce Lee is supreme on Netflix
Enter the Dragon (1973) – After years of supporting roles in Hollywood, American citizen Bruce Lee became a star in Hong Kong with a handful of hard-edged martial arts thrillers. He returned to conquer his adopted homeland with this American/Hong Kong co-production, a glorified B-movie mix of kung-fu fighting (choreographed by Lee himself) and James […]
Last chance: Errol Flynn is ‘Captain Blood’ on HBO Max
Errol Flynn was Warner Bros. contract player, barely a supporting actor on the Hollywood scene, when he shot to stardom in the starring role of Captain Blood (1935), Warner Bros.’ lavish adaptation of Rafael Sabatini’s novel. His bravado and charisma brings to life the rousing tale Peter Blood, a courageous British doctor who, unjustly sold […]
‘The Dirty Dozen’ – the original World War II caper on HBO Max
The 1960s were full of big budget wartime caper-style films—The Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare, Kelley’s Heroes, just to name a few—but none of them have the brawny machismo and wily bad boy gusto of The Dirty Dozen (1967), Robert Aldrich’s testosterone-fueled tough guy classic. Lee Marvin is the hard-as-nails Major who is “volunteered” to […]
Martin Scorsese’s ‘GoodFellas’ on HBO Max
“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” GoodFellas (1990), Martin Scorsese’s violent, dynamic, exhilarating adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi’s non-fiction book Wiseguy, about real-life wiseguy-turned-witness against the mob Henry Hill, exploded across screens in 1990 and was embraced as the first great American gangster movie since Coppola’s The Godfather […]
Clint Eastwood is ‘Dirty Harry’
“I know what you’re thinking. Did he fire six shots, or only five?” Clint Eastwood was a western icon for the fistful of spaghetti westerns and cynical American copycats. When he strapped on his .44 Magnum to stride the streets of San Francisco as Inspector Harry Callahan, known to the squad as “Dirty Harry,” Eastwood […]
‘Blade Runner 2049’ on HBO Max
35 years after the original Blade Runner changed the landscape of big screen science fiction, Blade Runner 2049 (2017) dared build on the dystopian portrait of the ecologically devastated urban imaged on screen by director Ridley Scott and his team of designers and artists. Just as in the original, this film is as much about […]