Okay, so as I looked over IMDB’s list of films released in 1994, struggling to look for a movie to write about this week, I realized my proclamation that 1994 is indeed the best year ever, was not mere hyperbole.
While Kevin Spacey’s TV work in the late 1980’s was certainly impressive, in movies he never seemed to connect with audiences. That is until 1992, when he began gathering steam with a great turn in James Foley’s screen adaptation of
It’s a miracle any movie gets made. If that sounds hyperbolic, fine. I’ll tweak it: it’s a flat-out water-to-wine-the-leper-is-cured-the-blind-can-see if a great movie gets made. A bad movie, that’s just a miracle, like my wife making it somewhere on time
With JFK, a dizzying collection of conflicting and oftentimes ridiculous ideas and conspiracy theories surrounding JFK’s assassination, Oliver Stone yanked on his trunks and took a nice swim in controversial waters. It was quite a high-wire act, a three hour
5. Ratatouille (2007): Nikki Finke severely underestimated the commercial possibilities of a movie with a rat named Remy as the main character, opining that it would be difficult for Disney to sell the accompanying barrage of toys. Rats aren’t cute.
Jan De Bont’s “Speed” is a movie that in many ways symbolizes why 1994 was such a great year for movies, if not the best year ever in the history of the world and all universes known and unknown in
The Best Picture Winner of 1994 brought Tom Hanks his second Oscar in a row, and held the top spot at the box office for a remarkable 10 weeks. “Run, Forrest! Run!” became an unlikely catchphrase. And the talking heads
There are movies that I have no business liking, which feature stories that I should not find compelling, given my, ahem, puerile tastes. Such is the case with Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show,” a movie I love despite the fact that
I wasn’t too sure what to make of Jim Carrey, but with “Dumb & Dumber,” I decided that he was awesome. On Sunday nights in 1990, my college dorm TV lounge would be packed with students watching “In Living Color,”
In “Hoop Dreams,” documentary filmmaker Steve James and his team follow two talented high school basketball players, William Gates and Arthur Agee, both of whom have dreams of one day playing for the NBA. An audience award winner at The
I know I was supposed to write about Hoop Dreams, but it’s been years since I have seen it and I wanted to give it a fair shot. Instead, please find my thoughts below on Clerks, a movie I should
At least as far as movies go, I believe the above headline to be accurate. The Best Picture nominees at the Oscars that year were Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Quiz Show, and The Shawshank Redemption.
Not my bag, baby. But this was a long gestating pet project. In Dan Leroy’s awesome book about the making of Paul’s Boutique, Tim Carr, formerly of Capitol Records, says that Ad-Rock spoke to him about an instrumental album as
Why a Beastie Boys series on Big Hollywood? Perhaps “To the Five Boroughs,” an album that largely eschews the fun party vibe in favor of left-wing political rants, helps to answer that question. Here’s the thing about politics and music,
In 1998, the Beastie Boys announced the arrival of a new album with the release of “Intergalactic,” which in my opinion, is their biggest and best single to date. It’s certainly their most accessible single, mainstream but with a sound
[Ed. Note: Previous chapters of this outstanding series can be found here.] Never before had a Beastie Boys album been so greatly anticipated. The release of “Ill Communication” was preceded by the single and video for “Sabotage,” an all-out screaming
This was the album that had me worried. In the wake of the commercial failure of “Paul’s Boutique,” would the Beasties try to rehash “Licensed to Ill?” I heard from a buddy it was going to be more like a
In November 1986, I wandered into a mall record store with every intention of buying nothing. I browsed, and nothing caught my eye, except the Violent Femmes first album, but it was too expensive. Nothing stood out in the rap
I finally had a chance to be one of “those people.” You know the ones, they read the book and see the movie so they can say, with more than a twinge of superiority, “The book was so much better.”
In 2006, while accepting the Academy Award for playing a husky, grizzled version of himself, George Clooney famously gushed, “…this Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs
Morris Buttermaker was a fair to middling minor league pitcher in his day, whose claim to fame was once striking out Ted Williams in a Spring Training game. Now, he’s a whiskey and beer swilling, filtered cigar chomping pool cleaner
Last weekend, Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott reviewed, among other films, Michael Moore’s latest farce, “Capitalism: A Love Story.” I don’t know their track records or political leanings, but Phillips for one noticed that Michael Moore is growing tiresome. He
