In 1987, Arnold Schwarzenegger took a big leap forward in his movie-star career by taking the lead role in “Predator,” a highly entertaining and effective mix of sci-fi action and horror that pushed him to do his first real acting
Hard Boiled is a film that serves as not just a great movie in its own right, but as a fitting capstone to a complete body of work. The highly-charged stories, emotional spectrum, visual magnificence, and moral subtext of John
In my last article, we began a discussion of GOV2.0. Over the next couple weeks, I’ll sketch some sexy details. Commenters, keep tossing out your ideas. Tea Partiers! Here’s how to save every state budget. Let’s hoist our pirate flag
A curious aspect of the Bond legend is that Ian Fleming’s socialite wife despised the character. She went so far as to host upper-crust parties at which she and her lettered friends — literary giants such as Cyril Connolly, Graham
When King Vidor first stepped onto the set of The Champ, he was filled with a rare sense of freedom. Frances Marion’s script was unusually simple, focused squarely on a pair of immensely sympathetic protagonists and their relationship. All the
Yawn. “Wall Street 2.” Yeah, I liked the first one. Michael Douglas is awesome in that movie and pretty much everything he does. I mean, who else could rock the V-neck sweater with no T-shirt like he did in “Basic
When I received the call from Raul Niño Zambrano from the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, known internationally as IDFA, asking us if we would screen our film U.N. Me in competition, I was unsure how to receive this news.
Ben Shapiro’s recent list of the ten most overrated directors has kicked up quite the controversy: Disparaging blog posts (including one from myself) and more than 300 (mostly negative) comments from Big Hollywood’s lovely readers took Mr. Shapiro to task
I was a bad boy in 2009. I promised at the beginning of the year at the time of Big Hollywood’s launch to get back into movies and some television. But it’s one year later, and I still have not
Late last spring, through the auspices of a mutual friend, I spent an afternoon visiting with eighty-nine-year-old author Ray Bradbury. Walking upstairs to his den, I found the genial (and, for the record, fairly conservative) writer dressed in a rumpled
If there is one overriding theme coursing through reviews of Smokey and the Bandit, it is superficiality. Read through the mountain of pieces out there, and you’ll continually be assaulted with adjectives like “silly,” “mindless,” “breezy,” “fun,” and “stupid.” Taken
As we say goodbye to the first decade of the new century – and I don’t wanna hear any revisionist bellyaching about the decade not ending until December 2010 – we also say hello to the mainstream media movie critics’
What makes Turner Classic Movies uniquely special? In order of importance, here are the three main reasons: 1. TCM is a politics-free zone; 2. The presentation; 3. The films. You would think the films would rank number one, but that’s
In an industry notorious for wasteful pretentiousness — directors shooting a hundred takes, crews taking all day to light a single shot, gazillions spent on the latest effects — Hal Needham was a rebel. Directing? “There is no magic to
When Oscar-nominated director John Hancock made the film “Prancer” in the winter of 1988, he didn’t realize that his tale of a small-town girl (Rebecca Harrell) who believes that one of Santa’s magical reindeer has landed in her hardscrabble Indiana
You have seen John Nolte’s countdown of the Top 25 Christmas Movies, but this list is something else – a list of movies worth watching that take place in or around Christmas but aren’t about Christmas itself. They don’t necessarily
Inevitably, as the Top 25 Greatest Christmas Movie list rolls on, some start to wonder when specials like “A Charlie Brown Christmas” will get their due. Well, they won’t on a list exclusive to feature films, but they will here.
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.”
There was a time when an “adult film” meant a movie by, for and about adults, not a tawdry tale of some tatted-up, dead-eyed 19-year old with daddy issues numbly coupling in front of a video camera for the gratification
The Hollywood star system: Rest in Peace. Nowadays, when I trawl through Blockbuster aisles, I find films with major stars that never saw the dark light of a theater. I’ve never even heard of some films. And I wonder about
Iconic filmmaker John Hughes is dead of a heart attack at 59. Anyone who came of age in the 80s and early 90s can’t help but remember the John Hughes era thanks to the many, many hours of warm, hilarious
Dear Reader, Do you have a little time to sit back and examine a classic movie that will absolutely shock you when seen through the prism of now? This is not my typical short article or essay. This is my
The sun is sinking in the west The cattle go down to the stream The redwing settles in her nest It’s time for a cowboy to dream…. Exquisitely crafted, but never ostentatious. Pleasantly mellow, but never lazy. Thematically rich, but
A kung-fu flick with fancy wire work is still a kung-fu flick and a revenge flick with CGI is still a revenger . Some may confuse “Wolverine” with a superhero film, but make no mistake, it’s a revenger of the
It wasn’t much of a surprise when the New York Times reported that one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year-X-Men Origins: Wolverine-had been leaked a month before the film’s release date and was available for download on
