I first saw Roman Polanski’s Tess (1979) in December of 1981. It was my final quarter at Western Washington University. My roommate, Eugene, and I needed a break from studying, and the movie was playing at a campus auditorium. At the time, I had never heard of Thomas Hardy or of his infamous novel, Tess… Continue reading Favorite Movies: Tess
Category: Movie Review
Movie Review: Black Mass
A good gangster movie does two contradictory things at once. First, it must show how the gangster is just like everyone else. Second, it must show how he is like no one else. Black Mass (2015), a biopic about real-life gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, achieved both. It’s the best gangster movie I’ve seen in years;… Continue reading Movie Review: Black Mass
Favorite Movies: Star Wars
A long time ago… 1977 …in a galaxy far far away… Hoquiam, Washington …I took a high school literature class in science fiction. (Please don’t ask me to remember the teacher’s name. Like I said, it was a loooooooong time ago!) One day after school, the teacher loaded us into a school bus and took… Continue reading Favorite Movies: Star Wars
Movie Review: Fantastic Four
When Fantastic Four opened with a young Reed Richards (Owen Judge) in class on career day, saying his career goal was to be the first person to teleport, I knew the filmmakers had taken a false step, and the movie would suffer from it. Maybe it is just a prologue, I try to console myself.… Continue reading Movie Review: Fantastic Four
Movie Review: Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation
I have always been lukewarm to the Mission Impossible movies. Action is not my favorite movie genre, because I find the plots simple-minded, the characters stereotypical, and the action scenes–the genre’s bread and butter–overdone and predictable. (Car chases! Wow! Fist fights! Pow! Gun fights! Whoa! Who would’ve ever thought there would be a gun fight… Continue reading Movie Review: Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Yesterday I finally purchased Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) from iTunes movies. I had seen the movie three or four times before, and it has proven to be enjoyable everytime. Since every year or two, I suffer the desire to see it again, I decided that I needed to own it. The price was right,… Continue reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Movie Review: The Legend of Hercules
Lest anyone believe I was naive, when I went to The Legend of Hercules, I wasn't expecting a great movie. I doubt that I was expecting a good movie. From the trailers I saw, I could tell that Renny Harlin suffered from mixed ideas about how to film this legendary story. Should a filmmaker… Continue reading Movie Review: The Legend of Hercules