Villains are an essential part of genre cinema. Though scores of filmmakers have attempted to create truly great villains throughout the history of film, only a few have succeeded in achieving this difficult goal. Best Movie Villains 2000s The criteria for this article is the villains must be from live-action films only, and must pose …
30. Sense and Sensibility Directed by: Ang Lee Ang Lee has gone in about eight different directions in terms of genre. His resume includes “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Hulk,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Life of Pi,” and this delightful Jane Austen adaptation, starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, and young Kate Winslet. “Sense …
40. Empire Records Directed by: Allan Moyle Ah, the coming-of-age story. There was no sub-genre more hijacked for a quick buck in the 1990’s. In between the good ones (“Dazed and Confused,” “Boyz in the Hood”), the cheesy ones (“She’s All That,” “She Drives Me Crazy”), and the under-appreciated ones (“The Man in the Moon,” …
Some years are just great for certain genres, and this year was a great one for action. All across the board were films within different subgenres stepping up and delivering great action set pieces and characters. Consider the shot on the revolving tank gun revealing the totality of carnage in Dawn of the Planet of …
While Denzel Washington shares the same name as Edward Woodward’s character from The Equalizer television show, that’s exactly where the similarities end. The word equalizer isn’t even mentioned except for the credits. Further establishing differences between the two McCalls are the digs they occupy. Rather than roll around in a flashy Jaguar, Washington’s McCall takes public transportation and spends his days in anonymity working for Home Depot. He comes home to a fairly bare apartment in a lower-class corner of Boston. Nights when Robert can’t sleep he reads Cervantes in diners. This life is simple and it’s what he promised someone he loved.
The answer ranges from “not a lot” to “not the right things,” depending on how closely you observe. In the generation (30 years) since HIV/AIDS became a maligned social epidemic, only two American studio films, Philadelphia and now Dallas Buyers Club, have addressed the disease forthrightly. Other films have touched on it, of course. Larry Clark’s Kids and …
In today’s trailer-analyzing, spoiler-focused culture, it’s a wonderful thing simply to be surprised by a film. The trailer for 2 Guns promised a bland, straightforward action movie starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg: wisecracks, gunfire, car chase, kidnapped girlfriend sets up an explosive climax. The actual film has all of those things in it, but they are connected in complex and unusual ways that remove all of the blandness and make the film much more enjoyable than might be expected.
2 Guns Directed by Baltasar Kornákur Written by Blake Masters USA, 2013 The charm to 2 Guns is that it’s content to not try too hard. This is the kind of movie that will find a home on HBO and cable networks like FX in a year’s time, and play to a wide enough group …
Flight Directed by Robert Zemeckis Written by John Gatins USA, 2012 Denzel Washington oozes charisma from every pore. Over the last two decades, he’s been one of the few actors whose charm can boost even the weakest effort, capable of elevating himself and his fellow performers above meager material. As he’s aged, Washington has shrewdly …
Celebrating the New York Film Festival’s 50th anniversary, the Lincoln Center announced today that Robert Zemeckis’s Flight will close the festival during it’s Gala selection. The Lincoln Center welcomes Zemeckis for the first time at the New York Film Festival, commemorating a director known for both personal storytelling and pushing technology in the film industry …