If you’ve ever watched an action movie and thought “This needs more… everything,” then John Woo’s “Hard Boiled” is your cinematic all-you-can-eat buffet. This is what happens when you take Hong Kong action cinema, crank it up to 11, break off the dial, and keep cranking anyway. Chow Yun-fat stars as Tequila (yes, that’s his…
Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” isn’t just a movie – it’s a movement captured on film, a three-hour-plus journey through one of the most complex and transformative figures in American history. And let me tell you, if you think you know Malcolm X’s story from your history books, this film will make you think again. The…
Fargo (1996): You Betcha It’s a Masterpiece Oh jeez, where do we start with “Fargo”? Ya know, the Coen Brothers could’ve just made a straightforward crime thriller about a kidnapping scheme gone wrong in Minnesota. Instead, they gave us a quirky masterpiece that’s basically what would happen if you dropped film noir into a wood…
If you’ve ever wondered what the opposite of a feel-good war movie looks like, Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” is your answer. This isn’t your grandfather’s World War II glory story – this is Vietnam in all its mud-soaked, morally ambiguous, soul-crushing reality. Our guide through this green inferno is Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen, back when that…
Ever wonder what happens when you take a bunch of cocky test pilots, stuff them into experimental aircraft, and tell them to push the limits of human possibility? Well, “The Right Stuff” has your answer, and spoiler alert: it involves a lot of sonic booms and even more swagger. Based on Tom Wolfe’s bestselling book,…
Amadeus: When God’s Favorite Composer Was His Least Favorite Human Meet Antonio Salieri, a man who had the misfortune of being a pretty good composer in the same era as a certifiable genius. It’s like being a decent amateur juggler who has to follow someone juggling chainsaws while riding a unicycle. Blindfolded. The film opens…
The Longest Game of Criminal Musical Chairs Ever Filmed Looking for a nice, straightforward gangster movie? Maybe try Goodfellas. Sergio Leone’s final film is what happens when you take a crime epic, throw it in a blender with a pocket watch, and hit the “timeline confetti” button. It’s nearly four hours of past, present, and…
Ever wonder what would happen if you took the world’s angriest man and made him punch people for a living? Meet Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro), a middleweight boxer whose approach to both fighting and relationships makes Mike Tyson look like a meditation teacher. Scorsese’s black-and-white masterpiece follows LaMotta through his rise and spectacular face-first…
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of meditation – the idea that you could train your mind and bend it to your will through breathing exercises seemed, on it’s face, a bit silly. However two things happened that caused me to reevaluate my ideas. The first was reading a book called “The brain that…
When I was younger I worked in various restaurants as summer jobs and really enjoyed the experience. I know it’s probably the naivete of youth but for a while I considered trying to stage at some fancy restaurants in NYC to build a career as a chef (this was before the food network and the…