British director Danny Boyle’s (Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days Later) Slumdog Millionaire was the surprise hit of the year. Written by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, Closer), and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan, the film is an adaptation of…
Released in 1999, The Matrix is credited by many with helping to push the fledgling DVD market into the big time. I actually bought the first DVD release of The Matrix the first day it was in stores. I remember…
If you’re a fan of musicals, South Pacific is definitely one of the best. South Pacific is a 1958 film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, which was based on James A. Michener’s Tales of the South…
After five Academy Award nominations, Kate Winslet finally took home the coveted statue on her sixth try, for her portrayal of Hanna Schmitz in The Reader. Based on the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink, the…
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Jim Carrey. Since he became a star with the release of 1994’s Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, it’s impossible to deny his comedic skills but his manic style hasn’t always appealed to me; in…
For whatever reason, I still haven’t gotten around to reading the 2005 memoir by John Grogan, on which Marley & Me is based. Before watching the film, I knew it was a story about a family’s relationship with their dog….
Meryl Streep is just one of the few actors I’ve watched over the years who truly has the ability to mesmerize me. I’ve often said she could simply sit silently in a chair for fifteen minutes and make it an…
Few would argue director Alfred Hitchcock’s status as a master of suspense. However, his 1955 effort, To Catch a Thief, can hardly be considered among the best in his suspense cannon. If a person’s first exposure to Hitchcock is To…
In describing the Coen brothers No Country for Old Men to a friend, I said, “Misery never looked so good.” Odd maybe but it seemed a perfect description for the film. The winner of the Best Picture Oscar in 2007,…