F. Gary Gray’s follow up to Barry Sonnenfeld’s Get Shorty, Be Cool is an adaptation of yet another Elmore Leonard novel. Continuing the story of Chili Palmer, Gray’s film lacks much of the black humor and slick charm of the…
In the mid 1980’s—a decade populated by teen-sex-comedies—writer/director Savage Steve Holland made a name for himself by combining animation and video. In his most popular comedies, Holland utilized a quirky style that made his romantic comedies some of the most…
Aiming for a wider audience in 1961, the often overlooked director Jean-Pierre Melville (Les enfants terribles, Le samourai) adapted Beatrix Beck’s autobiographical novel The Passionate Heart. Set in a French village during World War II, Léon Morin, Priest is about…
A twist on the reliable storyline of the snob who learns how the other half lives; the character is stuck up, arrogant and spoiled. Eventually, something happens that brings them down to reality. By the end of the film, the…
While Honeymoon in Vegas is far from structural perfection, it’s quite funny (especially if you’re an Elvis Presley fan). With a wonderfully bizarre Nicolas Cage kvetching his way through the story, Honeymoon doesn’t pretend to be anything other than the…
Best known for his samurai films, director Akira Kurusawa also made some fine crime films. One of his best is 1963’s Tengoku to jigoku, in Japanese, or High and Low, in America. Kurosawa loved western cinema, often taking his cues…
The 1986 classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was first released in high definition on May 5, 2009. The 25th Anniversary Edition, set to be released by Paramount Pictures on August 3, 2011, features the same transfer, audio, and special features….
1992’s The Cutting Edge represents the coming together of two resilient Hollywood genres: an Underdog in Training sports film, crossed with total opposites in love. While not a huge hit upon its initial release, the film has gone on to…
Based on the novel of the same name by Joanne Harris, Chocolat is a whimsical story that blends together eccentric characters, small-town intrigue, food (namely chocolate), with a healthy dose of fairytale trimmings to create an easily digestible confection. It’s…
Marilyn Monroe had a keen understanding of how to use her face, body and voice to make her sex appeal permeate through the screen. In Billy Wilder’s 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot, Monroe was at the height of her…