In a time where Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Platoon had already been hailed as masterful portraits of the Vietnam War, Full Metal Jacket was bound to suffer from comparisons to them, even with the one and only Stanley Kubrick directing and co-writing. Judging it on its own, however, it’s certainly unique (at least […]

As you may already know, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original version of The Longest Yard. Despite some genuinely funny moments, it was shallow, tedious, and overlong, so I gave it a 5/10. After watching the Adam Sandler (yes, the Big Daddy Sandler, not the Uncut Gems Sandler) remake*, however, I’m actually tempted […]

If there’s one good thing I can say about The Longest Yard (the 1974 version with Burt Reynolds, not the 2005 remake with Adam Sandler), it’s that it starts off excellently. Watching the charismatically violent ex-quarterback Paul Crewe (Reynolds) coolly outracing scores of police cars through the city, then still having it in him to […]

It’s been a while since I’ve last seen the Monty Python troupe. As hilarious as they may still be, after finishing all of their movies (well, almost all of them—I skipped And Now for Something Completely Different because it was a compilation of skits I had already seen before, and The Meaning of Life was […]

In a sea full of faceless, useless biopics, you know that Selma is going to be different from all the rest when it doesn’t start out with any title cards, or any montages of its subject’s childhood, or any “dramatic” speeches, but rather an anonymous voice over a black screen. The source of this voice […]

The Passion of the Christ is a hard movie for me to review, much less give a proper rating to. Believe it or not, I really do want to cheer on writer/director Mel Gibson for forging ahead with such a dark, unflinching vision, but this particular vision of his is so massively flawed (albeit very […]

Failure to Launch reminded me why I don’t watch these types of “chick flicks” more often, especially when my mom or sister happens to have one on (which was the case here). It is incredibly unromantic and unfunny, but not even in a fun or entertaining way. It’s just soulless, shamelessly derivative, and lazy (the […]

While We’re Young’s premise sounded to me like sheer comedy gold: a young couple, one of which is a struggling documentary filmmaker (Ben Stiller, whose comic talents soared in the great Meet the Parents), meets another young couple that’s pretty different from them, but really do seem to be nice people—at first. And it’s both […]

What Dreams May Come is one of the most joyless films I have ever seen. Some have apparently found it uplifting, and the god-awful title and, er, dreamy poster initially may lead you to believe that that’s the case, but I found it as uplifting as being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not that more downbeat […]

Pardon me for saying this, but just what is with all the hate for Uncut Gems? Sure, it deservedly got showered with all sorts of critical praise and box office winnings, but audience reviews on sites such as Rotten Tomatoes aren’t nearly as enthusiastic. Their main complaints include a) the nonstop swearing, b) the constant […]