Blog

      Sure, you can figure out real quick how Pretty Woman is going to end, but Edward (Richard Gere) and Vivian (Julia Roberts) don’t figure it out until […]...

    Medicine Man (1992, rated PG-13, 106 minutes) is a completely predictable story about a man and a woman chasing each other as they close in on finding a […]...

    Maybe you’ve never heard of this movie (or the 1954 book by William Golding). Try the book first. Its sustained drama shames the movie. Half of the movie […]...

    Charlotte Gray (2001, rated PG-13, 121 minutes) is a pedestrian World War II tale based on Sabastian Faulks’ eponymous novel that completes his war trilogy (see The Girl […]...

    There is an utterly familiar plot line in To Serve Them All My Days (TV mini series, 1980-1981, 11 hours, 13 minutes): a Welsh coal miner’s son survives […]...

    The Words (2012, rated PG, 102 minutes) is vigorous drama (but no guns, no car chase!) with some heart throbs and some lachrymose moments. There are two morals […]...

    Maybe you haven’t watched The Wizard of Oz in a while. It’s not just for kids. There are grown-up songs, introduced by Over the Rainbow, and probably you […]...

    This justly famous short story by Paul Gallico is surprisingly simple in its construction and densely emotional in its impact. There are familiar plot elements: ugly old man […]...

    The plot isn’t complicated. It’s World War II, the American brass want to wipe out a French chateau filled with high-ranking German officers, and Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) […]...

    The Best Offer (2013, rated R, 131 minutes) knocks you down with a surprise ending worthy of the name. I don’t indulge in spoiler alerts. Watch the movie […]...

    If you think you know what “hillbilly” means, watch Songcatcher and then think again. Songcatcher (2000, rated PG-13, 109 minutes) is, nominally, a story about illiterate hillbillies and […]...

    House of Games (1987, rated R, 102 minutes) offers some familiar good guy/bad guy stuff about gambling, con men, and a conventional dedicated psychiatrist who slowly learns that […]...