Bill Wallace

What a movie! Harry Dean Stanton plays an atheistic curmudgeon who lives in a small desert town in the southwest and is facing his mortality. This movie is so simple, yet so complex, with the characters so relatable that it's like watching a slice of real life. I cannot think of another movie that delivers its message in such a poignant, unpretentious manner. I missed this movie on its original release (as millions of others evidently also did), and I don't know if Stanton got an Oscar nomination for his performance in this amazing story; if he did not, it was the crime of the century.

In the same vein as 'Deep Impact', this movie revolves around a team of scientists who discover a huge comet that will collide with Earth in a matter of months. When they alert the US government of the imminent disaster, the response is not what they expected, and the race is on (or not) to come up with a plan to insure mankind's survival. If you like your satire with a heaping tablespoon of sharp-witted comedy, but also have an appreciation for the lampooning of humanity's darker side, 'Don't Look Up' will not disappoint. There is so much going on in this engaging and entertaining movie that a second viewing might be needed to catch all of the little details it throws at you. The cast is excellent and the writing is spot-on, delivering a package that makes you laugh and think at the same time. If ever there was a visual/verbal mosaic that shows what is really important in our existence and how fragile the things that we take for granted are, this film is one of Hollywood's better efforts. Any resemblance to current situations or actual people is purely intentional.

This movie is basically a story about good vs evil, the evil being Woody Harrelson, who rules a small Texas town near the Mexican border with an iron fist. He is called 'Preacher' who is a combination of a mesmerizing, warped spiritualist with a Jim Jones-like influence over the townspeople, and a racist along the lines of David Duke, but much worse. The good is Liam Hemsworth, who plays a Texas Ranger sent by the governor to investigate the deaths of bodies (mostly Mexican) found dumped in the river that flows close to the town. Adding to the backstory, it's revealed that the Preacher killed his father when the Ranger was a boy. The premise of the movie is implausible, and there is zero character development, making the movie somewhat of a Stepford Wives clone. But Woody Harrelson's portrayal of this Svengali/Mussolini monster propels the movie along nicely enough to keep you interested. Not much more can be said about it without spoiling the ending, which has a Quentin Tarantino-like quality to it.

This little gem of a movie is like Kramer vs Kramer, only neither parent is emotionally equipped to deal with raising a young, intelligent daughter. They are more intent on inflicting pain/revenge on each other than taking the time to get to know little Maisie. An excellent study in how adults can be more like children than children, becoming selfish in their emotional detachment that allows them to remain on their self-imposed islands. But the movie is not overly judgmental and lets you make up your own mind in figuring out just who is the bigger jerk (maybe it's a tie) and rewards you with the realization that nice people can overcome the damage caused by those with a win-at-any-cost attitude.

This is more of a caution than a review of the movie, because I stopped watching it somewhere around the mid-point. It wasn't because I wasn't engrossed in the movie, but because a particular scene just did not make logical sense. The family is in their car, trying to escape their look-alikes, when the mother decides to jump out of the car and go chasing after her doppelganger, Red. That was more than I could take (who in their right mind would do that?), but as it turns out, there was a solid reason for her doing that. I plan to re-watch the movie after doing some research on it, and even though that involved a few spoilers, I want to finish what I started. So if you watch it, just hang in there and suspend logical ideas and enjoy the ride.

I saw this movie when it was originally released in 1972 and I lived in Atlanta, not far from where it was shot. To say that this film was shocking at the time is an understatement, with themes that had seldom been broached with more impact up to that time. The four stars give spot-on performances as city slickers caught in a maelstrom of backwoods violence that will change them forever. Mesmerizing, taut, suspenseful, and terrorizing are good words to describe this chronicle of what can happen when semi-sophisticated suburbanites interface with back country yahoos. Anyone who has ever canoed down a river will share a special affinity with this thriller; the rest will probably resolve never to go on a camping trip again.

The HAL 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey has undergone sexual reassignment and is now a robot called Ava. Ex Machina is a tour de force sci-fi movie that has much in common with Stanley Kubrick's 1968 ground-breaking film. It does not require that you leave your brain at the popcorn stand or overwhelm you with bombastic special effects. It dares you to consider where the right combination of intellect, technology, human needs/wants, and a desire to survive could lead. This film is so sparse, and yet thickly layered that you'll either hate it or find it haunting you with its spot-on observations of human capabilities to invent stunning creations while revealing their baser traits that can lead to unexpected results.

If you like your movies with a generous dose of suspense, grit, and macho situations, this one will be right up your alley. Roy Scheider plays an American who has run afoul of the local mafia and has to hot-foot it to Central America to survive. But that ends up like going from the frying pan into the fire when he joins a few other desperate men on a mission to deliver explosives that will be used to put out an oil-well fire that is burning out of control. William Friedkin directed this white-knuckler, and it will have your head spinning like Linda Blair's in The Exorcist.

This is not a movie for the impatient viewer, but if you hang in there, you will be rewarded with a satisfying story and great acting performances. Set in the late 60s/early 70s, it brings together several disparate people who, for one reason or another, have checked in at the Hotel Royale. The film uses flashbacks very effectively to bring into focus the stories behind these characters and to weave their fates together, culminating in a tour de force ending that you knew was coming, but weren't sure just how it would play out. The soundtrack is solid 60s Motown gold for the most part and really invokes the atmosphere of that era. To me, this movie was a combination of films like Pulp Fiction / Fargo / Reservoir Dogs, so if you liked those, this will be your cup of tea.

The palpable sense of fear and foreboding generated by this movie is its driving force. There are very few light or humorous moments, just a grinding, unrelenting build-up of suspense that will have you completely involved in the story. No slasher or blood-and-gore murder-fest that I can think of comes close, other than maybe 'Don't Breathe'. This movie is closer to 'Get Out', where the psychological manipulation is excruciating to watch.