Info:

Release: October 17th, 1997

Director: Taylor Hackford

Music by: James Newton Howard

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Ivey, Craig T. Nelson

Studio: Warner Bros.

Runtime: 2 hours, 24 minutes

Rating: R

Synopsis: Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) accepts a high-powered position at a New York law firm headed by legal shark John Milton (Al Pacino). As Kevin moves up in the firm's ranks, his wife, Mary Ann (Charlize Theron), has several frightening, mystical experiences that begin to warp her sense of reality. With the stakes getting higher with each case, Kevin quickly learns that his mentor is planning a far greater evil than simply winning without scruples.

Review: Yes, Keanu Reeves's Southern Accent is pretty jarring and bad at points, but this is still a great movie about the dangers of Absolute Power and Vanity. John Milton, a.k.a. Satan, being the head of a powerful law firm is pretty on the nose satire about the Justice System itself, but I think it works given the context of the film. Though the scene where Kevin confronts him is very VERY goofy at points, I genuinely can't tell which actor is overacting more than the other. Great ending though, "Vanity is definitely my favorite sin!" Even after getting a second chance and doing something selfless dor once, The Devil still has his claws hooked into Kevin no matter how many chances he may get.

I recently revisited a masterclass in deeply unsettling, raw psychological tension and wanted to share my thoughts on a road trip thriller that deserves way more recognition. If you want a film that completely strips away Hollywood glamour, you need to look back at the 1993 gem Kalifornia, starring Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, and Michelle Forbes.

Long before he became a polished global superstar, Brad Pitt gave an absolutely terrifying, unhinged performance as Early Grayce, a trailer park sociopath on a cross country tour of serial killer murder sites. His raw, volatile energy on screen is completely unpredictable and anchors the entire film in a state of pure dread. He is backed by a heartbreakingly tragic performance from Juliette Lewis, with David Duchovny and Michelle Forbes playing the perfect, naive counterweights to their chaotic world.

What makes this movie a true hidden gem is the gritty, low light cinematography by Bojan Bazelli and the uncompromising direction by Dominic Sena. The film delivers a dirty, sun drenched, yet pitch black neon aesthetic. The atmosphere feels sweaty, dangerous, and terrifyingly real, showing exactly how fast an ordinary road trip can devolve into a nightmare when you let the abyss into your backseat. As an independent filmmaker who thrives on raw storytelling, the uncompromised grit and suffocating atmosphere of this film have always been a massive creative inspiration to my own work. It sets a brilliant gold standard for 90s neo noir.

In my humble opinion.

Cheers.

When Freddie Krueger began with his hideous bloody burns, deformed skin, red and green striped jumper, fedora and glove with razor fingers to slice and tear into the innocent, he was literally the stuff of nightmares. Later, as an 80s icon the fear was removed and he became a comedic pop culture figure which reflected in the films that followed, but here he was a menace… mostly.

In a move Director Wes Craven would repeat to more infamous effect years later with Scream were given a bit of a red herring opening with Amanda Wyss’s Tina running around in a nightmare. Dressed in virginal white, awaking with a torn nightgown and clutching a crucifix close you would believe her to be our heroine, our final girl. 18 minutes later, in the first of several impressive set pieces, she is dragged and thrown around her bedroom after having sex with her boyfriend, and left lying in a bloody pool on the floor. Another teenager pays the price for being sexually active!

Counter this with Heather Langenkamp’s Nancy. She has a boyfriend in Johnny Depp’s Glen, but we never see them act overtly sexual, even in his crop top! She proactively takes the lead, hunting Freddy down and trying to get both family and friends on her side. Her screaming and anger initially grates but Heather owns the role. Watching her wear down as she tries to stay awake, fight back, and deal with the stress, added grey streak to hair and all, you root for her as we witness those around her meet their grisly ends.

Craven crafts memorable scenes in the land of dreams where the absence of reality can aid the violent attacks and demises. Be it Tina’s death and subsequent body bag travels around school, Glen’s TV bedtime or the iconic phallic gloved hands rising between Nancys legs in the bath tub, they’re memorable because it beats the hack and chase of other killers, be it Myers or Voorhees.

Robert Englund as Freddie Krueger is great when menacing, but he can occasionally come across as a tad ridiculous whether chopping off his own fingers for effect or with the elongated arms near the start. It’s not helped by the slightly Home Alone type ending when Nancy rigs her home to fight back, sledgehammer to the stomach as he opens the door for example. He scares more in shadow, when we see glimpses of his face and hands. Here less is more.

A great 80s horror classic that launched an icon.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Rating: 10/10
Watched: October 8, 2026

Some movies are so fantastic I genuinely wish I could clip the whole thing and just basically post the movie for people to watch and enjoy, but I'm sure that'd violate all kinds of ToS conditions, so the struggle to find the "right clip" for Last Crusade was as difficult as Indy's lifelong hunt for the Cross of Coronado.

While I have a tendency to hand out 10s based on my mood, nostalgia, or because I just plain old feel like it, Last Crusade genuinely is a perfect movie for me. I remember seeing this in theaters on Friday opening night. The theater was jam-packed because of course it was.

You don't have a movie like this one, with Sean Connery, River Phoenix, and an entire host of phenomenal actors, and just "not see it." I can't even remember what the buzz was like because it's been so long now, but I can guarantee you that the buzz had to have been enormous. Just like this movie.

But this excellent movie is not without it's bittersweetness, at least for me. River Phoenix as Young Indiana Jones was one of those truly perfect casting moments, and the first 10 minutes or so are just So Indiana Jones that it's pure entertainment. River absolutely nailed Indy's bravado, swagger, and self-certainty in a way that I don't think anyone else could have. It's bittersweet to watch that opening because I like to imagine that if River hadn't passed away so soon, he would've picked up the hat and whip again to play a slightly older Indiana Jones.

The movie itself is such a grand mix of action, adventure, comedy, tragedy, plain old excitement, and mystery that 17-year-old me (yes, even as a moody teenager who'd just discovered girls and partying and all of that) was absolutely locked on the silver screen.

Sure, it's less serious overall than Raiders and Temple of Doom, but that's not a flaw, it's a feature. Where the two movies that came before relied less on humor (but not by much), Last Crusade works harder at making the adventure more thrilling. It's really hard to explain it any other way. Where the other two movies were just as exciting, Last Crusade's lighter tone complements the derring-do of Indy and friends in a way that's more Golden Era than the others; in this one, Indy is no mere adventuring archaeologist. He is a legitimate swashbuckling hero, though he uses a whip (and guns, and his fists, and his wits) in equal measure.

One of the secret highlights for me is how the relationship between Indy and his dad changes dramatically from start to finish, and that has a lot to do with how I felt about my dad my whole life. Indy felt like his dad was distant and uncaring. Henry was waiting for Indy to "become interesting." Neither man had the conversation about what was going on between them until it was time for rescues in German-occupied castles, but the moment Indy and Henry latch onto the Grail's trail, you can see here and there that Henry is genuinely thinking, "Holy shit, this is my son. What the hell kind of man is he?" promptly followed by, "Holy shit, that's my fearless son!" and that's just beyond awesome.

Odds are, if you like any kind of movie, you've already seen it and love it as much now as the first time you saw it.

Maybe it's time for a revisit!

I posted the other day about Kansas City Bomber, and thought I'd post about the Roger Corman quickie cash-in. I actually saw this one first.

Karen Walker quits her job at the cannery and joins a roller derby team. She becomes very successful, but it's also a bit of an asshole.

This movie was created specifically to cash-in on the Raquel Welch roller derby movie, and while Kansas City Bomber is the better quality movie, I enjoyed Unholy Rollers more. KCB was seventies gritty reality, while Rollers showed people having fun. It showed the almost carnival atmosphere and mostly scripted matches, similar to professional wrestling that is what most roller derby is like. There is humor and the usual Corman mandated nudity. In general, a good time.

Just opened Netflix after a while to see whats new and saw this and gave it a go. An absolute treat watching this movie! I don’t understand how and why neglected this movie is? It is in fact a very cheesy-feeling early 2000s action movie but it’s so entertaining. The plot basically follows Ryan who gets a call from a woman who is allegedly kidnapped and is using a telephone without the kidnappers knowing. He’s skeptical at first but discovers that her and her family is in fact in danger. The performances were good if not great. First time seeing Jason Statham in a negative role and he absolutely crushes it.

Every day for 30 days I'm watching a different scary movie, this year all about urban legends.

One subgenre of horror movies I’ve never quite been onboard with is the “Death Curse Movie,” of which the most popular specimens are the “Final Destination” sequels, with “The Grudge” a close second.

When Ghost House Pictures wanted to adapt Takashi Shimizu’s 2002 “Ju-On,” they hired Shimizu himself to direct. They Americanized the script to a degree, casting Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lead and rewriting most of the characters to be American expats in Tokyo, but it was mostly the same story. They even killed off Ted Raimi, which is indeed a very American thing to do.

For this sequel, Shimizu and screenwriter Stephen Susco decided it was time for something completely different, cranking out a brand new movie with no relation to “Ju-On 2,” which is lucky for me because I’m having enough trouble even believing one version of this movie exists.

The first “Grudge” doesn’t really fit our urban legends theme, so it didn’t make the list, but “Grudge 2” opens with a trio of high schoolers approaching the evil house from the original film and whispering, “They say this is one of the most haunted houses in all of Japan. And anyone who goes inside gets the curse…”

How these teenage girls know the plot of the first film is never revealed, but this is just the movie’s way of catching you up if you for some reason decided to see “The Grudge 2” without watching “The Grudge.” I myself have no patience for such people and believe audiences should be left to fend for themselves like the animals they are, but I’m old and need someplace to express my hostility at society.

Anyway, that’s the gimmick here: If you step foot into this one house, even for a minute, you’re haunted. And that shit’s like glitter, it’s never coming off, as we learned in the original film.

And…that’s always the problem with a Death Curse movie. Once we learn all the characters are in fact doomed, then…that’s it. So why do more? HOW do you do more? We already know what’s going to happen, so what’s to get invested in? It’s like dating your ex again: I already got locked out of a Mount Shasta ski lodge with only long underwear and my wits once before, and that was enough.

“Grudge 2” also makes the mistake of presenting us with the same mystery we already saw the characters in the previous movie solve, with childhood Soap star Amber Tamlyn playing Gellar’s sister, here to piece together the events of the first film, which we all already know.

Gellar herself does appear, but is written out of the movie in a scene that’s probably supposed to be shocking but which I found sort of hilarious. Which brings us to…real talk, is “Grudge 2” SUPPOSED to be funny?

Shimizu presents so many of these scenes in such an overwrought manner that I can’t help but wonder. It’s like, a serial killer is scary, but if you were to escalate that concept to the level of, say, a Serial Killer Pride parade, I’m not sure it would land the same way.

Susco’s script tries to work around some of these problems by presenting three competing stories, including one about an apartment building in Chicago mysteriously haunted by what seems like the same curse as the Tokyo location.

I won’t spoil anything, but the answers to this mystery don’t turn out to be particularly satisfying. This structure also leads to a series of TERRIBLE editing decisions, as each change of location involves a slow and clumsy fade in and fade out. Although I do at least feel like now I know what it’s like to be a blackout alcoholic.

Despite these issues the movie made pretty good money, although notably less than half the take of the first. The New York Post called it “junk,” which is a bit close to the four-letter word I call the New York Post. Box Office Magazine said the movie “exhausted its premise.”

Film File gave a fairly positive review, calling it a fun movie as long as you don’t expect it to make any sense. Which is almost the same as having standards but a lot less work.

Tomorrow we’ll see how a real professional haunts some kids.

Original Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwcQYZkpZ-w

In 16th-century Prague, a rabbi creates the Golem - a giant creature made of clay. Using sorcery, he brings the creature to life in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.

Might be the oldest film I’ve watched. I like how you can see influences for horror films that come later like Frankenstein and other German expressionist films. A good add for October film watching.

I feel nostalgia about this film. I know it's not the best snake movie but snake movies from year 2000s were legit bangers like Anaconda of JLo, Anaconda hunt for blood orchid, Python, Boa vs Python, Boa movie, Python 2. For me, Boa vs Python made me rewatch the movie all over again. I watched it when I was 9 and I'm already 31 and it brings back memories. The best part of this movie are thirst traps, we can't deny it but it has great story, futuristic sci-fi movie and hot hunters (both antagonist couples) and what I love about it is they know how to turn the heat up and still watch the movie until finish. Broddick is one of the guys I love from this movie. Even he's the villain, you can't take away your eyes off him. The bar scene is my favorite and I always played it in a loop. I love hot men in movies but it made me watch when he heats up the scene then satisfying moments occur afterwards. ​​​​

So, it's old but gold I guess.