It would have been asking too much to expect this film to recapture the magic of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) or the B-movie thrills of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), but it gives it a good try and manages to at least achieve a similar level of entertainment value as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), which it resembles...

I re-watched Starship Troopers last night. Although it has a poor reputation in some quarters, I think director Paul Verhoeven created a shockingly good film if you understand that it's actually an ultraviolent black comedy that satirizes the unreflective militarism of Robert Heinlein's novel. It's deliberately over the top as it takes aim at...

I re-watched a couple of my favorite films last night. If a film is ranked among my favorites, I never get tired of seeing it again and again First was 1983's Videodrome , directed by David Cronenberg, and starring James Woods and Debbie Harry. Like most of Cronenberg's earlier films, it's a cult classic that deals with physical transformation,...

I re-watched the first three Indiana Jones films. They're still great fun, and I find that my overall ratings of them haven't changed at all Raiders of the Lost Ark - 4.5 out of 5 stars Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - 4 out of 5 stars Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - 3.5 out of 5 stars That's right, I rate Temple of Doom higher than...

The second film based on C.S. Lewis's series of novels isn't as smoothly realized as its predecessor, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , but it still offers a good amount of entertainment value The four English children (Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell) who became rulers of Narnia...

The golden age of films derived from comic books continues with a production that immediately vaults into the category of the best superhero films Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a billionaire playboy and a brilliant engineer. While in Afghanistan to demonstrate his new weapons system to American military brass, including his old friend Lt....

If the definition of a good family film is one that successfully appeals to all members of a family, no matter their ages, then this fun little picture meets the qualifications to be labeled a good family film Nim (Abigail Breslin) is a girl who lives on an island in the South Pacific with only her scientist father (Gerard Butler) and her...

Keeping with the theme of re-watching DVDs in my collection, I turned my attention to the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon on Saturday night It has long been one of my favorite films from the classic era of Hollywood. It's also widely considered to be the first film noir, and many of the conventions of the genre are established in it. Its...

It's hard being a horror film fan some days. You have to see a lot of chaff to get to the occasional good stuff, and sometimes it seems like filmmakers aren't even trying to make something good. This film is a good example of that Two young American couples (Jonathan Tucker and Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore and Laura Ramsey) on vacation in Mexico...

Charlton Heston. Yet another link to the old days of Hollywood is gone. His list of credits is impressive, including Dark City , The Greatest Show on Earth (winner of the Best Picture Oscar in 1952), The Ten Commandments (with his iconic performance as Moses), Touch of Evil , Ben-Hur (for which he won the Best Actor Oscar in 1959), El Cid , The...