There are the grand emotional courtroom dramas that immerse you in the ethical dilemmas that stem from from the case itself, filled with quotable speeches from venerable actors; then there’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” starring Matthew McConaughey. Based on the Michael Connelly novel, the film plays more like a crime thriller set in the legal realm, […]

This is one Spike Lee joint that I’m definitely smoking. A film that received a weak release from Disney’s Buena Vista/Touchstone Pictures and consequently made barely $13 million, “25th Hour” is a gem that many will stumble upon (such as myself) and pat themselves on the back for a good find.

The Prohibition-era “fight” between gangster Al Capone and G-man Eliot Ness over the streets of Chicago is the stuff of legend. For this reason, director Brian De Palma’s next big mob-themed follow-up to “Scarface” is quite a challenge. Capone is an enigma of sorts: the closest thing to a tall tale that history has to […]

Continuing my Best Picture winner archive reviews. Pardon this one’s shortness and lack of detail: it was one of my earlier imdb reviews. Few crime films seem to transcend their genre. “Silence of the Lambs” is one of them. With incredible characters and careful, thoughtful direction, it’s not a complete surprise that this film is […]

If Michael, Magic and Larry, etc. became the first ever “Dream Team” of basketball players in 1992, then the cast of the “Glengarry Glen Ross” should be considered the “Dream Team” of male acting. There’s Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce and Alec Baldwin. You won’t find seven better […]

Call it a chick flick, call it aggressive feminism, label it whatever you like, but “Thelma & Louise” is a classic story of female companionship and liberation that challenged what was and in many ways still is a male-centric movie industry. Roles for women in film have expanded over the years, but Thelma and Louise […]

Anyone who has to direct another movie after his first feature film won him a Best Director Oscar, has to be scared out of his mind. How do you top that? Seriously. Although “Road to Perdition” is an impassioned story (based on a graphic novel) of an Irish mobster and his son trying to stay […]