johnlink ranks DONNIE BRASCO (1997)

•November 14, 2012 • 3 Comments

On the heels of THE INSIDER, I was definitely in a Pacino kind of mood. DONNIE BRASCO has been floating across HDNET for the past month or two, and it is a film I’ve been meaning to see. Mafia flicks are certainly not my go to genre. To be sure, there are some greats (GODFATHER, UNTOUCHABLES, etc), but I also find this facade of machismo to be borderline silly in many cases. But DONNIE BRASCO is a well liked film with a great leading duo of Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. So it is a movie I certainly was eager to get to.

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johnlink ranks THE INSIDER (1999)

•November 13, 2012 • 2 Comments

I have the category ‘johnlink favorite flicks’ for films I highly recommend. Sometimes I realize a movie would be in this category halfway through watching it, or after finishing it, or sometime during the writing of an article (since many of my ideas about a film don’t fully form until I’m writing it down). THE INSIDER is a film I first saw upon its release, and which I have seen a few times since. I knew this would fall under the favorite category before I put it on last night. It is absolutely an all-time classic in my book.

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johnlink ranks QUANTUM OF SOLACE (2008)

•November 11, 2012 • 3 Comments

Back to Bond. Revisiting CASINO ROYALE reminded me just how wonderful an entry that was. I remember very little about QUANTUM OF SOLACE, other than the fact that it ended in a desert with plenty of explosions. But with SKYFALL crashing into theaters this weekend, it was time to remember the rest of the story leading in. Unimportant to our conversation: This is movie number 477 for this project, and I’ve finally reviewed something which starts with ‘Q’.

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johnlink ranks STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (1991)

•November 11, 2012 • 1 Comment

At long last, the last of the original STAR TREK films hits this blog. I know, I know… the anticipation has been endless and painful. But it’s done, unless you want to be silly and consider STAR TREK GENERATIONS a pseudo-member of the originals, since many of them appear. It seems fitting, with some of the grandiose ideas this series has insisted on trumpeting (reincarnation, save the humpbacks, God lives on a hidden planet), that they would choose to go out by subtitling the final movie as a reference to one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches.

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johnlink ranks STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER (1989)

•November 5, 2012 • 1 Comment

I didn’t know anything about this movie until I started watching it. I later learned that it is much-maligned, and that it’s considered a mess. As the credits started, I realized it was Directed by William Shatner (who had previously only directed episodes of TJ Hooker). This is yet another odd STAR TREK movie. What better way to follow up the one where they go back in time to save humpback whales, than to come back with this movie about the crew’s search for God?

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johnlink ranks CASINO ROYALE (2006)

•November 4, 2012 • Leave a Comment

With another Daniel Craig entry in the James Bond series looming, I figured it was time to revisit the first couple. For every dozen or so terrible reboots out there, there is one 21st century Bond or a single Nolan led Batman. It’s these rare exceptions which create a world in which producers feel more comfortable rebooting than creating anew. But, that said, I’m really glad they went the way they did with CASINO ROYALE and QUANTUM OF SOLACE, and I hope for more of the same from SKYFALL. Plus, the series gets bonus cred from me, because I just read an interview with producer Barbara Broccoli, in which she stated that James Bond won’t be going 3D anytime soon. Quality being selected over the chance to add three dollars to every ticket sold? What a novel concept! SOME minor SPOILERS below.

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johnlink ranks TAKEN 2 (2012)

•November 3, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Took Charlie to see her first movie on her one month birthday. Not that she cared.  One perk of being in management at a movie theater is that you can bring your wife and one-month-old into the cinema at 9:00 AM and start a show at half volume a couple of hours before the public shows up. Charlie made it through too. Liz  even got to see 98% of the movie too.

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johnlink ranks STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986)

•November 1, 2012 • 1 Comment

I watched the first three STAR TREK films from April through May of this year, and then took a long hiatus. Not my fault, you see. My DVR print of STAR TREK IV was actually STAR TREK VI, so I had to wait until the movies cycled around again to pick it back up on the DVR. What’s that meme going around? First world problems? This qualifies, I think. Anyway, I had heard the fourth one was actually a decent entry in the series, which would be welcome since the third was pretty rough.

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johnlink ranks CONTRABAND (2012)

•October 31, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I’m always up for a Mark Wahlberg movie. If we ignore the fact that THE HAPPENING was ever made, he makes movies which are (at the least) entertaining. So when this action/heist/thriller came out, I knew it was one I would see eventually.

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johnlink ranks RISING SUN (1993)

•October 27, 2012 • 4 Comments

I grew up loving Michael Crichton. His sci-fi stuff is what he is most remembered for, though he also had his share of non-genre stories as well. The two I remember seeing as a fledgling film fanatic were DISCLOSURE and RISING SUN. I remember liking both, but not being blown away by either. But I like Sean Connery enough to give a mostly forgotten movie a second run.

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