Been awhile since I’ve watched a movie. The last couple of weeks were consumed with binge watching the first three seasons of the exceptional Orphan Black form BBC America. That is must watch TV, and I wish I didn’t have to wait until May of 2016 for the next chapter. But that has nothing to with THE DROP, a movie I’ve been wanting to see if only because Tom Hardy makes everything better.
After watching the hard-to-stomach ending of A MOST WANTED MAN, my wife and I needed something much less heavy. Something which would take our minds off of that very good, but ultimately tough, thriller. Something with more fun. Something with more action. Something with some ninja turtles. Didn’t go in expecting anything good, just hoping to be entertained.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (2014)’
Philip Seymour Hoffman left the world behind and the world is less talented in his absence. A MOST WANTED MAN was one of his last projects, with his untimely death occurring a mere week before its premier at Sundance. Few actors of his generation could play comedy with such joy and drama with such a quiet ferocity. He is missed.
Long ago I meant to do this – to watch all of the LORD OF THE RINGS movie in a short window and write about them as one large film – and now I have.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY (2001, 2002, 2003)’
My soon-to-be-five-year-old son has a number of favorite movies. He loves WALL-E and THE INCREDIBLES. He is a huge STAR WARS geek and also digs SHORT CIRCUIT. He loves robots and so he loves, well, ROBOTS and IRON GIANT. But, also, he has become something of a Charlie Chaplin fan. And his favorite of the Charlie Chaplin movies is ‘the one with all the gears’, or, as we know it, MODERN TIMES. I’ve seen pieces of this movie about a dozen times so far this year, but yesterday was the first time I sat down and watched it all (with Quinn by my side) for the first time in about a decade.
This is a movie which has been on my mind for the past several months, and I’m not sure why. I watched this a bunch of times through high school, but I haven’t seen it since. It’s crazy that a movie like this is nearly twenty years old. I thought of movies from the 70s as being ‘old’ when I was in high school in the late 90s. Now, movies from my high school days must be equally ‘old’ to high school kids now. Man. I think I need to go lay down.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE (1997)’
Moments after watching the end of Peter Jackson’s HOBBIT trilogy, I find myself writing this article after 11:00 PM and starting the original trilogy as I scribe my thoughts. If nothing else, that HOBBIT trilogy is a heckuva nine hour trailer for the original LORD OF THE RINGS films.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (2014)’
It’s been a hectic summer, to say the least. My DVR is filling up with a variety of movies, most of which I won’t get to. But this Harold Lloyd comedy about a milkman becoming a prizefighter had the kind of premise which gets me to run it. I’ve seen too little Lloyd, so I was really looking forward to this.
Once again, I’m super late to an Oscar winner. BIRDMAN, obviously, comes with a significant amount of buzz. But I managed to come to it without knowing anything except the fact that Michael Keaton plays an actor who used to be a super hero (with all of the comparisons that understandably invites). So I really did start this movie with no idea what I was in for.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks BIRDMAN: OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORNACE) (2014)’
Like every summer, it sure feels like most every movie is a franchise sequel or prequel or off shoot. I should (and have) railed against the lack of originality in the cinema these days. But, know what? I really did want to see this MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie because, with the exception of the second one, these have all been really fun movies.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION (2015)’
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