TRON: Legacy (2010)

In the summer of 1982, Walt Disney Pictures released TRON. The action-adventure science fiction film, about a gifted computer soft engineer and hacker, played by a then 32 year old and future Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges (2009 – Best Actor, Crazy Heart), gets literally abducted into the digital world itself was a box office success, grossing $33 million in the U.S. alone. Twenty three years later, Disney announced a sequel to TRON, with Bridges reprising his role as Kevin Flynn, and in 2010, TRON: Legacy was finally released. Directed by first time director Joseph Kosinski, the film tells the story of Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund – Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of missing computer software engineer Kevin Flynn (Bridges), goes looking for him but ends up being transported into the digital world where he finds himself in the same situation that his father did in the original film, and is also the same place where Kevin was being held for twenty long years. The film also stars Olivia Wilde (TV’s House) as program and adept warrior Quorra, Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon), who went and saw the first film at age twelve, as the vivacious and renowned program Castor, James Frain (TV’s The Tudors) as chief intelligence officer and Clu’s right hand program Jarvis, Beau Garrett (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) as program siren Gem, and Bruce Boxleitner (TV’s Babylon 5) reprising his role as Kevin Flynn’s close friend and executive consultant for ENCOM International Alan Bradley. I have heard of the original film since as long as I can remember and I’ve never seen it, but when I went to see the sequel, which was in REAL 3D of course, I really enjoyed it. I loved the music that Daft Punk did for the film. After this movie was filmed at Burnaby’s Canadian Motion Picture Park Studios and in around Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the spring of 2009 with a budget of $170 million, TRON: Legacy took the #1 spot its opening weekend when it was finally released on December 17th, 2010, with a gross of $44,026,211. With incredible visual effects and terrific electro music by Daft Punk, I make TRON: Legacy a definite must see for all movie lovers and its one of the best films I’ve seen in 2010.

The Tourist (2010)

From Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the Academy Award winning German filmmaker for the 2007 Best Foreign Film – The Lives of Others, comes the 2010 drama-mystery-thriller, with some comedic humor, called THE TOURIST. Based on the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer, the film tells the story of math teacher Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp), an American tourist, visiting Venice, Italy when he comes across with a beautiful but mysterious Englishwoman named Elise Ward (Angelina Jolie), who deliberately crosses his path in order to mislead those who are following her, such as a dangerous gangster and federal agents. The film also stars Paul Bettany (The Da Vinci Code) as Inspector John Acheson, Steven Berkoff (Beverly Hills Cop) as Reginald Shaw, Rufus Sewell (Dark City) as The Englishman, and Timothy Dalton (007 – The Living Daylights, License to Kill) as Chief Inspector Jones. I thought was a very entertaining movie that was also sexy, smart, and funny at the same time. Watching Angelina Jolie reminded me of Sophia Loren in some moments of the film while Johnny Depp’s performance I thought was great. He kept smiling throughout the film as I was watching it, the same way when I saw him in his last film before this in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Tom Cruise was originally gonna play the role of Frank, as did Sam Worthington. Thank god they dropped out to do other film roles instead because no one could’ve done it better the way Depp did. I’m surprised that film critics, such as Roger Ebert and Peter Travers, gave the film largely negative reviews about it. Ebert gave it two out of possible four stars and Travers gave it an F. As for me, I still give THE TOURIST a definite must see for all movie lovers and I also make it as one of the best films I’ve seen in 2010.

Recess: School's Out (2001)

Attention all movie lovers: If you were a kid who grew up the 1990’s, like me for example, and miss all your favorite shows at that time, I got one that you must’ve loved watching on ABC’s One Saturday Morning every Saturday morning, also like me for example, that made its way to the big screen in 2001, and that movie is RECESS: SCHOOL’S OUT. Based on the hit Disney animated TV Series (1997-2001) created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere, Your favorite characters: the prankster ringleader T.J. Detwiler (voiced by Andrew Lawrence), the athletic Vince LaSalle (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins), the tough tomboy Ashley Spinelli (voiced by Pamela Adlon), the extremely intelligent Gretchen Grundler (voiced by Ashley Johnson), the chunky and philosophical Mikey Blumberg (voiced by Jason Davis), and usually naïve army brat Gus Griswald (voiced by Courtland Mead), along with the rest of the fellow students of Third Street Elementary School : such as resident playground snitch Randall Weems, The Ashleys, the diggers Sam and Dave, the kindergartners, and King Bob, have finished their school year and are all excited about summer vacation. But trouble quickly sets in as T.J. uncovers an evil plot involving a crazy but insidious ex-teacher named Philliam Benedict (voiced by James Woods) trying to get rid of summer vacation permanently. As the Recess gang are faced with the dire threat of year-round school, the kids, along with some unexpected allies: assistant teacher/constant nemesis Miss Finster (voiced by April Winchell) and generally cold authority figure Principal Prickley (voiced by Dabney Coleman), band together in a nonstop adventure to save summer vacation for all kids worldwide. The film also features Melissa Joan Hart (TV’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch) as the voice of T.J.’s older sister Becky Detwiler, Clancy Brown (Mr. Krabs from Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants) as Mr. Bald Guy, Peter MacNichol (TV’s Ally McBeal) as the voice of Benedict’s assistant Fenwick, Nicholas Turturro (TV’s N.Y.P.D. Blue) as Cop #1, legendary voice actor Tony Jay (The Hunchback of Norte Dame) as Dr. Rosenthal, and legendary entertainer Robert Goulet as Mikey’s singing voice. The music in the film features classic 60’s songs like Martha and the Vandellas’ Dancing in the Street, Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze, Steppenwolf’s Born to Be Wild, The 5th Dimension’s Let the Sunshine In, and Robert Goulet singing Green Tambourine at the end of the film. What I have to say about James Woods, being that we all know him for his work in the hit movies: ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, CASINO, GHOSTS OF MISSISSPPI, and Disney’s HERCULES; I thought he did a hilarious voiceover job as madman Benedict. Released on February 16th, 2001, the film became a box-office hit in the U.S., earning $36,706,141 domestically. However, it did not do nearly as well overseas due to poor publicity and advertising. It earned $7,754,709. However, with a total worldwide gross of $44,460,850, against the frugal $10 million budget, the film was still considered a huge success. As RECESS is one of the greatest animated shows I ever watched since ages nine to thirteen, I consider RECESS: SCHOOL’S OUT one of the best animated movies I’ve ever seen. Since today’s kids all saw TOY STORY 3, why don’t they watch yet another 90’s era animated show and movie all together.

Faster (2010)

After spending the last three years making family-friendly movies and comedies, such as GET SMART, RACE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN, THE OTHER GUYS, and TOOTH FAIRY, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson finally returns to the action genre in Director George Tillman, Jr.’s (Soul Food, Men of Honor, Notorious) action-crime film FASTER. In the film, Johnson plays James Cullen aka Driver, an ex-con who got released after serving ten years in prison and is hell-bent on getting revenge of his brother’s murder by going after the people responsible for it, while a troubled, days from retirement, veteran cop Slade Humphries (Billy Bob Thornton) and a young egocentric hitman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen – Going the Distance) are on his trail. The film also stars Carla Gugino (Sin City) as Humphries’ partner Detective Cicero, Matt Gerald (Avatar) as Driver’s brother Gary, Moon Bloodgood (Terminator Salvation) as Humphries’ wife Marina, Maggie Grace (TV’s Lost) as the assassin’s girlfriend Lily, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) as The Evangelist, Jennifer Carpenter (TV’s Dexter) as Driver’s ex-girlfriend, Xander Berkeley (Air Force One) as Sergeant Mallory, Tom Berenger (Platoon) as the Prison Warden, and Mike Epps (Next Friday) as Roy Grone. I thought this was a very entertaining action film, with a great look that reminded me of some the old Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen action films from the 1970’s, with some great car sequences and I enjoyed the scenes when Johnson gets out his revolver and guns down his targets. This movie was filmed entirely on location in Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Santa Clarita, California from February 8th to April 27th, 2010, with an estimated budget of $ 24,000,000. When FASTER opened at #7 on Thanksgiving week on November 24th, 2010, it earned $12,200,000 and gone up against family films like HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART ONE and TANGLED. If you’re a fan of The Rock, action flicks, or both, I would recommend FASTER to you and all movie lovers.

The Next Three Days (2010)

From Paul Haggis, The Academy Award winning director of CRASH, comes the smart, well-crafted crime thriller THE NEXT THREE DAYS. Based on the 2007 French film Pour Elle (Anything for Her) by Fred Cavayé, The film tells the story of John and Lara Brennan (Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks), a happily married couple from Pittsburgh, he’s a college professor and she’s a successful business woman, whose perfect life gets turned upside when Lara is accused of a gruesome murder she did not commit. As it affects their relationship three years later, John, who also believes that Lara is innocent, devises an elaborate escape plot and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world, ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves. The film also stars Olivia Wilde (TRON: Legacy) as single mother Nicole, Brian Dennehy (Tommy Boy) as John’s father George Brennan, Daniel Stern (City Slickers) as John’s lawyer Meyer Fisk, RZA (American Gangster) as Mouss, Lennie James (Snatch) as Pittsburgh Police Lieutenant Nabulsi, Jason Beghe (G.I. Jane) and Aisha Hinds (Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail) as Pittsburgh Police Detectives Quinn and Collero, Kevin Corrigan (The Departed) and Jonathan Tucker (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as criminals Alex and David, Ty Simpkins (Revolutionary Road) as John and Lara’s son Luke, and a special appearance by Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List) as ex-prison escapee Damon Pennington. When I went to see this movie, I thought it was both entertaining and had some comedic humor to it. I really enjoyed the scenes when Crowe and Banks try to escape from the Pittsburgh authorities. Do they make it? You’ll have to see for yourself. Filmed entirely on location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a budget of $35 million from October to December 2009, the film was originally intended to be released in 2011. Instead it was released on November 19th, 2010, opening at #5 at the box office with $6,542,779. Although the film received mixed reviews by film critics, such as Roger Ebert and Peter Travers, I still think Paul Haggis’ THE NEXT THREE DAYS is a very entertaining thriller and I recommend it for all movie lovers to see.

Unstoppable (2010)

It’s SPEED on a train when Academy Award winner Denzel Washington (2001 – Best Actor, Training Day) and Director Tony Scott (Top Gun, True Romance, Days of Thunder), the team that brought us 1995’s CRIMSON TIDE, 2004’s MAN ON FIRE, 2006’s DÉJÀ VU, and 2009’s THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, reunite for the fifth time in 20th Century Fox’s 2010 adrenaline rush, action film UNSTOPPABLE. Inspired by true events, the film tells the story about a railroad company frantically working to prevent a major disaster from an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train, essentially a missile the size of New York’s Chrysler building, that’s dangerously carrying a cargo of combustible liquids and poisonous gas while a veteran locomotive engineer Frank Barnes (Washington) and a young rookie conductor Will Colson (Chris Pine) race against time to stop it. The film also stars Rosario Dawson (Sin City) as train yardmaster Connie Hooper, Ethan Suplee (TV’s My Name is Earl) as train engineer Dewey, T.J. Miller (Cloverfield) as train hostler Gilleece, Kevin Corrigan (The Departed) as Inspector Werner, Jessy Schram (Hallmark Channel’s Jane Doe TV films) as Will’s wife Darcy, Lew Temple (Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects and Halloween) as railroad welder Ned Oldham, Aisha Hinds (TV’s Detroit 1-8-7) as the Railway Safety Campaign Coordinator, and Kevin Dunn (Transformers) as Hooper’s superior Oscar Galvin. I really enjoyed this film the same way when I saw THE A-TEAM in the theater. I thought both Washington and Pine’s performances as the two were both funny and fantastic. Tony Scott said, in his own words, “that this for me was physically and mentally, the toughest movie I’ve ever done”. Why? Because he had make this movie, with a budget of $100,000,000, filming everything practically in-camera, from big action sequences, lots of stunts, 360 camera shots, use very little CGI as possible while a real moving train was going 50 mph, all throughout the state of Pennsylvania and some selective towns in New York and Ohio. Make no mistake when you see Denzel’s character running on top of a moving train, That really is Denzel doing that and he did wear a safety harness while filming it. Not only did Tony reunite with Denzel, he reunited with certain crew members he worked before in the past like Music composer Harry Gregson-Williams (Enemy of the State, Man on Fire, The Taking of Pelham 123) and Film Editor Chris Lebenzon (Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, Crimson Tide). With incredible action sequences and amazing stunts, UNSTOPPABLE is one of the best movies that Tony Scott has ever directed and one of the best films I’ve seen in 2010. I totally recommend it to all movie lovers and again from the words of Tony Scott: “It never lets you off the hook”

The Hunter (1980)

He made his film debut in 1956’s SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, starred as the soft hearted bounty hunter Josh Randall on CBS’s WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE (1958-1961), and became one of Hollywood’s greatest actors with hits like: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), THE SAND PEBBLES (1966), THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968), BULLITT (1968), THE GETAWAY (1972), PAPILLON (1973), and THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974). Who am I talking about? The King of Cool himself: Steve McQueen, who stars in Director Buzz Kulik’s 1980 action/comedy/thriller THE HUNTER. Based on real-life exploits, the film tells the story of Ralph “Papa” Thorson (McQueen), a professional bounty hunter, going through modern-day life between tracking down bail jumpers, his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend, and being pursued himself by a psychotic, revenge-driven killer. The film also stars Eli Wallach (The Magnificent Seven) as bail bondsman Ritchie Blumenthal, Kathryn Harrold (TV’s The Rockford Files, Chicago Hope) as Ralph’s pregnant girlfriend Dotty, LeVar Burton (TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Ralph’s bounty Tommy Price, Tracy Walter (Tim Burton’s Batman) as the psychotic Rocco Mason, stuntman Thomas Rosales, Jr. (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) as Ralph’s Chicago bounty Bernardo, and Academy Award Winner Ben Johnson (1971 – Best Supporting Actor, The Last Picture Show) as Sheriff Strong. Filmed in around Chicago and Los Angeles with an estimated budget of $8,000,000, McQueen was 49 years old when he worked on this movie from September 10th to November 28th, 1979. Sadly it was to be the very last movie he ever did. After the end of filming that year, McQueen was later diagnosed with a rare type of cancer, caused by exposure to asbestos, called Mesothelioma. He died from a cardiac arrest one day after having an operation to remove or reduce several metastatic tumors in his abdomen on November 7th, 1980 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico at the age of 50. THE HUNTER was released four months before his death on August 1st, 1980, grossing over $16,274,150 domestically. As I was watching this film, McQueen was both funny and entertaining to watch as “Papa” Thorson going after all the criminals in this film. I also thought there were some cute moments between him and his girlfriend. One scene to point out that I thought was very frightening was seeing Walter’s character scaring Kathryn Harrold in the school classroom. Being that McQueen was an avid car and motorcycle enthusiast, he came up with the idea of going against his famous car racing abilities and having Papa to be a terrible driver. Watch out for the real life Papa Thorson making a cameo in the film as a bartender, talking to McQueen’s character. As I end this review, Steve McQueen is one of my favorite movie actors and THE HUNTER shows how great this legendary actor did, both heroic and comedic ally, for one last time. GOD BLESS YA, KING OF COOL (1930-1980).

RED (2010)

The first time I saw the teaser trailer, I really wanted to see this film just because I’m a Bruce Willis fan, but of course I thought all the other actors would be very entertaining to watch. From Summit Entertainment and DC Entertainment comes the 2010 action comedy RED. Directed by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan, The Time Traveler’s Wife), Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers) and Based on the three issue, graphic mini-series DC comic book by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. The film tells the story of former C.I.A. agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), living an idyllic life of retirement, till one day a high tech assassin shows up intending to kill him. With his identity compromised, Frank puts together his old team and fellow retirees: the charming handler Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), the paranoid Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), and the high caliber Victoria Winslow (Helen Mirren), who will all embark on an impossible mission to break into the top secret C.I.A. headquarters, where they will find out the truth behind it all. The film also stars Mary-Louise Parker (TV’s Weeds) as the federal pension agent Sarah Ross, Karl Urban (Star Trek) as C.I.A. agent William Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws) as wealthy man Alexander Dunning, Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity) as former Cold War spy Ivan Simanov, Rebecca Pidgeon (State and Main) as C.I.A. agent Cynthia Wilkes, Julian McMahon (TV’s Nip/Tuck) as the U.S. vice president Robert Stanton, and special appearances by James Remar (48 Hrs.) as Gabriel Synger, and Ernest Borgnine (The Dirty Dozen) as C.I.A. records keeper Henry. The 1977 song “Back in the Saddle” from the hard rock band Aerosmith, that was used in the trailers and TV spots, I became so addicted to that song and I’ve been listening to it ever since. Out of all the actors and next to his 1997 performance as Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom from CON AIR, which I loved, I really enjoyed Malkovich’s performance as Marvin. He almost didn’t do the movie because originally it was to be played by John C. Reilly, but dropped out just before filming began. I thought Helen Mirren was good, and seeing her as a version of Martha Stewart firing machine guns was cool to watch. Filmed on location in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and New Orleans, Louisiana from January 11th to March 8th, 2010 with a budget of $58 Million, RED took the #2 spot behind JACKASS 3-D on the opening weekend of October 15th with $22,000,000 and got mostly positive reviews by the film critics. With a cast of well known actors, good action, and hilarious John Malkovich moments, RED is a very entertaining action comedy. I recommend it to all movie lovers and as it said in the TV spots “There’s no substitute for experience”.

Judgment Night (1993)

From Universal Pictures and Largo Entertainment, Director Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, Blown Away, Lost in Space) brings us the riveting 1993 action thriller JUDGMENT NIGHT. The film tells the story about four middle-class friends from Chicago: happily married family man Frank Wyatt (Emilo Estevez), big kid-like Mike Peterson (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Frank’s younger brother John Wyatt (Stephen Dorff), and over-confident businessman Ray Cochran (Jeremy Piven) go on a night out on the town to a boxing match. Stuck in a heavy traffic jam en-route, the boys get off the first exit they find and to find another way to get to the match, Instead they get lost in a gang-way part of town, where they encounter four psychopathic drug dealers, led by the vicious, wise-cracking drug lord Fallon (Denis Leary), and witnessing them commit a brutal murder. When Fallon wants no witnesses, the four friends become his unwilling prey as they are mercilessly stalked by the killers throughout the hostile city streets. The film also stars Peter Greene (The Mask), rap artist Erik “Everlast” Schrody, and Michael Wiseman (Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes) as Fallon’s men Sykes, Rhodes and Travis, with Michael DeLorenzo (TV’s New York Undercover) as Teddy, Galyn Görg (Point Break) and Angela Alvarado (Freedom Writers) as overprotective women Clarissa and Rita. I was five years old when this film came out, and I would never hear about it till I was eighteen. When I saw the film’s theatrical trailer on a movie website, I wanted to see it. I finally did and I enjoyed it. Sadly it didn't do well at the box office when it was released in 1,545 theaters on October 15th, 1993 with an opening gross of $4,088,955 and remained in theaters for three weeks, ending it with a total gross of$12,136,938. Although the film takes place in Chicago, half of it was filmed in Los Angeles from October 19th, 1992 to January 13th, 1993. And as you watch the film, you might recognize L.A.’s skyline in the background in some scenes like for example: a long high crane shot of the boys running one by one. For years I’ve seen Denis Leary as his usual comedic self in such films: THE REF, DEMOLITION MAN, OPERATION DUMBO DROP, SMALL SOLDIERS, and his television show RESCUE ME, his performance as Fallon was pretty intense and he played a good bad guy. Samuel L. Jackson was the first choice for that character, but dropped out to do JURASSIC PARK instead. Alan Silvestri composed the film’s score, but some of it in the chase sequences was from the 1987 action hit film PREDATOR, for which he composed for himself. With riveting action and suspense, I consider JUDGMENT NIGHT a very entertaining thriller and I recommend it to all movie lovers.

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

From Producers Tim Burton, Denise Di Novi and Director Henry Selick, the creators of the 1993 smash hit THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, comes Roald Dahl’s beloved 1961 children’s book called JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. Released in 1996, the film tells the story of a young English orphan boy named James Henry Trotter, who lives with his horrible aunts Spiker and Sponge, enters into a gigantic and magical peach where he meets and befriends a group of enormous human like bugs and embark on a fantastic journey, filled with thrills and adventure, to New York City. As the film is shown both live action and stop motion animation, Academy Award winners Richard Dreyfuss (1977 – Best Actor, The Goodbye Girl) and Susan Sarandon (1995 – Best Actress, Dead Man Walking) provide the voices of the boisterous Mr. Centipede and the sassy but decent Miss Spider. The film also features a cast of well known English actors: Jane Leeves (TV’s Frasier) as the motherly and good-natured Mrs. Ladybug, Joanna Lumley (BBC’s Absolutely Fabulous) as the cruel, malicious, and thoroughly repulsive Aunt Spiker, Miriam Margolyes (Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence) as both the selfish and morbidly fat Aunt Sponge and the voice of the quiet but little deaf Glowworm, Simon Callow (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) as the voice of The Old Green, music loving Grasshopper, Pete Postlethwaite (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) as the mysterious stranger/Old Man, David Thewis (the Harry Potter trilogy) as the voice of the shy and timid Earthworm, and one time actor Paul Terry as James. Twelve years it took for this book to get to the big screen, Selick initially considered doing the whole film in stop-motion, but decided to blend it with using live action and to cut down costs. With an award winning team of animators, illustrators, set designers, camera operators on twenty two soundstages, and an estimated budget of $38,000,000, the making of this film was made over a three year production schedule from November 15th, 1994 to January 19th, 1996 in San Francisco, California. When it was released three months later on April 12th, the film grossed over $7,539,098 its opening weekend and domesticated over $28,946,127 in North America alone. As USA TODAY says its “A Stunner with a Breathtaking Array of Eye-Teasers”, Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman gave the film a positive review, praising the animated part, but calling the live-action segments "crude". Randy Newman, the award winning composer for the TOY STORY films, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score and his song “Good News” is one of my favorite songs of Newman’s. This is one of my childhood favorites growing up; I even remember watching the VHS trailer preview so many times on some of my other Disney videos and the day it was released: October 15th, 1996. As I said before about Paul Terry acting only one time in this film, the then nine year old quit after being bitten by a spider in the live action scene when we see James finding it building a web by his window. JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH is to me one of the greatest Disney movies of all time and it’s a true favorite to all movie lovers whether you’re a kid or a grown up.

The Fan (1996)

From Tony Scott, the director of TOP GUN, CRIMSON TIDE, and MAN ON FIRE, brings us the 1996 psychological thriller that revolves around the sport of baseball and exploring the overt dedication displayed by some of its fanatics called THE FAN. The film tells the story of Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes), a three-time MVP Major League Baseball center-fielder who has signed a $40 million contract to play for the San Francisco Giants. No one is happier than Gil Renard (Robert De Niro), a struggling knife salesman and #1 diehard fan of both the Giants and the game of baseball. When Bobby gets into the worst slump of his career, the obsessed Gil stops at nothing to help him regain his former glory, but goes a little too far. The film also stars Ellen Barkin (Diner) as sports radio host Jewel Stern, John Leguizamo (Spawn) as Bobby’s cocky agent Manny, Patti D’Arbanville (TV’s New York Undercover) as Gil’s ex-wife Ellen Renard, Charles Hallahan (The Thing) as Gil’s old Little League teammate Coop, and Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) as Bobby’s rival teammate Juan Primo. I was seven years old when this film came out and I never saw it till I was fourteen when it was shown on television. At first, I didn’t like it. But when I saw it again, I really started to enjoy it and it’s one of my favorite films of both De Niro's and Tony Scott’s. Hans Zimmer, who composed Scott’s previous film CRIMSON TIDE, composed the music in some the film’s dramatic sequences, including the opening with De Niro narrating a poem about his love for the game and the final scene between De Niro and Snipes on the wet and rainy field. The film also features some of The Rolling Stones’ classics hits “Start Me Up”, “Gimme Shelter”, “Shattered”, and “Sympathy for the Devil”. Filmed from October 24th, 1995 to February 23rd, 1996 with an estimated budget of $55,000,000, THE FAN was released on August 16th, 1996, earning $6,271,406 it’s opening weekend. But soon, the film was both pleased by movie critics and movie goers with a total domestic gross of $18,626,419. All of the baseball game sequences were filmed at not just Giants then-home Candlestick Park, but at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, and Denver’s Coors Field. De Niro’s performance as the maniacal Renard earned him a 1997 MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Villain, but lost to Jim Carrey for his work in THE CABLE GUY. However, Ellen Barkin’s performance won her the 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress – Adventure/Drama. If you love both Baseball and psychological thrillers, THE FAN has both those things and I recommend it to all movie lovers.

The Town (2010)

This was the 1st film of Ben Affleck’s I’ve seen in theaters since I went to see one of his box office flops: 2003’s PAYCHECK. I haven’t seen his 1st directorial film: 2007’s GONE BABY GONE, but I did see his 2nd film 2010’s THE TOWN and I really enjoyed it. With Affleck as Director, co-screenplay writer, and co-starring, the film is based on a novel called “PRINCE OF THIEVES” by Chuck Hogan and it was produced by Graham King (The Departed). Set in Charlestown, Massachusetts, a team of professional bank robbers, led by long time criminal Douglas ‘Doug’ MacRay (Ben Affleck), rob a bank at gunpoint and take their manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall – Vicky Christina Barcelona) hostage. After letting her go, Doug begins to have feelings for Claire and is hesitant about his next heist: Boston’s very own Fenway Park, while FBI’s Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm – TV’s Mad Men) is hell-bent on bringing him and crew to justice. The film also stars Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) as Doug’s edgy best friend and co-member of his team James ‘Jem’ Coughlin, Blake Lively (TV’s Gossip Girl) as Jem’s drug addicted younger sister and Doug’s ex-girlfriend Krista Coughlin, Pete Postlethwaite (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) as local florist and crime boss Fergus ‘Fergie’ Colm, Titus Welliver (Gone Baby Gone) as FBI Agent and Frawley’s partner Dino Ciampa, and a special appearance by Academy Award winner Chris Cooper (2002 – Best Supporting Actor, Adaptation) as Doug’s father Stephen MacRay. I really enjoyed the car chase sequences and how Affleck filmed it was incredible the way he shot it. I was also amazed how Affleck was able to film a shootout inside Fenway Park, being that he’s a diehard Boston Red Sox fan, which I think was one of greatest movie shootouts I’ve ever seen. Out of all the actors in this film, I thought Renner’s performance as Jem was the best since I saw him in his previous film The Hurt Locker. It made want to go to Boston even while I was watching this movie. Ben Affleck, who’s one of my favorite actors, directed a hell of a great movie and I consider THE TOWN one of my favorite films of his and one of the best movies of 2010. If like movies that have great action sequences, incredible drama, and amazing car chases, than you’ll want to see this film.

Piranha 3D (2010)

I saw JAWS when I was eleven years old and it didn’t scare me at all when I watched it. But when I first heard about PIRANHA 3D, I went to see it, and it really frightened the hell out of me. I kid you not! Directed by Alexandre Aja (Mirrors, 2006’s The Hills Have Eyes) and Produced by Mark Canton (300), the film is about an unlikely band of survivors, led by the town’s county sheriff Julie Forester (Elizabeth Shue), who must band together to stop a swarm of prehistoric, razor-sharp toothed piranhas, who have been laid dormant for two million years and set loose after a sudden underwater tremor, terrorizing the waters of Lake Victoria. Not to be confused with Africa’s Lake Victoria, the film’s location was shot in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The film also stars Adam Scott (Step Brothers) as seismologist Novak Radzinsky, Jerry O’Connell (Stand by Me) as the eccentric Derrick Jones, Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible) as Deputy Fallon, Steven R. McQueen (TV’s The Vampire Diaries) in his feature film debut as Jake Forester, Jessica Sczohr (TV’s Gossip Girl) as Kelly Driscoll, British model Kelly Brook as Danni, Ricardo Antonio Chavira (TV’s Desperate Housewives) as seismologist diver Sam, with Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) as Pet shop owner Mr. Goodman, and Richard Dreyfuss in a near-incarnation of his JAWS character Matt Hooper. This was second film I saw in 3D, being that the first one was Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland months before. I got to tell you, this movie was a lot scarier to watch in 3D than 2D, and thank god that Aja converted it during post production, although he filmed it in 2D, using the Real-3D conversion process developed by the company, Inner-D. Although this is supposed to be a horror movie, remade from the classic 1978 B film by GREMLINS director Joe Dante, this is also a funny combination with blood, guts, terrifying teeth, and wet, beautiful, naked girls flashing themselves on the screen. The actors I liked were McQueen, who was very good in his performance, and Brook, who I thought was really sexy to watch. The most horrifying scene in the film is seeing 20,000 kids being chewed up and killed by the deadly piranhas. This is also the first time a saw a very violent horror movie on the big screen, but I did have a strong stomach to watch it though. If you love Horror movies or not, than I recommend PIRANHA 3D to all you movie lovers. It is an old fashioned, thrill ride of a horror film and Steven R. McQueen said in an interview that it’s a cross difference between JAWS and SNAKES ON A PLANE, and I totally agree with him.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Based on the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, This movie is a love story/romantic action-comedy with a pop art feel to it that I thought was very entertaining to watch while I was in the theater. It’s called SCOTT PILGRIM vs. THE WORLD. Directed by Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), the film tells the story of Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera – Juno, Superbad), a 23 year old slacker from Toronto and bass guitarist for his friends’ rock band “Sex Bob-omb”, meets the girl of his dreams in the mysterious American Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead – Live Free or Die Hard, Death Proof). As he gets closer to Ramona, Scott learns that he must defeat her seven evil exes who are coming to kill him: first evil ex Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), skateboarder-turned-action movie star Lucas Lee (Chris Evans – Fantastic Four, Captain America: The First Avenger), base guitarist/psychic vegan Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh – Superman Returns), self-conscious half-ninja Roxie Richter (Mae Whitman – TV’s Parenthood), Japanese Pop stars Kyle and Ken Katayanagi (Shota and Keita Saito), and the evil mastermind Gideon Gordon Graves (Jason Schwartzman - Rushmore); in order to win her heart before they defeat him. The film also stars Kieran Culkin (Home Alone 1 & 2) as Scott’s gay roommate Wallace Wells, Alison Pill (Milk) as the miserable Sex Bob-omb drummer Kim Pine, Brie Larson (TV’s United States of Tara) as Rock star and Scott’s ex Natalie V.“Envy” Adams, Johnny Simmons (Jennifer’s Body) as the self-proclaimed “Young Neil” Nordegraf, and Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, the Twilight saga) as Scott’s sister Stacey. I really enjoyed the humor and the action sequences that this film had to offer, including how the film was like a video game, and who would’ve thought that it featured the actors who played The Human Torch aka Captain America and Superman make special appearances as some of the evil exes. I think the best fight scenes would have to be with Cera fighting Evans and Schwartzman. It’s a shame it got #5 at its opening weekend on August 13th, 2010, with mixed negative reviews from movie critics and a total domesticated gross of $31,524,275, but I don’t care. With incredible visual effects and great comedic humor, I consider SCOTT PILGRIM vs. the WORLD a definite must-see for all movie lovers to enjoy and it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in 2010.

The Expendables (2010)

My father took me to see my first action movie called TRUE LIES, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Directed by James Cameron, when I was five years old. Over the years, I started watching other great action classics like: DEMOLITION MAN with Sylvester Stallone, DIE HARD with Bruce Willis, BLACK MASK with Jet Li, and UNIVERSAL SOLDIER with Dolph Lundgren. At age 21, I saw a very entertaining action blockbuster, that features an ensemble cast of some of Hollywood’s greatest action stars in Director Sylvester Stallone’s THE EXPENDABLES. Released in 2010, the film tells the story of Fearless paramilitary leader Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his team of loyal, highly trained, dangerous mercenaries: close quarters combat expert and second in command Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), martial arts expert Yin Yang (Jet Li), Swedish sniper Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), demolitions expert Toll Road (Randy Couture), and heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), who call themselves the “EXPENDABLES”, get sent on a mission to a South American country to overthrow its brutal dictator General Garza (David Zayas). And as the mission begins, Ross discovers that the situation is not as it appears and he and his team must make the ultimate sacrifice to do what they have to do to survive. The film also stars Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) as former expendable turned Tattoo artist Tool, Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight) as the cold-blooded ex-CIA officer James Monroe, former WWE wrestler Steve Austin as Monroe’s muscle Dan Paine, Gisele Itié as Ross’ contact Sandra, Charisma Carpenter (TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Christmas’ girlfriend Lacy, and a special appearance by Bruce Willis as the mysterious Mr. Church and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ross’ old rival Trench. Out of all the actors, I’d have to say that I really enjoyed Lundgren’s performance as the loose cannon Gunnar Jensen. After spending the last two in a half decades starring and directing in direct-to-DVD films, THE EXPENDABLES marks his first theatrical release film in fifteen years since the 1995 Keanu Reeves film JOHNNY MNEMONIC, and his second with Stallone in twenty five years since 1985’s ROCKY IV. The scene in the church with Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger was both funny and cool to watch. And for years and years, they have been trying to work together and now they finally did. I would have to say that the best scene would have to be with The Expendables infiltrating Garza's compound, and ending it with a huge bang. One thing that disappointed me was that the song “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)” from the hard rock band Shinedown, did not appear in the film but on the theatrical trailer. It’s a great song and I listen to it on my I-pod all the time. I was really hoping for this film to beat out SCOTT PILGRIM vs. THE WORLD and EAT, PRAY, LOVE for the #1 opening spot at the box office, and I was right. If you love action movies, than you’ll love THE EXPENDABLES. It is to me one of the best movies of 2010 and I definitely recommend this great, kick-ass, and entertaining film to all movie lovers.

Analyze This (1999)

We have all heard and seen Mafia movies that have become Hollywood classics: Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER, and Martin Scorsese’s GOODFELLAS, CASINO, and THE DEPARTED. All those movies were serious and brutal films, but there’s one mob movie that will have you laughing out loud, and that movie is called ANALYZE THIS. Directed and co-writer of the screenplay by Harold Ramis (Caddyshack, Groundhog’s Day) and released in 1999, the film tells the story of Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro), a powerful New York City mob boss who suddenly starts having problems: a certain disability to kill people, anxiety attacks and reduces to tears because of problems from his past. He seeks for a shrink in the name of Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal), a family psychiatrist who also has problems of his own: his son keeps listening in to his sessions, while his patients are not-challenging enough and his upcoming second wedding to Laura MacNamara (Lisa Kudrow) in Miami. In just days before a big meeting with other mob bosses, Sobel must help Vitti resolve his emotional crisis and turn him into a happy, well-adjusted gangster, but it won’t go perfectly well. This film also stars Joe Vitrelli (Shallow Hal) as Vitti’s moronic henchman Jelly, Leo Rossi (1981’s Halloween II) as Vitti’s cousin Carlo Mangano, a special appearance by Molly Shannon (TV’s Saturday Night Live) as Sobel’s whining patient Caroline, and Chazz Palminteri, who was suggested by De Niro after having worked together in 1993’s A BRONX TALE, as Vitti’s long time rival: Young Turk boss Primo Sindone. I was close to seeing this movie in theaters when it came out that spring, but I never did. I can still remember my parents checking out show times, why we didn’t go remains a mystery to me. The scenes between De Niro and Crystal were hilarious to watch. These two guys were terrific together and it makes them a perfect odd couple between a mob boss and a psychiatrist. De Niro’s Paul Vitti is loosely inspired by real life mobster John Gotti, and De Niro’s collaborator Martin Scorsese was first approached to direct but turned it down to do BRINGING OUT THE DEAD instead. When it was released on March 5th, the film became a big commercial success by grossing over $117 million. It also received positive reviews, scoring a 67% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Kathryn Kinley of WPIX-TV/NEW YORK giving it four stars, the funniest comedy in a decade. The film spawned into a 2002 sequel, which I had the fortune to see with my family when I was fourteen, and it went on to gross over $55 million internationally and significantly less than the first one, which I prefer more than the sequel to tell you the truth. ANALYZE THIS is one of the greatest movies of all time and it’s a true favorite to all movie lovers, even if your either a DE NIRO fan, a CRYSTAL fan, or a gangster movie fan.

Ronin (1998)

“In feudal Japan, the warrior class of samurai were sworn to protect their liege lords with their lives. Those samurai whose liege was killed suffered a great shame, and they were forced to wander the land, looking for work as hired swords or bandits. These masterless warriors were no longer referred to as Samurai; they were known by another name: such men were called RONIN.” Released in 1998 and Directed by legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, Reindeer Games), the film tells the story about a group of covert international mercenaries, including a former CIA agent named Sam (Robert De Niro), who are assembled in France by a mysterious client for a seemingly routine mission: steal a heavily guarded, top-secret briefcase, that is wanted by the Russian mafia. But greed, political maneuvering and shifting loyalties lead to betrayal and murder. De Niro leads an all star international cast of actors that includes Jean Reno (Léon: The Professional) as French former Euro Intelligence agent Vincent, Natasha McElhone (The Truman Show) as Irish IRA organizer Deirdre, Stellan Skarsgård (Pirates of the Caribbean II & III) as former German KGB electronics expert Gregor, Sean Bean (007 - GoldenEye) as British weapons wrangler Spence, Skipp Sudduth (TV’s Third Watch) as American driver Larry, Michael Lonsdale (007 - Moonraker) as Vincent’s friend Jean-Pierre, and Jonathan Pryce (Brazil) as Deirdre’s Irish handler Seamus O’Rourke. Filmed from November 1997 to March 1998 throughout Paris, France, with an estimated budget of $55,000,000, Frankenheimer said on the film’s DVD commentary that 2,200 shots were used to film the story. He also notes that the film is unusual in containing no wipes, dissolves or similar techniques; all scene transitions are handled with suitably paced cuts. The film is noted for its sensational car chases, which I thought were fantastic to watch. As a former amateur racing driver, Car work has been a specialty of Frankenheimer, ever since his 1966 film, Grand Prix. The cars that were used in the film are the Audi S8, a Peugeot 406, a Citroën Xantia and XM, a BMW M5 and Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9, and a rare Mercedes-Benz W116 variant with a high-powered engine. Sudduth did his own driving in some of the scenes himself, while other cars were driven by stunt drivers, one of them was Formula 1 driver Jean-Pierre Jarier, using right hand drive models, and a total of 80 automobiles were destroyed during the filming. Frankenheimer wanted to film all the sequences live, to obtain the maximum level of authenticity, instead of using digital special effects. When it was released at the 1998 Venice Film Festival on September 12th, and then 12 days later in the U.S., RONIN grossed over $12,697,641 its opening weekend. All and all, I consider RONIN one of the greatest action movies of all time. And it was directed by “a master of intelligent thrillers”, said Roger Ebert.

Kick-Ass (2010)

I’ve seen almost every single superhero movie that I can think of: BATMAN, X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN, IRON MAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, etc. etc. But for this movie, it involves badass, gun shootin’, knife throwing superheroes, but I still add this to my “Superhero movie” list. Based on the hyper violent MARVEL ICON comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., Co-Produced by Brad Pitt, and Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Layer Cake), comes the 2010 action-thriller-comedy KICK-ASS. The film tells the story of an ordinary teenager named Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), an unnoticed high school student and big comic book fan, who sets out to become a real-life superhero, even though he has no powers, training, or any meaningful reason to do so, called Kick-Ass. Overcoming all odds and quickly becoming a famous phenomenon on the internet, he soon gets caught up in an even bigger fight involving two other superheros: a Batman lookalike named Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his deadly, foul mouthed eleven year old daughter Mindy aka Hit-Girl (Chloë Moretz), who are on a quest to bring down New York’s evil drug lord Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong). The film also stars Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad) as D’Amico’s son Chris aka Red Mist, Lyndsay Fonseca (Hot Tub Time Machine) as Dave’s longtime crush Katie Deauxma, Clark Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine) and Evan Peters (An American Crime) as Dave’s fellow comic book loving best friends Marty and Todd, Michael Rispoli (Death to Smoochy) as D’Amico’s right hand guy Big Joe, Xander Berkley (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) as NYPD Detective Gigante, Yancy Butler (Hard Target) as D’Amico’s wife Angie, Omari Hardwicke (TV’s Dark Blue) as NYPD officer Sgt. Marcus Williams, and Jason Flemyng (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as D’Amico’s building lobby man goon. I thought Johnson was okay in his performance, but both Mortez and Cage take the cake in theirs and Same with Strong’s performance as D’Amico. The beginning of the film was a little boring, but I thought the action sequences were awesome. Nothing like seeing bad guys getting shot and stabbed to death is always fun to watch for an action movie lover like myself. Some of the music on the film’s soundtrack, like Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation and Elvis Presley’s An American Trilogy, worked very well in some of the action scenes. Filmed from Toronto, Ontario, Canada to the Elstree Studios in London, England with a budget of $28 million, the film earned over $12 million internationally in advance of opening in the United States. On its debut weekend in the US, it took in $19.8 million in 3,065 theaters, averaging $6,469 per theater. I consider KICK-ASS one of the best movies of 2010. USA Today says it’s “Irreverently Entertaining”, and I totally agree with them.

Jaws (1975)

There is a creature alive in the ocean who has survived millions of years of evolution. Without change, passion and logic, it lives to kill. It is a mindless eating machine that will attack and devour anything. It is as if god created the devil, or basically it’s based on author Peter Benchley’s bestselling 1974 novel and was later adapted into a feature film by a young filmmaker named Steven Spielberg (E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan), who was chosen by Producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, to direct Universal Pictures’ 1975 horror/thriller classic JAWS. Before codifying with 1977’s Sci-Fi classic STAR WARS, This was the film that set the standard for the new Hollywood popcorn blockbuster while frightening moviegoers out of the water and would become one of the greatest movies of all time. In the summer resort Town of Amity Island, swimmers are being killed by a gigantic great white shark. In order to stop this horrific monster from killing more victims, it will take Amity’s water hating Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), grizzled local shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw), and wisecracking Marine scientist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) to hunt it down. The film also stars Murray Hamilton (The Graduate) as Amity’s ignorant Mayor Larry Vaughn, Lorraine Gray (1941) as Martin’s wife Ellen Brody, and author Peter Benchley making a cameo appearance as a television interviewer. My parents were around their early 20’s when this film came out that summer, and I would never see it till I was eleven years old on the year of its 25th anniversary in 2000. It scared me a little bit when I first saw it, and as I grew up, It’s not that much scary to me at all. Shot in 159 days from June to September of 1974 in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts; the filming of JAWS was a disaster from delayed shooting days, an unfinished script, bad weather, and three nonfunctional mechanic sharks that forced Spielberg to shoot most of the scenes of the shark only hinted at. The great white shark, nicknamed “Bruce” by the production team after Spielberg's lawyer Bruce Raimer, was made by Production Designer Joe Alves and Special Effects artist Bob Mattey. When they were completed, they were shipped to the shooting location, but unfortunately they had not been tested in water, and when placed in the ocean, the full model sank straight to the ocean floor. When it was released in 464 theaters on June 20th, 1975, the release was subsequently expanded on July 25 to a total of 675 theaters, the largest simultaneous distribution of a film in motion picture history at the time. During the first weekend of wide release, JAWS grossed more than $7 million, and was the top grosser for the following five weeks. During its run in theaters, the film beat the $89 million domestic rental record of the reigning box-office champion THE EXORCIST, becoming the first film to reach more than $100 million in U.S. box office receipts. Famed Music Composer John Williams, who had previously scored Spielberg's feature film debut THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS and went on to collaborate with him on almost all of his films, contributed the film’s score that won him the Academy Award for Best Music - Original Score and went on to rank #6 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years of Film Scores. Director Steven Spielberg’s JAWS is an absolute favorite to all movie lovers. See it before you go swimming!

48 Hrs. (1982)

It was credited to be the first Buddy cop film. Usually that genre is about two very different cops working together, but this is about a cop and a convict. The film I’m talking about is the 1982 action comedy 48 HRS. Directed by Walter Hill (The Warriors) and with Joel Silver (The Matrix)making his 1st film as Producer, the film tells about a hard-nose, alcoholic, chain-smoking San Francisco cop named Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) who reluctantly paroles a wisecracking, womanizing convict named Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) for 48 Hours and make him his temporary partner to go after an escaped homicidal convict named Albert Ganz (James Remar – The Warriors), who along with his partner Billy Bear (Sonny Landham - Predator), recover a stash of $500,000 he was after when he was arrested. And as Cates and Hammond race around the clock to find the killers, they discover they have only one thing in common: they’d both kill to find the bad guys…if they don’t kill each other first. The film also stars Frank McRae (Last Action Hero) as S.F.P.D. Captain Haden, Annette O’Toole (TV’s Smallville) as Cates’ girlfriend Elaine, David Patrick Kelly (The Warriors) as Ganz’s old partner Luther, Brion James (Blade Runner) as Det. Sgt. Ben Kehoe, and Denise Crosby (TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Ganz’s girlfriend Sally. The role of Reggie Hammond was originally intended to be played by Gregory Hines, then Richard Pryor, Howard E. Rollins, and a young Denzel Washington. Even Clint Eastwood wanted to play Hammond, while he was originally intended to play Cates. Instead, the role went to a then 21 year old Eddie Murphy, who at the time was starring on NBC’s Saturday Night Live and making his feature film debut that earned him his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Acting Debut - Male. Reggie Hammond was originally named Willie Biggs, but Murphy felt that was too stereotypical of a black man's name and changed it to Reggie Hammond. The film’s original premise, which was came upped by one of the film’s producers Lawrence Gordon, was about a criminal kidnapping the daughter of the Governor of Louisiana and strapped dynamite to her head and threatens to blow her up in 48 hours if the ransom was not met. The meanest cop goes to the worst prison in the state and gets out the most vicious criminal for his knowledge of the kidnapper who was his cellmate. By coincidence to the film’s title, the word "Fuck" is used 48 times in its various forms during the course of the film. The film’s best scene is when Murphy shakes down a redneck bar and it ends with him saying “And I want the rest of you cowboys to know something, there's a new sheriff in town. And his name is Reggie Hammond. Y'all be cool. Right on”. The song "The Boys Are Back In Town" by rock & roll band The Busboys is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard and the film’s music composer James Horner (Titanic) won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for the film’s score. When it was released on December 8th, 1982, 48 Hrs. became an enormous box office success and went on to become the seventh highest grossing film of 1982 with a gross of $4,369,868 in its opening weekend and $78,868,508 overall at the domestic box office. 48 HRS. Is one of the greatest action comedies of the 80’s, and it’s a favorite to all movie lovers. In the words of Reggie Hammond: “Y’all be cool. Right On!”

Another 48 Hrs. (1990)

It's seven years later, the times have changed, but for Jack Cates and Reggie Hammond… They didn’t. Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte and Director Walter Hill reunite in this 1990 sequel ANOTHER 48 HRS. While one is fighting for his job and the other for his life, Fate has pushed hard-nosed, chain smoking San Francisco cop Jack Cates (Nolte) and wisecracking ex-convict Reggie Hammond (Murphy) back together again and once again go on another shoot-‘em up, car-chasing, and fist-flying 48 hours to take down a ruthless drug lord who’s operating in the Bay area while a pair of dangerous bikers, who were hired by the drug lord, pursue them throughout the city streets and kill them. The film also stars Ed O’Ross (Red Heat) as Detective Frank Cruise, Kevin Tighe (Eight Men Out) as the harsh Internal Affairs Det. Lt. Blake Wilson, Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster) as biker Richard “Cherry” Ganz, David Anthony Marshall (Lock Up) as biker Willie Hickok, Brent Jennings (Red Heat) as the creepy small time dealer Tyrone Burroughs, Ted Markland (Wild Bill) as biker leader Malcolm Price, Bernie Casey (007 – Never Say Never Again) as the tough and influential prisoner Kirkland Smith, and Tisha Campbell-Martin (House Party) as Kirkland’s daughter Amy, and Brion James (Blade Runner) returns as Det. Sgt. Ben Kehoe. One minor note that Frank McRae, who played Nick Nolte's boss, Haden in the first 48 Hrs, was initially supposed to be in this film too. However, his part was almost completely cut from this picture. If you look closely in one of the shots in the police precinct, McRae appears on camera for a few seconds. As a result, he was uncredited for the role. Before the film grossed more at the US box office than its predecessor and made $72.7m from foreign markets for a total of $153.5m, Murphy received a salary of $7,000,000 for his role as Reggie Hammond (because of his success in Beverly Hills Cop and further films), an improvement over his mere $450,000 salary from the first film. And Nolte received a salary of $3,000,000 as an improvement over his original salary of $1,000,000 for the first film. ANOTHER 48 HRS. Is filled with more action and more comedy than the first one, and I make this one of the most entertaining sequels I’ve ever seen. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too!

Last Man Standing (1996)

I like movies that involve the leading characters, who carry guns and shoot and kill the bad guys one by one, and this film is one of them. It’s a gangster movie set in the west that I think sounds interesting to watch, and that movie is called LAST MAN STANDING. Written and Directed by Walter Hill (48 Hrs., Red Heat) and Based on legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 Japanese film “Yojimbo”. The film, which is an officially authorized remake, tells the story of John Smith (Bruce Willis), a gun slinging-for-hire drifter, who winds up in the dusty ghost town of Jericho, Texas and finds himself drawn into a vicious war between two Prohibition-era Mafia gangs: the Irish, led by Doyle (David Patrick Kelly – The Crow) and his right hand man Hickey (Christopher Walken), and the Italians, led by Fredo Strozzi (Ned Eisneberg – TV’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit) and his cousin Giorgio Carmonte (Michael Imperioli – TV’s The Sopranos). In a dangerous game, he switches allegiances from one to another, offering his services to the highest bidder. And as the death toll mounts, Smith must take the law into his own hands in a deadly race to stay alive. The film also stars Karina Lombard (Legends of the Fall, TV’s The L Word) as Doyle’s mistress Felina, William Sanderson (TV’s Deadwood & True Blood) as bartender Joe Monday, Alexandra Powers (TV’s L.A. Law) as Strozzi’s mistress Lucy Kolinski, Patrick Kilpatrick (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory) as Finn, Leslie Mann (Big Daddy) as Wanda the Prostitute, and Ken Jenkins (TV’s Scrubs) as Texas Rangers Captain Tom Pickett. Almost all the cast members have worked with Hill on other Pictures such as David Patrick Kelly (The Warriors, 48 Hrs.), Ted Markland (Another 48 Hrs., Wild Bill) as Galt’s silent Deputy Bob, Luis Contreras (Red Heat, Geronimo: An American Legend) as Mexican Police Captain Ramirez, and Bruce Dern (Wild Bill) as Sheriff Ed Galt. The film is known primarily for its intense gunfights, featuring Willis's character dual-wielding two M1911 .45 caliber pistols, in the style reminiscent of Hong Kong Blood Opera. But I didn’t care; I enjoyed seeing Willis killing all of Doyle and Strozzi’s men. The first time I heard about this movie was watching a clip of it on the TBS television station. I recently turned eight the month and year it came out on September 20th, 1996, and I never saw it till I was 21. I grew up watching Bruce Willis movies almost all my life, from Hudson Hawk to Die Hard, and I thought this movie was one of the best performances of his I’ve ever seen. Sadly, the film did poorly at the box office, grossing only a total $18,127,448 by December 22, 1996. But I still think Director Walter Hill’s LAST MAN STANDING is entertaining to watch for any movie lover such as myself.

Inception (2010)

10 years before, Director Christopher Nolan wrote an 80-page treatment about dream-stealers. He originally envisioned it as a horror film, but eventually wrote it as a heist film. After pitching the idea to Warner Bros. Studios in 2001, he felt he needed to have more experience into making large scale films such as the hit 2005 movie BATMAN BEGINS and its 2008 sequel THE DARK KNIGHT. He spent six months polishing the film’s script after he realized it needed a large budget because, in his words: "as soon as you’re talking about dreams, the potential of the human mind is infinite. And so the scale of the film has to feel infinite. It has to feel like you could go absolutely anywhere by the end of the film. And it has to work on a massive scale". Warner Bros. finally bought the script in February 2009 and with a budget of $160,000,000, Nolan and some of his crew members from The Dark Knight spent six months between June to November of that year filming his Action/Sci-Fi masterpiece INCEPTION. The film tells the story about Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a skilled thief and is the absolute best at what he does: Entering into the dreams of others by thrusting himself into the subconscious of his targets, thus obtaining information that is otherwise impossible to access but it has also made him an international fugitive and costing him everything he has ever loved. When he is being offered a second chance for redemption, Cobb takes on one last job that will hopefully give him his life back if he can accomplish the impossible-inception. Along with his team of specialists: Arthur, the Point Man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt – (500) Days of Summer), Ariadne, the Architect (Ellen Page - Juno), Eames, the sharp-tongued Forger (Tom Hardy - RocknRolla), Yusuf, the Chemist (Dileep Rao - Avatar), and the Tourist, Saito (Ken Watanabe – The Last Samuari) have to pull off the reverse of planting an idea into the subconscious of their target: Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy – 28 Days Later), the heir of his dying father’s business corparation. The film also stars Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard (2007, Best Actress – La Vie en Rose) as Cobb’s deceased wife Mal, Tom Berenger (Platoon) as Robert’s godfather Peter Browning, Lukas Haas (Witness) as Cobb’s previous Architect Nash, Pete Postlethwaite (The Usual Suspects) as Robert’s father Maurice, and Academy Award winner Michael Caine (1999, Best Supporting Actor - The Cider House Rules) as Cobb’s mentor and father-in-law Miles. When Nolan filmed The Dark Knight, he shot it in Chicago, London, and Tokyo. In this movie, he shot in six different cities: Los Angeles, London, Paris, Tokyo, Calgary, and Morocco. Where in his words: “Photographing different extremes from heavy rain to burning sun and to incredible snowfall” in showing the incredible landscapes of the film. The first time I saw the theatrical trailer, I thought it looked really interesting. I went to see it and I really enjoyed it. The best scene of the movie is when Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character is running around the walls and ceiling of a hotel hallway while gravity has gone haywire. Gordon-Levitt himself did his own stunts for that sequence. I consider INCEPTION one of the best movies of 2010. It is a definite must see from me to you!

Universal Soldier (1992)

Before he scored big with the Sci-Fi/Disaster hits STARGATE, INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW and 2012, German director Roland Emmerich replaced THE FUGITIVE director Andrew Davis to helm the Tri-Star/Carolco Pictures Action/Sci-Fi movie UNIVERSAL SOLDIER. Released in 1992, Two U.S. Army soldiers, the homeward bound Private Luc Devreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and the psychotic Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren), kill each other during a deadly Confrontation in 1969 Vietnam. Twenty-Five Years Later, both Devreaux and Scott are brought back to life, along with a large group of other previously dead soldiers, for a secret government program of an elite counter terrorism unit called UniSols, aka Universal Soldiers. They are genetically enhanced, unstoppable killing machines without memory, feelings or free will. Meanwhile, a snoopy and cocky news reporter named Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) stumbles upon the secret of the UniSols. But when Devreaux and Scott begin to regain patches of memory from their former lives, Devreaux escapes, along with Veronica, from the program, leading Scott to go on a blood lust chase across the west to find them and kill them. The film also stars Ed O’ Ross (Red Heat) as UniSol Commander in Charge Colonel Perry, Leon Rippy (Eight Legged Freaks) as UniSol technician Dr. Woodward Haynes, Tommy “Tiny” Lester (Friday) and Ralf Moeller (Ridley Scott’s Gladiator) as UniSols GR55 and GR74, and Jerry Orbach (TV’s Law and Order) as UniSol creator Dr. Christopher Gregor. I remember seeing this movie when I was a little kid and the only scene that I remember watching was the first part of the diner scene and that was it. I finally saw the whole movie when I was eighteen and I loved it. I had no idea that Emmerich directed this movie and I must say that this is one of the best films he has ever made next to Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012. Both Van Damme and Lundgren's performances were both awesome and fantastic, and the final scene between them at Van Damme's character's home was great. This was the final film that was to be recorded in CDS (Cinema Digital Sound), an early digital sound format that would later form to DTS. Mainstream critics dismissed the movie as a TERMINATOR 2 clone, or as a typical, mindless action film. While it was poorly received by other critics, the film grossed $10,057,084 from 1,916 theaters with a $5,249 per screen average and taking the 2nd spot. From there, it made $36,299,898 in US ticket sales, becoming a moderate hit. Overseas, it was much more popular, mostly opening at #1, making over $65 million overseas, which earned the film a total of $102 million worldwide, on a $23 million budget that was filmed throughout the state of Arizona and some interiors in Los Angeles during the late summer of 1991. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is one of the best action movies I have ever seen and when you watch it, you'll love it too.

Armored (2009)

I'm a fan of action crime thrillers and I thought this movie was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Released in 2009 and Directed by Nimród Antal (Predators, Vacancy), ARMORED is about a young armed service veteran name Ty Hackett (Columbus Short), who works for an armored transport security firm, is coerced by his mentor Mike Cochrane (Matt Dillon) and their fellow coworkers: Baines (Laurence Fishburne), Quinn (Jean Reno), Palmer (Amaury Nolasco), and Dobbs (Skeet Ulrich) to steal a transfer of $42 million dollars from the Federal Reserve. But when an unexpected witness interferes, Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Jake Eckehart (Milo Ventimiglia), their supposedly foolproof plan leads them all to a potentially deadly resolution. This movie kept me on the edge of my seat when it came time to see the whole purpose of the film. What a great cast of actors, who I thought were all great in their performances, starring Matt Dillon (Drugstore Cowboy), Jean Reno (The Professional), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix trilogy), Amaury Nolasco (Max Payne), Fred Ward (Tremors), Milo Ventimiglia (Rocky Balboa), Skeet Ulrich (Scream), and Columbus Short (Stomp the Yard). Fishburne had some funny moments in the film, but I thought Short did a terrific job as the main character Ty. And I kid you not; it made me feel like I was in his shoes, watching him trying to make it out alive. Sadly in advanced, the film was never screened to critics. However, it got mixed reviews and got 43% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. I still think ARMORED is one of those movies I would definitely recommend for all movie lovers to see and enjoy.

Predators (2010)

I saw the original 1987 PREDATOR with Arnold Schwarzenegger and enjoyed it. Then, I saw the 1990 sequel with Danny Glover and thought it was okay. I saw the 2010 ‘sequel’ PREDATORS, and like the first one, I enjoyed it. Produced by Robert Rodriguez and Directed by Nimród Antal (Vacancy, Armored), this installment shows nine heavily-armed individuals: the American mercenary Royce (Adrien Brody – The Pianist), the disgraced American physician Edwin (Topher Grace – Spider-Man 3), the Israeli IDF sniper Isabelle (Alice Braga – I Am Legend), the American Death Row inmate Stans (Walton Goggins – TV’s The Shield), the Russian Spetsnaz soldier Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov – 15 Minutes), the Mexican drug cartel enforcer Cuchillo (Danny Trejo - Machete), the silent Japanese Yakuza assassin Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), the African RUF death squad officer Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and the insane American Air Cavalry Soldier Noland (Laurence Fishburne – The Matrix trilogy), being hunted on an alien game reserve planet by members of a merciless alien race known as Predators. This movie took 16 long years to make. In 1994, Robert Rodriguez himself wrote an early script for the film for 20th Century Fox while he was working on his 1995 film DESPARADO. He presented the script to the studio, but was denied when they realized that the budget would be too large. 15 years later, the studio decided to go with his script. Filmed in 53 days from September 28th to November 19th, 2009, the locations of the film were shot between Hawaii for the Exteriors and at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas for the Interiors. Rodriguez was originally going to direct it, but he instead produced and went with Antal because he enjoyed his earlier films. They both expressed that they wanted this film to be only a sequel to the original Predator films and try to distance itself from the ALIEN vs. PREDATOR films, which Antal said that they made the Predator characters too ‘cartoonish’. As a fan of the original and went to see it on opening day at age 14, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody said in an interview that it was a dream come true for him to do this film and put on 25 pounds of muscle to prepare himself the role of Royce, for which he was specifically chosen by Antal and I thought he did a great job in his performance. Stuntman Derek Mears, who played Jason Voorhees in the reboot of FRIDAY THE 13th and did stunts for such films like PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, don the costume of the Classic Predator alien and it was the first time for it to be seen again in 22 years. As I said before: I enjoyed 1987’s PREDATOR, thought 1990’s PREDATOR 2 was okay, and as for 2010’s PREDATORS, I thought it was enjoyable to watch.

Men in Black (1997)

From Barry Sonnenfeld, the director of THE ADDAMS FAMILY and GET SHORTY, and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg, bring us the 1997 action/sci-fi/comedy MEN IN BLACK. Based on the Marvel comic book series by Lowell Cunningham, MEN IN BLACK is about a grizzled and humorless senior agent name K (Tommy Lee Jones) and his newly recruited skeptical partner, former N.Y.P.D. Detective James Darrel Edwards III now named J (Will Smith), who work for a top secret agency that polices, monitors, and directs alien activity on the planet Earth. Every MIB agent wears black suits and neckties with white shirts, and carry a pair of black Ray-Ban sunglasses which they put on to shield themselves before activating a Neuralyzer, a device they carry to wipe witnesses' memories of what they have seen, and replace them with more mundane explanations. The plot of the film is about Both K and J trying to save the world from being destroyed as they go after an alien bug, who crash landed in New York and is disguised in the skin of a dead farmer named Edgar (Vincent D’Onofrio – Full Metal Jacket) who is searching for a miniature galaxy which is also a vast energy source. The film also stars Linda Fiorentino (After Hours) as the cynical Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Laurel Weaver, who won her role after beating Sonnenfeld in a poker game, Rip Torn (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) as the head of the MIB chief Zed, and Tony Shaloub (TV’s Monk) as the alien posing Pawn shop owner Jack Jeebs. After Clint Eastwood turned down the role of K, Jones accepted the role after Spielberg promised the script would improve. He had been disappointed with the first draft, which he felt did not capture the tone of the comic. After reading the script, Will Smith did not want to accept the role of J, but his wife Jada Pinkett Smith convinced him to take the part and Sonnenfeld’s wife was a big fan of his on “THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR” and The role was originally turned down by Chris O’ Donnell and David Schwimmer. Producers Walter F. Parks and Laurie MacDonald wanted Sonnenfeld to direct because of the dark humor he put in the ADDAMS FAMILY films. After having been approved by both Sonnenfeld and Spielberg, Special Effects Make-Up artist Rick Baker was the man who led the film’s alien makeup and creature effects and has said it was the most complex in his career to date. Released on July 2nd, 1997, MEN IN BLACK grossed over $589,390,539 worldwide. MEN IN BLACK is one of the greatest movies of the 90’s and it’s a true favorite to all movie lovers.

Congo (1995)

From Michael Crichton, the legendary best-selling author of JURASSIC PARK. Kathleen Kennedy, the producer of E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL. John Patrick Shanley, the award-winning screenwriter of DOUBT. And Frank Marshall, the director of ALIVE and ARACHNOPHOBIA, bring you the action-adventure movie CONGO. Released in 1995 and Based on the best-selling 1980 novel of the same name, the film tells the story about a communications technologist name Dr. Karen Ross (Laura Linney - Kinsey) who is sent to the Congo to search for a rare diamond mine and possibly a lost expedition crew who was looking for the mine. To keep her goal confidential, Ross tags along with Dr. Peter Elliot (Dylan Walsh – TV’s Nip/Tuck), a devoted primatologist and researcher from Berkley, California, who is Africa-bound to return his gifted gorilla Amy to her natural habitat. Upon their arrival, they are joined by Monroe Kelly (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters), an English-African mercenary who acts as their guide, and Herkermer Homolka (Tim Curry – The Rocky Horror Picture Show), an eccentric Romanian explorer who’s searching for a mythical lost city called Zinj. Soon, the expedition turns into a deadly safari of suspense and someone…or something in the jungle is watching their every move, turning the hunters into the hunted. The film also stars Grant Heslov (True Lies) as Peter’s hapless assistant Richard, Joe Don Baker (007 - The Living Daylights) as megalomaniac CEO R.B. Travis, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) as African Porter leader Kahega, and special appearances by Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead 1 & 2) as R.B.’s son Charles Travis, Joe Pantoliano (Bound) as the wisecracking transportation and equipment guy Eddie Ventro, and Delroy Lindo (Malcolm X) as the bigmouth African military leader Wanta. Marshall filmed this movie in not just Los Angeles but in Costa Rica, Tanzania, and Kenya. The film’s music, which I really loved, was composed by legendary Academy Award winning composer Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen). I remember seeing half of this movie on TV when I was seven years old and I never saw it again till I was 21, and after watching it all, I really enjoyed it. When it was released on June 9th, 1995, the reaction from the critics and the fans was less successful. Roger Ebert said that Congo is a splendid example of a genre no longer much in fashion, the jungle adventure story. He gave it 3 out of 4 stars and Rotten Tomatoes gave it an aggregate rating of 22% based on 41 reviews. When Jurassic Park was released two years earlier, the audiences were familiarized with the CGI Dinosaurs and it was originally planned for Congo to have the same thing for the gorillas, but the technology had not yet been developed to the point where realistic hair could be created. While smooth skinned dinosaurs were possible, hairy apes would have looked inappropriately cartoonish. So instead, Marshall went to legendary Academy Award winning visual effects supervisor Stan Winston, who also worked on Jurassic Park, to create animatronics, puppets and costumes for the actors playing the gorillas. My favorite quote from the film is when Tim Curry’s character says: “Those Hieroglyphics we saw inscribed everywhere, I have translated them: WE ARE…WATCHING YOU!” Whether you like the film or not, I still consider CONGO one of the most entertaining movies I’ve ever seen. And as it says in the film’s trailer: YOU ARE THE ENDANGERED SPECIES!

Demolition Man (1993)

I was five years old when this movie came out on October 8th, 1993 and I can still remember seeing a billboard poster of it from a block away near my old home. Produced by Joel Silver (Lethal Weapon, The Matrix) and Directed by Marco Brambilla (Excess Baggage), comes an Action/Sci-Fi/Crime film with some Comedy to it called DEMOLITION MAN. The film is about a tough, risk taking Los Angeles police officer named John Spartan aka “The Demolition Man” (Sylvester Stallone) and a menacing, evil crime lord named Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), Who were both cryogenically frozen the year 1996 and are reawakened to face each other again in the year 2032, where L.A., San Diego, and Santa Barbara were combined into a nonviolent future society city called San Angeles. The movie features a cast of familiar faces from Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) as the 20th Century fanatic cop Lt. Lenina Huxley, Sir Nigel Hawthorne (Amistad) as the creator of the San Angeles’ society Dr. Raymond Cocteau, Bob Gunton (The Shawshank Redemption) as the commanding Chief of Police George Earle, Denis Leary (TV’s Rescue Me) as Wasteland Scrap leader Edgar Friendly, Benjamin Bratt (TV’s Law and Order) as Huxley’s friend and fellow officer Alfredo Garcia, Glenn Shadix (Beetlejuice) as Cocteau’s assistant Associate Bob, Bill Cobbs (Air Bud) as former L.A. Police helicopter pilot Zachary Lamb, Rob Schneider (TV’s Saturday Night Live) as Officer Erwin, Stephen Kahan (Lethal Weapon) as L.A.P.D. Captain Healy, and non-speaking performances by former Governor Jesse Ventura as a member of Phoenix’s cryocon men and funnyman Jack Black, in one of his earlier film roles, as a member of Friendly’s fellow Scraps. Steven Segal and Jean Claude Van Damme were the original choices for the roles of Spartan and Phoenix respectively. But Van Damme refused to play the character of Phoenix and asked for the role of John. When Steven Segal refused to play the villain, both men left the project. Jackie Chan was offered the role of Simon Phoenix but he turned it down because he chooses never to play a villain. Snipes’ hairstyle for his character was the inspiration for former NBA Basketball player Dennis Rodman. The Museum shootout is my favorite scene of the whole movie and the scene that I think is stupid is when Spartan and Huxley have ‘Sex’. The best thing for me was that this movie was shot, with not just the interiors at Warner Bros. Studios, but in Irvine, Orange County, California for the exteriors to make it look like a 2032 version of Los Angeles. I think Hollywood should really film more movies in Orange County. They didn't do much with the television show “THE O.C.”. Although this film grossed $58,055,768 by the end of its box office run in the U.S. and $159,055,768 worldwide, DEMOLITION MAN is one of the best action movies I’ve ever seen and you will enjoy it.

Toy Story (1995)

Before A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars, Wall-E, and Up. The creative minds of Joe Ranft, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and John Lasserter introduced us to a brand new world in that of CGI Animation called PIXAR. In partnership with Walt Disney Pictures, they released their first feature film called TOY STORY. Directed by PIXAR’s chief creator John Lasseter, the film follows a group of toys who come to life whenever their owner, a six year old boy name Andy (voiced by John Morris), is not present. Focusing on Andy’s favorite toy, a traditional pull-string talking cowboy named Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), is jealous and profoundly threatened when Andy gets a new toy for his birthday, a fancy space ranger action figure named Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen). While Andy and his family are moving to a new home, Both Woody and Buzz get lost by accident and wind up in the hands of a sadistic toy destroying teenager name Sid Phillips (voiced by Erik von Detten). Together, they must find a way to escape from Sid to get back to Andy before it’s too late. I went to see this movie with my family when I was seven years old and I really liked it. Over the years, it went from a movie that I liked to a movie I love. In addition to Hanks and Allen, The movie features a voice over cast of familiar faces in that of standup comedian Don Rickles as the moody Mr. Potato Head, John Ratzenberger (TV’s Cheers) as the wise cracking plastic piggy bank Hamm, Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride) as the large, green, anxiety suffering Tyrannosaurus toy Rex, R. Lee Emery (Full Metal Jacket) as the gung-ho Sergeant of Bucket O Soldiers, Annie Potts (Ghostbusters) as the sweet and lovable shepherdess figurine Little Bo Peep, Laurie Metcalf (TV’s Roseanne) as Andy’s Mom, Jeff Pidgeon as the voice of the three eyed alien squeeze toys from Pizza Planet, and Jim Varney (the Ernest P. Worrell movies) as the southern Dachshund with a metal slinky in the middle name Slinky Dog. The music of this film was made by singer-songwriter Randy Newman, who was suggested by Lasseter and it was Newman’s first movie as composer. The song “You Got a Friend in Me”, which is also the film’s signature song and one of my favorites, was written in one day. Released during the Thanksgiving season on November.22nd, 1995, Toy Story was shown in 2,281 theaters before later expanding to 2,574. It remained in theaters for 37 weeks and it grossed over $350,000,000 worldwide. TOY STORY is one of the greatest animated movies of all time and it’s a childhood classic for all ages to love, whether you’re a kid or an adult. And in the words of Buzz Lightyear: “TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!”

Toy Story 2 (1999)

After the highly populated success of the first Toy Story in 1995, Disney originally wanted PIXAR to release TOY STORY 2 direct-to-video, but the executives of Disney were so impressed with the film’s imagery, they decided to covert it as a theatrical film release after all. Picking right up after they left off, the next chapter follows Woody (Tom Hanks) being ‘toy napped’ by an overweight, very impatient, and greedy Toy collector named Al McWhiggin (voiced by Wayne Knight), who’s also the chicken suited mascot and owner of Al’s Toybarn. Al takes the pull-string talking cowboy to his apartment where he discovers he’s a valuable collectable from a famous 1950’s children television show called “Woody’s Roundup” and meets three other toys from the franchise: Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl (voiced by Joan Cusack), his trusted horse companion Bullseye, and the Prospector Stinky Pete (voiced by Kelsey Grammar). It’s up to Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and his friends Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Rex (Wallace Shawn), and Slinky Dog (Jim Varney, in one of his final films) to stop Al from sending Woody and the rest of his Woody’s Roundup memorabilia from going to a toy museum in Tokyo, Japan before it’s too late. For this film, We are also introduced to some other new toy characters like Mr. Potato Head’s wife and counterpart Mrs. Potato Head (voiced by Estelle Harris), Wheezy the squeeze toy penguin with a red bow tie (voiced by PIXAR’s legendary animator Joe Ranft), the smooth-talking Barbie doll (voiced by Jodi Benson), and Buzz’s evil archenemy Emperor Zurg (voiced by Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton). I never saw this in the theater when it came out on November.24th, 1999. But I finally did when it came out on video when I was twelve and like the first one, I really enjoyed it. When the film was released, it eventually made $245,852,179 domestically and $239,163,000 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $485,015,179, becoming the third highest grossing film of 1999, and far surpassing the original. TOY STORY 2 is one of the greatest animated movies of all time and as I said in the first Toy Story review, it’s a childhood classic for all ages to love, whether you’re a kid or an adult. You’ll go to Infinity and Beyond with this one!

Toy Story 3 (2010)

I was seven years old when I saw Toy Story (1995) and twelve years old when I saw Toy Story 2 (1999). 10 years later and at age 21, I went to see the long awaited TOY STORY 3, and like the first two, I LOVED IT! In this chapter, Andy (voiced by John Morris) is 17 years old, heading off to college and has outgrown his favorite toys: Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and the rest of the gang: Jessie (Joan Cusack), Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Slinky Dog (Blake Clark), the three eyed Pizza Planet aliens (Jeff Pidgeon), and Barbie (Jodi Benson). Worried about their uncertain future, the toys are accidently donated to a daycare center called Sunnyside. Upon their arrival, they receive a warm welcome, led by a pink, strawberry-scented teddy bear name Lotso the Lots-O’-Huggin Bear (voiced by Ned Beatty), and began to think their troubles are over when they are initially overjoyed to be played once again. Sadly, it gets worse when they get put into a classroom that’s surrounded by younger children and are innocently abused and tortured. After making a big mistake and finding out that Andy is looking for them, the toys plan a daring escape from the daycare center and try to get back home before Andy departs for college. It was kind of weird watching this movie because the way it was made was a lot different than what the first 2 films were, but I didn’t care and I really loved it. I also loved how this film featured references from the first two. It was wonderful seeing our favorite toys again and being introduced to new toys like Buttercup the Unicorn (voiced by Jeff Garlin), Stretch the purple rubber Octopus (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg), Dolly the soft dress-up ragdoll (voiced by Bonnie Hunt), Trixie the blue Triceratops (voiced by Kristen Schaal), and the smooth talking Ken doll (voiced by Michael Keaton). But my favorite new toy will have to be the English, lederhosen-wearing stuffed hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants, who thinks he’s a thespian and was voiced by former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights, License to Kill). When this movie was getting made, I was curious about who was gonna take over the voice of Slinky Dog. Blake Clark, who we all see him in movies with Adam Sandler and were great friends with the original voice actor Jim Varney (1949-2000), did an amazing job as southern Dachshund with a metal slinky in the middle. No matter how old you are, You’ll go to Infinity and Beyond with TOY STORY 3 as Lee Unkrich, who helped make TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2, make it become one of the greatest animated movies I’ve ever seen and it’s one of the best movies of 2010 I’ve ever seen.

Stand By Me (1986)

Released in 1986, two years before I was born, and I first saw it age thirteen when it was broadcast on the AMC television network. Set in the summer of 1959, STAND BY ME tells the story of four pre-teenage boys from Castle Rock, Oregon: the quiet and bookish Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton), the tough but stereotyped Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), the eccentric and physically deformed Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman), and the timid and overweight Vern Tessio (Jerry O’ Connell) who go on a journey to find the body of a kid their age who had gone missing and presumed dead. This was the first movie I saw the late great River Phoenix (My Own Private Idaho, Running on Empty), who became one of my favorite actors and I thought he was terrific as Chris. I’m surprised that this movie is based on a novella called “The Body” that fame Horror novelist Stephen King wrote and actor/director Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men) was the man who directed this incredible movie. All the younger actors: Wheaton, Feldman, and O ‘Connell along with a teenage Kiefer Sutherland and John Cusack, were all terrific in their performances. I also liked Richard Dreyfuss’ performance as The Narrator and The Writer of this film. I loved the classic 50’s music that Reiner used for this movie, such as “Lollipop” by The Chordettes, “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis, “Yakety Yak” by The Coasters, and of course, Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”. Both Wheaton and Phoenix appeared in the 1986 music video of the re-released song. Filled with Drama, Comedy, and adventure, STAND BY ME is one of the best movies of both the 80’s and all time. It is also both a definite must see and add to your movie collection.

Falling Down (1993)

The freeways are jammed, Terror stalks our cities; At Stores and Restaurants, the customer is seldom right. The pressures of big-city life can anger anyone. But in Director Joel Schumacher’s 1993 crime thriller FALLING DOWN, One Man is more than angry, he’s out to get even. Academy Award winner Michael Douglas (Wall Street) plays William Foster aka D-FENS, an unemployed, defense worker who is frustrated of what's going on around him in 1993 Los Angeles; such as gang members, unhelpful shopkeepers, and everyday life; begins to psychotically and violently lash out to everyone around him while a soon to be retired L.A.P.D. Sgt. Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall), who faces his own frustrations, pursues Foster throughout the city. When I first saw this movie, I only saw bits and pieces of it. The 1st scene I saw was the Whammyburger sequence and I didn't like that. I was shocked to find out that Schumacher, who directed Batman Forever and The Client, was the man who directed this intense and entertaining movie that took six days to film and it was during the time of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. This movie featured an interesting cast of actors, such as Barbara Hershey (Beaches) as D-FENS ex-wife Beth, Rachel Ticotin (Total Recall) as Prendergast’s partner Det. Sandra Torres, Tuesday Weld (The Cincinnati Kid) as Prendergast’s neurotic wife Amanda, Raymond J. Barry (Cool Runnings) as L.A.P.D. Captain Yardley, and Frederic Forrest (Apocalypse Now) as the homophobic Neo-Nazi , Army Surplus store owner Nick. FALLING DOWN is something I would recommend for everyone to see and as what was said at the end of the film's theatrical trailer: "A Tale of Urban Reality".

Little Giants (1994)

This movie has been a childhood favorite of mine since I was six years old. Directed by Duwayne Dunham (Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey), LITTLE GIANTS is about a football playing tomboy name Becky "The Icebox" O'Shea (Shawna Waldron) who, along with her misfit bunch of friends, gets picked off the local pee-wee football team that's coached by her famous ex-pro football star Uncle Kevin O' Shea (Ed O' Neill). Becky's father Danny O' Shea (Rick Moranis) who is Kevin's younger brother and has lived in his shadow since they were kids, puts together his own team with Becky, her friends, and also other rejected kids to play against his brother's team in a playoff game that will represent their hometown of Urbania, Ohio. While watching this movie growing up, I had no idea that it's two lead stars were Wayne Szalinski from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Al Bundy from the classic TV sitcom Married with Children. This film featured a lot of familiar faces from Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Wild America), Brian Haley (Baby's Day Out), Mary Ellen Trainor (the Lethal Weapon trilogy, The Goonies), Mark Holton (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure), Harry Shearer (TV’s The Simpsons, This is Spinal Tap), Sam Horrigan (TV’s Grace Under Fire), and Alexa Vega (the Spy Kids movies). Lots of funny sequences like Kevin trying to 'tackle' his wife, Timmy (Christopher Walberg) getting 'Tackled' by Spike (Sam Horrigan), and one of the kids dressed up like the Michelin Tire guy. If you liked The Mighty Ducks and The Sandlot, then you'll love this 90’s family classic. A must see for all ages!