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.