Film
My Favorite Movies 53: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
The good old fashioned “classic” style American western has taken many forms over the years, from revisionist westerns that lost sight of the true meaning of “Christmas” to “Spaghetti” westerns that took the genre down an entirely different dark path. And while revisionist westerns (with a few exceptions) don’t get a lot of love in…
Read MoreMonthly Movie Reviews – April, 2014
Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in April. Stats Movies watched – 6 Movies that were new to me – 3 Movies about gunfighters – 3 Monthly Masterpieces – Goldfinger April 18 The Ten Commandments (1956) – Pretty awesome biblical spectacle that is as tacky and overwritten as it is genuinely fun and…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 52: Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Most of Marilyn Monroe’s films rank quit high on my list of favorite movies, but if I had to pick just one, I suppose it would have to be Some Like it Hot. Sure, the leads here are basically just another Hope and Crosby “Doofus and the Dick” team–a combo that was always a bit…
Read MoreMonthly Movie Reviews – March, 2014
Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in March. Stats Movies watched – 17 Movies that were new to me – 10 Silent movies – 7.5 Monthly Masterpieces – The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Modern Times, Dazed and Confused March 29 Step Up (2006) – Though it goes through all the…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 51: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1978)
I’ve written many times about so-called “doomed gangster” characters and their noble (and doomed) struggle to rise above a world that just wants to drag them under a sea of conformity. And while these doomed gangsters were fundamentally distinguished by their notable otherness from the rest of society, Cassavetes’ masterpiece, The Killing of a Chinese…
Read MoreIsley Reviews the 2013 Oscar nominees (plus best movies of 2013 list!)
Here we are on year five of me actually watching all the shitty best picture nominations so you don’t have to. This year, though a fair amount made it into my top ten list (mostly because I didn’t see as many 2013 movies this year), I was overall fairly disappointed with the choices, mostly because…
Read MoreMonthly Movie Reviews – February, 2014
Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in February. Stats Movies watched – 21 Movies that were new to me – 18 Marilyn Monroe movies – 4 Monthly Masterpieces – Some Like it Hot February 28 A Canine Sherlock Holmes (1912) – Short film about an unusually perceptive dog who tends to solve all his…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 50: Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (Danny Leiner, 2004)
I’ve talked about stoner comedies before, and I’ve talked about “one crazy night” movies before, today I’ll talk about a movie that is both. Obviously, as the perfect mixture of film genres, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle must be my favorite movie of all time, right? Well, if it’s not quite my favorite…
Read MoreMonthly Movie Reviews – January, 2014
Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in January. Stats Movies watched – 13 Movies that were new to me – 9 Best picture movies worse than Inside Llewyn Davis – 4 Monthly Masterpieces – Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Old Dark House January 31 American Hustle (2013) – I suppose it is fun enough (Lawrence…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 49: The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932)
Of the string of early 1930s Universal Studios horror films for which director James Whale is best known, my easy favorite is The Old Dark House. Not to take anything away from the brilliant Invisible Man and Frankenstein films, but for sheer expressionistic atmosphere and darkly comic horror, The Old Dark House is hard to…
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