Action

Roland Emmerich does well with spectacle movies. Who can forget the indelible image of the White House being eviscerated by alien laser fire in Independence Day? Nor can one dismiss the awesome power of the tidal wave hitting New York City in The Day After Tomorrow. With his latest film, White House Down, Emmerich goes […]

“With the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” — Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Okay, so maybe we’re not talking about the ‘60s and the madness of the era. However, when I think of the new […]

(This review originally appeared at Reel Film News on February 14, 2013.) In 1979, author Roderick Thorp released a novel titled Nothing Lasts Forever, a story about ex-NYPD detective Joe Leland visiting his daughter in her high-rise office building during her Christmas party. The party is interrupted by terrorists with a heavy political agenda, and […]

(This review was originally published on December 14, 2012 at Reel Film News) I have a confession that might get me ostracized from my group of industry peers: I have not seen any of the “Lord of the Rings” films. One might wonder how that’s possible for a film buff, not to mention a critic; […]

(This review was originally published on November 30, 2012 at Reel Film News) If you were to combine “Reindeer Games” with “The Ref”, you might end up with something like “Deadfall”, a film that circles hungrily around the promise of a moral, as well as a twist, like a vulture waiting for something to die. […]

(This review was originally published on November 21, 2012 at Reel Film News) A noticeable result of putting a career stuntman in the director’s chair is the minimal presence of CGI, as exemplified by “Act of Valor” earlier this year. This might be the only redeeming aspect of “Red Dawn”, which suffers from terrible dialogue, […]