With Sony’s rerelease each of the Spider-Man movies, we turn back to the clock two decades to 2004 and the film that set the standard for a live-action Spider-Man movie which swings back into theaters this Monday. Returning all the notable stars from the first film (including both Willem Dafoe and Cliff Robertson in a pair of questionable cameos), the sequel focuses on the toll Spider-Man has caused on Peter Parker‘s (Tobey Maguire) life.
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No matter how many times I’ve seen the film, there’s a moment in Million Dollar Baby that hits me like a jab straight to the gut, far harder than any thrown inside the ring in this film about boxing, life, death, and balancing the consequences of all three. Even ten years later with the movie now available in a new Tenth Anniversary Blu-ray release I find myself reluctant to give away the twist for those who have not yet seen the film.
The movie is never about what you think it’s about. While borrowing aspects of your run-of-the-mill sports film, the script by Paul Haggis travels a winding road of subtle and abrupt turns, much like life. Earning near universal praise, Million Dollar Baby took home Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Best Actress for Hillary Swank, and Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman. The film has aged well and, along with Sideways, The Incredibles, and Before Sunset, it remains one of my favorite films of 2004.
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2004 – Million Dollar Baby Read More »
Let me tell you a strange but wonderful story. Once upon a time there was a filmmaker who made a small independent art house movie that was moderately successful. No big stars, no special effects, no plot twists here kids. It was just a two character piece about a man and woman finding each other in Vienna and spending one day and one night together sight seeing, discussing their lives, loves, beliefs, desires, both large and small, and falling in love.
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Between Sunrise and Sunset Read More »
Yeah, it’s a simple love story. Boy loves girl. Girl falls for more accomplished boy. A more modern take on the Bye, Bye Birdie story is so delightful that I actually prefer it to the original play and its other film versions. In the hands of director Robert Luketic and screenwriter Victor Levin such a predictable story is given class and charm up the whazoo. And so what we get is a well told and engaging story about great love that changes your life.
Sweet down home Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth) works at the Piggy Wiggly with her “Pete friend” (Topher Grace) and her “Cathy friend” (Ginnifer Goodwin). The three musketeers work together and hang out at the local pub where the bartender (Kathryn Hahn) has made her feelings about Pete a little too clear. Pete however has been harboring feelings for Rosalee for years and thinks he is finally ready to admit his love. In a comedy this is where something usually goes amiss.
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Win a Date with Tad Hamilton Read More »
National Treasure is a treasure hunting movie of the finest caliber. With great locations, strange clues that must be deciphered intertwined into U.S. history, a race against time to find the treasure, a great cast, and peppered with action sequences but with its soul relying on the characters’ intellect rather than only their brawn, it’s all you can ask for, and a little more. Disney has had mixed success in its live action movies, but this can be put alongside the best of the bunch.
The movie begins with John Adams Gates (Christopher Plummer) telling his grandson the story of a great treasure of King Solomon passed down through the generations and protected by the Knights Templar and Freemasons who eventually smuggle the treasure to the New World and hide it, leaving a series of clues by which it might later be uncovered. Through mischance the Gates family has the only known clue to the treasure which he now passes on to his grandson.
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