Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  An American Werewolf in London 1981

  ★★★★ Rewatched 08 Apr 2023

  You want an example of great parenting? My dad took me and my best friend Scott to see An American Werewolf in London in a theatre in Tulsa, Oklahoma when it came out in 1981 before we even hit our teens. I may have some issues with him as a father about things but the fact he was taking me to see a lot of movies growing up helped turn me into the lifelong movie fanatic I became. Many, many…

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  The Killers 1946

  ★★★★ Watched 13 Feb 2023

  Listen up bright boys and girls, The Killers, from director Robert Siodmak, is a wonderful hard-edged noir, full of everything you want in a noir picture: crime, double-crosses, hit-men, unshaven and profusely sweating men in dirty undershirts in cheap rooms, 1940s slang, a rugged and testosterone fueled leading man, a heist, sharp suits, plenty of lustful leering, a mystery to solve, fedoras, confessions, mustaches, a bombshell femme fatale, a washed up prizefighter, and shadows shadows shadows.

Recent reviews

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  Singles 1992

  ★★½ Rewatched 06 Jan 2025

  When I watched Singles when it came out, as a cynical Gen-X kid who didn't want to watch any phony manufactured BS about my so-called generation, I didn't like it. For me, Singles was clearly some cash grab attempt to latch onto the Seattle grunge movement and I didn't care for its self-conscious, talk to the camera disingenuousness. I had the same reaction I had when I watched Reality Bites. Not a fan of these forced, culture name-dropping anthems. For…

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  Basic Training 1971

  ★★★½ Watched 05 Jan 2025

  I love to watch or read about various basic trainings in the military but had never seen this. Filmed in 1970 and following a group going through infantry training before being shipped off to Vietnam. The first thing that hits you watching this is just how unbelievably young these soldiers are. Kids, really. Second thing, Basic Training has scene after scene of what can only be described as "minutiae" and it isn't as action packed as you might imagine. There's…

Popular reviews

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  Children of Men 2006

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 27 Dec 2024 2

  Absolutely one of the better dystopian science fiction films out there. Just really intelligent with believable near future scenarios (although setting it in 2027, only eleven years after its release was kind of a mistake. It should have been later.) about global collapses--economics, health, etc. It's great sci-fi and works as a thriller and action film too. Top notch genre filmmaking. Loved the stark cinematography with its brutal grey shades. It was the perfect color palette.

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  On Dangerous Ground 1951

  ★★★ Watched 02 Jan 2025

  Shape-shifting crime drama that early on is so "noir" that it feels like a spoof of noir films as tough-guy cop Robert Ryan is on the hunt for lowlifes, eager to crack some bones and bruise spleens with body blows from his knuckles. Then it is a thriller. Then it is some kind of romance with a blind Ida Lupino out in the middle of nowhere. With a running time of eighty minutes, there's too much jumping around in tone for me. I was actually glad when it left the hard-boiled noir elements behind, partly because that is when Lupino shows up.