By John H. Foote This might be the biggest surprise of the summer, that this sequel to the superb Sicario (2015) is as good as it is. The previous film, directed by Denis Villeneuve was a superb study of drug trafficking across the Mexican border, where US agents routinely encounter major Mexican cartels and their…
By John H. Foote SNUBBED ENTIRELY, BUT MASTERFUL NONETHELESS… Kevin Costner won an Academy Award for Best Director for his western epic Dances with Wolves (1990), which won six other Oscars including Best Picture, and saw the likable star nominated for Best Actor. This was very near the beginning of his career, when his baseball…
By John H. Foote When The Silence of the Lambs (1991) swept the major Oscars, Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay, there was some griping about Jodie Foster winning again, just three years after winning for a The Accused (1988). Let me state here and now, her Clarice Starling is the heart and soul…
By Alan Hurst From a first viewing in the late 70s and then multiple viewings since, no other film of the horror/suspense genre has ever had the impact on me that Rosemary’s Baby (1968) has. It was a big hit when it came out in 1968 and it sill holds up today. It’s the perfect…
By John H. Foote The Incredibles (2004) now fourteen years old, remains among the greatest films of the decade, easily among the top three Pixar films ever made. In addition, it stands among the finest of the super hero genre, which in 2004 had yet to explode to the extent it has in 2018. Neither…
By John H. Foote A couple of years ago Alex Garland gave us his excellent science fiction thriller Ex Machina (2014), a thriller that was far better than perhaps it had any right to be. Confident, even brash behind the camera Garland has done it again, even more so, with his new film Annihilation, which…
By John H. Foote Like a well oiled roller coaster ride, by now the narrative for the Jurassic Park franchise is an entertainment machine Universal has down pat. Memories of the terrible The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) have faded, helped by the fact Jurassic World (2015) was a tight, taut film that worked on…
“Everybody’s talking at me, I don’t hear a word they’re sayin’, only in the echoes of my mind.” “Everybody’s Talking” (Harry Nilsson), 1969 It seems inconceivable to me that Midnight Cowboy (1969) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The film is a time capsule film of what New York City was in the sixties, about…
Let me be clear…I hated this movie. Hated it. With the exception of a couple of fine performances it is an insane mess of a film from beginning to end. I hated it. Harrison Ford IS Han Solo. It is ridiculous to suggest anyone else could do the role, and do justice to what he…
By John H. Foote It was 8:30 am in June, 1998, when a small group of film critics, myself included were ushered into the old Uptown Theatre, one of Toronto’s greatest movie palaces. The cinema was cold, outside the sun already blazed in the stifling city heat. The publicist gravely, unsmiling handed us our press…