Dedicated to movie nerdom, nostalgia, and escape. In the late 90s, I worked at Blockbuster Video where they let me take home two free movies a day. I caught up on the classics and reviewed theatrical releases for Denver 'burbs newspapers and magazines. Today, while raising two young, beautiful daughters with my amazing wife, I look forward to anything rated R and not Bluey. Comments and dialogue encouraged!
Before I share my Top Ten of 2025, I thought it might be fun to dish out my least favorite experiences watching movies this year. Like the agonizing aches and fever of bedridden flu, bad movies do exist, and they can make you just as sick. You wonder what else you could have done with... Continue Reading →
One Battle After Another is a daring genre-bender — unmarketable by Hollywood standards — that demands to be seen in theaters for its subtle audacity and monstrous vision. That vision is Paul Thomas Anderson’s, and he has outdone himself again. Magnolia was a chapter in my life. That film cracked something open in me back in 1999 — a... Continue Reading →
Commendably adapted or blasphemous to Mary Shelley, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a movie — and a fair one at that. Skies hang ominously over a wet, bone-chilling landscape where the infamous creature doesn’t stop its rampage, as if It Follows dipped its toes into the 18th century. Del Toro’s obsession with flesh rekindles echoes of The Fly and Hellraiser,... Continue Reading →
There is a disarming tenderness inside the miserable monster Al Pacino creates in Scent of a Woman. Lt. Colonel Frank Slade elevates bitterness into a kind of sport. He yells, he scolds, he repels—he’s the human equivalent of a “Do Not Touch” sign with legs. And yet, maddeningly, you still want to hug him. Maybe... Continue Reading →
I’m late to the party with this one, but in hindsight, staying home would’ve been the better choice. Longlegs offers little beyond a thin plot: a young, inexperienced female FBI agent—clearly echoing Silence of the Lambs—is on the trail of a bizarre serial killer. That’s the whole premise. If you took every horror gimmick imaginable—serial killers, possessed... Continue Reading →
More a charming nod to nostalgia than an outright comedy, and more horror than spoof, Arachnophobia still manages to sink its fangs into enough entertainment value to work 35 years later. Gosh. Thirty-five years. I first saw this mild screamer at the now-gone Southbridge 8 Theatres in Littleton, Colorado—the same year I saw Edward Scissorhands. Those were innocent... Continue Reading →
To fully appreciate the found footage trope and the intrigue of media fakery, Ghostwatch is essential viewing. There’s a charming innocence to its “live TV special” premise, set in a claustrophobic, purple-carpeted British flat and driven by sincere performances that help sell the illusion. Michael Parkinson deserves particular praise for portraying a convincing host whose... Continue Reading →
I can’t think of a roller coaster or haunted house attraction that made me gulp, laugh, and scream more than watching Weapons in the theater. The horror trope has broken wide open this year, and it is a shame more than half the country would rather go on the merry-go-round. Starting with the grim premise... Continue Reading →
From the 80s to the 2020s, there is always a time and need for imbecile slapstick. Brainless to offensive, the gags levitate the belly to chuckles we once released as children. My dad raised me on Airplane! and Naked Gun, so who better to watch this reboot than with him. “Reboot” might be this relentless... Continue Reading →
If Ari Aster made a better second half to Midsommar, his take on toxic codependency would top them all. Unfortunately, his setup for relational imprisonment fell not just for gimmick but worse—pretentiousness. The cinematic potential for unhealthy emotional reliance is uncanny. Did you ever see Barfly, Fatal Attraction, or Blue Valentine? Funny. Frightening. Funereal. Add a body horror component to the... Continue Reading →
Brad Pitt swoons and the cars go fast, but the entertainment value runs out of gas at the 156-minute finish line. As per mind-numbingly usual, Hollywood takes a user-friendly summer blockbuster formula and bloats it. The washed-up-veteran-mentoring-the-cocky-rookie story works well on the racetrack, and actors Pitt, Javier Bardem, and Damson Idris divvy the testosterone respectfully.... Continue Reading →
Only Director Danny Boyle could resuscitate the “zombie”/infected trope with on-brand, Brit pop-accompanied flare. Blasting electronica to slo-mo shots of arrows piercing through ghastly, virus-ridden monsters, it’s as if the MTV music video married the modern video game. (It’s an added trivia perk that the whole thing was shot on an iPhone.) Yes, the Last of... Continue Reading →
No matter how much this live-action interpretation tries to appeal to grownup sensibility and kiddos who adore fuzzy creatures, there is a visual and emotional discrepancy between the human acting and CGI-renderings. You simply can’t have it both ways. Where six-year-old Maia Kealoha melts our hearts with a touching performance of Lilo in need of... Continue Reading →
You can make the argument that four of the 8-movie Mission: Impossible franchise are the best. What other 8-movie series can you say the same? After lighting the wick and cueing Lalo Schifrin's infamous introductory theme, I recently viewed Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and reranked my worst to best list to this tremendous... Continue Reading →
After dozens of viewings with my young daughters, I still come to the same conclusion: Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke are exceptional both in musicianship and laser point expression, the knack for lyrical metaphor is astounding, and the grownup sense of humor sneaks in seamlessly with the kiddo magic. The gigantic soundstage that envelops Cherry... Continue Reading →
Filmmaker Paul Schrader is renowned for taking us to the dingiest of places and introducing us to the gloomiest of people. By vicariously walking in the shoes of the taxi driver, raging middleweight boxer, and LA gigolo, we are challenged to sympathize with these pitiful characters. If anything, they are all seeking salvation. Because they... Continue Reading →
Is it a mystical origin story about the Delta Blues a la Robert Johnson selling his soul at a crossroads? Unfortunately, no. How about a diabolical feud between African American spirituals and Irish folksongs and their evolutionary ties to the Devil? Nope. Think From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) disguised in Jim Crow Mississippi—45 minutes of promising setup... Continue Reading →
Utility filmmaker Steven Soderbergh presents a sleek spy thriller that lands on intrigue and misses on humor. Merciless British intelligence agents bite and claw through the dialogue (script credit to David Koepp), anamorphic cinematography protrudes the eye like an investigation lamp, and the jazzy drumkit score makes the 90 minutes breeze by. Like most Soderbergh... Continue Reading →
I stopped taking the Oscars seriously in 1999 when Steven Spielberg won Best Director, but his epic Saving Private Ryan did not win Best Picture. Wouldn’t the “Best” Director have directed the “Best” Picture? No, the forgettable, Harvey Weinstein-produced Shakespeare in Love took the glory, and you can now find DVD copies of it near... Continue Reading →
There’s not much out there right now, and I normally reserve horror flicks for October, but I had to see this rebooted Wolf Man for one reason and one reason only: Leigh Whannell. This is the director who pleasantly shocked me with another reboot in The Invisible Man in 2020. Whannell has a knack for... Continue Reading →
Played more like a rabid dog, cowering in the corner, Max Schreck’s interpretation of Nosferatu in 1922 is less a spectacle and more a freak of nature. The audience can’t help but feel fear turned to pity, as if the Phantom of the Opera becomes tangible reality, and the myth lingers in the fog. Robert... Continue Reading →
This year, I reached a wonderful point in my life when my daughters’ tutu dance parties in the family room and a few more visits to the gym superseded the necessity to write about movies. I’m good with this. I’m a firm believer in a life that evolves. If anything, time to simply watch a... Continue Reading →
A Christmas movie may include anything from Jesus Christ’s birth to family dysfunction around the dinner table. It can involve the magic of time travel and flying reindeer, or the lack of magic when life is lonely. Either way, the Christmas movie absolutely has to involve these two things: it has to take place during... Continue Reading →
Mom was visiting her sisters on the east coast, my best friend, Nick, stayed the night, and Dad let us rent any horror flick we wanted. Of course, we chose A Nightmare on Elm Street. It was 1988. We were fourth graders, and we had imaginations. The Freddy Krueger franchise had already begun in 1984,... Continue Reading →
One of the main characters is a dilapidated blue Pontiac Bonneville. Origin/Director: USA, Jeremy Saulnier Viewings Tally: Only one time, and I want to see it again immediately. I know, I know—this is technically not a horror movie. However, out of all the movies I've seen this October, this one caused my blood pressure to... Continue Reading →
Origin/Director: France, Germany/Andrzej Żuławski Viewings Tally: Only one time, and I think that's all I need, thank you very much. Synopsis: A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually,... Continue Reading →
As a native Coloradan, the smell of chlorine-infused sopapillas and sight of gorilla-trodden, orange-tiled floors are ingrained in my nostalgic brain. Casa Bonita was the most shameless, self-proclaimed spectacle in Denver, and the bad food was the beloved affirmation. My parents surprised my brothers and I with a limo ride to the pink wonder when... Continue Reading →
Origin/Director: USA/Scott Derrickson Viewings Tally: 2 times. I first saw this when theatres started opening post COVID. Synopsis: Finney Blake, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney... Continue Reading →
It's time to get the horror movies going! My school is on fall break, so I'm excited to catch up on some spooky flick viewing. Be sure to let me know if you've seen any of the upcoming movies I will present throughout October! Origin/Director: Canada/Vincenzo Natali Viewings Tally: Shout-out to Max at PowerPop for... Continue Reading →
When art is attempted at such a self-possessed level, the only one who “gets it” is the artist. The rest of us lose $24. Filmmaker Michael Cimino’s 1980 passion project, Heaven’s Gate, had United Artists’ backing but lost $37 million to a 219-minute, sybaritic dream turned dustbowl. (RIP Kris Kristofferson.) Kevin Costner’s labor of love, The Postman (1997),... Continue Reading →
More video game-inspired than anything Alien franchise, this slimy mess replaces suspense with horror gimmick. I wonder if Director Fede Álvarez was trying to emulate that ‘90s Disney theatre-in-the-round attraction, Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter. Did you ever experience that "ride" before they tore it down? Benjamin Wallfisch’s score is outlandish, the diction is garbled, Cailee Spaeny could use... Continue Reading →
My middle brother and I are sitting at the front row of the theatre with the screen just a few feet from our faces. Dad is rocking our one-year-old brother to sleep in the very back. It is 1988, and we are at the premiere of Beetlejuice at the now gone Southbridge Plaza 8 in... Continue Reading →
I never fully understood the push against gentrification until I saw gentrification push our two leads, Collin and Miles, into a corner. Whether it be at the ballpark, on TV, or in the movies, Oakland always seems to get pushed around, and in this case, the "Topher Grace/Neil Patrick Harris/Portlandia" transplants are as harmful as... Continue Reading →
Look, I’m an avid fan of Charlie Kaufman’s earlier work, and I still go back to Being John Malkovich (1999) and marvel at its masterfully crafted revelations—both psychological and humorous. Kaufman’s Gedankenexperiments are gold to the likes of the motion picture medium and the viewer who dabbles in Kafka and enjoys imagining things under a... Continue Reading →
Filmmaker Todd Haynes, the Douglas Sirk of postmodern melodrama, does it again with full blown intention—soap opera piano strikes included. There are necessary moments of campy humor, cringy graveness, and empathy on the fringe. Julianne Moore can melt a heart with her “I am naive” line, but there’s a yearning for more—something beyond the surface-level... Continue Reading →
Otherworldly. My favorite movies are otherworldly. An ethereal, synthesized score (infamous Maurice Jarre) accompanies an Amish family speaking German while walking through a green meadow in Pennsylvania, set in 1984—one year before the movie was produced. Before you can superficially label this one a typical 80s flick or police thriller, you are allured by the... Continue Reading →
I'm a cinematic traditionalist and rival to today's overuse of CGI and all the disbelief it forces us to suspend when we really know we’re looking at unnatural pixels on a screen. The George Lucas-derived, Michael Bay-exploited “video game movie” bores me to visual fatigue, and I'll never forget when Rogue One: A Star Wars... Continue Reading →
While attempting a chic perspective on progressive egotism and its hopeful resolve to humility, Challengers pleasures itself with unbridled Gen-Z horniness. The outcome is both refreshing and monotonous, like Luca Guadagnino's style-before-substance directing and superfluous timeline toying. There’s a sports movie in here too, but that mainly consists of flash cuts, closeups, and occasional lines... Continue Reading →
Theatrical movie releases at the beginning of the year are predictably rancid. Only a colossal sandworm can devour the memory of The Beekeeper, Mean Girls, and Argylle. Thankfully, that worm arrived on February 29 to represent the second part of Director Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the Dune universe. And, like his first effort nearly three... Continue Reading →
I certainly had more favorite movies to choose from this year than last. I'm not sure if you will agree with me, but the quality, diversity, and creativity went up a level in 2023. Still, I’m well aware of a current transformation I’m experiencing as the eccentric, polemic indies I once adored now annoy me,... Continue Reading →
“But it’s good. It’s my life.” -Becky (Juliette Lewis) from What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) It’s good. It’s my list. It was an absolute joy reflecting on 50 formative movie favorites of mine, recalling who I saw them with, and realizing how much the 1980s complete me (fourteen titles from that whacky decade made my... Continue Reading →
I cherish my memory of seeing Amadeus (1984) for the first time with my dad when I was in the 6th grade. He would imitate Tom Hulce’s shriek of a laugh as I quickly put the second VHS tape in the VCR to continue watching the madness of a musical genius fall just as fast... Continue Reading →
The chronological journey goes like this: During the summer of 1999, I saw the teaser trailer to Magnolia at the Movie Tavern in Aurora, CO. This was the shorter, ambiguous trailer that featured a woman shooting a stray warning bullet through the apartment window, only to coincidentally hit a body that was falling past the... Continue Reading →
I am only 5 years old, running aimlessly around the neighborhood cul de sac like any 5-year-old would do. “Poltergeist is playing, Poltergeist is playing!” yells “Deedoo,” my next-door neighbor who is one year younger than me. I have no idea what “Poltergeist” is. Is it a TV show maybe having something to do with... Continue Reading →
In my lifetime as a Gen Xer, there are movies before Pulp Fiction, and there are movies after Pulp Fiction. I've always considered 1994 the year my passion for movie analysis began, and it’s all because of Pulp Fiction. There is no doubt Quentin Tarantino belongs to the Greatest American Film Directors Club, and Scorsese,... Continue Reading →
As a boy who grew up in 1980s America, Star Wars was included in my DNA. Some proof of my passion for the George Lucas-inspired space opera franchise can be found in my childhood sandbox where my middle brother and I buried all of our action figures. We didn’t know any better at the time... Continue Reading →
Reely Bernie 