Tag: R

Mortal Kombat (2021)

My love for cinema truly became apparent to me in my early teen years, but my love of the Mortal Kombat video games started at the age of five.

I remember with perfect accuracy my parents’ hesitancy to get the game for my older brother Adam and I, but they eventually gave in to our wishes (provided we got along). The following years resulted in many hours playing MK 1-4 with friends (most notably my best friend Greg) on button mashing, face punching, gut kicking, head decapitating, limb ripping, organ exploding bliss. That is not to mention the 1995 original film (with a theme song that never grows old) that still delights today, despite a sequel that proved to be one of the worst films mankind has ever known.

Tags 2021, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, Josh Lawson, Lewis Tan, Ludi Lin, Max Huang, Mehcad Brooks, Mortal Kombat, R, Rated R, Tadanobu Asano

3 1/2 Stars Movies

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

Post author By Mark A. Lester
Post date March 21, 2021
1 Comment on Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

IMDB may have the director of 2017’s Justice League as Zach Snyder, but that was far from his original film.

The origins of the “Snyder Cut” are now well known: When the film was being finished in early 2017, Snyder had to back out after the tragic suicide of his daughter, Autumn. Joss Whedon (who helmed the first two Avengers films for the MCU) stepped in, and the film was changed drastically. The film’s 4 hour run time was basically cut in half to two, the tone of the film was much lighter, and composer Thomas Holkenborg (better known as Junkie XL) was replaced by Danny Elfman.

4 1/2 Stars Movies

Nomadland (2020)

When it comes to name recognition, it seems like the third time is definitely the charm for director Chloe Zhao.

While I have yet to see her debut film (2015’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me), I did manage to see her second film, The Rider (2017), the story of a young cowboy recovering from a near fatal accident and needing to find a new path in life. It takes more than one movie or so to discover a director’s true voice, but Zhao certainly is going down the path of intimate film making (it also helps that her first two movies were written by Zhao), which is more than evident in her third feature Nomadland.

Tags 2020, Chloe Zhao, David Strathairn, Frances McDormand, Nomadland, R, Rated R, Three Billboards, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

4 Stars Movies

The Way Back (2020)

To describe the career of Ben Affleck as “varied” would almost be an understatement.

After making it in the spotlight by winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (with his good friend Matt Damon) for 1997’s Good Will Hunting, he stretched into the “Razzie” territory with films like 1998’s Armageddon (which Affleck has comically given his own thoughts on), Pearl Harbor (2001), and 2003’s mega dud Gigli.

Tags 2020, alcoholism, Basketball, Ben Affleck, R, Rated R, The Way Back

2 Stars Movies

The Little Things (2021)

“It’s the little things that are important, Jimmy.”

Says the veteran cop to the hotshot rookie detective, and is something heard before in other films. Sadly, the reason The Little Things turns out very subpar and forgettable is, to be honest, the little things.

Tags 2021, Denzel Washington, Jared Leto, R, Rami Malek, Rated R, The Little Things

4 Stars Movies

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Post author By Mark A. Lester
Post date October 23, 2020
3 Comments on The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

It has always been at the same street corner, across the street from the water tower and a few blocks from the local mini-golf course of my childhood. To this day, I have seen groups of five or so people with signs, protesting against abortion. It has been so common to me (it still happens to this day) that I find it odd when I don’t see anyone in lawn chairs at that spot.

While I am not sure if that qualifies as a “peaceful protest” (I have never heard of any of them being arrested or anything), I was thinking of it a bit during The Trial of the Chicago 7 (streaming now on Netflix). It focuses on the true story of the men who were brought to trial after being charged with the intention of starting riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, even though the protests were meant to be peaceful in their opposition against the Vietnam War.

Tags R, The Trial of the Chicago 7

5 Stars Movies Vintage

Psycho (1960)

It was a spine tingling time as a 13 year old on a Tuesday in June of 2001.

The American Film Institute was revealing their annual Top 100 list that they would do every year. That year’s was entitled 100 Years, 100 Thrills. As the countdown was concluding, I had made a $5 bet with my dad (the most I could afford at that time) over which would be number one. He was going with Jaws, while I was rooting for Psycho. By the end, Jaws was number 2, and I had won five dollars, bragging for some time afterwards.

Tags Classic Movies, Film Friday, Film Reviews, Psycho, R, Rated R

5 Stars Movies Vintage

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Of the countless times that the Oscars have had a segment for montages (excluding the “In Memorium” ones), there was one they did that I wish they would bring back.

At the 62^nd Academy Awards (the first to be hosted by Billy Crystal), there was a surprise appearance by an even bigger Hollywood legend, Bob Hope, there to introduce a short video of cinema’s best sharing the first time they ever went to a movie. It was proper that the video used the music from the night’s eventual winner of Best Foreign Language Film, Cinema Paradiso, which brought to mind many movie “firsts” for me (first in a theater, first date movie, etc).

Tags Cinema Paradiso, Film Friday, Italian, R

4 Stars Movies

Crip Camp (2020)

For nearly a decade, I have truly been blessed with the seven summers I was able to spend a week of being a counselor at a Christian Youth Camp.

The memories are indeed too many: Small group bible lessons, archery, paintball, inside jokes about having too much bread (Wade and Hudson know), starlight devos, my alarm clock being thrown out by my co-counselor, sacrificing a pair of socks for a camper, out door movie nights, having another camper ask if I knew how to talk to girls (my initial response: “No one does.”), the countless nicknames I would give and be given (“The Cap” is the best nickname I have ever gotten).

Tags 2020, ADA, Disabilities, Documentary, Netflix, R, Rated R

5 Stars Movies Vintage

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Post author By Mark A. Lester
Post date May 29, 2020
No Comments on Do the Right Thing (1989)

In a perfect world, Do the Right Thing is a movie that should not exist.

The ideal world would be without the things demonstrated in the film: anger, prejudice, racism. Yet that is the world we live in, and have before the late 80s and still to this day. The list of names belonging to lives lost due to racial injustice is far to the point of many of them being forgotten by all who did not know them. This is why Spike Lee’s uncanny piece of art will almost always be a film that will resonate with any generation.

Tags Danny Aiello, Do the Right Thing, John Turturro, R, Racism, Rated R, Rosie Perez, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson