Movies you saw in July

Payback (1999) this remake of the 1967 film noir classic Point Blank I think is a better action movie and Mel Gibson is better than Lee Marvin as the double crossed crook looking for revenge. also stars Gregg Henry, David Paymer, Lucy Liu, William Devane, Kris Kristofferson and the late James Coburn in one of his last movies. plays again on EPIX2 Friday July 3rd @ 5:00pm pacific time. worth watching for action fans I rate it    of 4

Schindler's List (1993) Steven Spielberg's Holocaust themed movie details the attempt of the real life German businessman Oskar Schindler to save as many of his J ewish workers from the Nazis is a "tour de force" by Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ben Kingsley as his accountant Itzhak Stern and esp Ralph Fiennes as murderous Nazi camp commandant Amon Goeth. Goeth is listed at #15 on the AFI 50 Villains list and is 1st of the 6 real life villains in film listed. the movie garnered 7 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (Steven Spielberg) while Liam Neeson was nominated for Best Actor and Ralph Fiennes for Best Supporting Actor. it is a VERY dark and disturbing movie BUT also worth watching for the history and as a warning to future generations. plays again on HBO2 Sunday July 5th @ 5:00pm pacific time. I rate it    of four.

The Cat's Meow (2001) reviewed late last month and worth mentioning again. "period" drama set in the 1920's inspired by the mysterious death of film mogul Thomas Ince aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht that speculates that Hearst may have mistakenly shot Ince thinking he was Charlie Chaplin who he suspected was fooling around with his long time mistress actress Marion Davies. excellent cast including Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies, Edward Herrmann as William Randolph Hearst, Eddie Izzard as Charlie Chaplin, Cary Elwes as Thomas H. Ince with Jennifer Tilly and Joanna Lumley as Hearst "gossip columnists" Louella "Lolly" Parsons and Elinor Glyn. well acted by all involved and worth watching IF you just like a good drama. plays again on Showtime 2 Wednesday July 8th @ 11:00am and EPIX3 Friday July 10th @ 11:35am both times pacific rate it   of four

Slap Shot (1977) the classic hockey themed comedy played again on Cinemax the other night and STILL as funny as ever with Paul Newman as aging player-coach Reggie Dunlop, Strother Martin as team manager Joe McGrath and, of course, The Hanson Brothers is, along with horse racing themed comedy Let It Ride (1989), THE funniest sports comedy EVER. been playing some the last month on various premium movie channels and hopefully will be on again soon. it is a "must see" movie at least once and I rate it     of four

I agree Rink, Schindler's List was a great movie.  We watched in in our World History class in high school.  It's gut wrenching to watch some scenes.  Some of the girls in our class were crying and one asked to leave because it upset her too much.  

I watched Focus with Will Smith and Margot Robbie ...  quick paced con movie, especially liked the gambling scene during the 'Super Bowl'.   Worth seeing just for Margot Robbie... you may remember her as Leo Dicaprio's wife in The Wolf of Wall Street

I agree Rink, Schindler's List was a great movie.  We watched in in our World History class in high school.  It's gut wrenching to watch some scenes.  Some of the girls in our class were crying and one asked to leave because it upset her too much. 

hard to believe there were actual Germans like Amon Goeth and Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Höss during the war. hanging was too good for these two and anyone else involved in "The Final Solution".

with the Auschwitz liberation 70th anniversary there has been a LOT of shows esp on AHC (the former Military channel) about the history. it is STILL disturbing to think that a cultured people like the Germans would allow that to happen. it is a definite warning from history about what happens when racism gets out of hand ANYWHERE

btw, another relatively unknown but well acted movie about that time is The Grey Zone (2001) staring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi and Harvey Keitel. "tout de force" for British actor Allan Corduner as Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, who's memoirs about working for Josef Mengele and the Sonderkommandos uprising in October 1944, is the basis of the plot. an excellent but, like all Holocaust themed movies, VERY disturbing drama . has been playing every so often on EPIX channels and I rate it    of four

Fury (2014) WWII war drama staring Brad Pitt with Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal. Logan Lerman,who played the title roll in the Percy Jackson fantasy movies, really steals the show as the tank crews "new guy" Pvt Norman Ellison. got a well deserved 77% "fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes because I think it is one of THE most realistic war movies in recent history and doesn't pull any punches about the limitations of the Sherman tank which was a gasoline fueled potential death trap for it's crews. plays almost nightly all next week on Starz channels starting Saturday July 11th. I rate it    of four

Chappie (2015) had a couple free Dish-TV PPV's so used one for this because the trailers looked interesting and I am generally a sucker for Sci-Fi. kind of "Johnny Five from Short Circuit meets RoboCop" and had pretty good action BUT the South African "gangsta" dialog was VERY hard to understand as was Chappie's electronic voice which was not as clear as J-5 in the Short Circuit movies. worth watching IF you like this type SciFi BUT would wait for the premium movie channels to show it in a couple months. rate it   of four

Cradle Will Rock (1999) written and directed by Tim Robbins, it is a fictionalized version of the true events that surrounded the production of the 1937 "socialist" musical play The Cradle Will Rock. somewhat portrays the "class warfare" that happened during ths Great Depression and some of the Government "witch hunting" that went on during that time. I thought it was an interesting well acted movie that has an "all-star cast" including Bill Murray, John Turturro, Ruben Blades, John Cusack, Emily Watson, Vanessa Redgrave and Susan Sarandon. plays again on Flix movie channel again Thursday July 16th @ 9:00pm and Monday July 20th @ 4:15an pacific times. I thought it interesting for the history and acting and rate it   of four

Office Space

The Relic (1997) pretty good monster-horror movie with good action and excellent suspense with a bunch of "startle" scenes. interesting monster running amok in a Chicago natural history museum. stars Penelope Ann Miller and Tom Sizemore with Linda Hunt (who currently plays the "cleaner" in Black List) and the late James Whitmore. played on HBO recently and hopefully will repeat soon. I rate it    of four

REALLY looking forward to seeing The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) the 3rd movie of The Hunger Games film series this weekend on EPIX1. will be a relatively early premier on a premium movie channel and I am sure glad I did NOT spring for a PPV. hopefully it will NOT just be more "set up" for the finale Mockingjay – Part 2  which is scheduled for release in theaters November 20, 2015 in the United States

Gone Girl (2014) Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike.  

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia)

Run All Night with Liam Neeson, Ed Harris....   another good fast-paced action flick.   Neeson plays a hitman and his longtime BFF Harris is a mobster.  Both have sons and through some random interaction Neeson's son Mike (played by Joel Kinnamon who you may recognize from AMC's The Killing) witnesses Harris's son murdering a man after drug deal gone wrong.   Neeson ends up killing Harris' son and Harris vows revenge on his son for payback...   the movie is played out over the course of one night in New York.   

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) "film noir" drama about an all powerful New York gossip columnist, J J Hunsecker, played by Burt Lancaster and based on Walter Winchell, and a small time press agent Sidney Falco, played by Tony Curtis, willing to do anything to get in his good graces. also starts Susan Harrison as Hunsecker's younger sister Susan and Martin Milner (most famous for the TV series Route 66 and Adam-12) as her jazz guitarist boy friend Steve Dallas of who J J disapproves. really well acted serious drama worth watching at least once. it holds a 98 percent "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes and was added to the U S National Film Registry in 1993. plays again on the MGM channel Sunday July 26th @ 5:00pm and Thursday July 30th @ 2:40pm (all times pacific) and I rate it    of four

Southpaw............Gylenhall & Whitaker give good performances but the story is just too predictable.......... out of four.

A Most Wanted Man (2014) espionage-suspense thriller based on the John le Carre novel only with a German intell officer and his crew trying to root out Islamic terrorists in Hamburg. pretty good story BUT a bit slow. stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Willem Dafoe and the lovely Rachel McAdams. noteable as Philip Seymour Hoffman's last movie that he actually completed before his death in February 2014. plays again on EPIX-1 Tuesday July 28th @ 5:45pm and Wednesday july 29th @ 5:45am & 11:50am pacific time. somewhat interesting le Carre story and Hoffman's last film so I rate it   of four

btw after watching Hoffman's other last film roll in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, it was obviously just "filler" until the finale Mockingjay - Part 2 with is due to be released in November of 2015

Moon (2009) definitely weird sci-fi psyco-thriller about a lone astronaut worker on a moon energy recovery base having an accident then waking up to find a double of himself on the station. pretty much a one man show with Sam Rockwell playing Sam Bell the astronaut with Kevin Spacey as the voice of his robotic assistant "Gerty". interesting plot with some "twists" and a "tour de force" for Rockwell playing both the original Sam and his "doppelganger". plays again on the Sony Movies channel Tuesday July 28th @ 1:30pm. I rate it   of four

The Drop (2014) interesting but a bit slow paced crime drama staring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini. Matthias Schoenaerts is excellent as the "menacing psyco" villain. well acted by all involved but NOT a "slam-bang" action film. more a mystery-suspense. noteable as James "Tony Soprano" Gandolfini's last feature film roll. for what it's worth, it did get an 89% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes. plays almost nightly all next week on HBO channels starting Friday July 31st. I rate it    of four