Prior to Kong: Skull Island, there have been at least a half dozen feature films based on the monstrous King Kong character, including the original 1933 classic, 1962’s campy “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” the Dino De Laurentiis 1976 budget-breaker and Peter Jackson’s overlong and ambitious 2005 edition, among others. Despite the various incarnations, the plot…
The Ottoman Lieutenant is a modest yet powerful film, one that sweeps the viewer into its world with majestic scope, while maintaining a keen eye for detail and never offering more than it can deliver. Romance, coming of age, duty and responsibility, violence and compassion, politics and history come together in an impressive whole, captured…
All nations share the same basic story — us versus them. The oldest of narrative conflicts, that story has been fundamental in the process of nation building and it’s an inevitable necessity if you’re going to set-up and patrol borders. National identity has always been tied up in the need to think of your side…
Lew Ayres, who starred in the classic 1931 anti-war film (and Best Picture Academy Award winner), “All Quiet on the Western Front,” was so affected by that movie, he became a conscientious objector and served as a medic in World War II (and was later to earn a Best Actor nomination for “Johnny Belinda”). Others…
Films centering around the American military generally fall into two camps: Pro-war and anti-war. The U.S. military will always be a subject of extremely dichotomized opinions and, as such, films revolving around a soldier will generate polarizing reactions depending on its approach and on an individual’s personal beliefs. Where Birthday lies between these opposing sides…
What will it take for you to believe in something you don’t believe in? Is hearing from your most trusted friend enough? Do you need a reliable written source instead? Of course not. What you need is the most popular option: A truth that must be seen with your own eyes. But what happens when…
The last thing Major John Cafferty (Tahmoh Penikett, “Man of Steel”) remembers is running with his Special Forces squad through a cave tunnel in Afghanistan trying to escape . . . something. When he wakes up in a hospital bed, however, he can’t remember how he got there, or what happened in Afghanistan. The orderlies…
