Frank's Movie Log

Roger Ebert said, “It’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it.” I’m not sure what Arrebato is about, but I love how it is about it. Continue reading...

I’d seen Carrie at least twice prior. I remembered it as a competent, albeit unremarkable Stephen King adaptation. Having now seen director Brian De Palma’s prior films, I came away from this viewing with a renewed appreciation. This is De Palma’s baby, for better and worse. Continue reading...

Boris Karloff plays a low-level goon working for Mr. X, a mysterious drug smuggling kingpin. The G-Men have been trying to unmask Mr. X but have only dead agents to show for their efforts.

Now, I’m going to spoil some plot twists. Said twists reveal themselves to the astute viewer within the first ten minutes, and it’s near-impossible to discuss the film without discussing the plot. Continue reading...

Patrick Swayze plays a Chicago cop caught between his job and hometown loyalties after mobsters kill his brother and his Appalachian kin demand revenge. The casting department deserves a revisionist award. Liam Neeson, Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, and Ben Stiller all turn up in supporting parts. The mix of procedural and revenge drama proves as believable as Neeson’s country accent, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Ingmar Bergman’s story of a lonely old man revisiting the events that hardened him reminded me of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, minus the supernatural aspects. Victor Sjöström convinces as the lead, but the pat ending felt disingenuous.

In the attic of a creaking New England mansion, two scientists create the resonator, a device capable of bridging the barrier to a parallel dimension. But the denizens of said dimension claim one of the scientist for their own via a gruesome murder. Jeffrey Combs plays the surviving scientist whose mental scars land him in an institution. Barbara Crampton plays a psychiatrist who springs Combs to help her recreate the experiment. Disaster ensues. Continue reading...

Patrick Swayze plays Dalton, a bouncer tasked with taming a rowdy Missouri bar. The job soon escalates into Dalton freeing the town from the grip of a local gangster played by Ben Gazzara. Sam Elliott plays Dalton’s friend and mentor. Continue reading...

Director Ryûhei Kitamura’s debut feature sees Hong Kong gangster characters put through an anime-inspired plot set in a Lucio Fulci world shot by Sam Raimi. Sprinkle dashes of Peter Jackson, John Woo, and Siu-Tung Ching and you have a sense of the wild ride. Credit to Kitamura for being blatant in his influences but never devolving into pastiche.

Bob Odenkirk plays Hutch, an everyman stuck in suburban hell. His days are the same, his wife has become a stranger, and his son doesn’t respect him. An attempted home robbery unleashes years of pent-up frustration, but the fallout sends Hutch on a collision course with the Russian mafia. Continue reading...

Not the dance musical I expected. Instead, it proffers a coming-of-age drama closer to The Karate Kid than West Side Story. It’s shot with a male gaze and even features even a training montage. Great sense of atmosphere and good chemistry between Swayze and Grey.