Frank's Movie Log

In a dystopian near-future where the last child was born over eighteen years ago, society crumbles. Global refugees flock to London, one of the few functioning cities. Hoping for sanctuary, they find interment camps. Militant groups demanding better refugee treatment execute bombings and clash with government forces. Clive Owen plays a bureaucrat swept into the conflict via his estranged ex wife. Continue reading...

Paul Thomas Anderson’s feature debut. Philip Baker Hall plays a professional gambler who takes a young man played by John C. Reilly under his wing. As the story unfolds, we meet a casino waitress played by Gwyneth Paltrow and a hustling security guard played by Samuel Jackson. Continue reading...

Jason Statham plays an enigmatic loner who joins an armored car service and displays uncanny skills while thwarting an attempted robbery. The twisty script features plot holes big enough to drive said armored car through but with Statham leading this combination of heist and revenge flick, they prove easy enough to ignore. Continue reading...

A contemporary This is Spinal Tap. Andy Samberg plays Conner4Real, a pop star riding high on the eve of his much-anticipated sophomore release. The standard fall-from-grace-then-redemption plot follows, but the script’s biting commentary on celebrity culture and Connor’s catchy, hilarious, and often outrageous songs prove entertaining.

Ambitious. How else to describe a film that analogizes dancing to spell-casting and a coven of witches to the Red Army Faction. I appreciate that ambition, and the influences director Luca Guadagnino brings to bear. But the result didn’t thrill me. Continue reading...

Writer-director Dario Argento’s third entry in his “Animal Trilogy” behind The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and The Cat o’ Nine Tails. Michael Brandon plays a drummer in a successful rock band. One night after rehearsal, he confronts a stalker and commits manslaughter. His crime goes undiscovered by police, but another stalker threatens first to expose him, then to kill him. Continue reading...

It’s not a musical. The Andrew Lloyd Webber version is a musical. This Phantom of the Opera adaptation plays as a black comedy, transplanting the classic tale from the world of opera to glam rock with Faustian touches. And it’s terrific. Continue reading...

Entertaining albeit frustrating comedy-drama period-piece from writer-director Ingmar Bergman. Continue reading...

The higher resolution did nothing to improve the film.

A stacked cast and vivid location photography elevate this story of juvenile delinquency. Stanley Baker makes a strong case for Watchlist inclusion as a Liverpool detective volun-told to take over as Juvenile Liaison Officer. David McCallum plays the requisite troubled youth. Peter Cushing turns up as the local priest. The Liverpool photography puts you on the streets of the Beatles hometown a few years before they broke big. Baker and McCallum ensure you’re never bored. The script avoids soapbox soliloquies and rations the melodramatics. A pleasant surprise.