Movies I Want Everyone to See: The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Review by Richard Kirkham

All you film fans out there who were born after 1970 are about to eat your hearts out. You may know that the 70s were the second golden age of Hollywood, after all that’s when “Star Wars”, “The Godfather”, and “Alien” all started. You may even be aware that the greatest adventure film ever made, “Jaws”, was released in the Summer of 1975. It would be a solid argument to make that 1975 was the apex of Hollywood film making in that decade. Here is a partial list of the movies released that year: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Dog Day Afternoon, Barry Lyndon, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Rollerball, Three Days of the Condor, Shampoo, Nashville, Seven Beauties, Cousin cousine,The Passenger as well as the aforementioned fish story. ” That is a list of essential films for anyone who loves movies to partake of. Buried in the avalanche of great films from that year, is the one film that stars Michael Caine and Sean Connery together as the leading men (each had a small part in “A Bridge Too Far”) and as a bonus it was directed by John Huston.

Movies That Everyone Should See: “Up”

In 2008 Pixar Animation Studios released “WALL•E”, an animated movie that defied genre expectations. The film opens with a long chapter where the lead character is by himself, and throughout the movie, he and his romantic partner have limited verbal communication. It was a bold play, but done so well that audiences and critics responded overwhelmingly. “WALL•E” was an enormous success financially, scored 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and won the Oscar for best animated film. It is now one of the highest rated animated films in IMDb’s top 250.

But the main thing was that it was so unique, it was a such an original effort… more than Pixar’s prior exceptional offerings, even.

So when “Up” was released the next year, the question on everybody’s mnd was, “Could Pixar do it again?”

The answer?

Yes. Yes they could.

Fogs’ Oscar Diary: Pt 4 The Big Finish

Overture, curtain, lights!
This is it. The night of nights.
No more rehearsing or nursing a part.
We know every part by heart!

Overture, curtain, lights!
This is it. We’ll hit the heights!
And oh, what heights we’ll hit!
On with the show, this is it!

Here we go, the final hour! The big Awards! The Grand Finale! Best Actor! Best Actress! Best Director! And of course, Best Picture! Let’s do it!

Now Showing on Cable: “Priest”

Making its premium cable channel debut this weekend on Starz was 2011’s “Priest”, starring Paul Bettany, Maggie Q and Karl Urban.

“Priest” is a movie set in the proverbial “Dystopian Future”, where large city states are controlled by a religious hierarchy, while outside their walls, vast wastelands are overrun with vampires. Due to vampire’s traditional weakness to religious artifacts and items, the warriors in charge of defending the cities and fighting vampires are priests.

When one of the priests hears that his frontier relatives have been slaughtered by vampires, and their daughter kidnapped, he leaves the protection of the city in order to prowl the wastes in search of the girl.

Comedy ensues.

The 2011 FMR MAJOR Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor

Ok boys and girls, this post announces the winner of the Best Supporting Actor MAJOR Award for 2011.

I put up five actors who I felt contributed the most to their films in spite of a limited amount of screen time. They weren’t the leads, but they made a fantastic contribution to their film.

The nominees are: Albert Brooks, “Drive”, Robert Forster, “The Descendants”, Paul Giamatti, “The Ides of March”, Nick Nolte, “Warrior”, and Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”.

Click “Continue Reading” to see who won!

2011 Holiday Movie Season Preview!!

This year, the start of the Holiday Movie season is November 18^th. That’s NEXT weekend already folks!! That’s when Hollywood releases “Happy Feet Two” and “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1”, two movies with valid expectations of large takes at the gate. The start of the second blockbuster season of the year!

Here are the movies coming up this Holiday Season that I’m most excited for. Check out Wednesday, December 21^st! “The Adventures of Tintin”, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, and “Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol”! That’s going to be a busy day!