Catching the Classics: Goodfellas

Since 1998, I have been maintaining a list of movies that I wanted to see. Sometimes these are all-time classics that passed me by, sometimes they’re genre classics that interest me. The list is updated regularly and is currently more than 1700 movies long. Fogs has gone through and hand-picked several classic films for me to “fast-track” and review here. This is one of those films.

As far back as I can remember (sorry) the definitive gangster film was The Godfather. Even on the schoolyard it was known that was the film to show what it would be like to be a member of the mafia… even if we didn’t really know anything about it beyond the fact that there was, at some point, a Godfather involved. Then in 1992 came Martin Scorcese’s Goodfellas, and it rapidly joined the ranks of iconic gangster films. It would be some time before I saw either film. In fact, The Godfather was the first film that I ever watched because Fogs was tired of pitching references and watching them sail casually over my head, ten years ago on a site that has long since ceased to be. Catching up with Scorcese’s film, the contrasts are easy to make.

The Big Wedding

Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton and other notable names star in a disastrous film about a disastrous wedding. Full of flat jokes and poor characters, all in support of a tired, hackneyed set-up, “The Big Wedding” is one you should just tell, “I don’t”.

The 2013 Spring Movie Season Preview

YES! We made it through the Winter Movie Season, where Hollywood unloads their junk on us, and now we’re headed into the Spring!

Spring is a time for mini-blockbusters, and movies that Hollywood hopes will have decent runs. Last year, “The Hunger Games” was released in March, for example, and we all saw how well that did!

Click through to see all the movies that this Spring Season has to offer!

Silver Linings Playbook

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence star as a couple of people with mental issues who meet and cautiously get to know each other. She’s an amateur dancer who plays on his obsession with his ex-wife in order to wrangle him into dancing with her in a local competition. Along the way, there’s romance, comedy, insanity, dancing, degenerate gambling, drunkenness, neighborhood disturbances, cops, fist fights…

A good time is guaranteed for all.

The 2012 Holiday Movie Season Preview

Ok, folks, here we are! One of the major movie release seasons of the year is upon us, The Holiday Movie Season!

The Holidays started a little early this year, with “Skyfall” (undeniably a major release) opening in the first week of November. So we’re underway! Between now and the end of the year, we’ll see some of the biggest films on the 2012 docket get released, including the conclusion to the “Twilight” Saga, “The Hobbit”, and “Django Unchained”!

Click through to check out what the Holidays hold in store!

The Great Debates: Al Pacino or Robert De Niro? And the Winner is…

Last week, I put forward the question – which would you choose, Al Pacino, or Robert De Niro?

They’re two of the greatest actors in history, and almost everyone who commented touched on how difficult a choice it was!

But it needed to be asked, and in spite of everyone saying it was close, the end results weren’t. One of these two walked away with it…

Click through to see who!

The Great Debates: Al Pacino or Robert De Niro?

Welcome to the latest “Great Debate”!

This time up, we have a debate that’s been going on as far back as I can remember. Two of the greatest actors of all time… Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

Being roughly the same age, both of Italian descent, and both incredibly gifted performers, it’s unavoidable that the two would draw comparisons to each other. And they have. Over the course of the past four decades, I don’t think any two actors have been compared and contrasted against each other as much as these two have.

Which one do you choose?

Click through to read the tale of the tape!!

Movies That Everyone Should See: “Raging Bull”

So, for the second time, [the Pharisees]
Summoned the man who had been blind and said: 
“Speak the truth before God.
We know this fellow is a sinner.” 
“Whether or not he is a sinner, I do not know,” 
The man replied.
“All I know is this:
Once I was blind and now I can see.”

– John IX, 24-26
The New English Bible

The 2012 Fall Movie Preview – Part II

Ok folks, here we go. Part II of the 2012 Fall Movie Preview. Today we’ll break down all the major releases on tap for the month of October, and the first week of November!

As you might imagine, it’s a diverse bunch. There are some ahead that look intriguing, and some that might as well be announcing that they’re garbage already, LOL. Let’s have a look and see if we can’t sort out what’s what!!

The Great Debates: The Godfather vs. The Godfather Part II

Howdy Everybody!   I’m throwing another feature into the mix. We’ll see how quickly I run out of these, or if it degenerates into just a movie poll thread eventually or something…   But my intention, at least at the onset here, is to give us a spot to discuss and debate some of the great movie questions of our time.

To start us off? I thought… lets lead with the big one. This is a debate and a discussion that I’ve had several times personally, and I know that people actively take sides. It’s one of the best movie debates ever, because they’re both incredible, incredible movies. Well, I want to hear which side YOU stand on… and why.

Which movie is better, Godfather I or Godfather II?  Click through to read the “Tale of the Tape”.