Home Video

The Rock

  • Title: The Rock
  • IMDb: link

Flashback Friday takes us back to director Michael Bay‘s best film. Sure you could make a case for Armageddon, and some (not me) would argue for Bad Boys II. However, the most successful movie of the popcorn director’s career is unquestionably the 1996 film that united Sean Connery as an aging British Secret Agent unjustly imprisoned for decades after stealing the United States’ most precious secrets and Nicolas Cage as an FBI chemist who find themselves responsible for saving the lives of 81 hostages from mercenaries who have taken control of Alcatraz.

The Rock Read More »

Play Dirty

  • Title: Play Dirty (2025)
  • IMDb: link

Not to be confused with the upcoming Shane Black film of the same name, Play Dirty stars Theo Rossi as corrupt Police Detective Frank Grady about to be indicted by Internal Affairs for his partnership with a local crime boss (Ron Perlman). In order to run, Frank needs the money he’s owed. However, Murray (Perlman) offers a condition of only paying out once Frank takes out Murray’s various competition all in one night. However, what’s set up as a near-impossible task turns out to be relatively easy for Frank who makes it through most of the night unscathed (with his only wound coming late in the film) to tell his story to a couple of tweakers.

Play Dirty Read More »

Heat

  • Title: Heat
  • IMDb: link

In honor of the passing of Val Kilmer, this Flashback Friday takes us back to 1995’s tour-de-force crime drama Heat. Unquestionably Michael Mann‘s best film, Heat splits its focus between a crew of armed robbers led by Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and the cops out to stop them led by LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). No film has played both sides so well, although if I have a complaint it’s that a more ambiguous ending that faded to black on the gunshot in the weeds on the edge of Los Angeles International Airport allowing the audience to determine the winner of the pair’s struggle would seem to be more fitting.

Heat Read More »

Scream 3

  • Title: Scream 3
  • IMDb: link

Scream Sunday takes us back to when the franchise first hit its rough patch. Rather than offer another sequel, Scream 3 attempts to reshape the three Scream films into a cohesive trilogy retroactively allowing for the film to dive into new rules to abide and reframing the events of the original Scream to reveal a hidden backstory for Maureen Prescott with ties to all the murders. The film brings Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) out of seclusion to the set of Stab 3 (a movie supposedly about the Woodsboro murders making you wonder how the previous two movies, also about those events, didn’t already cover all of this?) where a new Ghostface (Roger Jackson) is killing victims in part to draw Sidney out into the open.

Scream 3 Read More »

F/X

  • Title: F/X
  • IMDb: link

Throwback Thursday takes us back to 80s action. 1986’s F/X, which would later spawn both a lesser sequel and 90s TV-show, stars Australian actor Bryan Brown as practical special-effects expert Roland Tyler. Enlisted by members of the Justice Department (Cliff De Young and Mason Adams) to fake the assassination of a mob witness (Jerry Orbach), Tyler agrees only for things to go wrong very quickly. Soon Tyler is running from corrupt cops and attempting to expose what is really going on with an overly-complicated plot that works best when you don’t put too much thought into how it all fits together.

F/X Read More »