Bill Pullman

Spaceballs: The Movie Review

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  • Title: Spaceballs
  • IMDb: link

Released 5 years after the conclusion of the original Star Wars trilogy, and long before any glimmer of new Star Wars films ever being made, with Spaceballs writer/director Mel Brooks lampooned the cultural phenomenon along with countless other sci-fi properties including Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and others. Although Brooks would go on to do other parodies in a similar vein, arguably learning the wrong lesson from the film, Spaceballs marks the end of the director’s better work which peaked far earlier in the early 1970s.

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Killing Faith

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Killing Faith
  • IMDb: link

Set in the equally bleak surroundings of mid-19th Century Arizona, Killing Faith follows the unlikely group of a freed slave (DeWanda Wise), her passing daughter (Emily Katherine Ford), a drug-abusing doctor (Guy Pearce), and a half-wit (Jack Alcott) on a five day journey from the town they are no longer accepted to a neighboring one which they hope will lead to salvation.

At the center of the film, although without any lines of her own, is the young girl who is a carrier of the plague ravaging the area. Some, including her mother, believe the child has been infected by the Devil leading to the supernatural overtones of the movie (which are more subtle than you would expect, accepting only by the poorly educated and fearful of the Western territory) and the religious conversations between the mother and the doctor (haunted by the loss of his own daughter to the same disease).

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Titan A.E.

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  • Title: Titan A.E.
  • IMDb: link

Throwback Tuesday takes us back 25 years to a film that begins with the destruction of Earth but ends with hope on a new world. The final film of Don Bluth‘s run offering an animation alternative to the far more successful Disney, Titan A.E. stars Matt Damon as a displaced and disaffected human working on alien salvage rigs who is sought out by Korso (Bill Pullman) and his crew who believe Cale‘s genetic heritage is the key to finding a lost spaceship built and hidden by Cale’s father (Ron Perlman) during the destruction of Earth by the alien menace of the Drej.

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The Ballad of Lefty Brown

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  • Title: The Ballad of Lefty Brown
  • IMDb: link

The Ballad of Lefty Brown Blu-ray reviewWriter/director Jared Moshe‘s The Ballad of Lefty Brown is a passable, if forgettable, western starring Bill Pullman as Lefty Brown, a screw-up who vows to avenge the death of his closest friend (Peter Fonda). Meanwhile others, including the man’s widow (Kathy Baker) are more than willing to believe the crime was committed by Brown himself despite the scarcity of evidence (or credible motive). The performances are solid, and the western vistas are pleasant to watch, so even if the journey doesn’t lead anywhere all that interesting it at least makes for a modest diversion.

The film follows the cowboy’s misadventures, eventually leading to him discovering the real reason his friend was murdered and seeking vengeance against one of the most powerful men in the territory. The idea of turning the dimwitted sidekick into the central character goes against the western template, but that’s really the only place The Ballad of Lefty Brown strays from the expected in a rather straightforward revenge tale.

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1996 – Independence Day

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  • Title: Independence Day
  • IMDb: link

Independence DayOn our around this day 20 years ago Independence Day opened in theaters. Along with kicking off director Roland Emmerich‘s long-running fascination with disaster porn (and its diminishing returns), Independence Day raised the stakes for summer blockbusters.

When a series of giant alien spaceships begin hovering over major cities the world’s populace is unsure of what to make of things. While some celebrate the coming of alien life, one scientist (Jeff Goldblum) is concerned with transmissions between the ships which he discovers are a countdown clock to a coordinated attack. The world as as we knew it was over.

With the help of the scientist’s grumbling father (Judd Hirsch), a cocky pilot (Will Smith), and a ragtag fleet put together by the President of the United States (Bill Pullman), July 4th would mark the day where the Earth fought back and won its freedom.

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