January was a crazy month. It saw the end of CriticPlanet, the continuing of my wife’s pregnancy, the aftermath of the holidays, and coming to grips with the new year. The movie report has taken on different forms through the years and this year is no exception. Let me know how you like the new format and, if all goes well, I’ll continue with these capsule review movie reports. I look forward to your comments!
As far as the October Horror Movie Challenge is concerned, I didn’t get to watch 31 horror films in 31 days, but I did get to see 21 horror/thriller films, with a total of 29 films for the month (I saw The Social Network twice), which is good in its own right. Read the rest of this entry »
The month of June saw several films featuring Dennis Hopper—due to a Dennis Hopper top 10 article I wrote for Flickfeast—as well as a few films from last year.
In May, CriticPlanet.org got a new home, and I wrote my first Overlooked & Underrated article. My movie watching and reviewing suffered as a result, but I’d like to think I spanned a variety of movies in my ongoing effort to catch up with the films of the past while not letting the better films of the present pass me by.
Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)
The late great Dennis Hopper (1936-2010), best know for his career as an actor in film and television, was also a writer and director. I started this list thinking I had a well-rounded knowledge of Hopper’s film career, but the deeper I dug the more I realized that with over 150 acting credits to his name, I had only scratched the surface of this legend’s great performances. Hopper was quoted as saying he wasn’t offered many good roles, and after watching many of his films, I think he was right. But this never stopped Dennis, because he could do a lot with a little, and often did. Some roles were great by design, like Frank Booth or Billy, others were great only because of who inhabited them, and if Dennis inhabited a character, it became great. Think of this list as a starting point (presented in chronological order) of a long journey that will take you through many ups and downs with one of America’s greatest actors. Read the rest of this entry »
First off, I’m terrible with top 10 lists. I always forget a movie that should have been on the list and I usually end up with 50 movies I can’t cut from the list (this time it was 37, Kevin Smith fans rejoice!). Without prior knowledge of this, my friend Robin at Flickfeast asked if I’d make a top ten list of overlooked and underrated films. After days of debate, hours of surfing the web, digging through our video collection, and multiple suicide attempts, I present you with a top 10 list of overlooked and underrated movies. Read the rest of this entry »
