Tag Archives: Stephen King

1990s, Anniversary, Article, Best Movie Bracket, IMDB 250, Lists, Longform, Top 3, Video Essay

1994 Best Movie Bracket

June 11, 2019 Engagingculture Leave a comment

It was a simpler time 25 years ago. A time when everyone was glued to the 24-hour news coverage of the unfolding dramas of Tanya Harding and O.J. Simpson. I was busy playing on my Super Nintendo and figuring out this new thing called the World Wide Web with the help of Yahoo! As far as movies go, I’m actually surprised at some of the stuff I saw. If you asked me then what my favorites were I would have probably said North, Street Fighter, The Mask, Angels in the Outfield, and Maverick. And I won’t apologize for that, I was eleven! Besides, I still love Maverick, it’s so much fun.

I still got to see some amazing films because our family’s favorite past-time was going to the video store on Friday night and renting an armful of movies. Did anyone else have a two VCR set up and a stack of blank VHS tapes? Has the statute of limitations run out on that type of copyright infringement? I loved being a latchkey kid. I got off school and was alone at home until my parents got home after most people had already eaten dinner. My dad would put me in charge of recording the VHS tapes, and even if he didn’t I would just watch them anyway, which meant that I got to watch a lot of movies! Still, looking back through the common top lists for the year, I do still have a couple of notable blind spots including Little Women, The Last Seduction, Cronos, Shallow Grave, Immortal Beloved, Heavenly Creatures, The Crow, Naked, In the Mouth of Madness, and Satantango.

Onto the best of the year, let me start with some honorable mentions. In another year without so many heavy hitters, many of these could have been my number one. Ed Wood is the Best Tim Burton directed Johnny Depp film that it seems like no one has ever seen. Quiz Show got four Oscar nominations, it is easily the best film that Robert Redford has ever directed. With Hoop Dreams, Steve James created one of the best documentaries of all time. The Three Colors Trilogy is a masterpiece of French cinema by Kieslowski and I don’t think nearly enough people have seen it. Lion King was the pinnacle of the great Disney animated films, everything after went downhill. And unlike some, I really love Forrest Gump which won the Best Picture Oscar for the year even though it is clearly not the best film. But enough with those losers, let’s get to my Top 3.

# 3 – Leon: The Professional

Rossatron gives a good breakdown of why Leon: The Professional is full of action that we care about.

As is my tradition, I have to narrow down my favorites to a top three, and I’m not allowed to do a three-way tie even though it is very tempting. Coming in at number 3 is Leon: The Professional. There’s been a movement to downgrade this movie because of alleged misconduct by its Director, Luc Besson. There are others who see the plot of the film which involves a complicated relationship between hitman Jean Reno and a stellar 12-year-old Natalie Portman in her first film appearance as troublesome. Some have even said that it promotes pedophilia and they condemn it.

However, I remember watching this around 1997 when I was about 15 and I fell in love with that damaged little girl. It is a performance reminiscent of the young Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. She conveys so much emotion in her face. Especially the scene at Leon’s door which is so powerful as their worlds collide for the first time. The thirst for revenge against the man that slaughtered her family is palpable and that man is played deliciously over the top by the incomparable Gary Oldman. It is far and away Besson’s best film and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

#1 – The Shawshank Redemption

WARNING! LANGUAGE! Logos Made Flesh explains why The Shawshank Redemption might just be the greatest Christian movie of all time.

The Shawshank Redemption has been seated atop the IMDB Top 250 list for the past 15 years. Despite not doing well at the box office in 1994, it was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and didn’t take home a single statue. However, has received new life over the years as it is one of the most widely seen moves of all time. If you’ve never seen it, just turn on TBS or A&E this week and you’ve got about a 65% chance that it either is on currently or will be soon.

I consider it to be one of the greatest movies of all time. It is a wonderful story crafted by one of the masters, Stephen King, and directed by a powerful visionary in Frank Darabont. I’m not going to say a negative word about it. It has an amazing cast featuring the soothing narration of Morgan Freeman and so many great character actors that you should know. It is clearly and unflinchingly a prison movie but we aren’t trapped inside. Instead, along with Andy and Red, we get to experience new life and redemption that comes when you die to self and start really living.

That means that we are going to be faced with another year with a tie. If you’ve been following along, you know that when I covered 2007, we had a stand-off between what I believe are the two best films of the 2000’s right there in the same year, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. Here atop the 1990’s we have Shawshank Redemption matched with another masterpiece from 1994.

#1 – Pulp Fiction

Wisecrack’s Garyx Wormuloid shares thoughts on Pulp Fiction now that Earth has been destroyed and aliens are rediscovering our culture through film artifacts.

I love that even the name of the movie is a subversion of what you are going to see. Pulp Fiction makes you think of trashy paperbacks that you read once and then toss, but Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece is known for its rewatchability. It’s profoundly violent yet somehow feel-good. It’s full of iconic scenes and characters that you can’t wait to spend time with again, and the narrative structure is so different that it takes a few views just to really grasp at what point everything happens in relation to one another. At the same time this structure takes nothing away from the telling of the story and in fact I would not want to see it chronologically. The streams all coming together perfectly the way they do is part of the magic.

I’m an actor-centric movie reviewer. This just means that I really relate to a film by the people that I see on the screen. I always have the director and his vision in the back of my mind, but I will usually judge a film on the power of its performances first. I don’t know how young Quentin Tarantino video store clerk was able to assemble this fantastic cast with just one film under his belt, but Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson, Harvel Keitel, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, and Christopher Walken. That’s something.

Pulp Fiction sent shockwaves through cinema when it was released in 1994. It was a wakeup call and it lit a spark under an independent film market that was ready to explode. It made $213.9 million worldwide making it one of the highest-grossing independent films to ever be made. It helped Tarantino to create his own genre of dialogue-heavy scenes, non-linear narratives, violence and dark humor. This genre is now lazily called Tarantino-esque as there have been dozens of films inspired by Pulp Fiction and many others that have just ripped it off hoping to make a buck on its runaway success.

What about you? What’s your top movie of 1994? Do you hate Luc Besson and everything he makes? Do you feel like my picks are too pedestrian and would rather elevate something truly original and independent? Let me know. Comment here or on social media. I want to hear from you.

2010s, Action, Alien/Monster, Awards, Biopic, Detective, Drama, Epic, Great Movies, Horror, Lists, Mystery, Political, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, True Story, War

Best of 2017: Outsiders 11-15

February 20, 2018 Engagingculture Leave a comment

Let’s continue to look at those just outside of my top ten of 2017. You can also read my #16-20. I’ve seen most of these on other people’s top ten lists and I think that they could all be up there if I was in a different mood. You’ll notice that on most of these mini reviews, I’m not focusing on technical merit or acting unless it was hands down better than anything else I’ve seen this year. Instead, I’m choosing my top films by selecting the ones that resonated the most with me. I hope that you will read my thoughts on these five and give me your thoughts. Link me to your top 10s, Tell me why I’m wrong or what I got right. Continue reading Best of 2017: Outsiders 11-15 →

2010s, Article, Coming Soon, Horror, Lists, Supernatural, Thriller

Fall 2017 Movie Preview: Horror/Thriller

September 3, 2017 Engagingculture 1 Comment

You’ve most likely already seen the decorations, costumes and candy littering the shelves of stores. While we are still weeks away from October, much less the end of October, Halloween is already right in our faces. Why? Because the overhead for these items is low and the profit margins are high. Not to mention that consumers buy it up by the truck load. The opportunity to pretend to be a celebrity, superhero, or ghoul is just too good to pass up and the lure of free candy keeps kids of all ages excited about the holiday.

In the same way, Horror films are usually pretty inexpensive and quick to make and there is always a desire for them. Whether you are an adrenaline junkie out with your friends to see who flinches last at all of the jump scares and blood-curdling screams or if you are a teenager looking for a dark room and a place to sneak your arm around that special someone as they hide themselves from the perceived danger.

I’m not a huge Horror fan, but I do appreciate the art of a good scare and the psychology that goes into it. When we find those films that defy the traditional plot devices and tropes to keep the audience riveted then I am fully on board. So what delicious horrors are in store in our coming attractions? We actually have a Friday the 13th during October this year so expect that to be the epicenter for horror flicks this fall.

September

IT – 9/8

When young children in the little town Derry of Maine starts to begin to be found dead a group of seven kids find out that the killer is not a man. The killer is the evil clown Pennywise who is actually a creature that can shapeshift into the thing you are most afraid of. The kids also known as the Losers Club decide to fight and kill It. But how can you fight something who knows all your biggest fears?

I hear that it is good to face your fears head on. That’s great. I have been stuck with this irrational fear of clowns ever since I read Stephen King’s IT back when I was 10-11 years old. At some point, I dug up a copy of the 1990 TV miniseries and I’ve never looked at Tim Curry the same way again. This one looks like it is going to be much more true to the source material and people that I trust have said that it is terrifying in all the right ways. So, lets band together my Loser’s Club and we’ll get rid of our coulrophobia once and for all.

Mother! – 9/15

A couple’s relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.

Man it’s fun to just say the name of this film with that exclamation point, but we haven’t been given much to go on with this one and I for one am totally fine with that. The trailer is frenetic and creepy and with a cast featuring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer I have no doubt that the performances will be superb. Jennifer Lawrence said that she hyperventilated and dislocated a rib during filming so it’s going to be a wild ride. If you weren’t aware, this is coming from Darren Aronofsky, the same guy that gave us Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream. He is an amazing director and I’m ready to see what this is all about.

Flatliners – 9/29

Five medical students, obsessed by the mystery of what lies beyond the confines of life, embark on a daring and dangerous experiment: by stopping their hearts for short periods of time, each triggers a near-death experience – giving them a firsthand account of the afterlife. But as their experiments become increasingly dangerous, they are each haunted by the sins of their pasts, brought on by the paranormal consequences of trespassing to the other side.

I know what you’re thinking, “Another remake of a 90’s Horror property?” Yep, but don’t count this one out yet. That first movie with Kevin Bacon, Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Oliver Platt, and Billy Baldwin is surprisingly good and I think this one has a chance as well. Ellen Page leads this cast with Diego Luna and Nina Dobrev, even Keifer Sutherland comes back for the fun. Hopefully the nostalgia gets people into the theaters and the story will take them the rest of the way. If it doesn’t, then maybe there are just some lines we’re not meant to cross.

October

Happy Death Day – 10/13

A college student (Jessica Rothe) relives the day of her murder with both its unexceptional details and terrifying end until she discovers her killer’s identity.

Imagine Groundhog Day with every day ending in your murder. It’s an interesting twist on this familiar plot device. It will be interesting to see it utilized for terrifying effects. There is no big name attached so it could either be a surprising hit or a big flop. I hope it’s good. The trailer looks solid.

The Snowman – 10/20

When an elite crime squad’s lead detective (Michael Fassbender) investigates the disappearance of a victim on the first snow of winter, he fears an elusive serial killer may be active again. With the help of a brilliant recruit (Rebecca Ferguson), the cop must connect decades-old cold cases to the brutal new one if he hopes to outwit this unthinkable evil before the next snowfall.

Based on the international best selling novel of the same name from Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, Michael Fassbender plays Harry Hole (what a horrible name for a character). I don’t know if they have struck the right tone in the trailer. It almost looks like a dark comedy with the childish drawings of snowmen. It has to be better than the only other snowman based horror film I can think of: Jack Frost. It’s rare to see the Fassbender in anything awful (except Assassin’s Creed).

November

The Killing of a Sacred Deer – 11/3

Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

Yorgos Lanthimos is an enigmatic director who doesn’t like clean common sense plots. You might have heard of a couple of his previous films, Dogtooth and The Lobster. They are both very dark, very strange and full of a twisted masochistic humor. Lanthimos reunites with Colin Farrell who starred in The Lobster and adds Nicole Kidman and Alicia Silverstone as well as a crop of young actors with few roles under their belts. It appears to be his most accessible film to date. That doesn’t mean that he is adopting a standard narrative style. That’s not what this Greek director does. This will be a crippling psychological thriller that will not give us any clear answers and will stick with us for days.

December

Polaroid – 12/1

High school loner Bird Fitcher has no idea what dark secrets are tied to the mysterious Polaroid vintage camera she stumbles upon, but it doesn’t take long to discover that those who have their picture taken meet a tragic end.

This doesn’t look very impressive to me, but it is the only horror movie coming in the traditionally quiet month of December. It looks like a knock off of the Ring and Final Destination films. With no a list star to get people into the theater and such competition from other films this one probably won’t do anything, but even if it only makes 20 million it will still be profitable and we might even see a sequel in coming years. That is the way horror franchises get started.

Others to Watch:

Friend Request coming on September 22nd. When a college student unfriends a mysterious girl online, she finds herself fighting a demonic presence that wants to make her lonely by killing her closest friends.

Til Death Do Us Part coming on September 29th. Michael and Madison Roland had planned to spend the rest of their lives together, until one day Michael’s controlling ways turned their perfect marriage. With the help of her best friend, Madison decides to get away. After adopting a new identity, she meets Alex Stone (Taye Diggs) and learns to love again. All is well, until Michael discovers Madison’s whereabouts, and recreates the nightmare she once lived all over again.

Leatherface coming on October 20th. A teenage Leatherface escapes from a mental hospital with three other inmates, kidnapping a young nurse and taking her on a road trip from hell while being pursued by an equally deranged lawman out for revenge. It’s the Leatherface origin story we never knew we needed.

Jigsaw coming on October 27th. Bodies are turning up around the city, each having met a uniquely gruesome demise. As the investigation proceeds, evidence points to one man: John Kramer. But how can this be? The man known as Jigsaw has been dead for over a decade. The week after we get Leatherface’s origin story, we get a deeper dive into the Jigsaw killer from Saw. Two fictional serial killers that we don’t need to see any more.

Are you looking forward to any of these films? Which one would you go to if you were trying to sneak an arm around the girl you liked? Coming up next, we’ll take a look at the Comedy/Family movies coming this fall.

Click here for the other installments of the 2017 Fall Movie Preview:

Netflix, Television, Trailers

Stranger Things – Must Stream TV

July 27, 2016 Engagingculture Leave a comment

I don’t talk about TV a lot because I generally lose interest in a series after a good season because I struggle to make the leap to the new season the way the same way I struggle to enjoy most sequels. Now, this certainly isn’t always the case. Some shows are serials and their arcs are really just the length of one episode with larger overarching stories that carry through the entire season. I think about great comedies that I have loved like Boston Legal in which we were drawn into a legal case or two that have relevance to the current political or social climate then we get resolution, but during the episode we learned a detail about one of our main characters that gives us deeper insight into who they really are.

Overall, I’m one of those people that trusts the TV creators to know when to call it quits. However, I have been burned so many time by a 3rd or 4th season that wanders aimlessly because the creators wanted to make a dollar off the success of their creativity in the first two seasons but ran our of creative things to do narratively with their characters.

If you are reading this to find out more about the original Netflix series Stranger Things then you may be disappointed because I’m not going to tell you anything about the story or what it’s about. I want you to walk into it blind. I seriously hesitated in even putting the trailer here, but it is good to show you at least the basics of what you’re getting into with this 8 hour saga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWxyRG_tckY

That’s right this is just 8 one-hour long episodes, so it is very binge-able. If you miss an episode, you will be lost, so watch it with your partner or else you will be answering questions half way through when they get sucked in too. I do want to make some comparisons. A lot of people are comparing Stranger Things to Spielberg films like E.T. and The Goonies, and a lot of Stephen King novels. I think the best comparison would be this: Stranger Things is what J.J. Abrams would have done with Super 8 if he had decided to make an 8 hour movie.

What Super 8 did was pay homage to Steven Spielberg’s brand of 1980s storytelling through the eyes of intelligent and adventurous children on the cusp of puberty. Stranger Things brings the same cast chemistry that I loved but with a lot more nostalgia and a fully fleshed out story. I kind of hope that the next season starts completely fresh with a new story and lets this season remain right where is ends, like a Stephen King anthology or Amazing Stories.

The kids in Stranger Things are fantastic, I don’t want them to be known as “child actors.” They’re smart, fun, and they feel like they’re actual friends which we have captured in this story. Their performance is realistic. I’m sure the actors grew close while filming Stranger Things but it feels like they’ve really grown up together.

I highly recommend Stranger Things. The music, the acting, the story, and its ambition is fantastic. It is the best original show I’ve seen in years. If you’re a fan of Spielberg, Stephen King, or J.J. Abrams (or just a fan of good television), you should watch Stranger Things on Netflix before it gets spoiled for you.

1990s, Book Adaptation, Drama, Great Movies, If You Liked..., IMDB 250, Prison, Review, Suspense

If You Liked… Shawshank Redemption (1994)

June 9, 2016 Engagingculture Leave a comment

Who doesn’t like Shawshank Redemption? This is always my go to answer when someone asks me for my favorite movie. I love it because it blends a gritty realism with an ethereal storytelling and a epic twist ending. If you have not seen it, shame on you. It used to be on TBS at least twice a week, but you need to buy it because once you watch it, you will have a new favorite as well. Just in case you haven’t seen it, I will try not to spoil the ending, but here is a quick summary. Click here if you’ve already seen the film and just want to see my recommendations.

The Shawshank Redemption (directed by Frank Darabont of The Walking Dead fame) is one of those movies whose estimation has only grown with time. It wasn’t a box office hit in 1994, but it was a critical success and received 7 Academy Award nominations but LOST in every category, being beat out for best picture by Forrest Gump. However, in 2008 (14 years after its original release) it took over the #1 slot as greatest film on the IMDb’s Top 250 from The Godfather and it still holds that place to this day.

Ellis ‘Red’ Redding (Morgan Freeman) is our co-pilot and narrator for our long stay in Shawshank State Penitentiary. He admits that he belongs there for murder, calling himself the only guilty man in Shawshank. The year is 1947 and our central character is banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) who has been convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. We see him entering Shawshank to begin serving his two consecutive life sentences. The movie is based on the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Through the story, we experience a 20 year friendship between these two men.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more genuine ode to male bonding than this drama spanning two decades from 1946 to 1967. When Andy arrives, he is subject to beatings, humiliation and all manner of horrors within the prison system. He endures the harassment seemingly unfazed. Slowly he learns to adapt, utilizing his talents as an auditor to garner favor from the powers that be. In time he inspires his fellow inmates, making friends with them, in particular Red who originally bet that Andy would be the first new inmate to crack.

The film is highlighted by several amazing performances. Morgan Freeman embodies his character with reverence, heart, and warmth. Tim Robbins is every bit his equal in a role that is more difficult to warm up to. If the actor appears a bit of an enigma, that is only because the character is meant to be that way. There is a quiet way about him that makes the other inmates uneasy and tells us and them that he does not belong there. Actor Bob Gunton is a villain for the ages as Warden Samuel Norton. A stern man that exploits the prison for his own gain as low-cost labor. He presents himself as a god-fearing man, although his true nature is gradually disclosed. The depth of his evil seems to know no bounds.

Like a flower growing up through a crack in the sidewalk, the narrative is uplifting even though we are presented with the most oppressive of surroundings. My personal favorite scene features Andy locking himself in the warden’s office and using the central microphone to blast an opera record through the grounds. As Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro echoes through the penitentiary, Roger Deakins cinematography captures the emotion as the inmates look upwards, embracing the audible gift. It is hard to describe the feeling, but the scene always brings me to tears. Shawshank is brimming with moments like this where the hope of the human soul triumphs over adversity in the most inspiring way.

So, assuming you love Shawshank like I do then you may be struggling to find movies that give you a similar sense of awe and inspiration. I hope to help with that by giving you a handful of recommendations based upon different aspects of Shawshank Redemption.

Life at the Movies