ReelViews for R movies

All through its production and into the early days of its initial, aborted pre-release publicity, Hard Rain bore the appropriate moniker of The Flood. Ultimately, however, Paramount Pictures, nervous that this movie would be confused with 1996's o...

Take a deep breath and prepare to suspend your disbelief, because in bringing us this summer's first (and probably only) pure action film, Jean-Claude Van Damme and John Woo have given new meaning to the word "preposterous". Chance Boudreaux (Va...

I’m pretty sure that I once saw this movie on Cinemax’s “Fridays After Dark” program (back in the day when the pay channel was affectionately known as “Skin-a-max.”) Even if it was never featured, it might as well have been. Alongside ...

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay exists because it was cheap to make and has a devoted core audience, not because its predecessor, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, was a blockbuster. The filmmakers, understanding what made the first...

For those who are principally familiar with Sir Michael Caine from his work during the past two decades, his role as the rough-and-tumble Harry Brown may seem a little out-of-character. After all, this isn't the sort of thing one expects from the ...

First and foremost, Harsh Times is a character study of a man whose psychotic dark side is rising up to dominate his personality. However, it's also a look at how war, because of its need to legitimatize killing and turn people into weapons, can r...

The credits for The Hateful Eight proudly proclaim this to be the “Eighth Film” from writer/director Quentin Tarantino. Since catching the movie world unawares with his powerhouse debut, Reservoir Dogs, some 23 years ago, he has worked on...

Steven Soderbergh's Haywire exhibits a remarkable economy of screen time - unusual in an era of bloated action films in which even throw-aways challenge the two hour mark. In fact, one could argue that Haywire is too short. It's enjoyable enough,...

Here's a film that evokes, at different times and in different ways, Joe Versus the Volcano, Brazil, and Taxi Driver. It's an effective and affecting movie about the crushing power of office servitude and the soul-sapping impact of office politics...

What starts out as a seemingly conventional caper movie quickly transforms into something that's anything but conventional, with bizarre twists, bloody mayhem, and a macabre sense of humor. All this with only five significant characters. Headhunter...