Search for John
The title may make it sound like a horror film but The Bag Man is actually a neo-noir thriller. The movie is relentlessly dark with the majority of it transpiring in and around a seedy motel at night. Despite the participation of a couple of well-kno...
U.S. Release Date: 2014-02-28
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Profanity, Sexual Content)
Genre: THRILLER
Director: John Grovic
Cast: John Cusack, Robert De Niro, Rebecca Da Costa, ...
Who would have imagined that the most appropriate word to describe Basic Instinct 2 would be "boring?" This plodding, pretentious follow-up to 1992's hit replaces Paul Verhoeven's lurid, over-the-top style with the leaden rhythms of Michael Caton-...
U.S. Release Date: 2006-03-31
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Nudity, Sexual Situations, Profanity)
Genre: THRILLER
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Cast: Sharon Stone, David Morrissey, Charlotte Rampling, ...
Basquiat, the fictionalized biography of graffiti artist-turned-international sensation, Jean Michael Basquiat, is the latest in a long line of "suffering artist" motion pictures, following closely on the heels of last year's controversial Tota...
U.S. Release Date: 1996-08-16
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Situations, Drugs)
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Julian Schnabel
Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, ...
Be Cool, the belated sequel to 1995's Get Shorty, has moments when we think it's going to work. It occasionally tantalizes with witty dialogue and sharp supporting performances. Alas, those are only teases - the film is priming us for something t...
U.S. Release Date: 2005-03-14
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity, Nudity)
Genre: THRILLER/COMEDY
Director: F. Gary Gray
Cast: John Travolta, The Rock, Harvey Keitel, ...
Let me start with a disclosure: I have not read the Alex Garland novel upon which The Beach is based, so I'm not in a position to discuss firsthand whether or not it butchers its source text (according to some reports, it does). The film represen...
U.S. Release Date: 2000-02-11
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations, Nudity, Drugs)
Genre: ADVENTURE
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, ...
The first two Disneynature documentaries, 2007's Earth and 2009's Oceans, were visual feasts - amazing experiences made all the more remarkable when blown up for big screen viewing (they were distillations of TV miniseries). Since then, the label h...
U.S. Release Date: 2014-04-18
MPAA Rating: "G"
Genre: DOCUMENTARY
Director: Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey
Cast: John C. Reilly (narrator)
Becoming Jane looks at the life of Jane Austen through the prism of her novels. The film is a semi-fictional biography of the esteemed author; although it incorporates people and events from her life, it also takes liberties with known events. Lik...
U.S. Release Date: 2007-08-03
MPAA Rating: "PG" (Nothing Objectionable)
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Julian Jarrold
Cast: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, ...
These days, critics (and non-critics, for that matter) are fond of complaining about how multiplexes are populated by cookie-cutter motion pictures that follow safe, formula-derived patterns designed to please audiences who want a different version...
U.S. Release Date: 1999-10-29
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Situations)
Genre: COMEDY/FANTASY
Director: Spike Jonze
Cast: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, ...
Being There, Hal Ashby’s 1979 adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, is a delightfully dark comedy that, despite a cynical bent, offers viewers a good time. At the heart of Being There’s popularity is a recognition that even the most simp...
U.S. Release Date: 1979-12-20
MPAA Rating: "PG" (Sexual Content, Profanity)
Genre: Comedy
Director: Hal Ashby
Cast: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, ...
Beirut is, without a doubt, an imperfect thriller. The narrative is at times too dense, some aspects of the ending are too pat, and there are some internal inconsistencies the movie never explains. But, damn, is it good to watch a movie that e...
U.S. Release Date: 2018-04-11
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: Thriller
Director: Brad Anderson
Cast: Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike, Dean Norris, ...