Author: Michael

What’s this all about? World Trade Center, released in 2006 by noted crackpot and sometimes filmmaker Oliver Stone, tells a story of two NYC Port Authority cops who get trapped in the rubble of the collapsing World Trade Center building 2 about 10 minutes after arriving on scene to the September 11 attacks. I was…

What’s this all about? A big part of doing a Nicolas Cage Movie Marathon is watching films that you’d never otherwise watch. A big part of being mid-2000’s Nicolas Cage is accepting literally every script that’s handed to you, so that you can make your castle payments. Those realities bring us here, to The Ant…

What’s this all about? What would happen if a divorced Chicago television weather man’s dad got cancer, and the weather man’s kids had kind of bad judgement? Mostly nothing. Your English teacher probably told you that there were three types of conflict in fiction; man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. himself. You…

What’s this all about? Lord of War tells the “true story” of a Ukrainian-American dealer in illegal and quasi-legal arms to foreign governments and forces, as he tries to juggle his adventurous work life with his family. A drug-addicted younger brother, a trophy wife, and a maniacal African warlord all complicate his plan to make…

What’s this all about? National Treasure tells the disjointed and nonsensical tale of a historian/adventurer who is trying to uncover a vast treasure that has accumulated since ancient times, which a group of Masonic American founding fathers have hidden from “the British,” and then apparently forgotten about.  Yes, I’m aware that the first Masonic lodge…

What’s this all about? In 2003, Ridley Scott, the director of Alien, brought us Matchstick Men, the story of what would happen if TV detective Adrian Monk was a con man. It’s the story of a career con with a serious case of OCD, and probably several other psychiatric disorders, who runs a variety of…

What’s this all about? Adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze, is a narrative roller coaster. On one level, it’s about a Florida weirdo who goes to great lengths to find, and steal rare orchids. On another level, it’s about a reporter-cum-novellist who is writing that weirdo’s story, along with her own. Beyond that, it’s about a…

What’s this all about? Set in New Orleans in 1981, Sonny tells the story of the world’s greatest male prostitute. He’s super good at being a prostitute because his mom taught him how. No, I don’t know how that works, either. In Nicolas Cage’s directorial debut, we see the tale of titular Sonny, who returns…

What’s this all about? in 1998, Steven Spielberg released Saving Private Ryan, a star-studded World War II epic that masterfully portrayed the insane scale of the second world war while still connecting audiences to the characters on a deep and effective level. America loved it. In 2002, John Woo said, “hold my beer,” and dropped…

What’s this all about? You know that Dickens story that’s been adapted hundreds, if not thousands of times by everyone from George C. Scott to The Muppets to Bill Murray to Beavis and Butthead? It’s that, in poorly-drawn cartoon, full-length movie form.  Fortunately they added “The Movie” to the title, so I wouldn’t think this…