Simon's Movie Reviews

  Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) is one of those movies that gets more relevant with each passing decade. Set in a (now passed) future in which Los Angeles is overrun with people and pollution, the story focuses on artificial lifeforms clashing with their human creators. As the chase for these lifeforms progresses, writers Hampton Francher and David Peoples imply they may not be so different from the humans chasing them. If this sounds topical in 2024, imagine how relevant it will sound ten years from now. When writing these amateur reviews, I usually try to think back on the first time I watched the movie and what I felt at the time. This is tricky with Blade Runner considering there have been five versions of the film released since the 1980s. I believe the first version I did see on TV was the original theatrical version with the narration to guide the audience since executives thought that was needed. I eventually disagreed and purchased the Final Cut on Blu-Ray to see th...

  Star Wars . One movie, with a two-word title that was directed by a young director who wanted to do Flash Gordon but couldn’t get the rights. Decades later and that one movie is now retitled A New Hope , is the first chapter in a trilogy, the fourth episode in a saga, and the seed of what is essentially a genre within cinema. For better or for worse, this movie was the equivalent of an Earth-shattering earthquake in Hollywood history. Before 1977 George Lucas was just an up-and-coming director whose career could have ended had this been a failure. Instead, the movie and its sequels made him one of the most known filmmakers in the world, and a whole generation became familiar with words like “lightsaber”, “X-Wing”, and “Wookie”. For some truly hardcore fans, these movies are the equivalent of a gospel, so much so that they will write “Jedi” as their religion of choice. My first dive into the Star Wars universe was as a child, watching the movies on VHS in the 1990s after my pare...

If you want someone to give you death stares, tell a die-hard Star Wars fan the original trilogy is not perfect. I am however going to take a risk and write that if there is one major flaw with Return of the Jedi (1983) is a lack of imagination when it comes to the central plot. After the good guys blow up the Death Star in the first movie, the bad guys are almost done building a brand new one, which of course needs to be destroyed again in more or less the same way. Richard Marquand may be directing this time, but it was still George Lucas writing. Plot hole aside, as a kid you can’t help but have fun as the good guys join forces with a tribe of living teddy bears to get the job done. Like many people in their early 30s, I was introduced to the first Star Wars trilogy by my parents who had recorded the movies, commercials included, when they were showing one night on TV. Upon first viewing, a few things stick out in the mind of a young boy watching Return of the Jedi such as:...

In a world in which cameras and microphones are everywhere, from the street corners to our very own computers, The Conversation (1974) seems like a quaint and outdated thriller. It focuses on a man whose job is to spy on people, but at the same time said man is very protective of his own privacy and lives in constant fear of someone tapping his phone lines. However a major lesson of Francis Ford Coppola’s film, which still applies today, is that having a recording of someone’s private conversations is one thing, but knowing what to do with that information is whole other ball game. When I first watched The Conversation it was probably about one year after Edward Snowden leaked classified information regarding the United States’ ability to spy on practically anyone not living in a cave. If you have a cell phone, a tablet, a laptop, or just a good old landline, they will find a way to listen to what you are saying. In 1998 Gene Hackman starred in Enemy of the State , a spiritual s...

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) is somewhat of a black sheep in the Jones franchise. Instead of going after the always-reliable Nazis, here Indy goes after an extremist Hindu religious sect who is into human sacrifices, brain washing, and slavery. As to be expected, quite a few people in India took offense. Then there are the scenes of human sacrifices, which led to the creation of the PG-13 rating in the United States because believe it or not some kids don’t react too well to seeing a man get his heart ripped out of his chest. That being said, this second entry in the franchise is still worthy of admiration thanks to some incredible sequences, notably a mine cart chase and a standoff on a rickety bridge with crocodiles waiting below. My parents introduced me to Indiana Jones at a young age and I had a problem with a particular scene in every movie in the first three movies, whether the face melting scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark or the poor choice of c...

The name George Lucas is most often associated with Star Wars , which has become part of pop culture since the release of the first film in the franchise decades ago. Yet before the massive success of his beloved fantasy series he had already achieved a fair amount of success in the United States with his second directorial effort, American Graffiti (1973). Like many filmmakers who feel nostalgic about their childhood, Lucas set the movie during the era of his teenage years, the early 1960s. Today it is a period piece, but I imagine back in 1973 it was a great flashback for many audience members. Also of note, it features up-and-coming talents such as Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, and a young man by the name of Harrison Ford. Before watching the movie, I sort of read the book. Back in the mid-1990s when I was living in Peru one of my school assignments was to read a biography and talk about it in class. In the library I saw a book called Skywalking: The Life and Films of George ...

The Indiana Jones franchise is one of those rare series where the third entry is just as good, if not better, than the previous two. It follows the same formula as the other movies, based in part on the plot of the James Bond movies: the dashing hero is given a mythical object to recover, he must get to it before an army of villains, many international borders are crossed in order to find the object, and there many chases involving cars, motorcycles, horses, and even a tank. In “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989) the villains are once again the Nazis, after the misfire of having Hindu cult leaders in the previous film. A wise choice, since everyone loves to see Nazis getting their butts kicked. An even wiser choice by director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas was casting Sir Sean Connery, James Bond himself, as Henry Jones Sr. Twice the Jones for the price of one. My parents introduced me to the wild world of doctor Jones the same way they introduced me to the ...