Simon's Movie Reviews

Now this is a tough movie to review in the post #MeToo era. Luc Besson’s Léon (1994) is a terrific action movie that launched Natalie Portman’s career, introduced French actor Jean Reno to American audiences and gave us another great villain performance from Gary Oldman. The problem is it suggests at times a romantic relationship between an underage girl and a grown man, which was apparently based on Besson’s relationship with his first wife who was 15 when they began dating. Making matters much, much worse, this year Besson has been accused of rape, sexual assault, harassment and workplace abuse ( https://bit.ly/2JHi5he ).   I still want to get through this list of greatest films, and then possibly move on to another one, so I can’t just strike off a movie because one person who helped get it to the screen has been accused of a crime. Sadly, that would mean I would have to take at least 100 out of 500 movies off the list. Alfred Hitchcock alone would negate a bunch of movie...

As of 2013, it is two years from the release of the new “Star Wars” trilogy and eight years since the release of the last prequel, “Star War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.” George Lucas got a lot of flack for going back to the past with his new trilogy and doing what many fans, most notably Patton Oswalt , would say was a poor job. However, of those three films most people would agree Episode III is the best one. We finally get to see the rise of the evil empire, Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader and we get a great lightsaber battle between good and evil on a volcanic planet. I’ve watched these movies at various points of my life. My parents showed me the original trilogy on recorded VHS tapes while we were living in Newfoundland in the early 90s. The new trilogy started coming out in 1999, when we were living in South America. By the time the final episode came out, we were back in Canada, so it all came full circle. I saw Episode III in theatres in Quebec...

A hit of the early 2000’s, “Garden State” is one of those small films that was shot on a small budget, earned tremendous buzz at film festivals, and then grew a loyal audience through word of mouth. Written, directed, and starring Zach Braff, it tells the story of a man in his twenties who is stuck doing small jobs and with no idea of where to go next with his life. Either you have met people like this, or you are that person. When I first saw “Garden State” it was a bit of a surprise to see Zach Braff a character that is so emotionally numb. I was used to seeing him do physical comedy as John Dorian on the show “Scrubs” where he played an aspiring doctor who would come always come into work with a smile on his face, despite the fact his mentor always called him “Bambi.” Yet the ads boasted his performance and his directing style, highlighting a scene where Zach’s character is standing in front of a wall while wearing a shirt that matches the wall’s tapestry. So when th...