Simon's Movie Reviews

By Allied Artists - IMPAwards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35144391   I had mixed feeling while watching The Man Who Would Be King (1975). On the one hand you could see it as a story about colonialism, cultural appropriation, and immoral men. On the other hand, said immoral men are played by Sires Sean Connery and Michael Caine, two actors who could read a dictionary and still come off as charismatic. Factor in that they are directed by John Huston, the man behind at least three other cinema classics, and you end up with one of their best films of their careers. This is another classic on found on Turner Classic Movies and is not available on most streaming channels. I had heard of it many times and was curious to see the pairing of two legends of cinema, especially Sean Connery in one of his post James Bond roles, where he played a more morally dubious character. Apart from that I was not too familiar with the story and was surprised by where it went. ...

Goldfinger (1964), one of four Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton, is the one that set the template for the rest of one of the most successful franchise in history. Dr. No was the first, but it was a small first step. From Russia With Love is great, but it can pass as a regular Cold War spy film. With Goldfinger however, we get the cold open followed by a song interpreted by a popular artist, a villain with a dastardly plot, a henchman with a special weapon, life-saving gadgets provided by Q branch, an Aston Martin, and a vodka martini; shaken, not stirred. Then of course you have the women. I know it was the 60s, but seriously, Pussy Galore? As I grew up in the 90s, my first Bond was Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye , after which I was hooked. I then spent hours playing the best-selling game on Nintendo 64, I watched every new movie on the big screen, and I made it my goal to get every Bond movie on VHS, from Sean Connery to Timothy Dalton. I got a an illustrated book detailing a...

Hat-wearing gangsters armed with Tommy guns have been gone for decades, but movies and TV shows about them are as popular as ever. From The Godfather to Boardwalk Empire , stories about bootleggers, hoodlums, mobsters and the cops doing their best to bring them down still fascinate people. Some are based on fact while some are based on legends. Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987), working off a script from David Mamet, seems to lean more towards the legend in order to offer more of a spectacle. Understandable, given the movie’s villain, Al Capone, is a legend of crime. As it is a crowd-favourite, I had seen bits and pieces of The Untouchables playing on TV every now and then. I eventually rented the DVD to watch the whole thing with some nifty behind-the-scenes nuggets, something you don’t get today with Netflix and iTunes. It was my little ritual when I was finishing high school in Quebec City if I had nothing to do that weekend. Head to the video store, get one of those ...