Archive
SEVEN – Howard Shore
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The world is a fine place and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part. — Ernest Hemingway.
What’s in the box?!? — Detective David Mills.
Seven – usually stylized as ‘Se7en’ – is a dark psychological crime thriller written by Andrew Kevin Walker and directed by David Fincher, in what was his second feature film after his 1992 debut Alien 3. The film follows two homicide detectives – weary veteran William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), who is on the verge of retirement, and impulsive newcomer David Mills (Brad Pitt), who has recently transferred to the city with his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) – as they investigate a string of grisly murders staged around the seven deadly sins: gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy, and wrath. Each crime scene is meticulously designed by the killer to reflect the sin being punished, and the murders grow increasingly disturbing. The investigation eventually leads the detectives to a deranged but calculating serial killer known only as John Doe (Kevin Spacey), who sees himself as a moral avenger exposing society’s corruption through his crimes, and whose final murder is directly targeted at the detectives investigating him. Read more…
UNSTRUNG HEROES – Thomas Newman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Unstrung Heroes is a coming-of-age comedy-drama directed by Diane Keaton, adapted from journalist Franz Lidz’s memoir of the same name. The story is set in the 1960s and follows twelve-year-old Steven Lidz (Nathan Watt), a sensitive and imaginative boy growing up in Los Angeles. Steven’s father Sid (John Turturro) is a brilliant but eccentric inventor who is emotionally distant, while his mother, Selma (Andie MacDowell), is warm, loving, and supportive. However, when Selma is diagnosed with terminal cancer, the family is shaken; struggling to cope with his mother’s illness and his father’s inability to express vulnerability, Steven decides to leave home and live with his two eccentric uncles, Arthur (Michael Richards) a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and Danny (Maury Chaykin), a gentle, childlike dreamer. Though unconventional, the uncles provide Steven with comfort, eccentric wisdom, and a sense of belonging, and through their unconventional guidance, Steven learns to process grief, embrace imagination, and find resilience in the face of loss. Read more…
THE USUAL SUSPECTS – John Ottman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.
This famous quote from the writings of 19th century French poet Charles Baudelaire is at the heart of the story of The Usual Suspects, the film which marked the mainstream debuts of director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. It is a neo-noir crime thriller that unfolds as a story within a story, as told to federal agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) by Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), a small-time con artist with cerebral palsy; Kint is one of two survivors of an explosion on a ship docked in San Pedro harbor in Los Angeles. Kint recounts the events leading up to the explosion, telling Kujan that five criminals – himself, plus Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Fred Fenster (Benicio del Toro), Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), and Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak) – met during a police lineup in New York, and began committing heists together. Eventually, they are drawn into the orbit of the mysterious, almost mythical crime lord Keyser Söze, a figure so feared that most refuse to speak his name. Söze coerces the group into attacking the ship in San Pedro in order to eliminate witnesses who can identify him, and eventually Kujan comes to believe that Keaton – a former corrupt cop apparently trying to go straight – must have been Söze. Read more…
OTHELLO – Charlie Mole
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy, it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
One of William Shakespeare’s most enduring and celebrated plays, Othello is a classic tale of jealousy, manipulation, and betrayal, with hint of racism thrown in for good measure. In the story Othello, a respected Moorish general in Venice, secretly marries Desdemona, the daughter of a nobleman. His ensign, Iago, jealous of Othello’s success and resentful at being passed over for promotion, schemes to destroy him. Iago tricks Othello into believing that Desdemona has been unfaithful with his lieutenant, Cassio. Consumed by jealousy, Othello murders Desdemona – only to discover too late that she was innocent and that Iago deceived him. Overcome with grief and guilt, Othello takes his own life, while Iago is exposed and punished. Read more…
DR. JEKYLL AND MS. HYDE – Mark McKenzie
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A classic sci-fi horror tale with a comic twist, Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde is a modern reimagining of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Directed by David Price, the film stars Tim Daly as Dr. Richard Jacks, a chemist working at a fragrance company, who also happens to be the great-grandson of Dr Henry Jekyll, the protagonist of the original story. After he receives his great-grandfather’s scientific notes as part of an inheritance, the shy and bumbling Jacks tinkers with and creates a new serum, intending to use it as a base for a new women’s perfume; unfortunately, when he tests the serum on himself, he finds himself transformed into the beautiful, confident, and very female Helen Hyde (Sean Young) – and Helen is determined to take over Richard’s life. However, despite having a fun supporting cast – Lysette Anthony, Harvey Fierstein, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jeremy Piven – the film was both a critical and commercial flop, and is mostly forgotten today. Read more…
LAST OF THE DOGMEN – David Arnold
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A wilderness action adventure with elements of mystery and historical fantasy, Last of the Dogmen stars Tom Berenger as Lewis Gates, a rugged bounty hunter tracking three escaped convicts in the remote and treacherous wilderness of the Montana Rockies near the Canadian border. During his search, Gates comes across bizarre signs that suggest the presence of a mysterious and elusive group living deep in the mountains – people who shouldn’t exist. After teaming up with anthropologist Professor Lillian Sloan (Barbara Hershey), an expert on Native American history, they investigate the mystery, and discover a hidden valley inhabited by a Native American tribe descended from the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, fierce warriors who evaded the U.S. Cavalry over a century earlier and have lived in complete isolation ever since. Read more…
WATERWORLD – James Newton Howard
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
For many years in Hollywood Waterworld – the title of Kevin Costner’s 1995 action-adventure movie – was a byword for financial disaster in moviemaking. Originally conceived by screenwriter Peter Rader in the mid-1980s as a low budget ‘Mad Max on water’ the script was eventually rewritten by David Twohy, whose version leaned heavily into the post-apocalyptic sci-fi genre. Costner, then at the height of his fame following hits like Dances with Wolves and The Bodyguard, signed on to produce and star, and he recruited Kevin Reynolds, who directed him in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, to helm the film. However, what started as a modestly budgeted film ballooned into a then-record-breaking $175 million production, eventually earning it the industry nicknames “Fishtar” and “Kevin’s Gate,” after notorious flops Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate. The production was plagued by logistical challenges, including destroyed sets, weather delays, crew injuries, and creative clashes between Costner and Reynolds, who eventually left the project entirely during post-production, leaving Costner to oversee the final edit. Read more…
BEYOND RANGOON – Hans Zimmer
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Beyond Rangoon is a political drama/thriller directed by John Boorman, inspired by the real events of the 1988 Burmese Uprising, when students and civilians protested against the military regime of then-dictator Ne Win, leading to thousands of deaths. Patricia Arquette stars as Laura Bowman, an American doctor who travels to Burma (now Myanmar) in the late 1980s with her sister Andi (played by Frances McDormand) in an attempt to recover from the traumatic murder of her husband and son. Their vacation unexpectedly coincides with the uprising, and while attempting to leave the country Laura loses her passport, inadvertently becoming trapped in the increasingly volatile nation. As she navigates a dangerous and unfamiliar landscape, Laura becomes a reluctant witness to the government’s violent repression of student demonstrators; however, she is guided by a former university professor turned dissident U Aung Ko (playing a fictionalized version of himself) who helps her understand the political crisis engulfing the country, and to flee to safety. Read more…
LORD OF ILLUSIONS – Simon Boswell
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Lord of Illusions is an excellent, underrated film written and directed by horror legend Clive Barker, based on his own short story The Last Illusion. The story blends elements detective noir, supernatural horror, and dark fantasy, and was his third directorial effort following Hellraiser in 1987 and Nightbreed in 1990. Scott Bakula stars as Harry D’Amour, a hardboiled private investigator based in New York who specializes in cases involving the occult. After traveling to Los Angeles on a routine insurance case, D’Amour stumbles into a far more sinister world involving the remnants of a doomsday cult once led by the charismatic and sadistic sorcerer named Nix (Daniel von Bargen). Thirteen years earlier, Nix had attempted to unleash dark powers upon the world but was stopped by his former disciple Philip Swann (Kevin J. O’Connor) and a group of fellow magicians. Swann has since become a world-famous illusionist, having buried the truth of his real supernatural powers beneath a layer of stage trickery. As D’Amour investigates further, he becomes entangled in a deadly conspiracy when Swann is killed during a stage performance gone wrong, and Swann’s widow Dorothea (Famke Janssen) enlists D’Amour’s help to uncover the truth behind her husband’s death. Read more…
SPECIES – Christopher Young
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Species is a science fiction horror film that blends alien-invasion tropes with creature-feature thrills. Directed by Roger Donaldson from a screenplay by Dennis Feldman, the story begins with a top-secret government project called SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), which receives a transmission from outer space containing DNA instructions for creating a hybrid organism – part human, part alien. Scientists follow the instructions and create a girl named Sil, who appears human but matures at an astonishing rate and soon exhibits alarming, inhuman traits. When the SETI lead scientist Xavier Fitch (Ben Kingsley) deems her too dangerous, they attempt to terminate her, but she escapes from the lab; now fully grown and played by Natasha Henstridge, Sil goes on the run in Los Angeles, driven by a primal urge to reproduce. Her alien DNA pushes her to find a mate, but any man she deems genetically unfit meets a gruesome end. A team is assembled to track her down, including an empath (Forest Whitaker), a molecular biologist (Alfred Molina), an anthropologist (Marg Helgenberger), and a government assassin (Michael Madsen), and as Sil leaves a trail of bodies behind her, the team races against time to prevent her from mating and giving birth to a potentially unstoppable alien species. Read more…
JUDGE DREDD – Alan Silvestri
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The character Judge Dredd was well-known to British comic book fans for almost 20 years prior to him debuting on film. Created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, he first appeared in the second issue of the British science fiction comic magazine 2000 AD in 1977, and quickly became the most iconic character of the anthology, known for his authoritarian demeanor, brutal sense of justice, and unwavering loyalty to the law. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the Dredd stories have strong satirical and political overtones, exploring themes ranging from fascism to state surveillance, corporate corruption, and dystopia. Dredd himself is not the protagonist in a traditional sense – instead, he is a symbol of rigid, authoritarian justice, who has no personal ambition, rarely shows emotion, and sees mercy as weakness. Attempts to adapt Judge Dredd for the big screen began in the 1980s but the screenplay was stuck in development hell for years; the film eventually moved forward in 1994 with director Danny Cannon, a self-proclaimed fan of the comic, who was given the green light by the studio on the strength of his directorial debut The Young Americans in 1993. Unfortunately, subsequent interference and script re-writes heavily altered his intended vision, resulting in a film which disappointed long-time fans of the series. Read more…
POCAHONTAS – Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The idea to make a movie about the life of Pocahontas was first pitched to Walt Disney studios in 1990, shortly after the success of The Little Mermaid, and as Beauty and the Beast was in production. The studio was looking to diversify its slate with more mature, emotionally grounded stories, and chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg was eager to pursue more prestigious, award-caliber projects. He saw Pocahontas as a chance for Disney to do a “serious” animated film with Oscar potential, aimed at adults as much as children, and described the film as potentially Disney’s equivalent of West Side Story or Dances with Wolves – emotionally resonant, message-driven, and grounded in real-world conflict. Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg were hired as directors, and during development Pocahontas was considered the “prestige” project compared to another film in development simultaneously – The Lion King. Many animators reportedly lobbied to work on Pocahontas, which was expected to win awards, while The Lion King was seen as the “B project,” although ironically it was The Lion King that would become a much bigger global phenomenon, both critically and commercially. Read more…
IL POSTINO – Luis Enríquez Bacalov
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the most surprising global hits of the 1990s was Il Postino, The Postman, an Italian romantic drama film based on the novel Ardiente Paciencia by Antonio Skármeta, and directed by English filmmaker Michael Radford. The film is set in the early 1950s on a small, picturesque island off the coast of Italy and centers on Mario Ruoppolo, a shy and uneducated local man who takes a job as a postman. His only task is to deliver mail to Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, who has taken refuge on the island after fleeing Augusto Pinochet’s government and going into political exile. As Mario and Neruda begin to interact, Mario becomes fascinated by the poet’s charisma, politics, and especially his romantic use of language; eventually, Mario seeks Neruda’s guidance in learning how to express himself, particularly because he has fallen in love with Beatrice Russo, a beautiful but reserved woman who works at a local café. Read more…
BATMAN FOREVER – Elliot Goldenthal
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Batman Forever is the third installment in the original Warner Bros. Batman film series, following Batman in 1989 and Batman Returns in 1992, both of which were directed by Tim Burton. However, Burton left the Batman franchise during the development of the third film because Warner Bros. wanted to go in a lighter, more commercial, and family-friendly direction, which clashed with Burton’s increasingly dark, gothic depiction of Gotham City. The studio saw diminishing returns on the edgier tone and opted to reset the franchise’s style, paving the way for Joel Schumacher to come into replace him. Schumacher had directed a number of box-office hits in the decade prior, including St. Elmo’s Fire, The Lost Boys, The Client, and Falling Down, but his neon-soaked reinterpretation of the dark knight in Batman Forever was polarizing: some approved of the elaborate set designs, as well as the campier tone which more was reminiscent of the 1960s Adam West Batman TV series, while others missed Burton’s more introspective and visually dramatic approach. One person who certainly disapproved was Michael Keaton, who declined to return to the main role due to creative differences after Burton left; ultimately he was replaced by Val Kilmer underneath the mask and cowl. Read more…
CONGO – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Following the success of Jurassic Park in 1993, screenplays adapted from the action/adventure novels of Michael Crichton were suddenly hot commodities; one such screenplay was Congo, which was adapted by John Patrick Shanley from the 1980 novel of the same name, and which had been kicking around Hollywood for more than a decade. The resulting film was directed by Frank Marshall and stars Dylan Walsh as Dr. Peter Elliot, a primatologist who is traveling to the Congo to return a gorilla named Amy – who he has taught to communicate using sign language via a special glove – to her home in the wild. Meanwhile, Dr. Karen Ross (Laura Linney) is sent to the Congo to find a missing research team led by her ex-fiancé Charles Travis, which was in the area on an expedition to find rare blue diamonds that could revolutionize laser communications, but which vanished after a violent, mysterious attack. Elliot and Ross end up on the same plane together, where they are joined by Herkimer Homolka (Tim Curry, sporting one of the weirdest accents in movie history), a mysterious Romanian treasure hunter who is obsessed with finding the mythical Lost City of Zinj, which is rumored to contain vast diamond reserves. Read more…
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