23 years ago, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland teamed up to kickoff one of the best horror trilogies of the modern era with 28 DAYS LATER . Boyle had already delivered 'Trainspotting" and "The Beach". This was Garland's first screenplay and he would become a frequent partner with Boyle. You can see why in this haunting, explosive and violent film that leans in on George Romero territory, with a twist. The killing humans here are infected with "Rage" a fast moving virus with a 15 second incubation period that brings the dead back to life. Their eyes blaze red and they're permanently pissed off, but easier to kill the second time around than Romero's zombies. But don't get me wrong. They are FAST, they are always drawn to sound or light at night, but appear to hide during the day, "I Am Legend" style. After an opening scene that shows how this pandemic got started, Boyle brilliantly executes our main story. Bike messenger Jim (a very young Cillian Murphy from "Oppenheimer") wakes up in a London ICU hospital bed after a long coma. But where is everyone? No doctors, no nurses, no patients, nobody period. Boyle stages some incredible visuals as Jim walks outside, across the Westminster Bridge and through the heart of London in complete isolation. There is NO ONE else in sight. Eventually, Jim does run into some additional survivors. In her first big screen role, the always terrific Naomie Harris (Skyfall, Black Bag) stars as Selena, a resourceful survivor who's Jim's first human contact. Harris is excellent, intense and drives the story. Brendan Gleeson (The Bashees of Inisherin, Troy) is Frank, holed up on a high floor of an apartment building with his teenage daughter Hannah (Megan Burns). It's interesting to watch this film again now and see how Garland's themes that he first explored here have echoed in his later films like "Civil War" and "Annihilation". As Jim, Selena, Frank and Hannah seek safety and answers from a military outpost, what they find is as far from a stereotypical refuge. Garland likes exploring how humans interact in time of crisis and disaster. If you know and like Garland's films as much as I do (Ex Machina, Civil War and Annihilation were all in my top films the year they were released) you know that Garland is dark. Damn dark, he but always delivers unexpected turns exploring the jet black side of our human nature. His observations and the characters that express them are not always pleasant to watch, but the lesser side of each of us rarely is. Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston from "True Detective") is an enigma, running the makeshift military encampment as some sort of killing field/day camp for unhinged young soldiers that have seen way too much death for the past month. The ending, which I won't discuss here, feels like a bit of a disconnect compared to the tone of what has come before, but that's a minor quibble. Boyle reinvigorated the zombie thriller with this low budget (only $8 million) blast that grossed ten times that at the box office. Murphy and Harris are both terrific, showing early signs of the reliable screen presence they'd continue to expand more than two decades later. Boyle's style is evident here, mixing scary pops of horror with quiet moments that haunt. My favorite? When Jim finds his parents on their death bed, having taken themselves out when the pandemic spread. They've left a note for him, in a coma at the time. It simply reads, Jim- With endless love, we left you sleeping. Now we're sleeping with you. Don't wake up. X It's one of many moments within the film that blend Garland's powerful writing and Boyle's intimate style into something...above. Zombie flick + survival thriller + human drama= an A. Followed in 2007 by non Boyle/Garland entry "28 Weeks Later" but both will return later in 2025 with their new, final leg in the trilogy, "28 Years Later".

One of the funniest, grittiest football movies of all time, THE LONGEST YARD is a time capsule of seventies action films, with director Robert Aldrich and star Burt Reynolds scoring a big box office hit. Reynolds plays faded football star Paul Crewe. The opening scene finds Crewe fighting with his rich girlfriend, stealing her Maserati and throwing drunken punches at arresting policemen. Upon arriving in a swampy, hot and brutal Florida prison as a result, Crewe is approached by warden Hazen (Eddie Albert in nasty villain mode) with the fact that his guards have a big football game coming up in their league and he wants Crewe to coach them to victory. Instead, Crewe suggests putting together a game between the inmates and the guards to prep them for their big game. Reynolds is great as he recruits the nastiest, biggest inmates, all of whom are anxious to get some revenge against the guards everyday abuse with some (semi) legal hits on the field. Richard Kiel (Jaws in the Bond films), Ed Lauter as the leader of the guards, James Hampton and Bernadette Peters all are great in support of Reynolds. The last 45 minutes of the film features the guards/inmates game and it's realistic, brutal and hilarious. Director Aldrich also made "The Dirty Dozen" and its basically the same format here, moved from the battlefield to the gridiron, with Reynolds ragtag bunch of misfits pulling together for one big battle. Seventies films don't get any more macho than this and 40 years later, most of the laughs and all of the football moves hold up pretty well. I've never watched the Adam Sandler remake, I can't imagine why they made it. If you love football, action and laughs, The Longest Yard scores. We'll give it a game day B.

A fairly funny time capsule of 1977, SEMI-TOUGH captures a very different era of sports films and R-rated comedies. Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson play two professional football players, aptly named Billy Clyde Puckett and Shake Tiller. As longtime best friends, the two have long been a trio completed by the team owner's daughter Barbara Jane, sweetly played by Jill Clayburgh. The film focuses on pro football, the oddball bunch of team players including Brian Dennehy and Carl Weathers in early film roles. Robert Preston is hilarious as team owner Big Ed Bookman. If you've read the classic sports book by Dan Jenkins on which the film is based, the film really disappoints, barely resembling the novel. It's a great and funny read. Director Michael Ritchie (Fletch) throws out the source material to focus on many other topics that seemed timely in 1977 including self help groups and seminars. Reynolds and Kristofferson have a lot of fun playing off each other, but Kris plays it pretty low key throughout. When the dynamics of their three way friendship are thrown off by Shake proposing to Barbara Jean, Billy Clyde focuses on trying to find a way to stop the marriage, all while preparing for the Super Bowl against the Dallas Cowboys. The "game" scenes are pretty badly shot and the onfield action only comes to life when a young Ron Silver appears as a VERY long range field goal kicker named Vlada Kostov (what's up with these names?). It's all pretty lightweight, but sprinkled with enough language and nudity to earn the R rating. I wish the makers of Moneyball would take a serious crack at Jenkins book, now THAT would be a great sports comedy! SEMI-TOUGH is only SEMI-entertaining, but plenty of lightweight fun if you are looking for a nostalgic Burt Reynolds comedy. We'll put a B- on the scoreboard.

Goofy fun once it gets going thanks to big laughs from Jack Black and Jason Momoa, A MINECRAFT MOVIE is a noisy, visually stunning family night at the movies. This one demands to be seen on the big screen, where every cube POPS . Falling into the "LOUD is FUNNIER!" genre of "The Goonies" and "1941", non-gamers are quickly introduced to the game worlds that serve as the playing field for our main character misfits. Jack Black is full-tilt hilarious as Steve, a boy who dreamed of becoming a pix-axe wielding miner. Finding two glowing cubes in a mine, the Overworld and the Nether are created, one a garden of Eden made of magical cubes and the other a right angle, flaming underworld that looks a lot like the cartoon hell of "South Park". Those magical cubes eventually pull four strangers into Steve's worlds. The first half hour of the film introduces us to these four and shares the same kind of small town quirk that Director Jared Hess brought to his biggest hit, 2004's "Napoleon Dynamite". That's a compliment. Mamoa, seemingly wearing the same wardrobe as his maniacal villain in "Fast X", plays Garrett, a loner living in his past as an 80's video game champ. Surely I can't be the only one to notice how much his dilapidated video store sits on a lonely, rounded corner like Flynn's in "Tron". Mamoa is hilarious playing dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks and commits 100% to the role. He and Black together share more than a few great side glances and raised eyebrows. Emma Myers (Wednesday) plays Natalie, a young woman moving with her brother Henry (Sebastian Hansen) to a very small town after the death of their parents. Their realtor Dawn is a wacky character, part realtor, part traveling zoo proprietor. Danielle Brooks (incredible in 'The Color Purple") is a lot of fun, but not given a lot to do. The film kind of plods along until the four are shot through the portal into the Overworld. At that point, the pace picks up and the movie is instantly more fun and visually, an absolute blast. Black manages to break into song more than once and every time he did, it brought the house down at the IMAX showing I enjoyed. Each of the songs is unexpected, funny and the best of them "I Feel Alive" is a great rocker. The music score is by Mark Mothersbaugh from "Devo" and he delivers. "Steve's Lava Chicken" is a comic highlight. The story does a decent job of setting our crew on a series of episodic quests that feel like the game, while offering plenty of easter eggs for gaming fans and humor for non-gamers. The reliable Jennifer Coolidge (A Mighty Wind) is also hilarious as the Assistant Principal at Henry's new school. To say she's an over-sharer doesn't quite cover it. Hess cleverly finds a way to keep popping back to the real world and Coolidge and she never disappoints. The CGI in the game worlds is very well done, and while there's a lot less "building" in the movie than I anticipated, the weapons making and some camera shots of multilevel worlds really deliver. With the best runaway mine car sequence since Indy and Short Round escaped the Temple of Doom and a chicken boxing match that kept me laughing, there's something for everyone. It's not easy to make a videogame adaption that connects with kids, teens and the adults taking the smaller ones to the theater. For me, the best recent example of that perfect blend is 2023's "Dungeons & Dragons", which was little seen and underappreciated. This feels closer to the box office hit "Super Mario Bros" from 2023, but the deft blend of human actors into the gaming universe here is impressive on another level. Based on the packed IMAX showing I was in and the audience of ALL ages in attendance, I'm betting this one is a big, Iron Golem size hit this Spring. Black+Momoa cubed=B+ family enjoyment.

Ryan Coogler's SINNERS is a rarity. An original , adult drama that morphs into perfect & relentless vampire horror. The last half is packed with Avengers-style thrills, but this is no kids movie. Sex, violence, gore and music pour out of every frame of Coogler's creation. I don't remember a non-musical in which music played such a huge role. It's sexy, seductive, fun and terrifying. With both his writing & direction, Coogler has conjured up a mystical blend of Walter Hill's 1986 film "Crossroads" and Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" that works on every level. NO SPOILERS here. This film demands to be seen with unknowing eyes. Michael B. Jordan stars in a dual role as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, returning to their tiny home town in 1930's Mississippi. They're flush with cash from their recent years in Chicago, wearing the finest clothes and driving a flashy car. As they arrive, it's clear that the citizens either love them or fear them, but the respect for them is universal. The first hour of the film pulls you deep into the Jim Crow era south, unflinching in its portrayal of the everyday, casual racism of the era. The Smoke/Stack Brothers have come back to town to open a juke joint for their community. They're committed to opening their joint the same day that they buy on old saw mill, spreading the word to the town. The citizens are packed with memorable and wholly original characters that Coogler crafts with humor and care. Newcomer Miles Caton stars as Preacher Boy Sammie Moore, the son of the local pastor whose gifted with a rare musical talent. His guitar rarely leaves his side. When he sings and plays, it touches spirits of every kind. He's also the young cousin of Smoke & Stack. They're bringing him to perform opening night, much to the consternation of his father. Delroy Lindo (Malcolm X, Get Shorty) is perfect as Delta Slim, a local piano playing blues legend chasing his next drink. Lindo is fantastic throughout, it's one of his best performances in a career loaded with superb work. I hope he gets remembered for Best Supporting Actor come Oscar season. Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Hawkeye) is very good as Mary, a local woman whose past with one of the brothers echoes throughout. Steinfeld is excellent, delivering a many layered performance that will keep you guessing. Jayme Lawson (The Batman) blows the doors off the joint as Pearline. When she takes the stage and belts out "Pale, Pale Moon", she serves up a crescendo that builds and builds to a stomping, frenzied explosion of energy that rocked the IMAX theater and last night's crowd. Omar Benson Miller is terrific as Cornbread, the joint's doorman and Li Jun Li (Babylon)is powerful as Grace Chow, who owns the town's store and also serves up a hell of a drink at the joint. I could go on and on about this cast and the townspeople they play, but you need to meet them yourself. Discovery is a huge part of the journey here. When evil comes a calling via Remmick, a vampire with glowing red eyes and a voracious thirst for blood, his terror envelopes all the characters that Coogler has so carefully crafted for more than half the film. Coogler treats the vampire threat like Spielberg did the Great White in "Jaws" you barely see it until the halfway point of the film and then fasten your seatbelt, here we go. Jack O'Connell (Unbroken) plays Remmick like a seductive Irish neighbor with a very dark side. Composer Ludwig Goransson's score is a brilliant action score haunted with the blues and bloody harmonica licks that sink deep. It's ever present, pulling you gently into the muddy swamps. When the terror kicks in, it doesn't stop. Coogler created both "Black Panther" films for Marvel and he's an expert at crafting fast and large scale action that knocks you out. Freed from the need to keep it PG-13, the bullets and blood fly and the fangs sink deep. Several of the huge action scenes leave you on the edge of your seat and surprise you with their fast pivots and unexpected deaths. Michael B. Jordan is fantastic. He's starred in every film that Coogler's made to date. From their debut together with "Fruitvale Station" in 2013, through "Creed" and both "Black Panther" films, Jordan & Coogler have forged a powerful creative bond. Jordan is terrific in both roles and I can't even begin to understand the CGI wizardry that allows them to interact like they do here, onscreen together for most of the film. With SINNERS, Coogler has managed to create a true original. I've never seen anything quite like it. It's portrayal of the 1930's South cuts deep. You feel the pain of these characters long before any vampires descend. Coogler is at his best visually, especially during some of the musical performances at the joint, as the influence of these original blues artists conjure up the musical genres that they will create throughout decades in the future. His nods to the past are just as powerful. He's created an entire world in the film that's just as powerful as the world he created for Wakanda, but the consequences here are more deeply rooted in sex, blood, lust and power. SINNERS is the best film of 2025 so far, whipsawing you through drama and horror to an A+. See it on the biggest screen you can find, it was born to be seen in IMAX. Stay tuned for a long and powerful mid-credits sequence and past all the credits for a softer but perfect coda.

Jason Statham and Director David Ayer deliver another slam bang thriller with A WORKING MAN , building explosively off their last success, "The Beekeeper". For those of us old enough to remember, or with a fondness for 70's cinema, their partnership reminds me of Charles Bronson and Director Michael Winner, who turned out hit after hit back in the day. With hits like "The Mechanic" (1972) and "Death Wish" (1974) they found an action rhythm that connected with audiences. Statham & Ayer seem to be finding that same groove here. Opening with a very cool, James Bond-like title sequence set to Jared Michael Fry's music score, we meet Statham's Levon Cade, a former counter-terrorism agent trying to live a quieter life. He's efficiently running a construction site for friend Joe Garcia (Michael Pena) and Garcia's family. Local gangs come a-calling and Cade's old skills emerge immediately. It's a fun scene and an early example of exactly why you bought your ticket. Joe's daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) heads out with her friends to celebrate her first college semester and she's kidnapped by a rogue division of a Russian gang. This gang is filled with the most eccentric, wild band of villains in recent memory. Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay and its the absolute best and worst of Stallone on display. The dialogue can be cliche, but the man knows his way around an action one liner, those witty quips that our hero drops right before pulling the pin or plunging the dagger. "That's for slapping your wife" was a standout. Cade goes to meet his trusted best friend and blind former soldier Gunny, well played by David Harbour (Black Widow, Hellboy, Suicide Squad). Gunny provides a virtual armory worth of weapons and Cade's off and running to find Jenny. Ayer and Statham stage some terrific action sequences, including a biker bar fight for the ages followed by a motorcycle chase. Some of their quieter confrontations are just as good. Jason Flemyng and Maximillian Osinski are both terrific as violent organized crime leaders, one older and established and Osinski's young Dimi, a dangerously unhinged, disrespectful loose cannon that you just can't wait for Statham's Levon Cade to meet. This is based on the first novel of the Levon Cade book series by comic author Chuck Dixon. Stallone has optioned the series. I, for one, would be happy to see Stallone, Statham and Ayer continue with a film series around Cade's adventures. If they're all as smooth, fast and fun as A WORKING MAN , we're all in for a hell of a run. Statham has become our most reliable big screen action hero of the 2020's and he wears the mantle well. While it doesn't quite reach the buzzy heights of "The Beekeeper", it carves out a more than respectable B.

Built on the blood, sweat and bullets of Spielberg's brilliant Normandy beach scene in "Saving Private Ryan", Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza's powerful new film WARFARE is a relentless beast. After about 15 minutes of introduction to a platoon of Navy Seals led by Erik (Will Poulter) and Ray (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), we are dropped into a silent nighttime street with them in 2006 Ramadi, Iraq. Serving as support to a nearby Marines mission, the brigade takes over a civilian house and hunkers down. We meet the distinct personalities of the group, each with their own specialty as sniper, interpreter, medic. They are the best of the best. Garland & Mendoza wrote the film based on the memories of his real platoon and Garland's own memories of his time in Iraq. As such, the film doesn't provide even the slight comfort of traditional war film tropes. There is no music in the film. There are no flashbacks to the girls back home or a young family waiting for them to return. There are no standard hero moments of convenience. There's just a group of incredibly brave men that have each other's backs in the constant face of death. The morning after their arrival, hostile forces begin to gather, vowing instant jihad on the Americans hunkered down in a house in the middle of their city. When the attack on the Seal team begins, it starts an incredible hour plus of tension, horror and unblinking realism in portraying the events that unfold. I remember watching Spielberg's cutting edge sound and photography opening weekend of his 1998 war masterpiece. As soldiers went underwater on Omaha Beach, so did our own ears. When explosions went off on the beach, our ears went dead with shock along with Tom Hanks's own. Garland & Mendoza and their incredible sound team take that to the next level. A huge IED explosion renders our Seal team and us, the viewer momentarily deaf, stuck in a near zero visibility as the smoke and blood clears. But even in the film's opening, middle of the night scenes, the sound team is just as effective, surrounding you with tracers far away, barking dogs and the chatter of distant gunfire. It's a haunting start that subtly cranks up the rising tension. Ben Barker (Gravity, Civil War) and his sound team deserve an Oscar for their immersive mix. It's absolutely incredible and offers no escape from the unfolding horrors. As casualties mount, the screams of the wounded go on and on. Blood covers the floor. Rescue teams are held and the Seal team is stranded. Those looking for a rousing, traditional war picture ending will be left wanting. The film does end with pictures of the real Navy Sales team members next to the actors that play them. Some key characters are seen visiting the movie set recreation of where the action actually took place. Cosmo Jarvis (Shogun) is exceptional as Elliott, the lead sniper of the team as is Woon-A-Tai (Hell of a Summer), who's reaction to the scenario feels absolutely real. There were moments in Garland's fantastic "Civil War" last year that left me speechless in their military firepower. The gunship helicopter on the streets of Washington DC in that film showed Garland at his most powerful. It's classic Garland that he's chosen to follow that film with over an hour of the same jaw dropping type of action. WARFARE is a triumphant modern take on a war film, placing you in the middle of American servicemen battling to live one more minute. By the time the film ends with its haunting final moments in the street, you're left numb and exhausted, like you've fought the conflict at their side. WARFARE earns an A.

DROP is one of those suspense thrillers that's so illogical and goofy that it inspires a fight or flight response in its audience. If you stick with it, damned if it doesn't pull off an exciting finale. Let's be clear though, the ending is just as implausible as the previous eighty minutes, but two factors kept me engaged. First was Bear McCreary's excellent, BIG, Jerry Goldsmith-like music score. McCreary (The Walking Dead) delivers his best ever film score that calls back to Goldsmith's work in "Basic Instinct" and John Barry's"Jagged Edge". It's terrific. Second is a hugely engaging cast of actors that make the most of their characters. Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus) stars as Violet, an abuse counselor whose about to go on her first date in many years. We see flashbacks to her violent marriage. Its tragic ending still resonates. Violet leaves her young son Toby (Jacob Robinson) with her sister Jen (a terrific Violet Beane from "The Flash) for the evening, with a thousand protective instructions. She hasn't ever left Toby alone and she's clearly terrified to do so. She arrives at a stunning restaurant called Palate, located on top of a Chicago high rise to meet her date. The film takes place mostly in this restaurant space and kudos to the production designer Susie Cullen (Abigail) for creating a modern, beautiful restaurant I'd love to make a reservation in today. Between her design and Director Christopher Landon's establishing shots, we gain a very clear mental map of the restaurant, which is vital to the story telling. Her date Henry shows up, played by Brandon Sklenar with the same strong likability he had in "It Ends With Us". This guys defines "storybook perfect date"and my wife would strongly agree. Just before Henry sits down, Violet starts receiving strange air drops. These escalate into a very deadly game of cat and mouse that I won't dive into here. The best part of the film is guessing what the hell is going on. Each of the texts are plastered across the screen in 3D style text that dominates. The visuals are clever, especially a scene where Violet checks her home security cameras and each screen displays on the walls around her. A toilet stall has never been this visually intriguing. Points scored for creativity. I suspected at least three different characters during dinner and never saw the real story behind the dastardly deeds coming. But be warned, this upscale dinner demands the same complete surrender to illogical behavior as Taron Egerton's recent, hugely enjoyable thriller, "Carry On". In that film, he left his post as a TSA agent so many times to beat up bad guys that I started laughing. The dude would have been fired in real life before he could land a punch. Same here. Violet leaves Henry so many times at the table that he would have been gone between the appetizers and the entree. But Fahy is good at making it somehow plausible and you find yourself thinking about what you would do in her situation. Gabrielle Ryan is excellent as Cara, a bartender at the huge circular bar in the middle of the restaurant, keeping an eye on Violet. She has real presence in a small role. Jeffrey Self is hilarious as Matt, a new waiter working his first night with WAY too much energy for the space. His delivery is flawless and delivers some huge laughs. We've all had this waiter at least once in our lives. Reed Diamond (Clear and Present Danger, Memphis Belle) delivers as another patron on a first date that's not going so well. With lesser actors, lesser music or looser direction, this thing would fall apart before the first dinner seating. It won't ever rank at the top of Blumhouse thrillers and sometimes plays more like a TV movie than a big screen thriller, but it has it's simple charms. The last 15 minutes POPS with crazy action as McCreary's score soars alongside the mayhem. The final scene made me laugh out loud. "Too soon?" has never been delivered in finer form. Looking for a silly 90-minute thriller to keep you guessing? WARNING: You'll likely roll your eyes as much as you scratch your head. DROP gets a C+. I'd like a table for two at Palate tonight please. Let's avoid the window tables.....

Much darker than I expected and elevated by a terrific Billy Bob Thornton, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is a gritty look at the 1988 Permian High Panthers from Odessa, Texas. In an economically depressed community where Football may be the only way out, we watch the entire year from pre-season to Championship Game in the Astrodome. Watching these young men battle with the weight of the entire town behind them is powerful and at times, hard to watch. Thornton is excellent as Coach Gary Gaines, juggling overzealous boosters, the future of a lot of young men and his own tenuous grasp on the job. His final halftime speech in the film is a perfect moment that defines football, teamwork and sports. It's flawless. If you aren't moved in that moment, you probably aren't near a TV all day Saturday and Sunday every fall. The cast is excellent. Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) is hilarious as Boobie Miles, the cocky superstar of the team who faces unexpected adversity. Lucas Black (Sling Blade) is Quarterback Mike Winchell and Jay Hernandez (TV's Magnum PI) is Chavez. The third member of their rarely separated trio is Don Billingsley, well played by Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy, Triple Frontier). Country singer Tim McGraw had his first big screen role as Don's alcoholic father Charles, a despicable and abusive parent punishing his son for his own failed dreams. McGraw is damn good, and very repulsive. Against the backdrop of the struggling town and its citizens that live for Friday nights, Director Peter Berg (Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon, The Kingdom) structures a compelling flight through the season that never feels rushed. He finds a near perfect balance between the personal stories off the field and the game action under the lights. Special kudos to editors Colby Parker Jr (Ant-Man, Gran Turismo), Susan Rash and David Rosenbloom (Black Mass, The Insider). Their editing of the game action delivers plenty of thrills and hits you can feel in your bones. Based on HG Bissinger's book detailing the true story of the Permian Panthers, this is a story that only real life could create. The last half hour is emotionally draining and as good as sports films get, making you feel like you ARE AT that State Championship game. I loved the final coda after the final whistle, with Berg letting the sound fade away and his images alone tell the story. Creatively it's a risk that pays off. The FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS burn bright, delivering a game time A.

I don't know a red-blooded American male that doesn't weep at the power of RUDY. Between Jerry Goldsmith's music, Sean Astin's perfect performance as a blue collar dreamer and the power of its roots in a true story, this is the sports film that makes every grown man choke up. Yep. Me too. The film immerses us in Rudy's family life in a small steel town. He's been told his entire life he's too small to play football, he's not smart enough to attend Notre Dame. Ned Beatty is terrific as his Father Daniel, whose own dreams never looked beyond the mill. His speech to Rudy at the Greyhound bus station is sad and believable. After a tragedy, Rudy leaves everything and heads to Notre Dame, determined to play football for The Irish and prove every naysayer wrong. There's so much that this film gets right. The casting is amazing. Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings, The Goonies) IS Rudy. He never has a non-genuine moment in the entire film. Jason Miller (The Exorcist) is excellent as Coach Ara Parseghian. A very young Jon Favreau is hilarious as D-Bob, a TA at Holy Cross who quickly bonds with Rudy. Charles S. Dutton (Alien3) is Notre Dame groundskeeper Fortune, Rudy's ticket onto the field long before he attends the university. Dutton is fantastic. I've never been a huge Notre Dame fan, but watching Dutton's face as Rudy repeats his favorite Knute Rockne speech in an empty locker room, I think I get it. Tradition and history are a powerful combo and there's no better medium than film to truly stir those emotions. This is one of Jerry Goldsmith's finest scores, SOARING at all the right moments. He also knows exactly when to let the game sounds be all the accompaniment the film needs. But WOW, when Rudy opens that letter alone on the bench and one of Goldsmith's most famous themes rises from a full orchestra....whew. It should be in a museum of how great film music can elevate a scene. And the track "The Final Game" is a piece of legendary film music. Used for numerous trailers and even Presidential campaigns, it tears through you and lifts you up. If this wasn't a true story, you'd never believe it. The friendships are real, the brotherhood is powerful. This is one of only two films in history that were allowed to be shot at Notre Dame, "Knute Rockne All American" in 1940 was the other. The film wouldn't work if Sean Astin wasn't so perfectly earnest in the role. He's never delusional, just committed. He carves out a truly inspirational character and I can't think of anyone we've ever rooted for on this level. Every supporting character is carefully crafted, adding to the power of the story. This was Vince Vaughn's film debut and his first of many films with Favreau. The last twenty minutes of the film, the final game of his senior year, is flawless moviemaking, offering the perfect ending to a film that defines "crowd-pleaser." RUDY is an emotional powerhouse. It ALWAYS gets to me (and every football fan I know) no matter how many times I see it. By never patronizing to its audience and respecting the true heart that makes sports great, RUDY climbs to the top of my favorite sports films, earning an A+.

Any NFL fan will be hard pressed to not enjoy DRAFT DAY on some level. Your enthusiasm will vary wildly based on your forgiveness for how badly the film fumbles the ball when it gets off the field. Kevin Costner stars as fictional Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver. He has just lost his legendary father/previous Browns GM after firing him the year before. Sonny is facing a draft day that will shape his team and his career as he is truly at the controls for the first time. Dennis Leary is excellent as Browns Coach Penn, whose style is the opposite of Sonny's. Leary brings his usual humor and attitude to the role, man how I miss "Rescue Me". Frank Langella is owner Anthony Molina, who challenges Sonny to make a splash on draft day but has no idea how seriously Sonny will take that advice. Trading to the #1 pick in the draft, Sonny must decide between a picture perfect QB who may or may not be hiding something and Sonny's personal favorite Vontae Mack, whose passion for the game and the draft is over the top. Vontae is played by Chadwick Boseman and he is terrific, completing an amazing year in film that included playing James Brown in "Get On Up" and Jackie Robinson in "42". As long as the film stays in the boardroom, the field or Radio City Music Hall for draft day, it's a lot of fun. When it strays into Sonny's personal life it fumbles badly into predictable and maudlin territory. It manages to correct itself in the final quarter, scoring well some unexpected twists and turns that manage to make drafting players look pretty damn exciting. Costner is reliably good as Sonny, Jennifer Garner is ok as his love interest Ali and Ellen Burstyn is very good as Sonny's hard wired Mom. Look for Sean Combs as an agent and plenty of ESPN regulars as themselves. DRAFT DAY is predictable gridiron fun for football fans and (as long as it's focused on football) a well made diversion. We'll give it a game day B-.

Wherever you land on the religious spectrum, from devout to agnostic, there's no denying the sheer will and power of Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. I remember seeing the film in theaters in its original release and feeling like I hadn't seen the film, I'd survived it. The graphic brutality and violence that permeates nearly the entire film, made it a controversial and outlier family film experience. One critic at the time called it "The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre" and he wasn't far off in that opinion. It's been over twenty years since that first viewing and I wanted to revisit the film this Easter season, especially upon the news that Gibson has started the creation of its long awaited sequel, "Resurrection of The Christ". Gibson had shopped his original film based on The Gospels to every major studio, where it was soundly refused based on assumptions that there would be no audience for such a film. He financed and released the film himself, investing $30 million of his own funds in his vision. You can see why studios were reluctant. Gibson wanted the film to be in Aramaic, without subtitles. He eventually changed his mind and added subtitles, but there is no English spoken in the film. He wanted to cast the film without any major movie stars, with every role but the title one filled by foreign actors. Of course, we know now that his faith in the project was well founded, with the film grossing over $600 million against it's $30 million budget. Gibson personally made over $400 million on the film, giving him complete freedom to make whatever films he wanted for the past two decades. He's a select filmmaker and his "Apocalypto" is a brilliant film and a personal favorite, while "Braveheart" stands on its own as one of the best historical dramas ever made. PASSION depicts the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus, (perfectly cast in the form of Jim Caviezel) opening in the Garden of Olives as he finds his apostles asleep and Judas about to betray him. What follows is a shockingly brutal depiction of Jesus being arrested and savagely beaten, even before his conviction of blasphemy. Roman Governor Pontius Pilate (a superb Hristo Shopov) sees no reason to punish Jesus, questioning why he's even before him. He sends him to King Herod. Herod sees Jesus as a fool and releases him back to Pilate. Having been warned twice about any outbreak or trouble in his city, Pilate seeks every way he can think of to let Jesus go. When those efforts fail, he washes his hands of his responsibility and lets the rabble decide. We then watch, real-time the savage whipping and crucifixion of the man who had just arrived to the crowd's cheers days before. Gibson's mission appears to be to subject the viewer to the visceral torture that Jesus experienced at the hands of his Roman soldiers. His camera never looks away. The film's critics would tell you that the film revels in the worst moments. It is brutal to watch as whips just don't stripe his flesh, they yank huge chunks of flesh off his body. Blood covers every surface. The crucifixion sequence that follows is excruciating in it's graphic horrors. Gibson is an excellent filmmaker and he's found the perfect actor for his vision in Caviezel. During filming, the actor experienced a separated shoulder when the 150lb cross was first dropped on his back, was accidentally whipped by one of the actors playing a soldier and was actually struck by lightning filming the sequence on the cross. It's a powerful performance. Gibson balances some of the most horrific moments with flashbacks to Jesus' childhood with his mother Mary Magdalene (Monica Bellucci), his Sermon on the Mount and the Last Supper with his disciples. These flashbacks give you moments to breathe in the midst of the unrelenting torture. By the uplifting final moments of the film, which inspired long lasting goosebumps in me thanks to John Debney's music and an uplifting relief from the two hours of tension that went before it, I again felt like I had again "survived" watching the film. The only other movie that I feel that way about is Spielberg's "Schindler List" which I saw opening night in a theater and have never seen again. Both are brilliant but tortured experiences to witness. Gibson makes so many bold choices in this film that pay off. The Matera location photography by Caleb Deschanel (The Right Stuff, The Natural) is stunning and immerses you in the film. He shot everything at a slightly higher than normal film speed to give the film a dream like feel. The supernatural scenes with Satan as an androgynous, pale, floating figure are scary, unexpected and powerful. In the initial interview scene between Pilate and Jesus, there's a clever Easter Egg that most viewers may not notice. Hebrew or Latin speakers will recognize that after Pilate asks Jesus in Aramaic if he is king of the Jews, Jesus answers him in fluent Latin (translated as "Does this question come from you"). The look of surprise on Pilate's face thus makes perfect sense - few if any of his subjects speak Latin. From this point forward, their conversation continues in Latin. Christian audiences at the time came to theaters in large groups, a first at the time, but now almost commonplace with the nationwide success of Angel Studios and their frequent faith based films. I watch this film rise to the top of Apple TV rental charts every year around Easter week. Having seen it twice, I don't know that' I'll ever watch this again, but my respect for Gibson as a director and filmmaker hasn't wavered. Controversy be damned, he's a brilliant film maker. The film gets a haunting, respectful A.