The Mask of Zorro is a 1998 ‘swashbuckler’ move directed by Martin Campbell and featuring Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Now, I don’t expect anyone to have watched the original TV series (I know I watched only snippets here and there) or to have read the books by Johnston McCulley (yes, just like…
Category: Movies & Entertainment
The Pirate Groom
The Princess Bride is a 1987 iconic fantasy film, directed by Rob Reiner, starring Cary Elwes and Robin Wright (honourable mentions are obviously due to Mandy Patinkin and André the Giant, two of the most charismatics rogues-turned-coprotagonists ever). It is the simple story of two lovers, how they faced the evils of a corrupted ruler…
The devil you’d want to know
We are in the romantic month after all, and considering that last year, for the ‘movie of the month’ column, I skipped it entirely in favour for a return to childhood theme, this time I have three more or less romantic suggestions. So now that you have a clue for the recommendations for March and…
Billy
Let me kick off the new year with a movie that that just reached its 25th anniversary; The Kid was directed by Jon Turteltaub and starred Bruce Willis and Emily Mortimer. The premise puts the main character, a successful, arrogant and stressed image consultant, to confront his past; the past in question, as such, is…
The farthest station of the Orient Express
The 2024 movie-of-the-month column began with an animation piece, and so it shall end, one that in fact just hit its 20th year anniversary (since this has been a bit of a leitmotiv as well). Polar Express is a 2004 animation movie directed by Robert Zemeckis (the same one that directed the Back to the…
City of Sin (no, not Vegas)
Since for the movie-of-the-month column in October I discussed The Crow – and how its style eventually influenced other similar graphic novel adaptations – I thought it would be opportune this time to discuss one such case. Without further ado, let me introduce a noir or neo-noir piece that had quite a unique style: Sin…
Quoth the crow, Nevermore
This is not necessarily what one might expect when hearing the words ‘Halloween movie’; I am however willing to bend the rules of categorization given how well this film sets the unnerving tone for its plot. Furthermore, this is yet another movie that this year to its thirtieth anniversary, so a little appreciation is a…
Helsing van Belmont
A bit of a strange one for the movie of the month column, but it is the 20th year anniversary of Van Helsing and it is an adequate way to ease in to the upcoming Spooktober. Van Helsing is a 2004 action horror(-ish) movie directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale and Richard…
George of the (Jungle) Dragon
George and the Dragon is a 2004 movie directed by Tom Reeve, starring James Purefoy, Piper Perabo and Patrick Swayze with the guest appearance of Michael Clarke Duncan and Val Kilmer (which awkwardly is uncredited). At its core, it is a light-hearted adventure: a princess that is taught to have been kidnapped by a dragon,…
The last of the samurai
From west to east – or from east to west depending on your location – we have covered cowboys, now it is high time to cover the samurai. And what better movie than Seven Samurai? It is an immortal classic from the Japanese cinematographic industry, directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1954 and starring Toshiro Mifune…