Author Archives: jmayhall77

Oct 25 – Nov 12  Exiled (2006) – There’s a door spinning in the air. Put there by the wonky gunplay of three individuals. It’s Hong Kong Heroic Bloodshed at its wonkiest. Brotherhood and redemption are front and center. The duty and honor part gets fudged and messed with in a crisscrossing criminality of Coenesque proportions. Of course, […]

Oct 4 – 23  Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) – The notion that nothing is real goes down a deep, dark well in this movie. The questioning of one’s own reality gets a meta-stamp in the form of a super-hero movies that leans heavily on computer generated surroundings and action set-pieces shot against green screens. It […]

Sept 18 – Oct 3   I’ve stolen this idea from Film Comment. The only thing that’s different is that I’m not a known filmmaker giving you a list of the last ten movies I’ve seen.  48Hrs (1982) – “I’m a ragtop man, myself.”   Nolte’s Jack Cates says this at the end to Murphy’s Reggie Hammond in […]

Sept 1 – 16  I’ve stolen this idea from Film Comment. The only thing that’s different is that I’m not a known filmmaker giving you a list of the last ten movies I’ve seen.  Dial M for Murder (1954) – Ray Milland is a smarmy, controlled, uncaring creep in this somewhat of an English-murder-by-numbers-chamber-piece. He has everything figured […]

Aug 4 – 28  I’ve stolen this idea from Film Comment. The only thing that’s different is that I’m not a known filmmaker giving you a list of the last ten movies I’ve seen.  7500 (2019) – Never leaving the cockpit in a hijacked-plane movie is a novel idea. Tensions abound. But it grows nauseating and […]

July 16 – Aug 3  I’ve stolen this idea from Film Comment. The only thing that’s different is that I’m not a known filmmaker giving you a list of the last ten movies I’ve seen. The Old Guard (2020) – They’re not very good assassins for having so many years and so much practice at it. […]

June 24 – July 16  I’ve stolen this idea from Film Comment. The only thing that’s different is that I’m not a known filmmaker giving you a list of the last ten movies I’ve seen.   Friends with Money (2006) – Frances McDormand’s character at one point, lies in bed, depressed. Her and her husband are […]

June 10 – 16 I’ve stolen this idea from Film Comment. The only thing that’s different is that I’m not a known filmmaker giving you a list of the last ten movies I’ve seen. Nostalgia (1983) – “Unspoken feelings are unforgettable.” The poet at the center of this movie says this to a little girl […]

June 3 – 9 I’ve stolen this idea from Film Comment. The only thing that’s different is that I’m not a known filmmaker giving you a list of the last ten movies I’ve seen. Bob Le Flambeur (1956) – A great, long-con of a joke. A carefully planned heist that never happens. Bob is a […]

May 27 – June 2 I’ve stolen this idea from Film Comment. The only thing that’s different is that I’m not a known filmmaker giving you a list of the last ten movies I’ve seen. High and Low (1963) – A house on a hill. They often look like castles in the sky, a faraway […]