Day: October 10, 2014

By Renee’ Collins Rating: 4.5 (Out of 5 Reels) Big city lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his childhood home where his father (Robert Duvall), the town’s judge, is suspected of murder.  Hank sets out to discover the truth and, along the way, reconnects with his estranged family (IMDB). To say Duvall and… Continue reading Review: THE JUDGE

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) Based on actual events, Kill the Messenger dramatizes the investigative reporting of Gary Webb and his attempts to expose the C.I.A.’s support of the Nicaraguan Contras through drug trafficking.  The result is a disturbing and engrossing film, but one held back by the filmmakers’ reliance on… Continue reading Review: KILL THE MESSENGER

By Mark Saldana Rating: 2 (Out of 4 Stars) This movie claims to tell the spellbinding origin story of the most infamous vampire of horror legends.  In all of its attempts to tell this “untold” back-story, the movie doesn’t really cast much of a spell.  To its credit, the film has some appealing characters and… Continue reading Review: DRACULA UNTOLD

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) With two acting greats (Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall) in the cast of this courtroom/family drama, The Judge is undoubtedly worth a watch.  The two gifted actors share a powerful chemistry onscreen, credibly portraying an estranged father and son with a mutual disdain for one… Continue reading Review: THE JUDGE