As big names in horror go, you can’t get much bigger than Stephen King, and this year saw the release of a new film version of his classic “Pet Sematary,” which is now available on video and streaming for your viewing pleasure as Halloween quickly approaches. So what’s the verdict on the new flick? I reviewed it earlier this year, and here’s my take. In the 1989 original  film“Pet Sematary” pets buried in a spooky backwoods cemetery come back to life. When a tragedy befalls a child of Louis and Rachel Creed (Jason Clarke and Amy Seimetz), the lure of having... Read More

In preparing a list of “the greatest” of anything, you are limited by your own exposure to the films (i.e., ‘Did you see these movies?”)  If you did see them, do you remember all of them? Fortunately for those of you longing for a political fix that isn’t nauseating (but actually entertaining), I have personally seen every single movie on this list—some of them more than once. I concentrated on the American political experience, not that of another country. For that reason, films like “Z” by Costa-Gravas, or his equally impressive “Missing” (Chile) or Helen Mirren’s“The... Read More

“Hacksaw Ridge” Genre: War drama/biography Director:  Mel Gibson 132 minutes Stars:  Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Teresa Palmer, Vince Vaughn, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths Mel Gibson’s first directorial effort in 10 years (since 2006’s “Apocalypto”) is “Hacksaw Ridge,” the true story of conscientious objector Desmond T. Doss, a 7th Day Adventist who served as a medic in WWII in Okinawa and elsewhere in the Pacific Theater. As Gibson said, “He was an ordinary man doing extraordinary things under the most difficult of circumstances.” Gibson went on to explain that, in... Read More