Author: Bob Westal

I don’t like to say that this or that film classic is “as fresh as the day it was made,” as if movies had enjoy-by dates printed on them, but there’s something about “The Hustler” that really does feel like it could have been made yesterday. Its lack of early ‘60s coyness about sex and love, addiction, and thuggish violence might have something to do with that. Its biting attitude towards the matter of winners and losers, success and failure, and money and the lack of it also feels contemporary to our own Great Recession era. Even if none of…

Yes, it’s a little bit irritating that Hollywood has decided to open two separate attempts to capitalize on the success of fondly-remembered 1980s films on the same weekend. That being said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with remakes – assuming the filmmakers bring something worthwhile to the party. I’m sure that’s what director John Carpenter must have figured when he and screenwriter Bill Lancaster transformed 1951’s Howard Hawks produced (and possibly directed) “The Thing from Another World,” and the oft-anthologized John W. Campbell Jr. short story it was drawn from, into the playfully gruesome 1982 hit, “The Thing.” Technically a…

I haven’t read it, but I gather that author-adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ avowedly neither-fact-nor-fiction bestseller, “The Feather Men,” tells of a series of alleged assassinations of former members of British special forces. As per Fiennes, the killings were in revenge for the UK’s involvement in a scandalous war for oil waged in the Arabian nation of Oman during the late 1970s. Fiennes further describes how other secret ops veterans, including the author himself, were supposedly rescued by a shadowy, illegal group. Comprised of ex-special forces members, these mysterious and possibly non-existent operatives were nicknamed “feather men.” The idea being that…

No disrespect to Keri Russell or Justin Timberlake, but Ryan Gosling is easily the most powerfully versatile actor to emerge from that thespian crucible we call the Mickey Mouse Club. He’s done very well playing relatively straightforward leads in “Fracture” and the chick-flick phenom, “The Notebook,” but the 30-year-old Canadian with an oddly urban accent has specialized in playing a wide variety of oddballs and doing it better than anyone of his generation. Viewers of edgy indy cinema were put on notice back in 2001 with Gosling’s astonishing tour de force performance as a young orthodox Jew turned anti-Semitic skinhead…

MMA fans can finally relax. “Warrior” is the first film to come out of Hollywood that treats mixed martial arts seriously and with the respect that the sport’s advocates insist it deserves. A populist family-centric tale in the spirit of the early “Rocky” films and innumerable kitchen sink melodramas, “Warrior” brings together likely superstars-to-be Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as long-estranged Pittsburgh brothers Tommy and Brendan Conlon. The pair starts out working their respective ways through the world of ultimate fighting for very different reasons. With inexorable movie logic, they end up facing off with a boatload of money and…

There might be many parallels between director/co-writer Gavin O’Connor’s festival of emotion and creative MMA bloodsport, “Warrior,” and 1976’s “Rocky,” but the character of Tess Conlon as played by Jennifer Morrison is a far cry from the put-upon Adrian Pennino. She’s a woman who is fully secure in her intelligence and beauty who knows what she wants. What she doesn’t want is her husband, Brendan (Joel Edgerton of “Animal Kingdom”), risking his neck, or her and their children’s future, by getting involved in UFC-style fighting. She’s also very understandably not too sure what to make of his long-estranged war-veteran brother…

Taking an unusually respectful approach to the new sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), “Warrior” refurbishes material we’ve seen in the “Rocky” films and a thousand other populist dramas about ordinary people making their mark. Fortunately, journeyman director and co-writer Gavin O’Connor does a good enough job in rearranging the usual bits and pieces that his film has a decent shot at grabbing an audience. It’s just a shame that, when the punching and kicking really gets started during the film’s final third, the 140-minute tale goes flabby due to an uncomfortable mix of sincere populist enthusiasm and artistic ambition.…

Audrey Hepburn’s status as a princess for adult fairytales got its second workout in this very popular comedy from Hollywood’s master of cheerful cynicism and heartbroken romanticism, Billy Wilder. Remade profitab from a time when such films were often good, that nevertheless falls short because of a single piece of unfortunate casting – but more about that after the obligatory plot synopsis. Based on Samuel Taylor’s Broadway hit, “Sabrina Fair,” the film version brings us Hepburn as Sabrina Fairchild, the once-gawky daughter of a chauffeur (John Williams) working on the estate of a super-wealthy industrialist (Walter Hampden). The two sons…

Believe it or not, there was a time when Hollywood was able to fashion love stories that even hardnosed male audiences could tolerate (or, if you could get them to admit it, actually love). Still, not many of these were as successful at combining some fairly broad comedy with bittersweet hearts and flowers as the adult fairytale that introduced Audrey Hepburn to an adoring world. “Roman Holiday” brings us the 24-year-old Miss Hepburn as Princess Ann, the future queen of a nameless European country. Visiting Rome as part of a continental tour, the young woman is frustrated to the point…

We’ve already identified five essential cocktails that every guy should know how to make, but are you suitably prepared to handle those drink orders and whatever others you’re faced with at your next party? It doesn’t matter where the bar is; mixologists are only as good as their tools and ingredients. The following is a list of the basics. Cocktail shaker and/or strainer Martinis, Manhattans and numerous other cocktails should be served “up,” i.e., without ice, but well chilled by contact with ice stimulated by intense stirring or shaking, and then strained into a glass. Other recipes call for straining…