In 1991, “Point Break” made some large waves.  Considered a cult classic by a small age range (those that are now approximately 26 to 30 years of age), “Point Break” was the blockbuster flick of the summer.  Usually viewed now as more of a comedy than action film, somehow “Point Break” is still nostalgic for many of us. This film brings together beach weather, surfing, spirituality, law, and bank robbing into one big ball of fun.  After an injury ends Johnny Utah’s college football career, he turns his attentions to the FBI.  After graduating from the academy, Utah is assigned to Los Angeles’ bank robbery division.  Utah (Keanu Reeves) is a typical young hot shot that is dedicated to absurd theories and getting his man.  Utah is partnered with FBI veteran, Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey).  After the most recent robbery by ...

  “The Mummy” is a basic remake of the Karl Freund 1932 film of the same title, which starred Boris Karloff as Im-ho-tep.  This time around, Stephen Sommers writes and directs this blockbuster action/adventure.  Sommers’ experience previous to “The Mummy” had been limited, comprising mainly of 1994’s “The Jungle Book” remake and 1993’s “The Adventures of Huck Finn”.  And despite some pivotal inventions in the world of filmmaking with “The Mummy”, Stephen Sommers has not gone on to be a top Hollywood director. Sommers’ in development project is the highly anticipated, live-action G.I Joe film.  Die hard fans of the 1980s cartoon could be in for a treat if Sommers brings some of his technological visions that were present in “The Mummy” to the film. “The Mummy” is usually a forgotten film when asked to think of the most pivotal visual effects sequences and their impact on ...

  This lavish naval adventure is both superbly produced and unusually austere, telling a very simple story clearly and well.  There's not a trace of melodrama, nor of the kind of plot reversals usually found in adventures, nothing other than the tale of the HMS Surprise and her pursuit of the French privateer Acheron.  The voyage takes both ships down the coast of Brazil, around Cape Horn, and north in the Pacific to the Galapagos Islands.  It's intensely realistic, with period details rendered as accurately as possible, and features another rich performance from Russell Crowe, here playing “Lucky” Jack Aubrey, captain of the Surprise. Because the story is limited just to the encounters between the two warships -- the movie opens and closes with their two major sea battles -- some audiences will be perplexed.  Except for a brief meeting between the ...

  Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) is a champion of the long-distance horse race.  He and his trusty mustang, Hidalgo, have earned a great reputation for their exploits.  Hopkins is assigned to deliver a packet of military orders to the soldiers in charge at Wounded Knee, one of the last remaining Indian refuge camps.  Unfortunately, the orders he delivers instigate the disarmament of the Indians, which leads to a mass slaughter of them by the soldiers.  Hopkins’s mother, we learn, was Sioux, a secret he has managed to hide.  Wracked with guilt about the part he played in the Wounded Knee massacre, Hopkins takes to drink and joins Buffalo Bill’s (J.K. Simmons) traveling show, witnessing the blatant rewriting of history into a more colorful rendition, that vilifies the Indians.  When Hopkins is near rock bottom, he is approached by representatives of ...

  Shortly following the success of “The Terminator,” Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career exploded into above-the-title, first-billed success with “Commando,” which packaged his most noteworthy assets—his imposing physique, his sarcasm, the ability to believably inflict a great amount of carnage—and packaged it into this empty amoral catalog of superhuman death-dealing.   John Matrix (Schwarzenegger) is the former leader of an elite commando unit clearly patterned on Sylvester Stallone’s outfit from “First Blood,” with the telling difference being that Matrix has no post-war trauma.  When members of his retired team are assassinated, his former leader, General Kirby (James Olson), calls on Matrix to notify and warn him that someone may be coming after him.  Shortly after Kirby and his soldiers depart, guerilla troops attack his house and capture him and his daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano).  The two are brought to a warehouse hideout where the reason ...