Tag Archives: movies

The Other Oscars: The Juvenile Academy Award

Posted on June 21, 2025 by Mark DuPré

Did you know that July Garland, in spite of her tragic loss of the Oscar in 1955, did win an Academy Award? Other winners in this special Juvenile category include Mickey Rooney (nominated later for four other films as an … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Academy Awards, awards, Bobby Discoll, Claude Jarman Jr, Deanna Durbin, film, Fox Film Corporation, Fred Zinnemann, Gone with the Wind, Hayley Mills, In Search of the Castaways, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ivan Jandl, John Mills, Jon Whitely, Judy Garland, Juvenile Academy Awards, Juvenile Oscar, M. Night Shyamalan, Margaret O'Brien, Meet Me in St. Louis, Mickey Rooney, Montgomery Clift, movies, Oscars, Peggy Ann Garner, Peter Pan, Pollyanna, Shirley Temple, So Dear to My Heart, Superman III, The Chalk Garden, The Color Purple, The Little Kidnappers, The Parent Trap, The Search, The Window, The Wizard of Oz, Tiger Bay, Trap, Vincent Winter | Leave a comment

Mission: Impossible–The Final Reckoning

Posted on June 16, 2025 by Mark DuPré

Full disclosure: I’ve semi-enjoyed the previous films in the series, but TBH, they all blur in the mind. I made sure I saw the prior film (Dead Reckoning, Part One) the night before I saw this film. That helped me … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged action, Alfie Godfrey, Angela Bassett, Born on the Fourth of July, film, Fraser Taggarty, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Hannah Waddington, Hayley Atwell, Janet McTeer, Leah Remini, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, Magnolia, Max Aruj, Mission Impossible, Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning, Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning, movies, Mr. Milchick, Nick Offerman, Ron Swanson, Scientology, Severance, Simon Pegg, Star Wars, The Big Sleep, Tom Cruise, Tramell Tillman, Tropic Thunder, Ving Rhames, White Heat | Leave a comment

Strait Undercover

Posted on May 13, 2025 by Mark DuPré

The plot of Strait Undercover is described on IMDB as “A biotech company secretly housing a government contract for terminator seeds and a Nexxus robot is infiltrated by a low-level USDA agent who connects telepathically with nature.” Sounds bizarre, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Ben Gonyo, film, horror, I Am Sam, movie-review, movies, Race Eberhardt, reviews, Strait Undercover, The Peanut Butter Falcon, The Theory of Everything, western New York State, What's Eating Gilbert Grape? | Leave a comment

Yentl

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Mark DuPré

My head is still spinning after my recent rewatch of 1983’s Yentl after originally seeing it in the theater when it was released. Spinning because so much of it was so very good, spinning because much of it was so … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Alan Bergman, Amy Irving, Barbra Streisand, Citizen Kane, David Watkin, Fanny Brice, film, Funny Girl, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Mandy Patinkin, Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand, movies, music, Orson Welles, Out of Africa, reviews, Richard Gere, Summer of '42, The Thomas Crown Affair, Windmills of Your Mind, Yentl, Yentl the Yeshiva Boy | Leave a comment

Ryan’s Daughter

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Mark DuPré

Fifty-five years after its release, 1970’s Ryan’s Daughter surely needs another look. The reputation of this David Lean-directed film has suffered over the years for a couple of key reasons: its own genuine weaknesses plus the breadth of its scope. … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged 49th Parallel, A Passage to India, Academy Awards, awards, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter, Christopher Jones, David Lean, Doctor Zhivago, film, Freddie Young, Great Expectations, Hayley Mills, Hobson's Choice, In Which We Serve, It Was a Good Time, John Mills, Julie Cristie, Lawrence of Arabia, Maurice Jarre, movies, Noel Coward, Oliver Twist, Omar Sharif, One of Our Aircraft is Missing, Oscars, Peggy Ashcroft, Pygmalion, Robert Mitchum, Ryan’s Daughter, Sarah Miles, Summertime, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Sound Barrier, Trevor Howard | Leave a comment

Thoughts and a Few Predictions for the 2025 Oscars

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Mark DuPré

Note: This entire article is dedicated to Steve Hogan. My first thought on this year’s Oscar show is that it will be the least watched in a long time. There are no big points of interest, except perhaps a win … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged awards, film, movies, news, Oscars | Leave a comment

A Real Pain

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Mark DuPré

A Real Pain is the second film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg (below right), best known in one demographic group as Lex Luthor in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and in another as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged A Real Pain, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Dirty Dancing, film, HBO, Jennifer Grey, Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Lex Luthor, Macauley Culkin, movies, review, Succession, The Social Network | Leave a comment

La Bohème

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Mark DuPré

La Bohème is a silent film from 1926 starring the luminous Lillian Gish and the overactive John Gilbert, and is directed by King Vidor (Oscar nominations for directing The Crowd, Hallelujah, The Champ, The Citadel, and War and Peace). Note: … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged books, film, Lillian Gish, movies, reviews | Leave a comment

Saturday Night

Posted on October 30, 2024 by Mark DuPré

OK, what movie has dazzling cinematography, contains at least two supporting performances that could easily be nominated for Oscars and came and went so fast that almost no one saw it? Yes, if you read the title here, it’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Academy Awards, Andy Kaufmann, Chevy Chase, film, Gabriel LaBelle, Garrett Morris, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Jason Reitman, John Belushi, Juno, Lamorne Morris, Lorne Michaels, Matt Wood, Milton Berle, movie, movies, Nicholas Braun, Oscars, Saturday Night, Saturday Night Live, Up in the Air | Leave a comment

Tiger Bay (1959) and Hayley Mills

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Mark DuPré

My first celebrity crush was blonde ingenue Hayley Mills. If you are older or have seen old Disney movies, you may remember her from 1960’s Pollyanna and/or 1961’s The Parent Trap—the original one. Those were probably the first two films … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged A Fistful of Dollars, Anton Yelchin, BAFTA, Brittany Murphy, Chadwick Boseman, Clint Eastwood, David Lean, entertainment, film, Great Expectations, Hayley Mills, Heath Ledger, Hollywood, Horst Buchholz, In Which We Serve, J. Lee Thompson, James Dean, John Mills, kitchen-sink drama, Life is Beautiful, Liza Minnelli, movies, New Wave, news, Noel Coward, Omar Shariff, Pollyanna, River Phoenix, Roy Boulting, Ryan's Daughter, So Well Remembered, The Guns of Navarone, The Magnificent Seven, The Parent Trap, West Side Story, Whistle Down the Wind | Leave a comment