Once Upon a Time in America has a chequered history, having been chopped from its original 229-minute director's cut to 139 minutes for its theatrical release. The longer edition presented here benefits from having the complete story (the short version has huge gaps) about turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants in America finding their way into lives of crime, as told in flashback by an ...
Felicity Huffman deserves every award she's received for her outstanding performance in Transamerica, a small but rich movie about Bree--formerly Stanley--a pre-operative male-to-female transexual awaiting gender-reassignment surgery who learns she has a wayward teenage son named Toby. When her therapist (Elizabeth Peña, Jacob's Ladder) strongarms Bree into facing her past, she bails ...
Mickey Blue Eyes was crafted as a vehicle for the stammering British charm of Hugh Grant (star of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Nine Months), so whether or not you like the movie will depend heavily on your affection for Grant. He plays an art auctioneer who falls in love with schoolteacher Jeanne Tripplehorn (Basic Instinct, Very Bad Things), who just happens ...
The 1976 Oscar winner for Best Picture, John G Avildsen's Rocky is the story of a down-and-out club fighter who gets his million-to-one shot at a world championship title. In the title role, Sylvester Stallone (who also penned the screenplay) draws a carefully etched portrait of a loser who, in Brando-esque fashion, "coulda been a contender". Rocky then becomes one thanks to a publicity ...
Set among the Italian-American community of Manhattan and adapted by Vincent Patrick from his own novel, 1984's The Pope of Greenwich Village just about gets by on its charm. It stars Mickey Rourke as Charlie, a small-time grafter who is on the point of making his big move and breakaway. Unfortunately, the pull of family ties means that he's hampered by his cousin Paulie (Eric Roberts), an ...
Americans love the underdog. Anytime someone is beating the odds, fighting his or her way to the top, like The Little Engine That Could, it resonates well with U.S. audiences; it's in their nature. Sylvester Stallone knew that in 1976, when Rocky was a monstrous hit and established itself in the American cultural lexicon. His low-budget tale of a young boxer who came from the slums of ...