By John H. Foote Never a huge fan of Dick Van Dyke on the big screen, I do confess to admiring his TV show. His one great, and I mean truly great film performance, was in The Comic as a former silent screen star Billy Bright who fades into sad obscurity and old age. Bright…
By John H. Foote “The scene ended, and I looked up at Duke, and found myself staring into the coldest, meanest eyes I had ever seen in my life, John Wayne the actor was gone, I was looking into the eyes of Ethan” said actor Jeffrey Hunter, “and it was terrifying.” In the more than…
By John H. Foote Charlize Theron is a natural beauty with flawless skin, a shapely body, piercing eyes, she is woman incarnate. The first time I saw the film Monster in which she portrays serial killer Aileen Wuornos, I stayed for the second screening because I could not believe my eyes. Had Theron just given…
By John H. Foote Was there any doubt as to his comedic gifts? None. I had the pleasure of interviewing Williams six times through the 1990’s and 2000’s and he was truly hysterically funny. If you did not guide the interview you might find yourself watching a standup act being born in front of your…
By John H. Foote The first time I really noticed Forest Whitaker, the towering young actor, was stealing every second he was onscreen opposite Paul Newman in The Color of Money (1986), portraying a pool shark. Playing with Newman’s Eddie Felson, he had convinced Eddie he was good, but not great when in fact he…
By John H. Foote It was fortunate that I was in my teens for most of the seventies and able to see the forceful power George C. Scott brought to his roles. He was an astonishing actor, one I had the chance to interview while he was shooting a film in Toronto, just he and…
By Alan Hurst For most of 1940’s and into the early 1950’s Gene Tierney was a major Hollywood presence, but today even casual movie buffs look vacant when you mention her name. Her personal troubles forced a withdrawal from filmmaking around 1955 and, despite a few forays back on to a soundstage in the early…
By John H. Foote For his magnificent performance in Cast Away (2000) Tom Hanks won the coveted New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor seeming to pave the way for a third Academy Award which would have made him the first actor to win three Oscars for Best Actor. Further he would have…
By John H. Foote (****) For the first time on Blu Ray, the gentle, sparse love story, and tale of redemption Tender Mercies comes to the small screens. Like a well written country and western song, Tender Mercies is all about hurtin’ and living with the pain. Life deals out some harsh cards and it…
By Marie-Renee Goulet By far, one of the best Rock and Roll biographical movies ever made. “I think of myself as an intelligent, sensitive human being with the soul of a clown which always forces me to blow it at the most important moments.” – Jim Morrison Fresh off the success of Platoon (1986), Wall…