Almost as soon as movies could talk, they were making films about the gangsters who came to prominence by supplying liquor to thirsty Americans who didn’t believe in the nanny-state laws against alcohol known as Prohibition.

“Lawless,” however, is more of a post-Prohibition tale. Though it is set in the period after the end of the ban on alcohol, it deals with the same impulse – to sell illegal liquor and thwart government regulations. In this case, those doing the selling are moonshine makers and runners in 1930s’ Virginia. (More…)

At first glance, “The Good Doctor” seems like a pilot for a TV series we’ve seen seemingly dozens of times – most successfully in “E.R.”

You’ve got the earnest, ambitious young resident, Dr. Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom – and what happened to HIS career?), dealing with his new assignment at a hospital in Los Angeles. He’s got himself a condo at the beach, which he is slowly furnishing and decorating. No real friends yet but, hey – he’s British and good-looking. Which means that a) he’s new in town and b) that accent should be a real girl-magnet.

But the longer you watch “The Good Doctor,” the more something seems off about Dr. Blake. (More…)

The best horror movies are the ones that hew closest to reality.

I’m not talking slashers or serial killers (and certainly not the supernatural). But give me a realistic threat – with all the random, arbitrary tragedy that life dishes out everyday – and that’s scary to me.

“The Tall Man” achieves that kind of chilling quality, up to a point. (More…)