Simon Birch (1998) A movie so sappy it ought to come with a pancake breakfast.
Ben Dover Preview Coming to video and streaming services this week is “Simon Birch,” a 1998 tearjerker about a tiny kid in 1960s Maine who believes God made him small for a…
Drama
Requiem for a Dream (2000) – The most effective anti-drug campaign ever made, mostly because it makes you too depressed to leave the couch.
Want to ruin your whole weekend in under two hours? Ben Dover reviews Requiem for a Dream! If you enjoy sitting in a dark room while a giant TV screams…
The Long Walk (2025) – Finally, a movie that treats teenage complaining with the appropriate response
Two hours of teenagers getting blisters. It is the best thing I have seen all year. Lionsgate’s adaptation of a story Stephen King wrote decades ago under a different name.…
From Russia With Love (1963) – No CGI, no digital doubles, just two grown men beating the absolute tar out of each other.
Put down the smartphone, stop crying about your feelings, and watch a real man fight on a train in a cold war thriller of espionage and danger. British Intelligence is…
Cinderella Man (2005) – Russell Crowe proves that a left hook is the ultimate cure for economic depression.
Director Ron Howard delivers with a story set in the bleak days of the Great Depression, focusing on a man who lost his shirt before finding his fists. This film…
Braveheart (1995) – Come for the historical inaccuracy, stay for the Testosterone.
Three hours of guys in skirts beating each other up, and honestly, it’s better than whatever is on TV right now. Directed by and starring Hollywood heavyweight Mel Gibson, this…
Magnolia (1999): If you like frogs and emotional trauma, this is your Citizen Kane.
Hold onto your hats because we are diving into a three hour marathon of people crying and screaming in California. This flick tries to tie together a dozen different stories…
Law Abiding Citizen (2009) – A movie for people who think the “Justice System” is just a suggestion.
It’s the only movie where the guy in solitary confinement has a better social life and more gadgets than my grandson, and I still can’t figure out which one of…
The Godfather Part II (1974) – If you’re suffering from a terminal case of insomnia, skip the drug store and pop in The Godfather Part II.
Lock your doors and hide your olive oil, because the Corleones are back. Director Francis Ford Coppola has followed up his 1972 hit with a movie that dares to ask…
Greenland 2: Migration (2026) – Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Radioactive Freezer
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the bunker, Greenland: Migration arrives to remind us that life after the apocalypse is basically just one long, miserable…