Author Archive: Joe Sanders
Joe Sanders is a playwright and college instructor in Kalamazoo, MI. He has a master's degree in playwriting and a bachelor's degree in creative writing from Western Michigan University, where he currently teaches thought and writing.
Jack the Giant Slayer
Bryan Singer’s (Usual Suspects) visually ambitious new take on “Jack and the Beanstalk” comes to Blu-ray and DVD. Years ago, there was a war between the humans and the giants who live on a floating island far above the Earth’s surface. Connected via a magic beanstalk, the giants rained down destruction on the human race [...]
A Good Day to Die Hard
Yippee Ki-Yay, John McClane is back. Not better than ever, but certainly back. Bruce Willis reprises the iconic action hero role for the sixth time, and proves once again that he can still hold his own as a legitimate action star 25 years after the original Die Hard. The first movie is a classic: one [...]
The Philadelphia Experiment
Remember the time a World War II Navy Destroyer fell out of the sky and destroyed a Chicago Skyscraper? Well, the producers of The Philadelphia Experiment do because this film is based on actual events. Basically the story is that a team of scientists aboard the aforementioned Navy Ship, in an attempt to render the [...]
The Newsroom – Season 1
Hold onto something because this is going to go on for a bit. Basically, HBO’s The Newsroom is about a fictional cable news program called “News Night” hosted by the hugely popular and moderate Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels; The Squid and The Whale). However, even though “News Night” is fictional, the stories Will McAvoy and [...]
Knife Fight
Paul Turner (Rob Lowe; Parks and Recreation) is a world-class political campaign consultant, putting the right person in the right political office despite what personal shortcomings they may have. He’s all about the greater good, and along with his new assistant Kerstin (Jamie Chung) is working to reelect a California state senator (David Harbour) and [...]
The Loving Story
Richard and Mildred Loving were a mixed race couple who got married in a time and place when marriage between the races was illegal. They hid their marriage and traveled separately to avoid being arrested and imprisoned on a regular basis. Finally having enough, they decided to hire a lawyer (Bernard S. Cohen) to fight [...]
Struck by Lightning
Carson Phillips is dead. While walking to his car after school, the high school senior, who served on the student council, edited the school newspaper, and served as president of the Clover High Writers’ Club, was struck by lightning. The film tells the story of Carson’s (Chris Colfer; Glee) final weeks before his death, which [...]
Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy
From Irvine Welsh, the novelist behind Trainspotting comes another mind-bending drug drama in Ecstasy. This film is centered on Lloyd Buist (Adam Sinclair), a drug smuggler working for an Irish mobster, Solo (Carlo Rota; Fox’s 24). Lloyd and his friend Woodsy (Billy Boyd; The Lord of the Rings), and his girlfriend Heather (Kristen Kreuk; Smallville) [...]
Silver Case
Two wannabe crime bosses working in the film industry are having a silent war. Very silent. It’s not even clear if one of them is aware of it, but fortunately it’s not incredibly relevant to the film. On one side there’s the Senator (Eric Roberts), and on the other there’s the Master (Brad Light) and [...]
Tomorrow You’re Gone
In the days leading up to Charlie’s (Stephen Dorff) release from prison, he receives an encouraging letter from an old friend known as Buddha (Willem Dafoe). The letter contains a hidden message to kill a man named Ornay (Robert LaSardo) and so when Charlie gets out, he works to fulfill the Buddha’s request. Along the [...]
Connect