EricNorcrossDotCom Reviews

Welcome to Harlem (2012)

An excellent debut by filmmaker/actor/singer Mark Blackman

[26 January 2013]

I first saw this film at the 2012 Manhattan Film Festival where I also had a movie showing. I met filmmaker/lead actor, Mark, at the Producer's Club Theater and asked him a bit about the movie. He informed me that it was an "indie musical comedy". I was immediately hooked because the words indie and musical generally don't appear in the same sentence. When it comes to independent film, most people cop out for "talkies" due to budgetary restraints, but not Mark. Mark and his band of misfits have created a phenomenal work here, an instant classic NYC movie that young people trying their hand at life in the Big Apple can relate to. I moved to NYC in 2003 on $3,000 (which ended up getting taken by a broker for an apartment I never got to live in). Many of the struggles of the characters in this film are some of the same struggles I went through for many years since. I, like a lot of other transplants, can very much relate to the story and its characters.

The movie is timeless and the music is hopping. I find myself walking around New York City with the tracks playing in my MP3 player and people look at me like I'm crazy because I'm dancing around and smiling like a maniac. Sometimes I sing along while on the Staten Island Ferry... "when it comes to romance... and you wanna take a chance... you gotta dance dance dance."

-Eric

I'm Still Here (I) (2010)

A great experiment in gauging the cost of being original...

[28 December 2010]

Society wants us in our place, whether we're big stars or the common worker. This is proof that even those on top of the world can fall if they try to do something original, unique and personally rewarding. With that said, I highly enjoyed this piece, although I can't say I expected to. I thought it would be a joke, something to laugh at and yes, while there were parts that were funny I couldn't help but to be taken aback by a message, whether intended or accidental: we are a mean society. our expectations are for us and not those around us. We are greedy. We laugh at others when maybe we're not supposed. We criticize when we shouldn't.

This isn't a film about the actor/rapper in question - it's a film about us and the consensus: we're really bad people.

-E

Bronco Billy (1980)

Good flick, East to watch.

[13 October 2010]

Before I begin, let me just give a shout out to all the folks who claim that this movie is part of Clint Eastwood's long drawn out patch of "bad movie-making". First off, Eastwood never had a patch of bad movie making. I have enjoyed all of the films I've seen of his.

This film is no exception. It's not as serious as some of his other material and I feel like it's not supposed to be. This film is a fun feel good movie with characters you adore (if you don't, you have serious psychological issues). The main character is Bronco Billy, the fastest gun in the west. Of course he's a performer portrayed by Clint, who runs a Wild West Show in contemporary 1980's America. The reality of his character's background is somewhat of a mystery for the first part of the movie and when his origins are finally revealed, you almost don't believe it... or maybe you don't want to.

There are a lot of great old west motifs and while some aspects of the plot are somewhat unbelievable, they are certainly plausible. For those of you who are still in doubt, maybe you'll get a kick out of this: Imagine if Clint Eastwood decided to force Paris Hilton to perform in a wild west show and had to (on occasion) put the smack down to keep her in line... now that's worth renting on Netflix isn't it?

Wise Blood (1979)

Jhon Huston's Wise Blood is PERFECT

[20 August 2010]

It's a great character study - in that, it explores what a person becomes if they are a "true idealist". The idea is that we all give up certain ideals every single day in exchange for making our lives more efficient and effective. Where the main character of this story is a solid, immobile foundation of ideals. We see how it slowly corrodes his life, his social connections and affects the people around him.

Think about it this way: if you live in a city where you think the MTA charges too much for bus/train fare, but choose to utilize the service because the other options are too hard to follow through with each and everyday, you've essentially given up an ideal. The main character in this movie wouldn't do that, he would walk to his destination or learn to ride a bicycle or what have you. That is, at least, my understanding of this the lead character in this phenomenal movie.

Tempting Fate (1998 TV Movie)

Good TV Movie That Stuck With Me

[10 March 2010]

I first saw this movie when it was the TV Movie of the Week in the late 90's and ever since the concept and imagery has stuck with me. I couldn't pin point it and in between the first time I saw it and now (2010), I had inadvertently forgot the title and therefore, this film that had stuck with me over the years I couldn't access it.

I managed to extrapolate the title through an IMDb search on the keyword "parallel dimension". I then found the DVD on Amazon, new for five dollars. Receiving it today, I was able to find the time to watch it again and while the aesthetics weren't as good as I remember it being, the concept was all in tact as were the key scenes that had stuck with me. I could see immediately why I was drawn to this film.

A brilliant scientist is disregarded by the scientific community as harebrained and foolish. He manages to develop a machine that transfers a living being to a parallel universe, a universe that exists "between atoms" or the space within matter, where life is seemingly perfect in every way. His friends get in on the action and in a show of self- centered behavior, make an attempt to stay in the parallel universe and never go back home. It is at this point that the movie's psychological elements begin, as signs of the new world's demons and imperfections begin to take shape.

W. (I) (2008)

Great Film By A Great Director About A Horrible Person

[19 October 2008]

This was a wonderful, if not borderline satirical bio-pic of a very confused, and ultimate misguided public figure: George W. Bush. While Stone was surprisingly gentle in his dramatization of the individual, many embarrassing scenes from Bush's young life surface early on in the picture. From being tormented and hazed by his classmates at Yale, to winding up in jail and crashing his car into "Poppy Bush's" house while under the influence of alcohol.

Dreyfus' portrayal as Dick Cheney seemed spot on, although I never met 'nor do I ever intend to meet the real Cheney - the depiction is at least how I and many of my friends had often perceived him.

Whether you love him or hate him, this is probably the most accurate, non-bias portrayal of how the inconsiderate, pre-senile, demented lunatic got into office.