The Hudson Valley has become a prime location for filmmakers. The Hudson Valley Film Commission, which is headed by co-founder of the Woodstock Film Festival Laurent Retjo, has played a critical role in bringing films to the Hudson Valley. The area has had many movies filmed here in the past 20 years and there are still more to come.

Here are our picks for the eight biggest movies filmed in the Hudson Valley.

8. Our Idiot Brother

http://youtu.be/1yvn8a16B9Q

‘Our Idiot Brother’ is a comedy starring Paul Rudd; it was released on January 22, 2011 at Sundance. Paul Rudd plays Ned Rochlin, a biodynamic farmer living with his girlfriend Janet. Ned gets coaxed into selling marijuana to a police officer in a local market and is arrested on a charge of selling drugs. When Ned is released from prison he returns home to his girlfriend to find that she is living with another man named Billy, and no longer wants to continue their relationship. Billy gives Ned a ride into town and tells him that if he can scrape up $500 they will let him stay in the goat barn on the farm for rent. Ned makes this his goal and returns home to his mother’s house for a family dinner with his three sisters. He ends up asking to stay with his sister Liz and she allows him to on the condition that he helps out around the house and helps her husband Dylan with a documentary film he is making. Ned spends a lot of time with his three sisters and they end up blaming him for their problems in their lives.

The film received a 67% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.4 rating from IMDB. Rotten Tomatoes described the movie and Paul Rudd’s performance as “too charming to resist.” Filming locations included Brooklyn, Manhattan, Washington Heights, and Cold Spring, New York.

7. Down to the Bone

http://youtu.be/CXyjsjAFMoU

‘Down to the Bone’ is an independent drama starring Vera Farmiga, who received a Best Actress Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. It premiered at Sundance on January 15, 2004 where the film’s director, Debra Granik, won the Director’s Award. Vera Farmiga also won the Special Jury Prize for acting. The movie focuses on a woman who tries to raise her children while hiding a drug addiction. As winter rolls around in her small town things begin to fall apart.

Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 94% approval rating and it received a 6.7 rating from IMDB. Rotten Tomatoes stated that the film is a “vivid portrayal of drug abuse that avoids cinematic clichés.” The movie was filmed in and around Kingston, New York.

6. Taking Woodstock

http://youtu.be/I5DXIs1z2zQ

‘Taking Woodstock’ is a comedy-drama directed by Ang Lee that was released on August 28, 2009. The movie is obviously about the Woodstock Festival of 1969. The film is based on the memoir Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte. The film premiered at the 2009 Cannes festival before opening up in New York and Los Angeles on August 26, two days before its wide theatrical release. The plot follows the true story of Elliot Tiber, an aspiring Greenwich Village interior designer. Elliot’s parents owned a motel in Bethel, New York. A hippie theater troupe, The Earthlight Players, rents the barn, but can hardly pay any rent. The motel is forced to close due to financial trouble, but Elliot pleads with the local bank not to foreclose the mortgage. The family is given until the end of the summer to pay. Elliot plans to hold a small music festival, obtaining a permit from the town’s chamber of commerce, of which he is the president, for $1. He soon hears that the Woodstock Festival is facing opposition with its original location, and offers up his permit and the motel accommodations to the organizer, Michael Lang. Locals do not take lightly to Elliot’s plan and proceed to berate him. Elliot struggles with his homosexuality throughout the film, and ultimately the festival is a huge success, and Elliot packs up and leaves his family to be on his own.

The film was not accepted well by critics, receiving a mere 47% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.7 rating from IMDB. Rotten Tomatoes critics said that the film included many ‘60s clichés but lacked much of the musical magic that made the event so monumental.

5. War of the Worlds

http://youtu.be/MJYnHA2OzfA

‘War of the Worlds’ is a 2005 science fiction disaster thriller based on H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds. Released in the US on June 29, 2005 the film stars Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning and was directed by Stephen Spielberg. The movie had filming locations in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia and the town of Athens, New York. The movie is about a group of intelligent extraterrestrials made planes to take over earth. Tom Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, a divorced crane operator who works on a dock in Bayonne, New Jersey. His ex-wife drops off his two children, with whom he has not been contact for some time. When the alien attack begins Ray takes his children and drives to the home of his ex-wife, who is visiting her parents in Boston. Ray decides to get his children to Boston to reunite them with their mother. Along the way his teenage son, Robbie, joins the fight against the aliens. Eventually Ray gets his daughter, Rachel, to her grandparents’ house in Boston to find his ex-wife Marry Ann and surprisingly Robbie.

The narrator then explains that the aliens had no immunity to the bacteria on earth and they are defeated. The movie received a 74% rating and high praise from Rotten Tomato critics, and a 6.5 rating from IMDB.

4. The Bourne Legacy

http://youtu.be/jSzy9qQ3mDE

‘The Bourne Legacy,’ released on August 10, 2012, is the fourth installment of the action-thriller Bourne series. The first three installments starred Matt Damon, but the fourth one stars Jeremy Renner and Edward Norton. The movie was shot primarily in New York, with brief scenes in Hudson, New York. In the movie, Jeremy Renner plays Aaron Cross, a government operative assigned to Operation Outcome. The operation uses experimental pills meant to increase the abilities and intelligence of its users. Cross is assigned to Alaska for a training exercise in which he is supposed to survive and reach an isolated cabin, and breaks the exercise’s record by two days. A drone is built to eliminate Cross in Alaska. Cross removes a tracker implanted inside of him and force feeds it to a wolf. The drone proceeds to destroy the wolf, leaving the CIA to believe that Cross is dead. Cross tracks down Dr. Marta Shearing and saves her life in order to acquire pills that he needs to keep his intelligence up in order to survive. The film received a 55% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and the critics praised Jeremy Renner’s performance. IMDB gave the movie a 6.7 rating, which isn’t half bad by IMDB’s standards.

3. Kundun

http://youtu.be/WiHrro9zymc

‘Kundun’ was released on December 25, 1997. It is a biographical film directed by Martin Scorsese based on the life and writings of the 14th Dalai Lama, political and spiritual leader of Tibet. Most of the film was shot in Morocco, but did have some scenes shot at the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery in Woodstock, New York. The movie follows chronologically events spanning from 1937-1959 in Tibet. It begins with the search for the 14th Dalai Lama. Older lamas administer a test to a child thought to be the one, which the child passes. He and his family are brought to Potala Palace in Lhasa where he will be installed as the next Dalai Lama when he comes of age. The film revolves around the journeys of the Dalai Lama as he grows.

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 76% rating while IMDB gave it a 7.0.

2. True Story

‘True Story’ has not yet been released but I still believe that it deserves recognition on this list. The film stars James Franco and Jonah Hill and is produced by Brad Pitt. The film opened at Sundance on January 23, 2015, and is set to release in theatres on April 10, 2015. It is a legal-drama thriller based on the memoir by Michael Finkel. James Franco plays a man named Christian Longo, who was on the FBI’s most wanted list for the murders of his wife and three children in Oregon. Longo was hiding under the name of Michael Finkel, who is a journalist played by Jonah Hill in the film. Filming takes place in Warwick, New York and in New York City.

IMDB gave the movie a 7.9 rating and Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 78% approval rating.

1. American Gangster

http://youtu.be/BV_nssS6Zkg

‘American Gangster’ is a crime film based on the true story of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina. The film stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. American Gangster was released to theatres on November 2, 2007. Frank Lucas was Harlem gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson’s right hand man, and he took over the gang after Johnson’s death by heart attack. Lucas eventually decides to take over crime in Harlem. Russell Crowe plays Newark detective Richie Roberts who is assigned with the task of targeting major drug trafficking in Essex County, New Jersey, which is coming from Lucas. Lucas is forced to deal with other gangsters in the area and Roberts is tasked with taking him down. The movie was filmed in all five boroughs of New York City, mainly in Harlem, and also had filming locations in Briarcliff Manor.

The film received a rating of 7.8 on IMDB and had an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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