|
|
ADRIFT
(PG-13) 
All
is lost...redux
ADRIFT is a new
fact based outdoor survival thriller that's cross morphed with a romance
drama, which immediately doesn't sound particularly enticing on paper. Yet, it tells the
harrowing true story of Tami Oldman, whom in September of 1983 sailed into
a rather powerful hurricane in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and came
out of it alive with a severely damaged boat, very little water and
rations and no radio support...
Posted
June
12,
2018
|
|
|
YOU
WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
(R) 
You
talkin' to me?
Very few
vigilante thrillers are as unnervingly suspenseful, uncompromisingly
bleak, and thoroughly disturbing as Lynne Ramsay's YOU WERE NEVER REALLY
HERE, which is as brutally punishing to endure in its swift and
refreshingly economical running time of 90-plus-minutes as any I've seen. I mean that last
part as a sincere compliment. Based on the book
of the same name by Jonathan Ames, Ramsay's film bares a superficial
comparison to Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER...
Posted
June
12,
2018
|
|
|
SOLO:
A STAR WARS STORY
(PG-13) 
I
got a very bad feeling about this...
I knew that SOLO:
A STAR WARS STORY was going to be creatively lethargic and uninspired within
my first 60 seconds of watching it. During that time
viewers are introduced to three stanzas worth of exposition heavy title
cards that are kind of blandly and lazily thrown up on screen.
Now, one of the most iconic and memorable images of the entire STAR
WARS franchise is the sight of the film's opening title cards migrating up
the screen...
Posted
June
3,
2018
|
|
|
WINCHESTER
(PG-13)
Guns
and ghosts
WINCHESTER
is a new historical horror thriller that's set in an infamous haunted
mansion in 1906 San Jose, just before the Great Earthquake that ravaged
during the same year. The
residence - located at 525 South Winchester Blvd - was renown for its
massive size and multiple architectural abnormalities.
It was also home to Sarah Winchester, the heiress to the Winchester
Rifle empire and fortune...
Posted
June 3,
2018
|
|
|
DARK
CRIMES (R) 
An
unpleasantly bleak thriller
DARK
CRIMES is one of the most repellently depressing films that I've seen in
recent memory, a would-be intoxicating murder-mystery thriller that's made
all the more unsettling because of its dicey subject matter handling and
because it represents a return to the silver screen by Jim Carrey, his
first film as a lead since starring in DUMB
AND DUMBER TO...
Posted
June 3,
2018
|
|
|
DEADPOOL
2
(R)
Maximum
sequel effort
The
first DEADPOOL movie gleefully - and
sometimes sadistically - turned comic book film genre conventions and
troupes upside on their heads. Ryan
Reynolds' fourth wall breaking "merc with the mouth" was just
the right kind of self-referential jolt to the heart that super hero films
needed, and the relatively cheap $58 million 2016 outing featured three
jokes per minute pacing in showcasing this unique titular character's
highly subversive wit and edge...
Posted
May
25,
2018
|
|
|
REVENGE
(R) 1/2
Best
served cold
I
usually don't really enjoy the subgenre of rape revenge
thrillers, mostly because they seem more heavily bent towards
sensationalism and less towards true feminine empowerment.
There is something to be said about the longstanding legacy (and not a
particularly honorable one) of exploitation films that have painted their
female characters as one note sex objects or, worse yet, one dimensional
victims...
Posted
May
25,
2018
|
|
|
CHAPPAQUIDDICK
(R)
The
man who would never be President
Controversy
has forever dogged Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy up until his
death in 2009, ostensibly stemming from the "Chappaquiddick
Incident," which the new historical drama CHAPPAQUIDDICK takes its
name. Back in the early
morning hours of July 18, 1969 the then 37-year-old Kennedy was driving
around with 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne when he suddenly careened his
vehicle off the road on Chappaquiddick Island...
Posted
May
25,
2018
|
|
|
TULLY
(R)
How
the better half lives
Being
a mother is a wonderful, life altering responsibility. It's also
tortuously difficult and can push the best of women to the point
of complete physical and mental implosion. I've seen so many
countless films in my days about what it means to be a life giver, but so very
few unflinchingly capture the worst aspects of being one in quite the same
manner as Jason Reitman's TULLY, which delves into the whirlwind of
contradictions that typifies the modern parental experience...
Posted
May
16,
2018
|
|
|
THE
MIRACLE SEASON
(PG) 1/2
An
unhealthy serving of fact based sports film clichés
There's
a part of me that feels awfully bad reviewing and being critical of a film
like THE MIRACLE SEASON, seeing as it has awfully noble minded intentions
and is a fact based sports drama that's steeped in personal tragedy. The film takes
its true story narrative from the unbelievable winning streak of the Iowa
City West High School girl's volleyball team - the West High Trojans -
that back in 2011 persevered after the death of their star player to go on
an win their second state championship in a row...
Posted
May
16,
2018
|
|
|
FIFTY
SHADES FREED
(R) 1/2
Free
at last...free at last...thank God Almighty...
There
are two reasons why I think FIFTY SHADES FREED is the best entry in
the trilogy of films based on the inexplicably popular series of novels by
E.L. James. Seriously...hear
me out. Firstly, it's the
most mercifully short entry in this soft core drama franchise, which is a
major victory for all of those in attendance that will be anxiously staring
at the cinema exit sign while screening it...
Posted
May
16,
2018
|
|
|
AVENGERS:
INFINITY WAR
(PG-13)
Running
the gauntlet
If anyone would
have told me ten years ago that a super hero film featuring a B to C grade
level Marvel Comics character starring a then career-in-trouble Robert
Downey Jr. and directed by the man who made ELF would be a box office and
critical darling and launch one of the most financially lucrative and
respected franchises in motion picture history...I would have
incredulously laughed in your face...
Posted
May
7,
2018
|
|
|
FOREVER
MY GIRL
(PG-13) 1/2
Possession
is not a good thing
FOREVER
MY GIRL is a walking cliché factory that's a nearly unendurable watch
checking bore simply by how utterly predictable the narrative becomes with
each waking moment. Based
on the
Heidi McLaughlin novel, the film seems like it's cherry picking the worst
elements of the most forgettable Nicholas Sparks film adaptations and
gathering them together to make something so dramatically bland and
lifeless that I had to constantly remind myself during my screening that I
had to care about what was going on...
Posted
May
7,
2018
|
|
|
SUPER
TROOPERS 2
(R)
More
high speed...shenanigans
Comedy sequels
are a very tricky business, especially when they come several years after
a cherished one that became a cult hit, leaving the makers with the
dubious creative task of trying to rekindle the first entry's lighting in
a bottle essence. When the original
SUPER TROOPERS opened way, way back in 2001 - one of the earliest feature
films from the comedy troupe Broken Lizard - it never emerged as a major
box office smash...
Posted
April
29,
2018
|
|
|
BORG
VS. McENROE
(R) 1/2
Dawn
of tennis justice
Everyone that's
familiar with the history of professional sports and tennis will
undoubtedly remember the outcome of the 1980 Wimbledon Championships,
which featured then four-time singles champ, the Swedish born Bjorn Borg
(the number 1 player in the world at the time), facing off against the up
and coming John McEnroe in hopes of attaining an unheard of fifth
consecutive title.
The new sports drama BORG VS. McENROE takes its name from that
iconic battle of tennis heavyweights, often considered one of the greatest
matches in the sport's history...
Posted
April
29,
2018
|
|
|
ISLES
OF DOGS
(PG-13) 1/2
Woof!
After finally
watching Wes Anderson’s ISLE OF DOGS last night I’ve concluded that
I’ll take his esoteric brand of joyously idiosyncratic stop motion
weirdness over any clean and polished Pixar or Disney animated film any
day of the week and twice on Sunday.
This is the
second stop motion animated film from the 48-year-old auteur (after 2009's
FANTASTIC MR. FOX), and it
proudly and masterfully represents yet another wondrously bizarre and
visually magnificent hodgepodge...
Posted
April
23,
2018
|
|
|
RAMPAGE
(PG-13)
Can
ya smell what the mutated ape is cookin'?
It's perhaps a
highly fitting thing that the new sci-fi action thriller RAMPAGE is
utterly brainless, seeing as it's ever-so-loosely based on a mid-1980's
video game series of the same name that involved massive monsters
decimating cities in the most basic button mashing form. Sacrasm aside,
the film
certainly coasts by on the sizable charisma and star presence of Dwayne
Johnson...
Posted
April
23,
2018
|
|
|
A
QUIET PLACE
(PG-13) 1/2
Silent
Movie
Something very
special happened to me during my screening of the new sci-fi horror
thriller A QUIET PLACE.
For the first
time in my twelve years as a film critic I was able to watch a movie in a
jam packed cinema with an audience that remained virtually silent
throughout its running time. That's a large
part of the ethereal power of director John Krasinski's mercilessly eerie
and uniquely potent film...
Posted
April
16,
2018
|
|
|
BLOCKERS
(R)
A
teen sex comedy that's cock of the walk
Based on the one
trailer that I saw for BLOCKERS beforehand, I had absolutely zero desire
to screen this film. On a pure surface
level, this teen sex comedy delves into material that's been so overdone
and has become pretty stale for the genre over the years - a group of
ultra horny high school students desperately try to become adults and lose
their virginity during prom night...
Posted
April
16,
2018
|
|
|
PROUD
MARY
(R) 1/2
Nothing
to be boastful of here
PROUD
MARY pulls an annoying game of bait and switch with audiences that's
tipped off as early as its opening credit sequence.
This
introductory montage has the look, sound, and feel of a 1970's
exploitation film, which initially had me hooked.
Unfortunately, and within a few minutes into the film, it becomes
abundantly clear that PROUD MARY is neither set in the 70's, nor does it
cheekily embrace its blaxploitation roots...
Posted
April
16,
2018
|
|
|
READY
PLAYER ONE
(PG-13) 1/2
Would
you like to play a game?
Steven
Spielberg's READY PLAYER ONE - adapted from the popular 2011 novel of the
same name by Ernest Cline - often feels like a video game with gloriously
and beautifully rendered cut scenes that regrettably has somewhat
lackluster gameplay. For the
uninitiated, it may feel like an odd analogy to use video games to
describe a movie, but READY PLAYER ONE - both in silver screen and book
antecedent form - is a massive homage filled love letter to both the games
and cinema of 1980's...
Posted
April
6,
2018
|
|
|
THOROUGHBREDS
(R) 1/2
A
pure bred black comedy/thriller
Cory Finley's
ultra black comedy thriller THOROUGHBREDS is about entitled women of
wealth and privilege that are so bored and lacking in empathy towards
other people around them that they begin to harbor murderous thoughts. The playwright
turned director has crafted a debut film that feels like a play
in terms of structure, tone, and pacing, not to mention that he allows
dialogue to propel scenes forward from one intriguing moment to the next...
Posted
April
6,
2018
|
|
|
PACIFIC
RIM UPRISING
(PG-13) 1/2
It's
time to to cancel the apocalypse
PACIFIC RIM
UPRISING is a wholly unnecessary and carelessly unimaginative sequel to
the Guillermo del Toro 2013 directed post apocalyptic sci-fi thriller
involving giant man piloted robots that battle even larger monsters to
ensure the protection and survival of the human race. I thought that
the first film in this series embraced the lunacy of its wacky premise
while regrettably taking it all a bit too seriously...
Posted
March
31,
2018
|
|
|
UNSANE
(R) 1/2
iNSANE
I’m
not sure what’s more fascinating and amazing
about UNSANE: (1) That a veteran A-list Oscar
winning filmmaker like Steven Soderbergh - fresh
out of self-imposed retirement - shot this film
using nothing but an iPhone or (2) that - in
spite of 1 - his film still packs a potent
visceral punch as a psychological thriller that
also has his esoteric fingerprints all over it.
Once
again, as he normally does, Soderbergh commits
triple duties here as director, director of
photography, and editor...
Posted
March
31,
2018
|
|
|
TOMB
RAIDER
(PG-13) 1/2
Run,
Lara, Run!
I
think it’s important for film critics to use relative benchmarks when
rating films and not universal ones.
For example, when I give JOHN WICK a
4 star rating I'm not implying that it's as good as, say, a 4 star rated drama
like CITIZEN KANE; rather, that Keanu Reeves flick was a 4 star action
thriller...
Posted
March
23,
2018
|
|
|
LOVE,
SIMON (PG-13) 1/2
A
love story for everyone
I've
been noticing that an awful lot of filmgoers and critics have been
comparing the new high school/coming of age comedy LOVE, SIMON to the
films of John Hughes. I find such
analogies to be somewhat odd and illogical. The film - based
on Becky Albertalli's SIMON VS THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA - is just as
shrewdly written, well acted, and crowd pleasingly funny as the best of
the Hughes' body of work, but, last I checked, the late director's most
iconic adolescent themed films never had homosexual protagonists...
Posted
March
23,
2018
|
|
|
A
WRINKLE IN TIME (PG)
Lost
in space
Disney's latest
live action fantasy A WRINKLE IN TIME - alongside recent examples from the
studio like TOMORROWLAND
and THE BFG - is yet another example of a
high concept effort that gets severely undermined by a
lackluster overall execution. Based on an
apparently unfilmable 1962 novel of the same name by Madeleine L'Engle
(unread by me)...
Posted
March
17,
2018
|
|
|
DEATH
WISH
(R)
zero
stars
A
remake that aims very low
Eli
Roth’s DEATH WISH - a remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson starring
original - is not only an incredibly ill timed and wholly unnecessary
movie, but it's also a numbingly sleazy one as well. It’s
sleazy for wanting to have thoughtful commentary about guns, gun violence,
and vigilante justice, but only ends up celebrating its “hero’s”
carnage and making him “cool." To drive the latter
point home, he's showcased in nifty montages that have AC/DC blaring on
the soundtrack for added shallow effect...
Posted
March
17,
2018
|
|
|
RED
SPARROW
(R)
Two
Lawrences for the price of one
As
far as Cold War themed espionage thrillers go, RED SPARROW is perhaps more
grippingly atmospheric, sexual graphic, shockingly and sadistically
violent, and sinisterly plotted than just about any other of its kind that
I've seen. This Russian spy
game genre effort will draw obvious comparisons to last year's sensational
ATOMIC BLONDE, which
was based on a graphic novel and celebrated its wanton neon colored Regan
era trashiness like a badge of honor...
Posted
March
12,
2018
|
|
|
MUTE
(No
MPAA Rating) 1/2
Then
we take Berlin
Very few
filmmakers have come dashing out of the gate with as much confidence and
creativity in their first two films than Duncan Jones.
His 2009 ultra low budget sci-fi thriller MOON
marked an audacious beginning for his career, and he subsequently followed
that up with 2011's trippy mind bending time traveler themed SOURCE
CODE, which I thought was even better than his debut effort...
Posted
March
12,
2018
|
|
|
ANNIHILATION
(R)
Thoughtful
sci-fi isn't extinct
In
a relative age when compelling speculative
science fiction is an increasingly rare commodity at the cinemas, I
wholeheartedly welcome in open arms genre efforts like ANNIHILATION, which
is another thematically strong and viscerally immersive sci-fi film from
writer/director Alex Garland, whom previously made a large splash with his
superlative Oscar winning directorial debut in EX
MACHINA and, before that, made a niche for himself penning SUNSHINE
and 28 DAYS LATER. ...
Posted
March
6,
2018
|
|
|
EARLY
MAN (PG) 1/2
GOOOOOOOAAAAAAL!!!
The
opening section of EARLY MAN - the latest Aardman animation studio
produced and Nick Park directed stop motion film - is as spectacularly
silly as any I've seen as of late. It shows the extinction event that wiped dinosaurs off of the
planet and how, via that event, mankind discovered a love of soccer.
Wait...what?!
Not joking...
Posted
March
6,
2018
|
|
|
GAME
NIGHT (R) 1/2
Not
your typical get-together
I
love having game nights myself. I play a mean game of Pictionary, and
usually get very caught up in the singular pleasure of getting a teammate
to properly guess what I'm drawing, especially when it's more obscure. I do, however,
remember vividly when I was given a "cyclops" to draw, and seeing
as a minored in Fine Art in university I thought that this would be a slam
dunk. I mean, who doesn't
know what a cyclops is...
Posted
March
6,
2018
|
|
|
BLACK
PANTHER
(PG-13) 1/2
WAKANDA
FOREVER!!!
BLACK PANTHER is
certainly not the first major Hollywood studio super hero film featuring a
black lead character (that honor goes to 1998's BLADE, which also spawned
a trilogy and helped usher in the notion that Marvel Comics based silver
screen outings could be popular and profitable)...
Posted
February
24,
2018
|
|
|
THE
15:17 TO PARIS (PG-13) 1/2
A
sluggish dramatic train to nowhere
No
word of a lie, but at around the 45 minute mark
of my screening of Clint Eastwood’s
THE I5:17 TO PARIS I turned to my friend
and depressingly said, “This movie feels like
THE ROOM, but with a vastly larger budget and an
Oscar winning director at the helm.”
That's
ultimately telling and sad, seeing that I had no
idea that an 87-year-old industry veteran that
has directed films for a better part of five
decades was capable of making something as soul
crushingly dull and frequently amateurish such
as this...
Posted
February
24,
2018
|
|
|
THE
POLKA KING
(No
MPAA Rating)
The
greatest scandal...in polka history
The new Netflix
comedy THE POLKA KING tells a fact based narrative about a Polish American polka
band leader named Jan Lewan, whom during the 1990's was driven by the
power of attaining the American Dream, albeit via deplorably unethical and
illegal ways. Now, the premise
of a polka singer, beloved by many in his tight fanbase and inner circle,
actually becoming a lecherous crook because he simply couldn't help
himself is material that seems ripe for comedic exploration...
Posted
February
19,
2018
|
|
|
PHANTOM
THREAD (R)
PTA's
finely tailored period romance
It may sound
beyond strange to say this, but Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favorite directors that has made a fair number of films that I have not
liked...at least as much as other have.
When he burst onto the movie scene in the 90s with films like HARD
EIGHT and especially BOOGIE NIGHTS (still his best film) and MAGNOLIA (his
second best), I honestly thought we were witnessing the birth and growth
of one of the most singularly talented American directors in some time.
Then came strange
experimental pictures...
Posted
February
19,
2018
|
|
|
THE
CLOVERFIELD PARADOX
(No
MPAA Rating)
A
mystery box not worth opening
Looking back on
the first CLOVERFIELD film from 2008
and it's hard to overstate, in retrospect, what a masterpiece it was in
terms of movie and viral marketing. The
J.J. Abrams
produced and Matt Reeves directed monster invasion thriller was advertised
with cryptic and compellingly vague trailers (the first of which didn't
even attach a title to the preview).
Then came 2016's superb sort-of-sequel, sort-of-not-a-sequel 10
CLOVERFIELD LANE...
Posted
February
14,
2018
|
|
|
DEN
OF THIEVES (R)
In
the 'HEAT' of the night
I'm typically a
real sucker for crime/heist films, even ones as blatantly derivative as
DEN OF THIEVES, which appropriates the look, tone, feel, and story arcs of
Michael Mann's 1995 masterpiece HEAT.
As I walked out of my screening of it I thought that there's a
reasonable claim to be made that this latest cops and crooks action
thriller is a pretty copy and paste remake of Mann's iconic film in
multiple respects...
Posted
February
14,
2018
|
|
|
THE
SHAPE OF WATER (R) 1/2
Beauty
and the aquatic beast
I'll
begin my review of the new period fantasy THE
SHAPE OF WATER by saying this: Writer/director
Guillermo del Toro is a supreme cinematic
visualist whose passionate enthusiasm shines
through in all of his films. The
Mexican filmmaker has carved out a career of
helming one arresting film after another on a
level of pure escapist imagery, whether it be
BLADE II, HELLBOY I and II, his
Oscar winning PAN'S LABYRINTH, and PACIFIC RIM,
and in all of those films the level of
innovative and loving craftsmanship on display...
Posted
February
14,
2018
|
|
|
MAZE
RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE
(PG-13)
A
pretty WCKD trilogy closer
As
far as the very overcrowded and mostly mediocre young adult literary
adaptation genre goes, I certainly thought that 2014's THE
MAZE RUNNER - adapted from the dystopian sci-fi book series by
James Dashner - was a most promising start to an intriguing new film franchise. That
well oiled and consummately directed trilogy opener did a stellar job of
harnessing its LORD OF THE FLIES themed narrative about a group of lost
boys struggling to escape their mysterious imprisonment through a bafflingly complex
labyrinth...
Posted
February
5,
2018
|
|
|
I,
TONYA (R)
A
cutting edge biopic
Tonya
Harding became a media punching bag over twenty
years ago.
She's infamously more well known for
being linked to an attack - perpetrated by her
then husband and his accomplices - against
fellow figure skating competitor Nancy Kerrigan,
which occurred just before the 1994 Olympics.
Even though - by her own claims - she was
not directly responsible for the attack,
she nevertheless had intimate links to those
that were and the ensuing scandal rocked the
athletic world...
Posted
February
5,
2018
|
|
|
CALL
ME BY YOUR NAME
(R)
Summer's
rapture
It
would be deceptively easy to label Luca
Guadagnino's CALL ME BY YOUR NAME - adapted from
the novel of the same name by Andre Aciman - as
a gay love story. Yes, the early 1980's set
period drama does indeed contain a central
romance between two young men, but the pair
never once refer to themselves as homosexual...
Posted
February
5,
2018
|
|
|
12
STRONG
(R) 1/2
AMERICA...F--K
YEAH!!!
To quote its full
title, 12 STRONG: THE DECLASSIFIED TRUE STORY OF THE HORSE SOLDIERS is the
latest 9/11 themed war drama that contains an utterly fascinating fact
based storyline that never comes compellingly alive the way it wants to. Based on Don
Stanton's non-fiction book THE HORSE SOLDIERS (a better title than the
film's), 12 STRONG deals with a previously unknown military triumph that
the U.S. had in Afghanistan in direct response to 9/11...
Posted
February
1,
2018
|
|
|
HOSTILES (R)
A
trail of tears
Writer/director
Scott Cooper specializes in films that create a remarkable evocation of
time and place while grounding them with characters that have an
authentically lived-in weight about them.
You gain the sense that life's hardships have weighed heavily on
their souls to the point where spiritual redemption seems unlikely...
Posted
February
1,
2018
|
|
|
As
I proudly do every year, here's a list of TEN
REASONS why you should have enthusiastically
rushed out to the cinema in the year that was, followed by a
detailed listing of every 2017 film that I
enjoyed in one form or another.
Posted
January
25,
2018 / Revised February 5, 2018 |
|
|
THE
POST (PG-13)
The
fight for a free press
The new
historical political
thriller THE POST deals with the true story of how the journalists of The
Washington Post and New York Times published the Pentagon Papers,
classified documents that dealt with previously undisclosed information
about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War as far back as the Truman
administration. The papers
revealed that the government systematically lied to both Congress and the
American people about enlarging the war effort in Vietnam, even though
they realized it was a losing effort at best...
Posted
January
20,
2018
|
|
|
THE
COMMUTER (PG-13) 1/2
NON-STOP:
PART 2
Every year around
this time we get yet another entry in the Liam Neeson takes names and kicks
ass action thriller genre, which joyously celebrates the sixtysomething actor
giving another thanklessly grounded and committed performance that's centered
in an overall narrative that ridiculously - in not entertainingly - flips
the bird to earth bound logic. I'll
be the first to admit that I've largely been an apologist of these films...
Posted
January
20,
2018
|
|
|
As
I bravely do every year, here's a list of TEN
REASONS why you should have avoided cinemas like
the plague in the year that was, followed by a
detailed listing of every 2017 film that
disappointed me in one form or another.
Posted
January
13,
2018
|
|
|
MOLLY'S
GAME (R)
Sorkin
and Chastain are all in
The timing of
MOLLY'S GAME could not have been any better, seeing as this reality based
crime drama has been released in a post-Harvey Weinstein Hollywood and
contains a story of a fiercely savvy and indomitable career minded woman
that - through self-empowerment and gritty determination - becomes a
success by having huge power over powerful men...and men that once had
power over her...
Posted
January
13,
2018
|
|
|
MOLLY'S
GAME (R) 1/2
Rich
premise, poor execution
My main issue
with Ridley Scott's new fact based crime thriller ALL THE MONEY IN THE
WORLD is that the late breaking story behind the scenes of the making of
his film has not only overshadowed it...but it's also more compelling than
the final product itself.
Of course, I'm
referring to the fact that as the film was nearing release Scott decided
to recast Kevin Spacey in one of its more crucial roles...
Posted
January
13,
2018
|
|
|
DOWNSIZING
(R) 1/2
Big
ideas, small returns
DOWNSIZING
represents an absolutely compelling change of pace for Nebraska born and
raised writer/director Alexander Payne, whom up until this point in his
career has made charmingly idiosyncratic dramedies of a decidedly modest
scale (he made one of the best high school comedies of all time in 1999's
ELECTION, followed that up with memorably strong observational pieces
like SIDEWAYS and THE
DESCENDANTS, and recently made
the sublime NEBRASKA in
2013)...
Posted
January
7,
2018
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THE
GREATEST SHOWMAN
(PG-13)
There's
a sucker born every minute
THE GREATEST
SHOWMAN is, as far as musicals and biopics go, so trivially soft pedaled
and rose covered that it almost feels like the movie screen that it was
projected on was sprayed with disinfectant.
Engineered for
maximum crowd pleasing entertainment value while wholeheartedly ignoring
some of the sketchier aspects of its subject matter's life and legacy, the
film comes off more as a saccharine TV movie of the week than it does a
sprawling and epically staged musical worthy of its budget, scale, and
stars...
Posted
January
7,
2018
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JUMANJI:
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
(PG-13)
We
got fun and games...
I'm
not sure whether I should be shocked, embarrassed, or a strange
combination of both by how much I enjoyed - to quote its full title -
JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE, the long awaited sort of sequel, sort of
franchise reboot of the 1995 Robin Williams starring original. There
has been a loyal contingent of fans out there that have coveted that
27-year-old film, which represented, for its time, a cutting edge
CGI-infused fantasy action spectacular...
Posted
January
7,
2018
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BRIGHT
(R)
A
dull infusion of cop thriller and fantasy
The ironically
titled BRIGHT is a would-be compelling genre mishmash effort that's so
dull and uninspired in terms of execution that you have to wonder where
its near $100 million budget went. Netflix's
most expensive feature film in their history was able to use that capital to nab
a high marquee star and director in Will Smith and David Ayer away from
theatrical productions and to the streaming service, and the end results
clearly reveal that their talents were never fully utilized...
Posted
January
7,
2018
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