This outing in the popular X-Men franchise is more cerebral and a bit lighter on superpowers than prior flicks. But given its premise, that time travel will change the world from a bleak future, it works. Imagine a Matrix/Looper hybrid with a nostalgic parade of your favorite X-Men characters past and present and you won’t […]
Movies about suicide, depression and dysfunctional relationships are rarely ever funny, but that’s only because they don’t star SNL veterans Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, who deftly portray siblings reunited after a decade of estrangement. The expected laughs, underscored by unexpectedly strong dramatic performances, result in a film that is brutally honest, relatable and very […]
The initial premise of this sci-fi film is intriguing: Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway are blasting off into deep space to find a new home for our species as Earth rapidly approaches its expiration date. But then writer/director Christopher Nolan wastes the truly amazing visuals of what could have been a great film by incorporating […]
It’s a hackneyed but effective horror setting – Sarah Snoop (Winchester) stars as a young woman recovering from a car accident who returns to her estranged father’s creepy waterfront house in the Louisiana bayou (or what we natives call a camp), only to be haunted by a tormented spirit, old VHS tapes from her late […]
What a weird, contrived and ultimately sweet movie. Circumstances lead Tobe, a bad “Napoleon Dynamite” knockoff, to rural Indiana, where his vintage porn star crush now resides in a trailer. Yes, the premise is ridiculous, but Tobe’s goofy likability and Kim Cattrall’s spot-on portrait of a down-on-her-luck, washed up porn star is so jaw-droppingly good, […]
A totally preposterous, super fun remake of Luc Besson’s “Nikita” that has drug addicted street punk turned trained assassin Bridget Fonda shooting her way through crazy scenarios. Harvey Keitel’s portrayal of “The Cleaner” is an epic moment in cinema.
A bit of editing (way too long, get to the mountain already!) and some reworking of the CGI (at times it tried too hard and looked phony) would have gone a long way to improving Peter Jackson’s part one prequel to his wildly-successful Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Despite those shortcomings, the film still manages […]
This eye-popping second installment of The Hobbit film trilogy is certainly a step up from the first, in terms of action and plot, but it is just so long (2 hours, 41 minutes) that all but the most diehard fans will be yawning well before its cliffhanger “ending.” Still, it is entertaining, and visually, it […]
This mind-numbingly frenetic CGI-fest more than makes up for the slower pace of the first two films in The Hobbit trilogy. While the best of the bunch, it still pales to the superb Lord of The Rings trilogy, weakened by makeup that makes Orlando Bloom look weirdly artificial and some distractingly unrealistic special effects. Despite […]