One comes away from HOLMES AND WATSON bemused. The stunning lack of entertainment value in a film starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly is almost a body blow, such is its unremitting ineptitude. Using as its premise the same spoofery done much better by the Wayans Brothers in their series of SCARY MOVIE riffs,… Read More »
WELCOME TO MARWEN
There is little that tugs more insistently at my heartstrings, cinematically at least, than a film that genuinely means well and falls short. And so it is with WELCOME TO MARWEN, a showcase of CGI and of Steve Carrell’s dramatic chops, but of little else. The story is based on the life of Mark Hogencamp,… Read More »
AQUAMAN
The good news is that Momoa and his mammoth charm more than carry a film that is decidedly not the most original of super-hero tales.
ROBIN HOOD
Years ago, there was a perfectly delightful mash-up of pop songs and medieval literature in A KNIGHT’S TALE, a frothy entertainment in which David Bowie met Geoffrey Chaucer. It succeeded for many reason, not the least of which is that it didn’t take itself too seriously. Alas, ROBIN HOOD, a similar foray into unexpected juxtaposition,… Read More »
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
Rami Malek, star of television’s Mr. Robot and the (mostly) overlooked Indie gem, BUSTER’S MAL HEART, may just have found the vehicle to assure him of the A-list stardom he so richly deserves in BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. Like the character Malek essays, Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury, the film is flawed but Malek, through the sheer… Read More »
CRAZY RICH ASIANS
The rom-com as a genre has suffered much in the last decade or so due to a surfeit of agonizingly insipid cinematic attempts. So when one comes along that reminds us what a good one is like, it is a cause for celebration. And so it is with CRAZY RICH ASIANS, based on Kevin Kwan’s… Read More »
SKYSCRAPER
It is a mantra that I have repeated at least once a day for many, many years now. Technology is our friend, but it is not our >good< friend. While my invocation of that is generally limited to computers, pay-stations, and the notorious aggravations of the voice-mail maze, SKYSCRAPER, the latest action flick from Dwayne Johnson, takes it to a whole new level while also sending a love letter to the low-tech reliability, magic even, of duct tape.
THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS
As the documentary THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS opens, Bobby Shafran, one of the eponymous strangers, notes that the story he’s about to tell is unbelievable. And it is. But the way that Tim Wardle’s dark meditation on good intentions gone very wrong unfolds, the story of how the three identical triplets separated at birth found each other at the age of 19, is the least of it.
HEARTS BEAT LOUD
Click here for the flashback interview with Brett Haley and Katharine Ross for THE HERO. Timing is everything, as we learn in Brett Haley’s HEARTS BEAT LOUD, an irresistible, perfectly balanced comedy-drama about love, loss, and that old truism about the only constant that we can count on is change. It’s also Nick Offerman being… Read More »
JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM
I’ll give JURASSIC WORLD:FALLEN KINGDOM this. When it leaps off the rails into utter inanity, it does so with grim determination and the courage of its (misguided) convictions. It continues on, camera swooping majestically and music swelling heroically with monotonous regularity, robbing the few truly worthy moments of their specialness, and drowning the rest of… Read More »
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