Why lob blood and guts when a lamp being knocked over can make you jump out of your seat?
INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE
INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE was released here in San Francisco without a press screening. And for good reason. I’m putting The Golden Raspberry Awards Foundation on notice that we might have a new frontrunner for next year’s Razzies. We begin on the eponymous holiday. Twenty years have passed since Steve Hiller (Will Smith, appearing in this… Read More »
LAZER TEAM
LAZER TEAM is a cheerfully cheesy homage to great and not-so-great sci-fi movies of days gone by. With a goofy sense of humor, a droll use of irony, and whipsmart comedic instincts, it tells the time-honored tale of misfits finding the greatness within themselves, while also saving the earth from evil alien invaders. It takes as… Read More »
PIXELS System Crash
If I had to single one thing out as being the saddest moment in PIXELS, it would have to be when Michelle Monaghan, as a newly dumped wife is forced to find solace from Adam Sandler as she is weeping and drinking chardonnay from a sippy cup on the floor of her closet.
HOME is Where the Heart is
Based on the novel “The True Meaning of Smekday” by Adam Rex, HOME is a sweet animated film that is equal parts cheery and poignant. Aimed more at kids than at adults, it takes the time-honored themes of friendship, family, and keeping promises and wraps them in an imaginative new package as shiny and inviting… Read More »
SKYLINE
SKYLINE is an ordeal by tedium. The script has but one decent idea, the which it saves for a twist ending that arrives far too late to be of interest to those still watching. The rest is but a variation on stupid humans running from the nasty, brain-hungry aliens. Actually, the aliens consume everything, swallowing… Read More »
THE WORLD’S END
The Cornetto Trilogy comes to a superb conclusion with THE WORLDS END. Director Edgar Wright again teams with the regular cast of co-writer Simon Pegg as the anti-hero, and Nick Frost as the humorless corporate lawyer, along with newcomers Eddie Marsan as the grinning bunny rabbit of a car salesman, Paddy Considine as the enterperneur… Read More »
THE INVASION
The original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was the product of a particular time, place, and mentality. Those would be the 50s, the United States, and the paranoia rampant at the time over the Communist Menace. Or the 50s, the United States, and the suffocation of conformity. Either way, it was a potent message at… Read More »