Somewhere lost within the jungles of S.J. Clarkson’s strangely miss-aimed superhero adaption is an idea about the web of life, how it catches people despite themselves and binds them together. Saying that is what Madame Web is about would be overly generous to the finished film. It’s the kind of movie destined for repeat 10…
MADAME WEB SUMMARY: Cassandra Webb is an awkward loner in every respect of the term. She grew up as an orphan in the foster system after the death of her mother during childbirth. Now, as an adult, she lives alone and rarely socializes. Her only real relationships are with a stray cat and her paramedic…
ARGYLLE SUMMARY: Elly Conway is a successful, world-renowned, romantic spy thriller author. She has legions of fans for her books, which tell the story of super-spy Argylle. Argylle is suave, tough, sophisticated, articulate, and romantic. Essentially, he is everything that Elly is not. Quite the opposite of her characters, Elly lives alone with her pet…
AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM SUMMARY: Sometime after becoming King of Atlantis, Arthur Curry finds that the job is not everything it’s cracked up to be. There is mundane bureaucracy, endless meetings, and tedious mediation between bickering factions. Arthur must also deal with a council that not only wants to overrule him at every turn…
With the arrival of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 100th anniversary, the idea to focus their celebratory film, Wish, on — well — wishes and how we can make them happen is perfectly on brand. Sometimes audiences need the reminder that we are the ones responsible for making our dreams happen because to cede that responsibility…
One of the side-effects of the recent supremacy of superhero films has been the ways they have been stretched and mutated to encompass other styles and genres, sometimes successfully (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and sometimes not (Thor: Love and Thunder). In the process they’ve tended to ignore the built in themes and subtext of…
As Nick Fury and Monica Rambeau are working on the S.A.B.E.R. space station above earth, something strange happens. The portal that they use for intergalactic travel becomes distorted. Similarly, across the galaxy, Carol Danvers sees a similar distortion. When Monica and Carol investigate and come into contact with the distortion, something extraordinary happens. They swap…
“I love money,” Ernest Burkhart says several times in Martin Scorsese‘s adaptation of David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon. “The only thing I love more is my wife.” Whether Ernest’s duplicity is for himself or for his audience, he is certainly lying to someone. In the world of Scorsese it is impossible to grasp…
In the alternate world of The Creator movie, robotic engineering has occurred faster and further than in our own. Robots have become artificially intelligent and have unique individual personalities. They have taken on jobs at every level of society from food workers to police to military. But when Los Angeles is destroyed by a nuclear…
Kenneth Branagh‘s (Death on the Nile) adaptations of Agatha Christie’s famed Belgian detective get closer and closer to the real intent of the man (and his creator) the further they stray from the original lock step cause and effect of the original creations. Moody and paranoid, A Haunting in Venice pays superficial homage to a…
Director Josh Greenbaum’s previous film, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, hit at a certain time during the pandemic, where people weren’t going to theaters, so studios were releasing films through streaming and having very successful engagement. Barb and Star was funny, quirky, and different, but I have the feeling that if things…
Heartwarming and exciting but also overstuffed and tripping over its own feet, Blue Beetle is a frequently charming, frequently frustrating attempt to re-write (or at least re-aim) the classic superhero narrative and intermittently succeeding. When it does succeed it flies high, pulling in pieces from successful forebears like Spider-Man and Iron Man and spinning them…
Confident and competent, Neill Blomkamp‘s adaptation of the popular racing game is a 100-minute commercial for Sony which still manages to have more under the hood than you would expect. Treading the well-covered ground of the sports film, the Gran Turismo movie isn’t interested in re-inventing either that genre or the video game adaptation; merely…
Inspired by the recent success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Paramount has done yet another relaunch of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise with the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Assembling an impressive voice cast, and giving us a new, artistically drawn aesthetic, much of Mutant Mayhem feels straight ripped from the pages…
Author’s note: This Haunted Mansion review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist. If you are interested in helping those workers on strike, please consider giving to the Entertainment Community Fund. After a weekend of box…
Barbie has come to signify many things. A friend. A foe. A token of feminism. The reinforcer of feminine ideals. For myself, she’s come to represent childhood innocence. The time I forced myself to grow up and leave behind such childish things. This fashion doll created by Ruth Handler has spent decades taking the world…
Author’s note: This Oppenheimer review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist. If you are interested in helping those workers on strike, please consider giving to the Entertainment Community Fund. Oppenheimer is stunning. Christopher Nolan‘s latest…
Author’s note: This Talk to Me review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist. If you are interested in helping those workers on strike, please consider giving to the Entertainment Community Fund. With Talk to Me,…
Mission: Impossible idealizes Tom Cruise and his willingness to commit increasingly-dangerous stunts the way Mission: Impossible idealizes Ethan Hunt and his willingness to save the world. The series is a frequently-amazing vehicle for both, filled with spectacular set pieces and the perception that if those are delivered on the rest of the film can be…
Most sequels operate under the Law of Diminishing Returns, but not the Mission: Impossible franchise, at least, not since Ghost Protocol. I enjoyed the first three well enough, but once Ghost Protocol hit, and with each entry since, this series has strived to top itself in spectacle, story, stunts, spontaneity, and sincerity. Tom Cruise and…