The time has now come, with all options for ’80s and ’90s nostalgia used up, we must now look to the 2000s and early 2010s to re-feed us our youthful reminisces. Actually, that’s far too cynical. There’s nothing nostalgic about this seven-years-later sequel. The Croods: A New Age is a simple matter of an IP …
I saw the original Star Wars Holiday Special on television. I remember seeing it; I remember as a nine-year-old kid sitting down and enjoying it — being nine years old, my taste in what was good or bad was pretty fluid — and then wondering why it never played again. As I grew older, the …
Millie doesn’t have a lot going for her. She’s unpopular at school. She’s bullied by other girls as well as her teacher. Her mother is an alcoholic. And as the school mascot, even the football players pick on her. Her only comforts are her friends Nyla and Josh. As if things weren’t bad enough, there’s a serial …
Honest Thief is not honest at all. It sells itself as the latest in the modern line of post-Taken Liam Neeson action vehicles. The ones that trade on his gravitas and high octane set pieces in lieu of coherent plots or strong dialogue. Honest Thief only has half of that, with a budget and production …
Adapting a classic, with a classic reputation, is always tricky. Almost as tricky as a director with a settled style stretching himself into new directions. Both are treacherous, filled with pitfalls and observers eager to point out how the earlier stuff was better. And there’s a lot of risk, too, because there’s a lot of …
Aaron Sorkin is a writer’s writer. That doesn’t mean he routinely writes excellent dialogue (though he often does) or complexly crafted characters (though he sometimes does) or even that his work is accoladed or influential to other writers (though some of it is). It means he does what all writer’s do, only more so. Sorkin …
Mulan was a film that so many of us were waiting to see back when it was supposed to debut in March. The premiere was held right before the shutdown. Then it was put off because of the global health crisis. With things being so dicey in terms of theaters, Disney decided to release it …
It is perhaps fitting that, like the rest of us right now living through (gesticulating wildly) All This, Bill S. Preston, Esquire (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) in Bill and Ted Face the Music are pining for simpler, happier times. After all, their greatest moments were 25 years ago, when they saw …
After the events of Season 1, The Boys have gone into hiding. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, Frenchie, and The Female regroup in a safe house and plan their next move. With the world and the supes looking for them, their options are limited. But with the debut of supe terrorists, they see a possible solution. By …
Unhinged is unapologetic trash. That’s not a bad thing. Good trash can be great. But there’s not much worse than bad trash. Unhinged is not good trash. Its story is rote, and its characters are one-dimensional given the briefest of lip service to their inner motivations in order to get them in place for its …
At first blush, 2016’s Train to Busan (buy at Amazon) does not seem to break the mold of the zombie (or “infected” if you prefer) movie. But it’s the details that make Train to Busan one of the best in the genre. Every character has agency, and all get the most with their screen time. …
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel The Secret Garden (check price at Amazon) has been adapted before. It’s been on the big screen a number of times, on television and on the stage, including a Tony Award-winning musical. There has always been something lovely about it, but sort of standoffish. In the story, the main character …
Sketch comedy is hard. Really all comedy is hard, but sketch comedy is really hard – getting long in and out in a (hopefully) short period without losing any part of build or punchline. And while there is no reason old sketch comedy writers shouldn’t also be good comedy film writers, the reality is it’s …
Judd Apatow has a long history of “Lovable Losers” in his work. All the way from Freaks and Geeks to The 40-Year-Old Virgin, even in films like This Is 40 and Trainwreck, Apatow tells stories about broken, juvenile characters who are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the real world. Apatow’s also been accused of glossing …
The glass-is-half-empty among us have been decrying the death of cinema for many years, triggered by the increasing focus on reinventing old IP in the face of increasing apathy towards original material. The glass-is-half-full side will respond that the origination of the material matters less than what is done with it and talented individuals have …
Star Wars: The Clone Wars has returned for its seventh and final season on the Disney+ streaming service. In this review, we’re taking a look at the eleventh episode of the season, titled “Shattered.” After successfully capturing Maul on Mandalore, Ahsoka plans to deliver him to the Jedi Council on Coruscant. When Order 66 is …
Spring, 1987. I’m a senior in high school. I’m sitting in the back seat of my friend Bill’s lime-green Chevy Nova. We’re in the parking lot of a Kroger’s, and we’re all a little drunk. Some of us more than others; we’ve been drinking beers, and right before we left the party at Heather’s house, …
Star Wars: The Clone Wars has returned for its seventh and final season on the Disney+ streaming service. In this review, we’re taking a look at the tenth episode of the season, titled “The Phantom Apprentice.” Ahsoka leads Republic clones to confront Maul’s forces on Mandalore, while Maul senses the impending chaos and makes a …
Somewhere, on the side of a mountain in the Appalachians, a family is gathering for its annual celebration. Somewhere, a family is falling apart. Somewhere, the classic reactions and responses to unconscionable betrayal are turned on their heads. Somewhere, people act out their lives in a fashion both impossible to identify with and unmistakably human. …
No film based on a true story is really about it’s subject, or at least not wholly about it. Sure, there’s a requirement to include the major moments of a life or event, keep the bones of the story in line with history. But the viewpoint of the filmmakers matters as much as the bones …