Adam McKay has left soft boiled satires like Anchorman and Talladega Nights in the dust with The Big Short. This look behind the headlines of the big economic disaster of 2007 makes us laugh and identify with characters we shouldn’t while explaining the jargon that Wall Street uses to hide its sins. It is, in […]
Tag: Movie Reviews
Sisters’ Subversive Party Comedy Clicks!
Sisters is one of the best crude-with-a-heart movies of the year – and the most subversive because the epic party being thrown isn’t through the efforts (and fantasies) of high school or college guys but a couple of middle-aged women. It’s also great fun because its stars – Tina Fey and Amy Poehler – play […]
Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Echoes of Greatness!
My first published movie review was for Star Wars – long before it became Episode Four: A New Hope. That opening shot of the rebel fighter being pursued by the Empire dreadnought hooked me like new movie before – or since. After the sheer awfulness of the second trilogy (Episodes I, II, and III), I […]
Extraction: Convoluted Spy Movie Never Quite Takes Off!
Extraction is a short but not quite sweet spy tale in which a super-hacking device called the Condor is the McGuffin. Basically, it can hack any government’s communications and/or anything that relies on computers – which is pretty much everything these days. The Condor is actually a device to allow an over the hill CIA […]
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Borders on being a Flawless Remake, Michelle’s Review
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is probably a near perfect Star Wars film that regular fans and fanatics alike have been waiting for, but it suffers by slavishly sticking to the tropes from the original and doesn’t strive to go off script. After the disaster of the prequels, it seemed like the mandate here was “Don’t fuck […]
In The Heart of the Sea: Thar She Blows!
Ron Howard’s epic retelling of the story that inspired Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick has one or two moments of inspiration but never quite convinces – despite considerable and agile CGI and a first-rate cast. The problem is one that is shared by the adrift at sea stretch of Unbroken – sun, sea, no land; […]
Don Verdean – Slow Motion Deadpan Farce!
Don Verdean is a very peculiar movie – as are all of Jared Hess’ films (see: Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, Gentleman Broncos). If you’re not on his wavelength, chances are you will hate Don Verdean; if you loved his previous work, you will love Don Verdean. It’s just that simple. Don Verdean, the character, is […]
Igor – I Mean Victor Frankenstein – Not Worth The Wait!
When the movie Igor was announced and James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe were attached, the premise – the story of Frankenstein told from the point of view of his assistant, Igor – I thought, ‘What a great premise!’ When the film’s title was changed to Victor Frankenstein, I thought, ‘That kinda makes sense – everyone […]
It’s Creed! Not Rocky VII!
Creed is a return to the world of the Philadelphia champ but it’s not really about him. It’s about family lost, and found; it’s about pride in oneself, and the value (or not) of legacy. Most of all, it’s a fresh riff on a classic genre of film – the boxing movie.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 2 Overlong But Adequate Finale!
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 closes out the film quadrilogy of the book trilogy. You might expect, with the final – and shortest book in the series turned into two movies because… money, that there would a lot of detail work (possibly some that wasn’t in the book’s climactic few days) and you’d be […]
The Night Before Christmas Rogen/Goldberg Style – Crude with Heart!
Three buddies who have celebrated Christmas Eve together since 2001 set out to make their final leg of the tradition in style – a good trick since they have none. It’s like a grand quest featuring the Three Stooges, only with the humor coming from emotional/existential pain.