May 31, 2024 “Back To Black” (*** out of four) was a captivating biography of music star Amy Winehouse (Marisa Abela) who came out of nowhere in the early 2000’s and took the music scene by storm with the title blockbuster album and whose career was sadly undone and crippled by mental health and drug problems leading to her early death in 2011. Final third showing Winehouse’s downfall feels a little sanitized and truncated but film does a good job in showing her upbringing and love of music that translated onto the stage. Abela (who looks at times more like Britney Spears) is strong in the lead and so is Jack O’Connell as her long-time partner. Continue reading →
May 30, 2024 “The Listener” (*1/2 out of four) was a pointless and torpid melodrama about a help-line counselor volunteer (Tessa Thompson) who works from home and takes various calls from those in need and gradually reveals the flaws and failings in her own life. Director Steve Buscemi shows a feel for mood and dialogue just as he did in his 1996 debut “Trees Lounge” but (same as that film) film rambles without any story or narrative drive and thus winds up a bore. Might have worked better as a stage play but as a feature film is hardly worth watching or “listening” to. Continue reading →
May 29, 2024 “Dead Wrong” (*1/2 out of four) was an aptly titled misfire about a narcissistic loser attorney (Rob Schneider) who concocts a get-rich-quick scheme but this soon backfires and places him in the violent crossfire of the dangerous underworld that he represents. Schneider’s typical whiny/wormy persona and performance is matched here by grating and contrived material. Plays like a leftover Tarantino wannabe from the 90’s that’s no longer fresh. Continue reading →
May 27, 2024 “War Of The Worlds: Extinction” (*1/2 out of four) was a threadbare continuation of this series about a rogue general (a grizzled William Baldwin) who leads his troops to attack Earth while a team of archaeologists have to track him down to prevent the end of the world as we know it. Opens with some impressive visual effects but all is pretty much downhill there after into standard sci/fi story cliches. What- if anything- does this have to do with Orson Welles’ story original? Time for this series to face “extinction” of its own. Continue reading →
May 26, 2024 “Red vs. Blue: Restoration” (*1/2 out of four) was a disposable entry in the series about the ongoing adversaries the Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch (Kaitlin Becker, Mark Bellman, Edward Bosco, and others) who have to set aside their differences to save the galaxy one more time when an old nemesis re-appears and threatens all of the universe. Lots of cheesy visual effects and gee-whiz dialogue that seem like it was inspired by outtakes from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”. For kids and series fans only. Continue reading →
May 26, 2024 “A Most Atrocious Thing” (* out of four) an atrocity in itself about a group of friends (Ben Oliphint, Dylan DeVol, Christian Hurley) who go off on a weekend getaway but after eating tainted deer meat they turn against one another and they find that only the strong will survive as they mercilessly go after each other one-by-one. To call this amateur night in terms of acting and filmmaking would be kind to put it midly and that extends to the 3 actors who served as co-writers and directors of this mess. Bad movies like these are enough to make anyone want to become a vegetarian. Continue reading →
May 26, 2024 “The Fall Guy” (**1/2 out of four) was a lively but thin action comedy about a down-on-his-luck stuntman (Ryan Gosling) who has to find the missing star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) of a blockbuster action film which is being made by his ex-girlfriend (Emily Blunt) but they both encounter comic treachery every step of the way. Film has wall-to-wall action and in-jokes and fun soundtrack selections (with a particular amusing nod to Kiss’ “I Was Made For Loving You”) but suffers from overkill and a case of the cutes after a while. Never boring but a good case of how less is sometimes more especially as film goes on past 2 hours. Continue reading →
May 25, 2024 “The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Information” (*** out of four) was a sweeping historical melodrama set during WWII in 1940 about Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) and Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox) who formed a clandestine combat organization (Henry Cavill, Cary Elwes, and others) for Britain’s military that changed the course of the war and its fighting technique against the Nazis. The newly serious Guy Ritchie shows a keen eye here with some spectacular battle scenes and finds an overall good balance between action and historical drama. Starts to go on a little long but still overall entertaining for Ritchie and WWII fans alike. Continue reading →
May 24, 2024 “Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead” (*1/2 out of four) was a needless remake of the 1991 “classic” which let’s be honest wasn’t that great to begin with; once again, a young woman (Simone Joy Jones) is put in charge of raising her family when the babysitter (June Squibb) is found dead and she is thrust into the world of office corporate politics. Much like the original, the film’s main bright spot is the lead performance from Joy Jones but the rest is pretty desperate and dumb. Original “Babysitter” club members Danielle Harris and Keith Coogan have cameos but they should taken heed to the word “don’t” in film’s title. Continue reading →
May 23, 2024 “Among The Willows” (** out of four) was a hollow action melodrama about a former gunslinger (David Novak) who must turn to an old friend (Jeffrey Smith) for help when attempting to track down those responsible for murdering his family. Pretty routine trip down familiar Western territory and trails; you know all the familiar sights- saloons, dirt roads, lots of horses, etc. Some references to Willie Nelson are scattered throughout also. This is far from the worst of its imitations but is for die-hard Western fans only. Continue reading →
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