Category: Uncategorized

“Uncut Gems” (** out of four) was a superficial melodrama about a desperate NYC jeweler (Adam Sandler) who is also a gambling addict who turns out to be his own worst enemy as he makes a series of high-stakes bets that could either be a windfall or could turn out to be quicksand for him and his family. Sandler is adequate and nothing more in what many have called a career-altering performance and we don’t know hardly anything about him except he’s addicted to making money. It’s also hard to care about anything in the film since his central character is so unlikeable. Good NYC atmosphere highlighted by Darius Khondji’s gritty cinematography can’t enrich this unappealing story.

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“Cats” (*1/2 out of four) was a misfired adaptation of the popular musical about a tribe of cats called the Jellicles (Taylor Swift, Judy Dench, Jennifer Hudson, and others) who have to make the life-altering decision about who will ascend up to the Heaviside Layer and will come back to a new Jellicle life but find that this is a much more difficult decision than they thought. Even the musical numbers are botched by cluttered staging and surprisingly tacky cinematography and sets. I wasn’t a huge fan of the musical but at least it had striking costumes and was visually extravagant. A real disappointment from director Tom Hooper who fared far better with his 2012 adaptation of “Les Miserables.”

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“Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker” (** out of four) was a less-than-spectacular final chapter of the “Star Wars” saga about the surviving Resistance (Oscar Isaacs, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley) who face the First Order (led by Adam Driver) to see who will survive but nothing much goes as planned. Certainly watchable for “Star Wars” fanatics and features the series’ usual visual effects and some colorful action scenes but story and script are pretty weak this time around and fllm lacks the sense of awe and wonder that the originals (and even the last two entries) had. You feel almost like you’re watching a video game instead of a conclusion to the most grand sci/fi series of all time. Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher all have welcome cameos but this still ranks as a disappointment.

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“Richard Jewell” (***1/2 out of four) was a shattering melodrama based on the true story of the title character (Paul Walter Hauser) who was an American security guard and saved thousands of lives from an exploding bomb at the 1996 Olympics but then was subsequently vilified by opportunists in the press and the FBI who falsely believed that he was a terrorist which destroyed the life of him and his mother (Kathy Bates). Director Clint Eastwood employs his usual simple and eloquent style to tell a story that is engrossing and deeply moving. Anchored like an oak by Hauser who is superb in the title role but also features fine supporting work from Olivia Wilde and Jon Hamm and features Bates’ best dramatic performance in years. Marie Brenner co-wrote the screenplay based on her own magazine articles from 1996.

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“Saving Zoe” (** out of four) was a languid teen melodrama about the sister (Laura Marano) of an older high-school girl (Vanessa Marano) who was murdered who finds her diaries which begins to shed new light on her death but this leads her into a sordid underworld of sex, drugs, and secrets which begins to affect her life. Director Jeffrey Hunt employs a hallucinatory style in a story similar to “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” which initially holds you but after a while it becomes unpleasant and uninvolving. Cory Geryak’s visually dazzling cinematography and Laura’s effective lead performance make this worth watching for a little while.

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“Code 8” (** out of four) was a muddled sci/fi melodrama about a construction worker (Robbie Amell) with mysterious superpowers who falls in with a group of criminals (Stephen Amell, Greg Bryck, and others) in order to raise money for his ailing mother (Kari Matchett) but this leads to unforeseen consequences for all of them. Just a hodgepodge of ideas derived from other (and better) sci/fi and horror movies. Never boring but never exactly enthralling either. Director Jeff Chan expanded this from his own short story of the same name.

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“Black Christmas” (*1/2 out of four) was a boring remake of the 1974 horror movie classic about a group of female college sorority students (Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Imogen Poots, and others) who are stalked by a mysterious stranger during their Christmas break and they have to fight back to stay alive as they are all slashed one-by-one. Completely unnecessary rehash totally lacks the scares and conviction and aura of the original or even its last remake which was only in 2006! Horror fans would best leave this as one Christmas present they shouldn’t unwrap.

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“6 Underground” (*** out of four) was a full-throttle action thriller about six crime fighters (Ryan Reynolds, Melanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ben Hardy, Adria Arjona, and Dave Franco) who fake their own deaths to form a vigilante death squad intent on taking down the world’s most notorious and dangerous criminals. Director Michael Bay utilizes his usual hyperkinetic ADD directing-and-editing style and throws in everything but the kitchen sink to make sure you’re entertained with wall-to-wall action for over two hours. Not much sense per se but it (literally) never stops to take a breath and moves so fast and furious with nonstop action and style that you likely won’t care and it’s fun just the same.

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“The Aeronauts” (**1/2 out of four) was a somewhat uneven action drama about an iconoclastic scientist (Eddie Redmayne) and a determined pilot (Felicity Jones) who attempt to make crucial and groundbreaking discoveries in a gas balloon but things go haywire and they find themselves fighting for their lives while at the same time attempting to prove that gas baloons can fly. Visually spectacular at times but dramatically scattershot as film takes a while to (literally) get off the ground. Both Redmayne and Jones’ strong performances keep you involved and make this overall worth watching.

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“Beyond The Law” (** out of four) was a murky underworld cop melodrama about a former hitman turned legit businessman (Steven Seagal) who has to team up with a hard-nosed cop (DMX) to deal with a vengeful ex-cop (Johnny Messner) out to find the killer of his son. Fast-paced enough to make it an OK view but features too many characters, too many subplots, and too much you’ve seen in other movies. Still, you have to give it credit in that this is better than the last Seagal/DMX collaboration “Exit Wounds.” Speaking of which- when the hell did Seagal start speaking in a Southern accent?

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