I’ve been spending my off time watching a fascinating documentary series on Netflix entitled “The Story of Film: An Odyssey”. Here’s a link. It is a 15 part mammoth production by Irish film critic Mark Cousins that chronicles the entire…
Following in the footsteps of “Hansel and Gretel” arrives yet another revisionist fairy tale, this time elaborating on the legend of Jack and the Beanstalk. And, like the previous film, director Bryan Singer (“X-Men,” “The Usual Suspects”) takes plenty of…
It’s getting a little tiring to see commercial after commercial claiming that a movie is inspired by actual events. What exactly does that mean? The wording is as vague and non-committal as it gets, suggesting that a writer can literally…
Bruce Willis and his most famous character, John McClane, are back and this time they are in the wrong movie. They must have taken a bad turn somewhere. With CIA agents, Russian criminals on the run and blaring brass instruments…
Here we have yet another big screen adaptation of a popular Young Adult novel series. I would like to cut directly to the important analysis, right to what matters here and state that “Beautiful Creatures” is better than “Twilight” but…
There is a point about mid-way through “Identity Thief” where Melissa McCarthy breaks down and starts dumping tears down her cheeks. It’s a raw, honest moment where she sheds the façade and gives us something real. It’s the best part…
Welcome to 2013, a year filled with old school shoot’em-ups starring geriatric Action Icons from the past. The pace of these releases is nearly bi-weekly. First we had Arnold’s return to form in “The Last Stand” which will soon be…
“Mama” is yet another fine example of the Modern PG-13 Horror Film Formula. Not much gore, a computer generated monster and weird, twitchy little kids that owe their convulsing inspiration to that poor girl in the “The Ring”. There are…
At least the man warned us multiple times. When faced with the ridiculous notion of an Action Flick starring a man in his mid-sixties all that rung through my head was that he continuously told us he would return. He…
About midway through “Gangster Squad” I began humoring the notion that the film might actually be striving for comedy. On the surface the project looks like it wants to be another “L.A. Confidential” with a weighty Noir feel but it…