Monthly Archives: March 2016

The unlikely pairing of Amber Heard and Christopher Walken pays comic dividends in “One More Time,” an agreeably predictable famous father/bitter daughter dramedy. Walken plays Paul Lombard, an aged crooner, “The King of Romance,” contemplating a comeback as only Christopher … Continue reading →

First, there was my review, the first widely-published/republished pan of “The Force Awakens,” a review which drew endless comments of abuse and became an Internet Meme. “Glib facsimile.” I own that. Ask anybody. Then there was this, which backed me … Continue reading →

Kids’ movies are like children’s literature — so deceptively simple anybody thinks he or she can manage one, but devilishly hard to pull off. “Rescue Dogs” is a “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” knockoff — animals talking in voice-overs that their humans … Continue reading →

You don’t get a to take a bow or receive a gold star for figuring out the Big Allegory in “High-Rise.” It’s there, front and center and obvious to all, thanks to sci-fi novelist J.G. Ballard’s naming of the characters … Continue reading →

Full disclosure here. I’m over zombies. The slow zombies, the fast zombies, the zombies who climb on each other like ants to scramble over walls, the zombies who flirt and zombies who suffer. They’re overexposed and out of ideas, not … Continue reading →

Society may, any day now, lose its grasp of the lessons of The Holocaust as those who witnessed it pass from the scene. But those few survivors left continue their mission, to remind us, to pursue justice, to “never forget.” … Continue reading →

It sounded mad, right from the outset. British actor Tom Hiddleston, “Loki” from the “Thor” and “Avengers” movies, as that icon of country music, Hank Williams? Surely somebody had lost his or her ever-loving mind. But give it to Hiddleston, … Continue reading →

Ethan Hawke talked about his “Chet Baker” movie for so long it seemed he might age out of ever getting to play the troubled jazz giant on the screen. But “Boyhood” and the Oscar nomination that followed allowed Hawke and … Continue reading →

It’s the comic book universe’s great imponderable. In a world where Superman exists, what’s the point of any other superhero? The guy has godlike powers, the purity of a savior and perfect PR. That’s got to cause some resentment and … Continue reading →

  More than a dozen years after the indie film phenom and the far less successful TV series that it spawned, do those big fat Greeks of Nia Vardalos still deliver the laughs and the love when their excesses are … Continue reading →