Monthly Archives: April 2016

The cast is too dolled-up and the titular “Barbershop” has become a shiny, unisex salon. So “scruffy” and “scrappy” no longer applies to Ice Cube’s comic franchise. But “Barbershop: The Next Cut” still has that patchwork, under-scripted feel, lurching from … Continue reading →

“Spunky” never dies. It just hides its liver spots, dons spinster glasses and never lets the strain that maintaining “perky”past retirement age show. Sally Field brings a bubbly, misdirected vitality to “Hello, My Name is Doris,” a cute better-late-than-never romance … Continue reading →

It’s derivative, it’s dark, it’s jokey and bloody. And it’s an August comic book movie release. So, “Guardians of the Galaxy” or…something less? Will Smith is the biggest name in it, re-teamed with Margot Robbie, it turns out. Jared Leto … Continue reading →

Remember, acting guru Constantin Stanislavski preached, “There are no small parts, only small actors.” He must have dreamed there’d be a film as closely scrutinized, with its tiniest performances parsed and scrutinized, as “Star Wars.” “Elstree 1976” is a documentary … Continue reading →

A decent Saturday got Melissa McCarthy over, and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” gave up the top spot at the box office. A $24 million+ take by midnight Sunday is now projected, “Batman” will be less than a million … Continue reading →

Melissa McCarthy’s new picture, “The Boss,” is set to narrowly lose the weekend to “Batman v. Superman,” just based on Friday night’s numbers. Her best day is going to be Saturday (today), and “Batman” is fading. Fast. So maybe the … Continue reading →

As I noted in my review, it can’t be healthy that Melissa McCarthy is entrusting at least a little of her career to her quite-unfunny husband, Ben Falcone. It’s “tragic” that he turns out to be, as her co-writer and … Continue reading →

I like the cast I see (Felicity Jones, an interesting actress to hang a picture on, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, Alan Tudyck, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelson) and I see a fresher take — a chamber piece in the “Star Wars” … Continue reading →

“Hardcore Henry” is a dazzlingly ambitious technical exercise, the most wholly-realized “first person” point-of-view action picture ever made. Writer-director Ilya Naishuller and a trio of cinematographers, strapped up with tiny GoPro cameras, have turned a first-person-shooter (FPS) video game into … Continue reading →

It happens to every big screen comic sooner or later. Eventually, some desperate director, working from a deathly-dull script, pleads into that comic’s ear, “Just get in front of the camera and DO something, SAY something, ANYTHING funny.” And a whole … Continue reading →