Yearly Archives: 2016

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 →

“Midnight Special” is a cryptic and suspenseful sci-fi road picture, a thriller so tightly pitched it would work even without the magical science fiction element. Writer-director Jeff Nichols has done some of his best work with children (“Mud”) and Michael … Continue reading →

The supply of military acronyms is endless and ever-growing, a point reinforced by the superb “Eye in the Sky,” a thriller about drone warfare. There’s “CDE,” “collateral damage estimate,” and “PID” (“positive identification”). But when it comes to the most … Continue reading →

Spoiler alert — God’s still not dead in “God’s Not Dead 2.” Actually, that’s a better title, but let’s not quibble or chase camels through the eye of a needle. The faithful are taken to court for this sequel to … Continue reading →

Southern trained/Southern Exposure filmmaker Jeff Nichols sees Michael Shannon in a heroic light, and that’s good enough for me. “Midnight Special” is a markedly different piece of work from the guy who gave us “Shotgun Stories” and “Take Shelter” and … Continue reading →

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 →