Monthly Archives: March 2017

The only way to approach that ’70s TV series “ChiPs” as a movie was as a goof, so at least Dax Shepard’s riff on it had the right idea. This is “The Brady Bunch” on bikes, with blood and guts … Continue reading →

Nostalgia can be a hard sell beyond the demographic parameters of its generation. So, full disclosure here, the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” were never my thing, any more than “Transformers” or even “G.I.Joe” were. Whatever their virtues or appeal, they’re … Continue reading →

Top flight effects make the actors weightless, but the pull of over-familiarity drags “Life” back to Earth, a shiny serving of sci-fi horror that never escapes the pull of “Alien.” It’s a sometimes harrowing B-movie that has fatalism and inevitability, … Continue reading →

When Rod Serling wanted to sell his concept for “The Twilight Zone” to CBS, he gambled his hopes on a can’t-miss concept —  The Last (Person) on Earth. That TV pilot, “Where is Everybody?” starred Earl Holliman as a man … Continue reading →

Courtesy @hamillhimself  twitter.com  

It’s unnecessary. The animated “Beauty and the Beast” that led to the stage musical and now a (more or less) live action adaptation is a cultural touchstone, the pinnacle of the animated musical art and a work which “live action … Continue reading →

The late Bill Paxton got his start in no-budget thrillers. He figured out, early on, how to give you fair value, even playing a heavy in a genre picture. He managed that one last time with “Mean Dreams,” an abused … Continue reading →

The luminous Shailene Woodley was always going to find work after the abortive “Divergent” divergence. A blatant cut-and-paste “Hunger Games” knockoff, it didn’t even come to term. She’s on HBO’s “Big Little Lies” opposite Oscar winners Reese and Nicole and … Continue reading →

It doesn’t help “The Sense of an Ending” when we see that ending from a mile off. It is a mystery, after all, meant to maintain a certain level of suspense, promising a surprise. But it’s not a fatal flaw … Continue reading →

Shirley MacLaine has made a wonderful curmudgeon in her dotage. That covers pretty much every movie since “Terms of Endearment.” “Bernie” was something of a high-water mark in this third act of her storied career, playing a woman so unpleasant … Continue reading →