Monthly Archives: August 2017

“Annabelle: Creation” back-engineers the tale of the demonically possessed doll — the latest version of a demonically possessed doll — into an origin story that is a veritable grab-bag of terror. The director of the simpler and superior “Lights Out” … Continue reading →

  It’s due in theaters in five weeks. It has a prestige director — Darren Aronofsky — and Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Ed Harris. And a VERY “Rosemary’s Baby” vibe. So they held … Continue reading →

Pretty, perky perpetual girlfriend/best friend/second banana Lake Bell makes her second trip behind the feature film camera with a self-written comedy about marriage, “I Do…Until I Don’t.” It lacks the goofy novelty of “In a World…,” which was set in … Continue reading →

In “Casablanca,” the arrogant German Major Strasser taunts the neutral American ex-patriate Rick how he’ll feel when German troops parade down the streets of this city or that one, and finishes his quiz with New York. “Well there are certain … Continue reading →

The shooting of Michael Brown isn’t re-investigated and the trial of the police officer who shot the unarmed black teen eight times isn’t parsed in the new documentary “Whose Streets?” Media coverage — some of it bordering on hysterical — … Continue reading →

The filmmaking is more pedestrian, the visuals a bit too heavy on travel and meetings and phone wrangling. And the shock and optimism of the Oscar winning “An Inconvenient Truth” is more muted in “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.” … Continue reading →

Years of hype, speculation, studio changes, director/screenwriter, and many many cast changes and FINALLY Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” books have reached the big screen. And the film may…MAY…take the top spot on its opening weekend. After taking a critical … Continue reading →

It can’t have helped that Stephen King fans and fantasy-horror fangirls and boys spent years breathlessly anticipating a film version of his “Dark Tower” series of novels. Sure, he’s a proven brand and these books — about alternate worlds where … Continue reading →

No, Steven Soderbergh’s “retirement” didn’t last any longer than Cher’s — or Tina Turner’s. Or Kiss’s. But we’ve missed him, and this modest-budget/big-name cast comic thriller could be a nice desert for a summer overloaded with junk food sequels and … Continue reading →

A boiling point summer in American race relations becomes a tipping point in American history in “Detroit,” Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s incendiary epic about the 1967 riots that reveal so much about the country we live in today. The … Continue reading →