Daily Archives: November 10, 2017

Back in the studio system days, a leading man could count on being shoved into war movies, gangster movies, boxing pictures and Westerns. Christian Bale is getting another crack at the last of those, at long last. Next month, we’ll … Continue reading →

Gerard Butler had his moment. Great fame didn’t come to him in the title role of “The Phantom of the Opera,” or via that sweet, sentimental indie romance, “Dear Frankie.” But when it did, by virtue of his brutish, manly … Continue reading →

The Ohio high school’s class trip to Washington, D.C. was a bit of a bust. Until, that is, one classmate had the chutzpah to get on a pay phone, make a call and make a pitch. Before they know it, … Continue reading →

“Last Flag Flying” is Richard Linklater’s homage to “The Last Detail,” a dark service comedy that was an early screen triumph for Jack Nicholson. But Linklater’s film, about old comrades-in-arms traveling to bury the just killed-in-action son of one of … Continue reading →

Meh, I’ve seen worse. Every year exposes the movie reviewing fellowship to a couple of delusional, talent-free putzes with the family money and the chutzpah to get a movie made and “distributed.” I saw one back in September, “Mike Boy,” … Continue reading →

It’s an enduring myth of screen comedies that directors who know their material isn’t all that can somehow wring laughs out of it through retakes. Their instructions to the actors in such cases are an inside Hollywood cliche. “Again, but … Continue reading →