Monthly Archives: February 2018

When “Ishtar,” one of the most expensive comedies ever made and a flop, to boot, came out, Dustin Hoffman defended it by saying this. “A baby doesn’t know how rich his parents are!” How much a movie cost can hinder … Continue reading →

Reporters tried to get Uma Thurman to talk about Harvey Weinstein and the whole Miramax Sexual Assaultworks last fall, when all this stuff came out. But no. Ms. Thurman would not bite. The seething “No comment” didn’t mean she wouldn’t … Continue reading →

If you want to get your romantic comedy in front of the camera, you need a hook, a conceit that will sell it. It takes an experienced filmmaker, and a brave one, to abandon a treasured conceit when it becomes … Continue reading →

There are hard and fast rules to submarine thrillers. A gauge — any gauge — has to stick and somebody has to tap it to get it to work. Everybody thinks it, but SOMEbody’s got to actually say “I’m not … Continue reading →

Odeya Rush is the high school outcast who becomes pen pals with a foreign (Cockney?) ruler in this wacky comedy, whose trailer suggests something we might have seen in the ’80s, an SNL comedy during comedy’s “Cocaine” era. Just…nuts. Remember, … Continue reading →

  “Winchester,” a haunted house period piece with a promising premise and Oscar-winner-headed cast, lurches into theaters as the first major movie disappointment of 2018. All those spooky trailers, the promise of Helen Mirren as the surnamed firearms heiress sure … Continue reading →

Bloody, kinetic and near-as-makes-no-difference plot-less, “Kill Order” is about a human super weapon hunted by his creators. It’s a psychotronic martial arts/sci-fi mashup where all the mayhem is rendered in slow-mo, or sped-up motion. As you’d expect from a stuntman turned … Continue reading →

“The Purge” movies have been politically charged from the start, and have only grown more blunt in their class warfare/”thin the herd” ethos with each sequel. The new one is the “original” Purge, a prequel that unlike the 2013 sleeper … Continue reading →

  “Becks” is a gay romance so old fashioned it feels like a period piece, a film from the earliest days of what came to be called “queer cinema.” It’s about a folk singer falling in love with a married … Continue reading →