Monthly Archives: March 2019

So I gave up a seemingly perfect Saturday last weekend to catch a late-scheduled preview screening of “Wonder Park,” a new animated kids’ film opening Friday, with Nickelodeon supposedly building a TV series out of it this fall. It was … Continue reading →

“Division 19” is science fiction more to be appreciated than enjoyed. It’s a reasonably smart, somewhat timely riff on Current Conditions rendered in a dry, slow action satire, a picture lacking a charismatic lead or much in the line of … Continue reading →

It’s a sixth grade “Superbad” rolling out just as the little darlings are back in school. Which they’ll have to sneak out of to sneak INTO an R-rated — dirty, drug content etc — comedy. Totally appropriate that Seth Rogen … Continue reading →

They disembarked their trains — some of them, the foreigners — well-heeled, serenaded by a string quartet, assured their luggage would arrive later — “Everything will be safe.” German officers in their crisp, grey uniforms, smiled beneath the red swastika … Continue reading →

Here’s another gritty, pitiless Western carved out of archetypes and that favorite horse opera trope — the good man who eschews violence forced to take up a gun by armed thugs invading paradise. Countless Westerns have been built on that … Continue reading →

The idea is to hit you with the scale, to impress us with the magnitude of what was attempted and what was accomplished. So “Apollo 11” begins with a closeup of NASA’s gigantic crawler, the tracked vehicle — then new … Continue reading →

Emile Hirsch stars as an Irish undertaker in this Gold Rush Era Western, a man confronted by Men With Guns, thugs, led by John Cusack. A good heavy role for John C.? Let’s hope so. He’s a scary dude in … Continue reading →

A huge Thursday night preview and epic Friday have set the table for”Captain Marvel” to own this weekend, all of March and most of the box office pie in what has been a lackluster start to 2019 in terms of … Continue reading →

The pundits — not the conservative ones, mind you — often joke about the war that the wealthy are waging on the rest of us. And there’s plenty of evidence of that. In America, they might confine their predations to … Continue reading →

Marvel Studios’ “Captain Marvel” may be another somewhat generic superhero pic, forgettable in spite of its Oscar winning leading lady. Or it could be this year’s “Black Panther” or “Wonder Woman,” although lacking the novelty of those films’ — it’s … Continue reading →