Monthly Archives: July 2019

This looks like a solid kidnapping/attempted rescue-assassinate the kidnappers thriller. Somalia, Sudan, countries we NEVER see in the news today, the setting for this Franco-African incident. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vJnLn37g

Another movie incompetently marketed into Oblivion by Bleecker St. No, Jesse Eisenberg isn’t box office. He makes indie films, mostly. And the subject matter and rest of the cast was no automatic draw. But people should have found it. That’s … Continue reading →

The best opening for a Tarantino movie ever. One of the steeper fall offs for a Disney blockbuster remake. That’s the take away, here. “Once” opened wider than Tarantino’s other pictures under Weinstein distribution. It was on track to clear … Continue reading →

There are a lot of points to chew on in “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” — issues from the pedestrian (maddeningly indulgent pacing, rewriting history) to political (labeling the Manson cult “hippies” is more reactionary than point blank accurate) to … Continue reading →

In the espionage game, your only loyalties are personal. That’s been drummed into us in a century of spy movies, so why would “The Operative” have it any other way? Here’s a solid, simple spy tale about a Mossad recruit, … Continue reading →

Molly Ivins had a method, a way of looking at the world, at Texas and later American politics, when coming up with an idea for her magazine and newspaper columns. She’d raise an eyebrow, maybe let her jaw drop in … Continue reading →

“The Lion King” owns another weekend and probably won’t lose the top spot until “Hobbes & Shaw” come along — another $78 million this weekend, a steep drop from its opening. But Sony opening “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” super … Continue reading →

A lovely, lyrical and big voice silenced before she was done with it. Looking forward to this one.

“Home invasion” — it isn’t just the NRA’s easiest recruiting fear. We all dread the idea of it, somebody like Robert Patrick breaking into the house, waving a gun around, drinking our liquor and smoking our cigars. And FLUSH the … Continue reading →

Did America wake up and suddenly realize Disney pointlessly remade “The Lion King?” Because Box Office Mojo had been predicting a whopping $94 million for the second weekend of the digitally animated talking critters tale. Others, Deadline.com included, were saying … Continue reading →