Monthly Archives: December 2019

If he is making just one more feature film, he doesn’t want it to be a franchise popcorn pic based on a TV series. R-rated or not, “Tarantino-esque” Trek. Not happening. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/quentin-tarantino-backs-away-his-star-trek-movie-1263001

A young violinist comes to terms with her estranged father’s past in this Jan. 10 release.

The recent “Star Wars” reboots have left me a bit cold — delighted by “Rogue One,” well-cast, a story with real life-or-death stakes — unimpressed by “Solo,” underwhelmed by the J.J. Abrams storyline and casting. But I’m optimistic. I tend … Continue reading →

One rabbit hole that the shift of movie reviewing to an online profession can send you down is Google letting you know what questions people are asking when they track down a film review. The most common? “X, Y or … Continue reading →

“Good Sam” is a “Pay it Forward” style “feel-good” weeper that lacks only the weeping — and the feeling good — to come off. Unemotional, mostly uninvolving and seriously underwhelming, it takes a mild-mannered story about an anoynmous good Samaritan … Continue reading →

Kind of pins you back in your seat. Little bit.

“Spies in Disguise” is an animated action comedy, “Mission: Impossible” with one-liners and sight gags galore.  It’s a violent film with “there’s got to be a better (non-violent) way” messaging, a pretty funny torture joke and lots of written graphics. … Continue reading →

Well, isn’t this the most adorable damned concert doc you ever saw? “Spirits of the Forest” captures Depeche Mode at the finale to their 2017-18 “Global Spirit” in Berlin. It’s a multi-media spectacle in the modern concert style, with the … Continue reading →

I’ve just finished the last biography written by the historian Edmund Morris, a Pulitzer Prize winner and the world’s foremost expert on Teddy Roosevelt, and among those foiled by “There’s no THERE there” in trying to write a biography of … Continue reading →

Three movies not worth your time opened wide this weekend. Only one paid off. “Jumanji: The Next Level” outperformed expectations with a whopping $60 million take. “Frozen 2,” finally dethroned, came in a distant second in the mid-teens. Clint Eastwood’s … Continue reading →