Monthly Archives: June 2021

Here it is, at long last, the looniest tune in this “car toon” saga. More characters, more “Bugs Bunny physics,” more epic stunts, more spectacular nonsense, “F9” roars into theaters the perfect marriage of “fan service” and “character service.” Everybody … Continue reading →

This Apple release comes to Apple TV Nov. 12. Anybody know the “true story” this is based on? A podcast inspired it.

The early reviews for the NINTH “Fast and the Furious” movie have been mostly upbeat. As it’s opened in the rest of the world before its native North America, those are are easy-touch Australian and New Zealand critics. So the … Continue reading →

Sylwia Zając, by any reasonable measure of this cliche, appears to “have it all.” She is young, beautiful, blonde and famous. And thanks to her choice of career, she’s insanely fit. That career — as an exercise guru and social … Continue reading →

Context is everything in taking in the oddest film in British director Michael Apted’s career, this early drama from the TV director (transitioning to film) who went on to director “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” a Bond film, movies in most every … Continue reading →

It’s hard to think of a movie, short or feature-length, a TV show or a play that, setting out to ridicule the critic profession, hasn’t landed a few sucker punches and body blows. Jon Lovitz, paunchy and animated for TV, … Continue reading →

Let’s coin a new phrase, one any movie lover will instantly “get” thanks to the state of cinema in the Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/Disney+ era. What’s a movie we’d describe as “streaming length?” It’s one that could stand editing, but run on and … Continue reading →

Nothing in all your or my years of watching movies prepared me for the utter glee Malcolm McDowell expresses the moment of his “big reveal” in the 1979 WWII action pic, “The Passage.” As an SS sadist chasing a runaway … Continue reading →

A reminder to parents who might consider checking out the suspenseful Canadian drama “Les Notres” in a cinema. It’s rude to throw things at the screen, and not great manners to shout at it. But variations of “Oh COME on!” … Continue reading →

“Gaia” is a South African trapped-in-the-forest thriller that trips up expectations more than enough to keep us interested. It’s an eco-horror tale where who and what we root for and against are flipped and flipped again as the story tales … Continue reading →