Monthly Archives: April 2022

The review embargo for this HBO Max series about an American reporter covering the Japanese mob for a Japanese newspaper is Monday afternoon. But before one writes the review of Ansel Elgort’s series set in the Japanese underworld, one must … Continue reading →

A Cold War drama set in a Czechoslovakian seminary just after the Russo-Warsaw Pact invasion of the country is today’s DVD dropoff. “Servants” is, of course, a good one, a winner from our friends at Film Movement MovieNation, spreading fine … Continue reading →

Try to forget Neil Maskell’s turn as a young Winston Churchill on TV’s “Peaky Blinders.” Put Winston out of your mind. As “Bull,” every time the hulking Maskell enters a room people look alarmed. Shocked even. And nobody’s ever glad … Continue reading →

Sometimes, you keep adding photos to top of a review just to avoid having to write it. Because I’ve been a fan of Judd Apatow, and I just knew his turn towards indulgent, overlong, nepotism-laced “comedies” in recent years wasn’t … Continue reading →

You never think of how integral doors are to a “door-slamming farce” until you run into a screen comedy that leaves them out. “French Touch,” aka “An Artist with the Ladies” and titled “Coiffeur pour Dames” in its native France, … Continue reading →

I figure I’m the last one to get around to noticing this trailer (seen before “Morbius” in a theater), and the news that this cult-following TV show has generated a big screen movie. The reason for that? It pegs my … Continue reading →

Some of the best vampire “transitioning” effects ever are wasted on “Morbius,” perhaps the least interesting and certainly the least consequential action picture ever to wear the Marvel badge. Jared Leto isn’t awful in the title role. But aside from … Continue reading →

He single-handedly turned America into an Olympic swimming powerhouse, competing in four Olympiads. And while touring with that Olympic fame, he brought Hawaiian surfing to the world. There are statues to Duke Kahanamoku in countries where he first dipped a … Continue reading →

This all star murder mystery comes to HBO Max May 5. Interesting to hear the Oscar winning Firth’s latest take on an American accent.

The setting is unfamiliar, the language spoken is Arabic, the violence unexpected and the plot — “Who is framing me for the famous man they had shot in my rideshare?” well-worn. The slick, confusing and yet somehow familiar Egyptian thriller … Continue reading →