Daily Archives: December 9, 2022

“The King of Laughter,” director and co-writer Mario Martone’s screen biography of the comic actor and playwright Eduardo Scarpetta, finishes with a flourish. Late in life, the famed parodist, played by Toni Servillo, is in court, defending himself against charges … Continue reading →

Critics use the phrase “instantly awful” to describe bad movies entirely too often and far too cavalierly. For that, please accept my heartfelt mea culpa. We should all reserve “instantly awful” for C-movie garbage like “Pistolera,” an underworld vengeance thriller … Continue reading →

Guillermo del Toro is not here to protect your tiny tykes from the grim realities of the big bad world. Like Walt Disney before him, he acknowledges the dangers and tragedies of life, and that life itself is fleeting. Wars … Continue reading →

The animation’s slightly better than TV’s current state of the art, but the screenplay is strictly “Scooby-doo” for Disney’s latest former 20th Century Fox franchise revival, “Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again.” I guess with the Disney+ “Diary of … Continue reading →

The inventor of the detective story has already been featured in a film about his West Point career this year. But this Scott Cooper adaptation of a modern novel about bloody goings on at the U.S. Military Academy in the … Continue reading →