Yearly Archives: 2023

When one refers to the sequel “The Book Club: The Next Chapter” as “creaky but charming,” one must hasten to add that one is referring to the groaner laughs, gear-grinding situations and dated plot, and not the engaging ladies of … Continue reading →

If you’re casting a movie about a business tycoon who basically launched a car company in a fit of pique, you could do worse than parking veteran screen heavy Frank Grillo in the title role. Grillo can be menacing. Grillo … Continue reading →

The age-old proviso about Bollywood films is that if the music and the choreography is good enough, you’ll excuse the slack storytelling of the inconsequential story. “Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar” puts that to the test with dazzling choreography, fun music, … Continue reading →

My first experience of the phenomenon instantly-labeled “Crackberry” was near its Canadian source, at the Toronto Film Festival shortly after the turn of the Millenium. You couldn’t watch a movie there without scanning a sea of little green screens all … Continue reading →

I’ve been reading Deadline.com’s reporting all week that has been shocked SHOCKED at steadily dropping expectations for the HUGE opening weekend for “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3.” The summer’s debut blockbuster was sporting $135-150 million prognostications. Early. And then … Continue reading →

Another tale of “When the aliens come knocking,” this one with a zombie/horror bent. June 6, Uncork’d uncorks this B-movie.

Our Lord John Cleese is the last top billed voice — as an arrogant fat cat frog — in this Viva Kids animated pic that’s opening May 12. J.K. Simmons doing a South of the Border accent? As a goat?

The question, tossed at Michael J. Fox from off-camera by the accomplished documentarian Davis Guggenheim, gets at a truth so blunt and self-evident that it doesn’t require an answer. “Why do you want to tell this story right now?“ And … Continue reading →

“Oh Belinda” is a dark and sometimes comic Turkish body-switch comedy, 97 minutes of giving a spoiled, indulgent actress a taste of the “real life” of a character she’s not-very-committed to playing. It’s from a genre Hollywood revisits, occasionally, but … Continue reading →

The venerated Willie Nelson‘s 90th birthday and the celebrated character actress Melinda Dillon‘s recent passing lured me back to “Songwriter,” an ornery and always amusing country music comedy built around Nelson’s story, Nelson’s persona and Nelson’s attitudes about Nashville and … Continue reading →