Monthly Archives: July 2023

So who WILL they get to be the next James Bond, eh? Who CARES? Not while we’ve got Tom Cruise, in the saddle and laying it all on the line in the franchise that out-Bonds James Bond a little more … Continue reading →

A compelling hot-button subject and engrossing “true story” runs up against a ponderous script, pedestrian direction and the limited range of star Jim Caviezel in “Sound of Freedom,” a lumbering thriller about international child sex trafficking that flatlines when it’s … Continue reading →

This Paramount release is coming in January, which suggests the studio doesn’t sense “Oscars” in a genre film that has long been an Academy favorite, but that maybe they had some notion it could be a contender. Usually they advertise … Continue reading →

“Employee of the Month” is a dark comedy about a woman away under a soul crushing patriarchy only to have fellows who won’t promote her or plan on stealing her raise if she’s ever given one. And then a Black … Continue reading →

Genre fans can pretty much tell when a Western is “off” just from a glance, and “Dead Man’s Hand” doesn’t pass that “This looks like a West that’s lived in” test. But as this horse opera’s from the director of … Continue reading →

Somebody was “picking up,” killing and dismembering gay men and dumping their body parts across rural New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the early 1990s. And because the victims were gay and the little evidence at hand said they were “pick-up … Continue reading →

No singing. No dancing teapots or candelabras. No Disney. A bit horrific, as the French intended. July 14.

If the pop powerhouse Wham! didn’t begin, progress to the “Top of the Pops” and end exactly this way — and it almost certainly did — it most certainly should have. Chris Smith’s engaging, adorably upbeat portrait of the brief, … Continue reading →

The first full trailer lays out the cast –Lilt Gladstone included — the historical backdrop and the stakes. A bit of “The Aviator” about it, with themes similar to “Gang’s of New York.” Oct. 6 in theaters, Apple TV+ to … Continue reading →

The summer blockbuster I’ve most been intrigued to see. Tom Cruise treats these films like a covenant with the audience/fanbase. He does not break that covenant.