Monthly Archives: November 2023

“Your Lucky Day” is a somewhat hackneyed B-movie about the violence that a big lottery ticket unleashes in a small New York convenience store. It stumbles into its inciting incident and drifts through some pitiless and bloody violence before taking … Continue reading →

Musical cliches are a rich part of any sports movie’s appeal, especially a formulaic comedy like “Next Goal Wins.” The chunky team needs to train to get in shape? A little Dolly Parton and “Nine to Five.” And then there’s … Continue reading →

“Next Goal Wins” is a scruffy, formulaic sports comedy that offers a Taiki Waititi take on a 2014 documentary about “the worst” soccer team “in the world” and the ill-tempered coach brought in to change that status. Even the titles … Continue reading →

“The Pigeon Tunnel,” a documentary built around the dark but playful the 2016 memoir and consisting of the last and longest interview the greatest spy fiction novelist David Cornwell, aka John le Carré, ever gave, isn’t an expose, a confrontation … Continue reading →

As we enter another deluge of “holiday” streaming movies, I’d be remiss in not catching on a title or two I missed from assorted streaming services LAST holiday movie season. “Something from Tiffany’s” comes with a Rotten Tomatoes critics seal … Continue reading →

The cornerstone of a good thriller is right there in the title to “Locked In,” a Famke Janssen star vehicle that loses track of the star almost as quickly as it tosses aside that essential building block. This British thriller … Continue reading →

I’m hard-pressed to think of a screen role Aaron Eckhart didn’t commit to, heart and soul. A-pictures and B-movies, bit parts or leads, he’s present, prepped and accounted for every time somebody yells “Action!” For his latest, he’s hit the … Continue reading →

“Sayen: Desert Road (Sayen: La Ruta Seca)” is a Chilean B-movie thriller about the further adventures of activist/investigator and freedom fighter Sayen, a two-fisted Mapuche woman plunging into a Big Conspiracy destroying her people and and enriching the corrupt in … Continue reading →

Before the words “cultural appropriation” and Western filters through which to view the “exotic East” fell out of fashion, the TV version of James Clavell’s epic novel “Shogun” was a major mini-series event of the TV of 1980. Mini series … Continue reading →

Karen Dionne’s Crimson Scribe-award winning, best-selling novel “The Marsh King’s Daughter” earns a sturdy, suspenseful big screen treatment by the director of “The Illusionist” and “The Upside.” Neil Burger benefits from having a compelling lead — Daisy Ridley — and … Continue reading →