Monthly Archives: June 2025

Classic Film Review: Dick Powell knows when Time’s Up as “Johnny O’Clock”(1947)

There’s aren’t a lot of stars from Golden Age Hollywood that I regard as “can’t miss.” It’s basically a list that starts and ends with Dick Powell. Even Bogart had a misfire or two. John Wayne was a lumbering lump … Continue reading

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Movie Review: Mom’s lost it, Dad’s “rescued” her and Kids Give Chase — “A Kind of Madness”

It must be the lucid moments that hurt the most, the ones that can remind those with dementia or the other madnesses of old age of just what they’ve lost and what a fog they’re trapped in the rest of … Continue reading

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Netflixable? Careerists find Baby Fever “Semi-Soeter” (Semi-Sweeter) in this South African farce

“Semi-Soeter” is a broad, low-hanging fruit “Who has time for a baby?” comedy from South Africa. It’s a sequel to “Semi-Soet” (Semi Sweet), a 2012 South African hit about an ad agency careerist, Jaci (Anel Alexander) who hires a model … Continue reading

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Classic Film Review: An English Child’s Eye View of WWII — “Hope and Glory

There’s a glorious nostalgia to the great British director John Boorman’s World War II memoir, “Hope and Glory.” The sentiment is what sticks with you, a naive child’s memories of not the fear, violence and loss, but of the freedom, … Continue reading

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Movie Review: Stormare wants Kinnear to find Duhamel, who’s gone “Off the Grid”

Career bit player Ricky Russert, who was in “I, Tonya” and TV’s “Outer Banks” and even the recent “MacGuyer” reboot , gets a featured role as a villain in “Off the Grid,” a Josh Duhamel star-vehicle about a scientist who … Continue reading

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Movie Review: You’ll feel “Sweet Relief” when this inept indie thriller is over

It’s a little known truth of indie film sets that the “indier” the film, the less likely you’ll be able to tell the cast from the crew when visiting the shoot. I came to this conclusion covering such low budget, … Continue reading

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Classic Film Review: Pinter, Losey and Bogarde wind up the Clockwork Creepiness of “The Servant”(1963)

It’s been so long since I reviewed anything scripted by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter that I had to refresh my memory about the traits associated with the phrase “Pinteresque.” Let’s see, an “atmosphere of menace,” suspense and tension heightened by … Continue reading

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Netflixable? A Brazilian pop-star biopic — “Latin Blood: The Ballad of Ney Matogrosso”

From the moment little Ney de Souza Pereira spied cabaret and carnival icon Elvira Pagã on the stage, the die was cast and his young life had purpose. All those beatings he stubbornly endured from his military officer dad because … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “The Life of Chuck” Dances for the Reason to Live at the End of the World

Speaking as a critic who’s been “blurbed” a few times over the decades, you’ve got to recognize the double-edged sword such “recognition” in the advertising on a poster for a movie is. That’s you, out there, effusive in your praise, … Continue reading

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Movie Review: A Tour of Jolly Olde Zombieland “28 Years Later”

It begins with children watching the “Teletubbies” on the tube, reaching for a more innocent time. But the TV is just a distraction. Parents have parked their kids in front of it while they cope with the awful news they’ve … Continue reading

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