Author Archives: Roger Moore

One of the gifts or curses of reviewing films for decades is that ability to spot a fiasco in the first few frames. Some movies start off with promise and lose it. Some stumble but give you the hope that … Continue reading →

There’s always a hint of defiance in mentioning the movie you’re most determined to steal from. It’s a dare, like “Sure, COMPARE our movie to that one.” Usually, it’s a bit misguided. “You can’t outrun the curse! Haven’t you ever … Continue reading →

Getting romance in a science fiction blockbuster is a rare and precious thing. Raising the stakes, amping up the action, Chalamet maturing into the role. This looks and FEELS ike a major step up from the somewhat tedious “universe building” … Continue reading →

Tense, tight and comically dark, movies like “Very Big Shot” are why you take cinematic journeys Around the World with Netflix. If not for the streaming service resurrecting this Lebannese gem from 2016, it might have passed unnoticed, save for … Continue reading →

So, it’s a Liam Neeson “Speed?” August 25, Liam and Matthew Modine and lesser know co-stars take his “particular skills” to the streets. Classic late August B-movie with a big star and a few possibilities about it.

Richard Armitage gives off Big Liam Neeson energy in “The Man from Rome,” a papal thriller about land grabs, murder and historical church coverups set in that picture postcard in the south of Spain, Seville. But while casting the veteran … Continue reading →

Submitted for your approval, two men sequestered in a “Biosphere” of their own creation, isolated from civilization, Beckett characters in a Pirandello parable of human evolution in a time of ecological crisis and existential disconnect due to ever-changing pronouns. It’s … Continue reading →

This female fury unleashed thriller goes digital and “Uncork’d” August 1. Like your B-movies with blood and a bustline? Here you go.

Some decent fight choreography and a couple of well-staged shootouts decorate the Malay thriller “The Assistant,” an action pic for those who like their violence bloody and something close to non-stop. It takes a very long while to get going, … Continue reading →

It’s a testament to the enduring power of cinema that even a bad movie can have something in it that gets to you. And most of the time, that something is a performance, a presence or even just a face. … Continue reading →