Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Think nothing of the fact that what is, in essence, the first weekend of the holiday movie season is being hailed for saving the “fall” box office. Things have been that bad since August. When another lame “Madea” movie and … Continue reading →

So this holiday film season will get a nice goosing from “Doctor Strange,” Marvel’s origin story for another character in the Marvel universe, a spare-no-expense dazzler of the eye candy genre. A desultory fall film season desperately needs this to … Continue reading →

“Doctor Strange” is Marvel’s “Avatar,” the “Inception” of comic book adaptations. The effects are that dazzling, the images so trippy, eye-popping and ground-breaking that one is tempted to scrap the normal “credits” for a recitation of the unsung architects of … Continue reading →

Proto-punks Iggy and the Stooges were once and have remained an acquired rock taste, and “Gimme Danger” won’t  change that. Jim Jarmursch’s History of The Stooges won’t convert many. But you will walk away with an appreciation that goes beyond … Continue reading →

A quick post-mortem, then, on “Keeping Up With the Joneses,” a caper comedy that neither capers nor gives birth to many laughs. It has Zach Galifianakis, who broke out in “The Hangover” movies and is finding great humor on TV … Continue reading →

With its garish colors, bubbly production numbers and kid-friendly fart and poop jokes, there are plenty of reminders that “Trolls” really isn’t for you or me while you’re watching it. Even if their favorite hobby is scrapbooking. OK, especially since … Continue reading →

Mel Gibson seeks cinematic redemption for his non-cinematic sins by going to his safe space with “Hacksaw Ridge,” a violent and visceral combat movie that doubles as a faith-based film. His name isn’t on the advertising, but “Hacksaw,” the story … Continue reading →

“Sex,” the infamously twisted Woody Allen once joked, “is the most fun you can have without laughing.” But he said that decades before the Korean film of Sarah Waters‘ “The Handmaiden.” It’s an erotic thriller of schemes, double-crosses, pornography and … Continue reading →

Sony waited too long to roll out a third Dan “Da Vinci Code” Brown film. The fizz has gone out of this series of page-turner adaptations, partly because the books are old news, Tom Hanks’ audience has aged and is … Continue reading →

The thing about Professor Robert Langdon is, he’s solving mysteries none of us has a prayer of solving before him. He’s not playing fair. Novelist Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” “puzzle-master,” classics professor and antiquities expert, has information in his … Continue reading →