Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Box Office: “Ben-Hur” bombs, “Kubo” underwhelms

So it’s to be another weekend won by that limp Warner Brothers comic book actioner, “Suicide Squad.” Because none of the new releases has a prayer of pushing it off the top spot, despite the downward spiral of ticket sales … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “The Confirmation”, now on Netflix

A little Catholic boy tries to stop his dad’s downward spiral into alcohol and poverty in “The Confirmation,” a bleak but funny comedy from the screenwriter of “Nebraska.” What writer/director Bob Nelson has dreamed up here is a “Bicycle Thieves” … Continue reading →

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Weekend movies: “Ben Hur” beaten down, “War Dogs” neutered, “Kubo” conquers all

Had to happen. I mean, last weekend had “Florence Foster Jenkins,” “Anthropoid,” “Pete’s Dragon” and “Sausage Party” opening wide, “Hell or High Water” opening wider. And all were at least pretty good (“Pete’s Dragon”) and most were outstanding. So this … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Ben-Hur” loses heart

It’s been a pretty good year for faith-based films, with “Risen” and “Miracles from Heaven” showing that Hollywood can get stories about Jesus and those who worship him right. The latest remake of “Ben-Hur” pretty much lets down the side, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Will glib gun dealers get theirs in “War Dogs”?

In “War Dogs,” a couple of homeys from Hebrew School take on the job of selling arms and ammunition to the U.S. military — for a big profit, of course. Because not everybody who got rich off the invasion of Iraq … Continue reading →

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Tarnished Triumph? Nate Parker’s ugly past punctures “Birth of a Nation” balloon

Actor turned actor/director Nate Parker and his film,  “Birth of a Nation”, were sensations at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. A whopping $17.5 million was paid for the rights to this account of the slave rebellion Virginian Nat Turner led … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Gleason” has heroes that aren’t the title character

Steve Gleason is a smart, articulate and self-aware retired NFL star whose life on the field was defined by one play — a blocked 2006 punt that came to symbolize his team’s and his city’s comeback from the devastation of … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Indignation”

“Indignation,” the latest Philip Roth novel to make it to the big screen, hangs on a trio of absolutely delicious if somewhat delusional confrontations — big scenes between its young hero, a secular Jew debating his Protestant academic dean about … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Kubo and the Two Strings”

Laika is not an animation studio to coddle and over-protect children. The studio that scared kids and challenged younger viewers with “PAraNorman” and “Coraline” gets back to what it does best with “Kubo and the Two Strings,” an imaginative, scary … Continue reading →

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Movie Review –“Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV”

  It seems like only yesterday — OK, it doesn’t, because really it was 2001 — that the video game creators of “Final Fantasy” sought to put their vision of their universe and their “story” in a big screen movie. … Continue reading →

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