Tag Archives: Reviews

Classic Film Review: Hopkins is “The Efficiency Expert,” but are Crowe, Collette and Mendelsohn getting the ax? (1991)

Posted on January 4, 2025 by Roger Moore

Three future stars from Down Under pop off the screen in “The Efficiency Expert,” a delicate, dated and yet timeless fish-out-of-water period piece set in Australia at the birth of the job-cutting “consultant” boom. Toni Collette, impressive and emotional in … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Locksmith lives to Regret Taking that One “Night Call”

Posted on January 4, 2025 by Roger Moore

I’m of two minds about that subgenre we call the hero/heroine with “particular skills” thriller. The parade of Liam Neeson/Jason Statham/John Cena et al action pictures where this mobster, that rogue government or rogue government agency or creepy neighbor crosses … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Scottish Bay, a Burt and a Baby-Faced Peter Capaldi — “Local Hero” (1983)

Posted on December 31, 2024 by Roger Moore

Oh to make the pilgrimage to Pennan, flying in to Aberdeen, recreating the journey a “Local Hero” makes in perhaps the quaintest, cutest film of that golden age of excess, the ’80s. Scottish writer-director Bill Forsyth’s “Gregory’s Girl” announced to … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Woman Boxer shows us “The Fire Inside”

Posted on December 25, 2024 by Roger Moore

A couple of great performances lift “The Fire Inside,” a generally conventional “fight picture” about a boxer long odds in pursuit of Olympic glory. The novelty to this compact genre drama from cinematographer turned director Rachel Morrison and Oscar winning … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Jackie Chan, in the silly present, in the fantastical past “A Legend”

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Roger Moore

Let the record reflect that Jackie Chan is more limber, nimble and in better faux fighting trim at 70 than you are at 60, 35 or 20, “Boomer,” “Xer,” Millennial or what have you. Hong Kong’s king of martial arts … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Jolie as Callas, “Maria,” a Diva at Death’s Door

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Roger Moore

“Maria” is an operatic bio-pic in every sense of the word. In director Pablo Larraín’s vision of “La Callas,” the diva’s diva Maria Callas, there is tragedy off-stage but serenity in the spotlight, an artist wholly prepared and fully immersed … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Carney, Tomlin, Killings and a Missing Cat — “The Late Show” (1977)

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Roger Moore

The golden age of film noir — cynical, sinister and shadowy thrillers about crime and the unchanging nature of human criminality — was the 1940s and ’50s, when black and white cinema still ruled. The genre never really went away, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Sex Worker “Anora” marries her “Whale”

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Roger Moore

Full disclosure, I ducked into “Anora” a couple of times, waiting for other movies to start, before finally setting aside the time to watch Sean Baker’s latest, start to finish. The tale of an American sex worker of Eastern European … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Karen Gillan’s a lost soul ready to join the “Late Bloomers”

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Roger Moore

“Jumanji” and Marvel veteran Karen Gillan finally finds a star vehicle in sync with her brittle, awkwardly funny persona with “Late Bloomers,” a sentimental comedy about an aimless, guilt-stricken young woman who finally grows up when she takes on the … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Child’s turn as Robinson Crusoe in “Kensuke’s Kingdom”

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Roger Moore

“Kensuke’s Kingdom” is a simply but attractively animated film based on a Michael Morpurgo novel. The novel, in turn, is based on the classic tale “Robinson Crusoe,” here modernized to place a shipwrecked boy and his dog in tropical paradise, … Continue reading →

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