Jurassic World is as meticulously crafted as the strange, clean, efficient theme park that is the real central character of the movie. This script knows how to hit a story beat, how to let a cliffhanger of a line lead directly to the next scene, with appropriately cued, swelling music. It knows that a large part…
Tomorrowland will be remembered as the film that launched Britt Robertson into movie stardom. As Casey Newton, the feisty, science-minded daughter of a NASA engineer, Robertson does everything she can to single-handedly power this awkward, confused, shambolic young adult fantasy along. She can do perky, she can toss a double-take, and her wide-eyed, eyebrows-up, mouth-agape…
There is nothing inherently awful about the big screen version of HBO’s Entourage television series, other than it has absolutely no reason, or justification, to exist. Big screen versions of television shows are nothing new. I’m not talking about decades-later reboots but simply transitions to the big screen, including original actors and, often, sets, props and situations.…
A Los Angeles Fire Department Helicopter Pilot gets the chance to save his marriage when the biggest earthquake in history rips open the San Andreas fault from LA to San Francisco. If that co-mingling of the personal and the devastatingly tragic makes you a little queasy, San Andreas – which, amid hundreds of thousands of deaths, is…
Stop WHATEVER you’re doing right now and get tickets to see this film. Mad Max: Fury Road is just too good to pass up. This is a BIG screen film. I even saw it at the main screen at the Chinese Theater, IMAX, Real LASER 3-D, and I was impressed on all counts. Same premise…
Wait, so, this is a small independent zombie thriller staring Arnold Schwarzenegger? Really? I would not have thought Arnold would take such a low key role that frankly, doesn’t put him in the spotlight. But, here it is. In a post zombie virus-infected world, Arnold plays Wade, a husband, and father to daughter Maggie, who…
Well, this is interesting. Two reviews of the Avengers sequel. And they’re different. Like CJ, I didn’t read a lot of Avengers comics. But I did read them occasionally. I couldn’t tell you a lot about their overall plot lines and such, but I knew enough about the characters to be aware of them and…
April can be a month where good films go to be alone. If it’s not a high profile movie taking advantage of the pre-summer blockbuster season, like Furious 7, then it can go unnoticed without enough marketing. Such is the case with True Story, a film I don’t think I even saw one TV trailer…
Jupiter Ascending *** (out of five) You get an awful lot of movie for your sixteen – or whatever – bucks with The Wachowski’s Jupiter Ascending, a crazy, fun, infuriating, difficult, fun, bonkers, expensive, fun, ludicrous, romantic, fun flick. It is flawed but is full of… fun. I had a great, cheesy time. Jupiter Jones (surely a…
When I first saw the trailer I was a little shocked to tell you the truth. I was expecting a movie that would be a darker version of Mr. Holland’s Opus. Wrong. This is one heavy music related drama that holds nothing back. J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller are amazing. They both give solid performances…