Films about older people have become more frequent recently, probably because so many of our finest actors have aged into senior citizen-hood and need good parts, and many of them are worthwhile. Still Mine definitely falls into that category; it is […]
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Red 2 (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I enjoyed the first Red, which boasted a cadre of senior citizen secret agents having to defend themselves when someone begins hunting them, all done with appealing performances, zippy dialogue and some slam bang action. A second viewing of it […]
Continue reading »Despicable Me 2 (2013) ☆ 1/2
The first of these animated films was cute, with villain Gru trying to steal the Moon but instead learning that building a happy family is more important. It bugged me that its message seemed to be that caring for children […]
Continue reading »Pacific Rim (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
A throwback to the 1950s and ’60s Japanese monster movies which followed the original Gojira (Godzilla), Guillermo del Toro’s movie is a blend of titanium-plated Transformers-like robot technology and old-fashioned, rubber-suited monster mayhem on big city streets. It’s just as dorky […]
Continue reading »This is the End (2013) ☆ ☆
The previews for this profane apocalyptic comedy made me cringe; much of the actual film does as well. Its dialogue is needlessly, stupidly grotesque, and so are many of the real-life based characters. Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Craig […]
Continue reading »Unfinished Song (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Unfinished Song, originally to be titled Song for Marion, is a British weepie in the tradition of last year’s Quartet or The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I think of it as Quartet-lite. It’s simple plot consists of pensioner Arthur Harris (Terence Stamp) […]
Continue reading »The Lone Ranger (2013) ☆ 1/2
I actually enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy a great deal (not the fourth one, however), but I can understand when people refer to those adventures as “over the top” or “overproduced.” I didn’t mind silly extravagances and wild characters […]
Continue reading »Grown Ups 2 (2013) ☆
No need to spend a lot of time on this. As a follow-up to the largely unfunny Grown Ups of 2010, this comedy delivers the same type of goofy slapstick, cringe-worthy wacky character caricatures and surprising cameo appearances. It’s very episodic, […]
Continue reading »White House Down (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
The second of two 2013 movies in which terrorists attack Washington D.C. (Olympus Has Fallen is the first) is White House Down, a big-budgeted and not very believable romp in which a military coup is thwarted by a prospective Secret Service […]
Continue reading »Now You See Me (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
I’ve never been a big fan of prestidigitation, or magic, because it is all illusion. Yet Louis Leterrier’s new movie Now You See Me enticingly explores how such illusion is created and sustained, invites skepticism, and mostly succeeds in persuading the […]
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