Movies can succeed in many ways, one of which is taking a dramatic story with troubling aspects and making a wacky comedy out of it. That is what has occurred with Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a New Zealand production. An […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Little Men (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The title doesn’t do this movie any favors, suggesting as it does another Louisa May Alcott edition or a ensemble piece of height-challenged actors. Instead, this realistic drama spotlights how a budding friendship between two adolescent boys is threatened when […]
Continue reading »The Magnificent Seven (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
This is film is a textbook example of why remakes of classic films rarely measure up to the originals. The original, a 1960 western, based itself on the 1954 Japanese classic Seven Samurai, is a marvelous film that made stars of […]
Continue reading »Mr. Church (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
I must confess I had never even heard of this film before my local art house picked it up, and had no idea what it might be. Actually, that situation is a wonderful way to experience a movie, for I […]
Continue reading »Sully (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Some events seem destined for movie production; such is the case with “the Miracle on the Hudson,” the January 15, 2009 incident when pilots Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and Jeff Skiles successfully landed an airliner on the Hudson River after a […]
Continue reading »North by Northwest (1959) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
I love the fact that Cinépolis, a new movie theater company in my area (its big business is in Mexico), is showing revivals of classic movies once a week. Films like A Clockwork Orange, GoodFellas and Alfred Hitchcock’s classic North by Northwest. […]
Continue reading »War Dogs (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
I expected to dislike this film; I didn’t like the Hangover films much (directed by Todd Phillips, who helms this one) and I have never been much of a fan of Jonah Hill. I was also wary of the premise, in […]
Continue reading »Morgan (2016) ☆ ☆
This exploration of artificial intelligence seems a year late and miles behind the parade, especially when compared with Ex Machina, the 2015 film with which it shares a similar structure and sensibility. Morgan is more of a conventional thriller than the […]
Continue reading »Jason Bourne (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Matt Damon returns to the franchise for which he is most famous, embodying the lethal super-agent without much of a memory, in Jason Bourne. In some ways this movie can function as an introduction to the series, as it returns to […]
Continue reading »Hell or High Water (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Just as Bonnie and Clyde made poignant anti-heroes of its thrill seekers back in 1967, Hell or High Water attempts to create empathy for two brothers who rob several Texas banks in a modern tale of redemption and ruin. It largely succeeds. […]
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