I appreciate when a “high-concept” science-fiction thriller or action movie boasts enough ambition to address large questions; that’s much of what makes the genre my all-time favorite. Self/Less questions mankind’s quest for immortality, wondering whether sacrifices made to gain immortality are […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Max (2015) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Sometimes the idea behind a movie is better than the resulting movie. Probably often, I would think. The idea behind Max is to salute the working dogs of the U.S. military (and their human handlers) with the honor of a feature […]
Continue reading »Inside Out (2015) ☆ ☆ ☆
Pixar Studios is consistently the most innovative and original animation studio in Hollywood, and I hope they stay that way forever. That being said, however, I’ve lost some of the tight connection I had with the studio through their early […]
Continue reading »Love and Mercy (2015) ☆ ☆ ☆
This is a somewhat difficult movie for me. I’m a fan of the Beach Boys — they were my first concert experience back in 1977 at the old Chicago Stadium — yet I knew very little about Brian Wilson’s psychological […]
Continue reading »Jurassic World (2015) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Wow. After two lackluster sequels, the “Jurassic Park” franchise has been re-energized with an installment that is as exciting and inventive as the original. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is as good, mainly […]
Continue reading »Spy (2015) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy are trying to corner the market on bawdy female humor movies. They’ve already made Bridesmaids and The Heat, and now they’re back with Spy, which is a semi-comic, potty-mouthed, fairly bloody spoof of James […]
Continue reading »Entourage (2015) ☆ ☆ ☆
I have never seen anything from the HBO series “Entourage.” Not one minute. I’ve known of it, of course, but I had not been exposed to any of it. Part of that was due to the casting of Adrian Grenier […]
Continue reading »I’ll See You in My Dreams (2015) ☆ ☆
It’s great to see independent movies like this one that spotlight the lives of older people in realistic fashion; contrary to the beliefs of many Hollywood executives, the world does not revolve around the lives of teenagers. There is nary […]
Continue reading »San Andreas (2015) ☆ ☆ 1/2
This epic disaster film is certainly in the running to be the greatest earthquake film ever. In terms of destruction, I think it is; the Hoover Dam, most of Los Angeles and all of San Francisco come crashing, burning or […]
Continue reading »Aloha (2015) ☆ ☆
Some movies are just difficult to quantify, and this is one of them. Viewers do not learn what Aloha is about, at least plot-wise, until the final act. Cameron Crowe’s film is a character piece. We follow a disgraced scientist (Bradley […]
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