Is it too soon for a prequel to the classic 1939 musical fantasy The Wizard of Oz? It’s only been seventy-four years! Although technically the film is not related to the 1939 classic (different studios, fights over rights), in all […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
The Host (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
This surprisingly old-fashioned (and slowly paced) science-fiction drama has a lot of heart, even if it is aimed at a teenage and post-teenage audience (it has a heavy emphasis on kissing). Much of its success has to do with two […]
Continue reading »Admission (2013) ☆ 1/2
Admission is a strange movie and difficult for me to evaluate. Its major strength is the look it provides into the world of college recruitment, with dedicated admission counselors (such as Tina Fey, Gloria Reuben and Wallace Shawn) evaluating and sometimes […]
Continue reading »Olympus Has Fallen (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
While I sincerely hope that nothing like what occurs in Olympus Has Fallen ever takes place on American soil, I must admit that I like movies like this, and I really, really like this one. Antoine Fuqua’s thriller is plausible, dramatic, […]
Continue reading »The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Magic (as it is performed) is a hard sell for me; I’ve never loved either the illusions themselves nor the showmanship required to distract the audience from perceiving those illusions. It is difficult for me to appreciate such trickery and […]
Continue reading »The Call (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
Since winning her Oscar way back in 2001 beautiful Halle Berry has made her share of turkeys (Catwoman, Perfect Stranger, Gothika, Movie 43, Catwoman, etc.), but The Call is not one of them. The Call is surprisingly realistic, suspenseful and even thrilling. […]
Continue reading »No (2012) ☆ ☆ ☆
One of the five Best Foreign Language entries for the 2012 Oscars is this Chilean political film directed by Pablo Larrain. No is a historical reenactment, using actual footage from the time period, of the 1988 political campaign to unseat the […]
Continue reading »Emperor (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
When Hollywood tackles history sometimes the result is an uneasy mixture of what really happened and what might have happened. This is certainly the case with Emperor, which spotlights the dilemma facing General Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) when he […]
Continue reading »Phantom (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I’ve always liked submarine movies (and books, too); their tight, self-contained, claustrophobic, danger-filled environments invite hypertensive intensity and action, often with global consequences. Phantom is an intriguing addition to the genre, positing that in 1968 a Soviet submarine attempts a mission […]
Continue reading »Snitch (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson may never become a powerhouse actor, but he’s certainly a likable, professional presence in a surprising range of motion pictures. Snitch has him as a hard-working construction boss whose teenage son (Rafi Gavron) makes a really stupid […]
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