Welcome to my website! I am Robert Lentz, a movie theatre- / former video store- / former laserdisc store manager-turned-writer, and Filmbobbery is my personal vehicle to share my lifelong love of the movies.
After ten years of Filmbobbery newsletters from 2000-2009 encompassing forty issues and more than twelve hundred pages of movie discussion, history and opinion, it is finally time for this platform to make the move to the internet. Much of the newsletter’s contents will eventually be posted and archived, yet fresh articles, profiles, reviews, rants and all manner of conversation about movies vintage and modern will be the clear focus of this forum.
I’m back to reviewing Recent Releases, both theatrical and now available on DVD or through streaming services. These include Kung Fu Panda 4, Wicked Little Letters, Deep Fear, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Dune, Part Two, Madame Web, Labyrinth, Ordinary Angels, Anyone But You, Lisa Frankenstein, Past Lives, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts; Fear the Night; American Fiction, Turning Red, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Zone of Interest, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, The Boys in the Boat, Lift, The Equalizer 3, The Beekeeper, Poor Things, On Sacred Ground, Wonka, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, It’s Ain’t Over, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Jules, Godzilla Minus One, Smile, Firestarter, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Sisu, The Marvels, Finch, Women Talking, Agent Game, The Holdovers, Heist 88, The 355, and A Haunting in Venice. And I am in the midst of adding series overviews to my stable of articles.
“Catching Up with the Classics” is a blog in which I and my wife Barb write about classic movies. The idea is to introduce Barb to important movies she hasn’t seen before (or hasn’t seen in many years and doesn’t recall), yet some of them will be new to myself as well. Each time I’ll give Barb a choice between five classics and she will choose one to review. We’ll watch it and post our reviews soon afterward, with the hope of generating some tantalizing film discussion. Please join in with your own comments as we progress.
A few words about the reviews and articles:
It is worth mentioning that “spoilers” may be found in some of the movie reviews on this site. That is an inevitable byproduct of writing about movies and their surprises. We try to be as circumspect as possible, but sometimes revealing plot details is necessary to support points we are trying to make. It is always advisable to see the movies being discussed before reading the reviews. Your opinions about movies are just as valid as my own, and those of other writers on this site.
Star ratings are provided next to titles to indicate very quickly our general feelings about the films being discussed. Like most critics, we use a four-star rating system, which roughly translates to excellent, good, fair and poor, with shadings in between of 1/2 star degrees. I have given a number of films zero stars (that listing is in the Bizarre Movie Zone), but I can usually find something of merit in most anything.
Although some of our reviews may seem overly negative (especially in the Bizarre Movie Zone, which is now completely archived), the other writers on this site and I genuinely love movies and love to discuss them. Filmbobbery is intended to be a generally positive place where movie fans can examine and discuss the foremost art form that transforms reality and imagination into a visceral and unique but shared human experience.
Anyone wishing to leave comments should have no difficulty doing so, although I do retain approval rights, and I am constantly blocking spam. Contact me directly at boblentz26@me.com. This address can also be used to reach our other writers; I will forward messages directly to them. Or simply comment on each review or article individually to start a discussion. Now let’s hear from you!
© 2022, Robert J. Lentz
Congratulations on releasing your website!
Congratulations on the new site. Nice to see it back.
Great to see Filmbobbery has established a presence on the web. I look forward to the updates, reviews, articles, movie-related thoughts, and assorted good things to come!
Bob,
It’s great to see your site! I especially like the reviews of the recent releases. As much as we loved the Filmbobbery magazine, it’s even better to read your reviews in real time, so we can make decisions about what to see.
Thanks again!!
Wow very awesome Bob.
Wow, spiffy photo!
This web site has an absolute plethora of movie information. Very nice.
I was watching “The Bucket List”. Does the director of this website have any additions to Jack Nicholson’s and Morgan Freeman’s list of things to do before they shuffle off this mortal coil?
I do, Mike, but those things are between me and my bucket.
Bob —
Looking forward to “Catching Up with the Classics” and to reading what both you and Barb have to share about what you see. Defining a “classic” can be problematic. I once knew a film student in his 20s who claimed that most of what the critics hailed as classics proved to be dull and over-praised when he actually saw them. I appreciated his reluctance to accept the veneration blindly, but discovered that his personal prejudices were more to blame than the films themselves in his estimation of their merit. Movies are often deeply personal experiences. Film buffs have their own list of “classics” to augment the textbook standards. I hope you and Barb have a fun and enlightening roster as the year develops.
Hi, Bob! i really enjoyed your book on Gloria Grahame.
I just read Vincent Curcio’s “Suicide Blonde.” Do you know if Mr. Curcio is still alive? I’d like to thank him for this fine biography.
Thank you, Denise. I’ve never contacted or met Mr. Curcio but I do believe him to be alive and writing. I believe he has written recent biographies on automakers William Chrysler and Henry Ford.
There is much to admire in the life of Gloria Grahame. However, her one major mess-up was a bad thing indeed. If, as a woman in her late 20s, she engaged in sex with a boy only 13 years of age, she committed a serious criminal offense.