The newest Star Trek movie is pretty good, I think, ranking right along with the first two of the new series. It has several merits of note, which begin with characterization; more on that later. Its story is, thankfully, not recycled […]
Continue reading »Month: July 2016
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) ☆ 1/2
Well, Mike and Dave need much more than wedding dates. Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron) are brothers whose business it is to sell liquor and wreck family events. In this sweet but crude comedy Mike and Dave are […]
Continue reading »The Purge: Election Year (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
This may surprise some readers but I think this movie is pretty darn good. I gave the first Purge just two stars back in 2013, and I must have missed the second one, The Purge: Anarchy, in 2014, but I do appreciate […]
Continue reading »The Infiltrator (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Undercover cop stories are pretty common on the big screen, as are the cinematic exploits of characters trying to climb the ladders of the big drug cartels; it seems everyone has made something in this vein over the past fifty […]
Continue reading »Free State of Jones (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
It is stunning to me that historical events of one hundred and fifty years ago can still resonate as contemporary drama, but such is the case with Free State of Jones. The struggle of anti-slavery Southern folk to resist the all-consuming […]
Continue reading »The Legend of Tarzan (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
I have fond recollections of the 1930s Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller — though not the later versions with Ron Ely, Mike Henry, Jock Mahoney, Lex Barker and Gordon Scott, most of which I skipped. More recent versions of the […]
Continue reading »The BFG (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Although Steven Spielberg is my favorite film director, I would rather he not spend his time on children’s fantasies like Hook, The Adventures of Tintin and this film, which features a young girl being kidnapped by a giant in jolly England. […]
Continue reading »The Shallows (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I always look forward to shark movies, hoping that eventually one will rival Jaws (my second favorite movie of all time). None have come close. The Shallows seemed to have potential, but it falls short in terms of delivering real scares […]
Continue reading »Genius (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Lots of movies have been made about writers and writing, but relatively few get into the nuts-and-bolts detail of editing raw prose into the stuff we actually read in books and magazines. Most movies rely on the blank page to […]
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