I’m not a gamer and never will be, though I do have affection for Asteroids and Ms. PacMan, so this virtual world of crazy characters committing mayhem for fun and points is a mysterious universe to me. Maybe it’s comparing […]
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The Rental (2020) ☆ ☆
For a horror feature, this one holds back its horror elements until the last twenty minutes or so, which means that for more than an hour we are subject to character drama. This would be a problem for many stories, […]
Continue reading »Greenland (2020) ☆ ☆ ☆
This kind of epic disaster movie is right up my alley, and I was not disappointed. What did surprise me is how so few people took the approach of a comet to Earth seriously. Although comets are mainly ice and […]
Continue reading »Army of the Dead (2021) ☆ ☆
There have been some epic zombie movies since George Romero shot Night of the Living Dead in 1968. This one aims to be truly epic, taking almost two-and-a-half hours to tell its heist story — and yet I find it overblown […]
Continue reading »Love, Weddings and Other Disasters (2020) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Romantic comedies centering on weddings and intersecting relationships are not really my forte, but I have to admit that this one, against high odds, is rather charming and amusing. Most of Dennis Dugan’s movies don’t amuse me; I still cringe […]
Continue reading »Breaking News in Yuba County (2021) ☆ ☆
Social satire is tough to create and maintain. Witness this attempt to satirize the meaning of fame and success in modern America, where anyone can be famous for pretty much anything, and the desire for such fame — and perceived […]
Continue reading »Unearth (2020) ☆ 1/2
I’ll say for this in defense of Unearth: it’s different. It’s a horror film that isn’t horrifying until the final ten minutes or so, and then the tonal shift of the material is so drastic that it seems to be from […]
Continue reading »Mulan (2020) ☆ ☆ ☆
In general I find the Disney studio’s recent trend to create live-action versions of their animated classics to be redundant and tiresome. It’s probably a brilliant business decision, but it seems to me that later versions cannot help but cheapen […]
Continue reading »Black Widow (2021) ☆ ☆ ☆
Superhero movies are not my favorites, but I can appreciate a good one. Black Widow is a good one, I think, because it functions on multiple levels. First, it is an origin story for the massively popular Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett […]
Continue reading »Ava (2020) ☆ 1/2
Several movies in recent years have turned the tables on hitman / assassin archetypes and cast lethal ladies (Charlize Theron, Hailee Steinfeld, Gina Carano, the Kill Bill femmes, etc., etc.). Latest in this trend is Jessica Chastain, playing an American assassin […]
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