Universal has been trying recently, with little success, to update their classic horror movie franchises. Remember Dracula Untold (2014, with Luke Evans) or The Mummy (2017, with Tom Cruise)? I thought not. Here, the venerable studio updates James Whale’s 1933 […]
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Let Him Go (2020) ☆ ☆ ☆
Here is a different example of violence, or the threat of violence, in film, and it is a far, far better film than the ridiculous mayhem of Birds of Prey, the most recent movie I reviewed. Suspense, excitement and anxiety […]
Continue reading »Birds of Prey . . . (2020) ☆
Its full title is Birds of Prey: Or the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn; however, I find nothing fantabulous about it. A long time ago — in the 1990s, I believe — I used to rant quite a bit […]
Continue reading »The Hunt for Red October (1990) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Another of Sean Connery’s great performances being celebrated after his recent death is that of Russian submarine skipper Marko Ramius, in the first Tom Clancy adaptation to reach the big screen. Thirty years later it remains top-notch entertainment, and the […]
Continue reading »The War with Grandpa (2020) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I didn’t know anything about this title before seeing it, other than that Robert De Niro was the star. I have since learned that it has been on the shelf for three years, boasts more than thirty-five producers (including chef […]
Continue reading »Goldfinger (1964) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One of the few silver linings of this crummy year is that theaters have chosen to turn to older classics in order to lure viewers back. This week, in the wake of Sean Connery’s death at 90, some theaters are […]
Continue reading »Hope Gap (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Small-scale, independent dramas do not often attract actresses the caliber of Annette Bening to headline them, but this British production has managed it. Bening and Brit favorite Bill Nighy star as a couple married twenty-nine years who suddenly reach an […]
Continue reading »Tenet (2020) ☆ ☆
One of the most revered filmmakers working today is Christopher Nolan, a man who makes dark, complex, challenging, time-twisting tales that have captured our national imagination. I thought the “Dark Knight” trilogy was overrated, but loved Inception; I didn’t care […]
Continue reading »The Nancy Drew Mysteries: Overview
This article, and those that follow, initially appeared in Filmbobbery, Volume 9, Issue 1 (Summer, 2007). That should explain any references to other pages and articles. With the recent success of Nancy Drew this summer (my review of it is […]
Continue reading »Nancy Drew — Detective (1938) ☆ ☆ ☆
The first Nancy Drew feature establishes the locale as River Heights, Missouri, where Nancy goes to school at the Brinwood School for Girls. When the elderly dowager who is going to endow the school with a gift (for what the […]
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