I should have known I was watching a Paul W. S. Anderson movie within a few minutes, but I didn’t realize it until the end credit roll. Then it made more sense. Paul W. S. Anderson is a writer and […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
The Croods: A New Age (2020) ☆ ☆ ☆
When I reviewed The Croods back in 2013, I called it “critic proof,” which meant that it had elements that would prove popular enough to overcome negative criticism. It was just that type of movie. So is the sequel, which […]
Continue reading »Half Brothers (2020) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Dramatically, this movie is all over the map. It’s a sentimental story, interrupted with slapstick comedy, solemn references to American racism, knowing familial strife and shattered dreams. It really ought to be much darker than it is, because much of […]
Continue reading »Alita: Battle Angel (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Another 2019 film that was recently re-released to theaters is the dystopian action film Alita: Battle Angel, which was produced (and co-written) by James Cameron. Its source is a Japanese graphic novel, and its lead character, Alita, a cyborg, is […]
Continue reading »Stuber (2019) ☆ ☆
I recently caught up with this 2019 action-comedy and felt it was recent enough to write about. It’s another in a long line of mismatched-buddy pictures, where the manic cop character pulls the other guy along for a wild ride. […]
Continue reading »The Postcard Killings (2020) ☆ ☆ ☆
This hunt-for-a-serial-killer-on-the-loose-in-Europe reminded me at times of The Snowman, a terrible 2017 whodunit. Thankfully this film, based upon a book by James Patterson and Liza Marklund, and partially written by Miss Marklund, is a whole lot better and more compelling. […]
Continue reading »Honest Thief (2020) ☆ ☆ ☆
For a while there Liam Neeson seemed like the hardest working man in the movies, with dramas and action films all over the place. The pandemic has slowed everything down a bit, but here he is again, this time in […]
Continue reading »The Invisible Man (2020) ☆ ☆ 1/2
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 […]
Continue reading »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 […]
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