As much as I liked Jurassic World three years ago (☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2), I think this sequel is even better. Perhaps oddly, it isn’t that the new film’s individual sequences are better (I don’t think they are), but that its grasp and […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Incredibles 2 (2018) ☆ ☆ ☆
Among my favorite Pixar films is The Incredibles (2004), for which I awarded a four star rating. Fourteen years later, a belated sequel is finally here, taking place immediately after the end of the first film. The story continues the theme […]
Continue reading »Ocean’s Eight (2018) ☆ ☆ ☆
All-star caper films still occur with regularity, the most recent being Logan Lucky, but this is the first one I recall with an all-female crew. It follows Steven Soderbergh’s trilogy about Danny Ocean and his cohorts; Soderbergh executive produces this one, […]
Continue reading »The Seagull (2018) ☆ ☆
Anton Chekhov’s play “The Seagull” is an acclaimed classic — despite a debut performance in 1896 that was roundly booed and convinced the author to forego his writing for a time — and has been translated into several films, including […]
Continue reading »Book Club (2018) ☆ ☆ ☆
An episodic comedy about four lifelong friends who stay in contact with a monthly reading assignment, Book Club brings together a whole group of wizened performers who display their comic and romantic skills. The women: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen […]
Continue reading »Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) ☆ ☆ ☆
Filling in the blanks is what is being done with the variety of new Star Wars movies which are not part of the ongoing series. Rogue One and now Solo are simply jumping back in time (from the point of A New Hope, […]
Continue reading »I Feel Pretty (2018) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I like Amy Schumer as a performer; she is smart and funny and seems fearless. I also find her very attractive, which makes the premise of I Feel Pretty, in which she is cast as a woman who does not believe […]
Continue reading »Avengers: Infinity War (2018) ☆ ☆ ☆
As comic book superhero movies go, this one seems like the ultimate (but probably isn’t; the next one, which will wrap up the Thanos thread, probably will be even bigger). Not only do we have the regular Avengers, but some […]
Continue reading »Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (2017) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I have a special interest in this film because of its subject, Gloria Grahame, about whose performances my 2011 book discusses in detail. I must admit that this movie caused me trepidation, partly because I have a very complete picture […]
Continue reading »A Quiet Place (2018) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I really wanted to like A Quiet Place. It has a wonderful science-fictional premise and using silence as an ever-present necessity is brilliant. Then why was I so frustrated and disappointed with the film? Let me explain. John Krasinski’s film shows […]
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