I love the fact that Cinépolis, a new movie theater company in my area (its big business is in Mexico), is showing revivals of classic movies once a week. Films like A Clockwork Orange, GoodFellas and Alfred Hitchcock’s classic North by Northwest. […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
War Dogs (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
I expected to dislike this film; I didn’t like the Hangover films much (directed by Todd Phillips, who helms this one) and I have never been much of a fan of Jonah Hill. I was also wary of the premise, in […]
Continue reading »Morgan (2016) ☆ ☆
This exploration of artificial intelligence seems a year late and miles behind the parade, especially when compared with Ex Machina, the 2015 film with which it shares a similar structure and sensibility. Morgan is more of a conventional thriller than the […]
Continue reading »Jason Bourne (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Matt Damon returns to the franchise for which he is most famous, embodying the lethal super-agent without much of a memory, in Jason Bourne. In some ways this movie can function as an introduction to the series, as it returns to […]
Continue reading »Hell or High Water (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Just as Bonnie and Clyde made poignant anti-heroes of its thrill seekers back in 1967, Hell or High Water attempts to create empathy for two brothers who rob several Texas banks in a modern tale of redemption and ruin. It largely succeeds. […]
Continue reading »Mechanic: Resurrection (2016) ☆ 1/2
Although Jason Statham is a charismatic performer, he is not seen to best advantage in this routine action film, desultorily directed by Dennis Gansel. Statham first essayed the role of hit man Arthur Bishop five years ago in The Mechanic, a […]
Continue reading »Indignation (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
This movie surprised me in a way I did not expect: it qualifies as a Korean War film. That fact will not impress many people, I suppose, but it is the first one I’ve found in a decade. Others are […]
Continue reading »Anthropoid (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
World War II was the defining event, if it can be labeled such, of the twentieth century. Nearly every country in the world became involved in one way or another, with some suffering horribly. One of those countries was Czechoslovakia, […]
Continue reading »Ghostbusters (2016) ☆ ☆
Another film that did not need to be remade, re-booted or re-anythinged is Ghostbusters. The surprisingly massive hit from 1984 has aged pretty well thanks to its wit, its goofy charm, Sigourney Weaver’s spectacular legs and a terrific use of popular […]
Continue reading »Ben-Hur (2016) ☆ ☆
This is a film that has already been made three times — in 1907 and 1926, silent spectacles that I have yet to see, and the famous 1959 version that won eleven Academy Awards, and which I feel is a […]
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