I waited until I had seen the first Shazam! movie before I saw its sequel. So in early December I watched Shazam! (2019), which rates just ☆ ☆. It’s another of those working-class superhero movies, like the recent Blue Beetle, which wonders […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) ☆ ☆ ☆
In every review that I have written about the “Hunger Games” films I have at least mentioned how repellent I find the premise of children and teenagers forced to hunt and kill each other by an authoritarian state, for purposes […]
Continue reading »Jules (2023) ☆ ☆ 1/2
When I first saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 — which is my all-time favorite movie — I remember being disappointed that the Army is so deeply involved in meeting the aliens. I wanted Roy Neary and Gillian […]
Continue reading »Godzilla Minus One (2023) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
With all due respect to Shin Godzilla, the acclaimed 2016 monster movie that I have not yet seen, I hereby declare that Godzilla Minus One is the greatest Godzilla film ever made. And I’ve seen a bunch of them. The early Toto […]
Continue reading »Smile (2022) ☆ ☆
Creepy horror films aren’t really my thing, either, but since they constitute so much of what is being produced these days, I’ll be seeing and reviewing some from time to time. This one was a surprise hit last year, thanks […]
Continue reading »Firestarter (2022) ☆ ☆
This is the second go-round for Charlie McGee, a young girl with pyrotechnic and telekinetic powers that a secret governmental agency would like to control and harness. She first appeared in the 1984 adaptation of Stephen King’s book, in the […]
Continue reading »The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I missed this biopic when it was newsworthy and later when it won two Academy Awards — for Jessica Chastain’s performance as the title character, and for the extensive makeup and hairstyling she endured — but have finally caught up […]
Continue reading »Sisu (2022) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Quentin Tarantino is supposedly going to retire from filmmaking following his tenth feature film, which is now in pre-production. For those viewers who seek to find another like him, I hereby recommend Finnish writer-director Jalmari Helander, whose latest film is […]
Continue reading »The Marvels (2023) ☆ ☆
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has continued beyond the epic Endgame story, but none of their newer stories have had much of an impact. That trend continues with its newest, The Marvels, a female-centric adventure teaming Captain Marvel with two compadres and Nick […]
Continue reading »Finch (2021) ☆ ☆ 1/2
When is the end of the world not so bad? When Tom Hanks is there to walk us through the desolation, entertain us with his robots and point to a possible future. The end of the world occurs in Finch, and […]
Continue reading »