‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ balances epic scope with character drama
Movie review: Just enjoy the ride and don’t think too hard about this timeline-jumping film.
Oscars
‘Gravity’ a high-tech piece of minimalist filmmaking (Movie review)
Starting with its nearly 20-minute uncut opening shot of George Clooney and Sandra Bullock floating in space making repairs on a scientific satellite, the entire hour and 40 minutes of “Gravity” is packed with “How’d they […]
Hair, fashions shine in ‘American Hustle,’ and it’s a decent yarn, too (Movie review)
“American Hustle” starts by showing Christian Bale’s combover — understatedly termed “elaborate” by Amy Adams. It’s a perfect lead-in for a movie about a con-man and –woman (Bale and Adams), a corrupt politician (Jeremy Renner), an […]
Villeneuve’s ‘Prisoners’ is one of the year’s best thrillers (Movie review)
I held off for a while on seeing “Prisoners” because the previews seemed to give away the whole movie: 1) Girls kidnapped, 2) dad (Hugh Jackman) tortures suspect (Paul Dano) who is obviously innocent, 3) the film […]
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ boldly goes … where the saga has already gone before (Movie review)
Like director J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek” film, “Star Trek Into Darkness” gets all the Trek-isms correct. Everyone is still spot-on as alternate-universe versions of the iconic characters, Scottie and Chekov have thick accents, there are winks […]
30 reasons ‘Return of the Jedi’ rocks (and no, ‘Jedi Rocks’ is not one of them) (Movie commentary)
“Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi” turns 30 on Saturday, and it’s still looking good. So much so that George Lucas recently gave the nod to a sequel. But the J.J. Abrams-helmed “Episode […]
20 observations about ‘Jurassic Park’ for 20th anniversary
Movie commentary: With “Jurassic Park” back in theaters for a 3D 20th anniversary release, here are 20 reasons why I love the movie.
Denzel Washington adds the excellent ‘Flight’ to his outstanding resume (Movie review)
You know, sometimes it’s great to just settle in and enjoy a Denzel Washington movie. Although I’m not really the type to have a favorite actor (there’s no one where I follow them from role […]
‘Pitch Perfect’ hits the right notes; ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ falls a bit flat (Movie reviews)
The 2012 college a cappella comedy “Pitch Perfect” (now on DVD) is a nice snapshot of youth culture as it features some of the expected cliques and snobbery — but not too much. When a “Star Wars”- […]
Tarantino fans will likely love everything about ‘Django Unchained’ (Movie review)
I’m not naturally inclined to see a Quentin Tarantino film, but a couple of friends’ excitement about “Django Unchained,” combined with the generally positive reviews, got me to say “What the heck — I’ll give it a […]