Movie Reviews
Christopher Robin
This is not another of those Disney reboots that have been coming so fast and frequently. It’s more like those re-imaginings of Peter Pan we have seen now and then. Simply a bad idea. Old Chris is grown up now, and has forgotten poor Pooh and his friends in the 100-aker wood. I didn’t buy the animation, and I hated Jim Cummings, the voice actor they cast as Pooh. To tell the truth, I was ... Read more »
Green Book
Oh, brother. Aside from announcing the wrong Best Picture award at the 2016 ceremony (wrong from the balloting, anyway; La La Land was a much better movie than Moonlight), this is the most recent huge controversy at the Oscars.
I’ve never really liked Spike Lee. Don’t get me wrong, he has made some ... Read more »
On the Basis of Sex
We all should really get down on our knees every night and pray to whatever gods there be, the old or the new, the seven-faced or the faceless, even the bloody Lord of Light, that Ruth Bader Ginsburg wakes the next morning, ready to do battle with those fucking shitheads recently installed on the Supreme Court. She’s old. She had cancer, three times! She beat ... Read more »
Solo: A Star Wars Story
This is the last Star Wars movie I have seen, and it’s quite likely to be the last ever. I’ve grown very tired of it, just as I was underwhelmed by the first Harry Potter spinoff about beasts, whatever that was called, and didn’t bother with the second one. Like most people, I was stunned by the first Star Wars, Episode IV, and enjoyed ... Read more »
The Old Man and the Gun
The true story of Forrest Tucker, a man who gave new meaning to the term “career criminal.” He spent most of his life in prison, but managed to escape custody no less than eighteen times, once from San Quentin! He was also known as the Gentleman Bank Robber. He was always polite and well-dressed, and seldom even had to draw the gun he had under his coat. He may very well never have fired ... Read more »
The Kid Who Would Be King
Kid finds a sword embedded in a chunk of concrete at a site where a building is being torn down. Pulls it out. Turns out this is Excalibur, and he’s King Arthur’s heir, or something like that. It’s an interesting idea, and it has an unusual twist in that the two school students who have always tormented the kid and his nerd friend end up redeeming themselves by joining in the ensuing ... Read more »
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
There are four series of this: The Murder at Road Hill House, The Murder in Angel Lane, Beyond the Pale, and The Ties That Bind. Jack Whicher was a real cop, back in 1860 when the idea of a detective division was a new one. He was the inspiration for a Charles Dickens character, among other authors. The first series is based on a real ... Read more »
Adrift
SPOILER WARNING. I’ve seen a lot of movies lately about being alone in a tiny boat on the boundless sea. There was Robert Redford in the dialogue-free All Is Lost. Then there’s Life of Pi and In the Heart of the Sea. Seems like I’m forgetting one, too. Well, this is a good one. A couple are hired to sail a ... Read more »
The Book Club
Four old friends get together every month to discuss a book they have all read. They’ve been doing this for thirty years. This month it is that awful piece of trash (I admit, I haven’t read it, and I can’t imagine why I would) 50 Shades of Grey. It’s sexier than their usual fare. The book leads them to confront problems in their real lives. I wish I could say I ... Read more »
Destroyer
When it comes Oscar time next year, I want to nominate … well, I just tried to look it up, but it seems the IMDb has moved the crew part of the Full Cast and Crew to the paid IMDb Pro section, so I don’t know who did the make-up. But he or she managed to make Nicole Kidman, one of the prettiest women I know of, into a face that looked like twenty miles of rough dirt road. And it is utterly ... Read more »