Movie Reviews
The Nice Guys
Every once in a while a movie comes along and takes a tired old genre and breathes new life into it. That’s the case here with the good old “buddy” movie. It’s usually an odd couple thrown together who hate each other at first but slowly grow closer. The buddies are Ryan Gosling, a P.I., and Russell Crowe, who makes a living by beating people up. But he’s not an enforcer for anyone, he’s ... Read more »
Rebellion
The Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland was the beginning of the most recent of the many rebellions against the British, the long-time invaders of the Emerald Isle. In a way the aftermath of that rising is still being played out today, though they have calmed down in recent years. A cease-fire between the Brits and the IRA only happened in 1997, and a formal end to the campaign in 2005. A lot ... Read more »
Now You See Me 2
Wouldn’t you think it would make more sense to call this sequel Now You Don’t? It just seems such an unimaginative way to name a film, sticking a number on the back. But I guess they want to make sure you know this relates to a previous hit.
If anything, I liked this one a little better than the first. As before, the tricks are based on real principles of ... Read more »
Money Monster
Here we have Jodie Foster’s latest directorial effort. She has proven to be a competent director, though nothing special. George Clooney is a … well, I guess you would have to call him a television financial advisor, though his shows have more phony showmanship than an Ultimate Fighting match. Julia Roberts is his director, one of the gnomes in the dark room overlooking the studio where he ... Read more »
The Lavender Hill Mob
There were sixteen or seventeen of the so-called Ealing Comedies from 1947 to 1957, depending on who is counting. I’ve seen about half of them. They vary in quality, but I’ve never seen one that is actually bad, and among them are some of the best comedies ever made. The most famous are probably Kind Hearts and Coronets and The ... Read more »
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
This is one that a lot of critics missed at first, as they did Bonnie and Clyde and 2001: A Space Odyssey. By that I mean they wrote negative reviews, then looked at it again after it had become a smash hit solely by word of mouth (adjusted for inflation, it is the 34th most money-making film in history!), and saw the things they ... Read more »
Life Itself
This is a difficult movie to watch. It is spoken of as a celebration of Roger Ebert’s life, and I guess it is in a lot of ways. I mean, it chronicles his life, his rise to fame as America’s number one movie critic. It has a lot of anecdotes from his early days, and all through his career, stories mostly good, but some that revealed a few of his shortcomings. Hey, we all have them. He ... Read more »
Stranger Things
This Netflix series is clearly a homage to several books and films from the ‘80s, and is set in that decade. There is Stephen King, with a bit of Stand By Me, a bit of Firestarter, and even an idea from the book From a Buick 8. (One of the characters is even named Steve King.) There is Steven Spielberg, with ... Read more »
Foul Play
We were inspired to see this again after watching Dudley Moore in Arthur, and remembering how good he was here in his first American film. He had made several films in England, including the fantastically funny Bedazzled with his comic partner, Peter Cook, but this film put him on the road to being an unlikely romantic star. It was this ... Read more »
The Jungle Book
Just when you think you have seen the best CGI special effects ever, that you can never be amazed like that again, another movie comes along that blows you away. This is that movie. It is now totally impossible to visually tell a CGI animal from a real one. The only way you can be sure is if that animal does something a real animal can’t, like talk. There are around seventy different ... Read more »