IF
Rating 8/10 I saw the trailer. When I walked into the theater for IF, I braced myself for a predictable kids’ adventure with a barrage of flashy special effects and distracting celebrity voices. (Warning: The ubiquitous Awkwafina does one, but thankfully it’s brief) Instead, I was swept away by a heartwarming and profound exploration of […]
The Idea of You
Rating 5/10 I review what’s popular, so in my film criticism, I sometimes check out movies I wouldn’t normally choose to watch. The Idea of You, currently a hit on Amazon Prime, is such a venture. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy a good rom-com, but this looked a bit, um, shall we say, meh. […]
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Rating 4/10 “Apes in their kingdom, excitement should be bold. Sadly, dullness reigns, and the story feels old.” I wanted to take a brief departure from my typical movie review. The inspiration for starting this blog back in 2009 was Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. Like his capsule reviews, I wanted to write “fast” film reviews […]
Hundreds of Beavers
Rating 8/10 Hold onto your trapper hats for the comedy of the year! Here’s what I like to see: an utterly unique and creative film. Hundreds of Beavers is a dialogue-free, live-action, black-and-white slapstick farce that takes stylistic cues from Looney Tunes, video games, martial arts flicks, and silent-era comedies. It’s kind of hard to […]
The Fall Guy
Rating 7/10 Taking an action TV series from the 1980s and turning it into a theatrical feature years later has been done before. The Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, Miami Vice, The Equalizer, MacGyver, and 21 Jump Street are a few examples. These dramas gave us movies with varying degrees of success. But who would’ve […]
Late Night with the Devil
Rating 7/10 Breathing new life into the mockumentary, the found footage phenomenon, and demonic possession is no easy task. Late Night with the Devil manages to do all three in one nifty little film. All three creatively combine in this fictionalized episode of a nighttime TV talk show on Halloween 1977. David Dastmalchian is Jack […]
Challengers
Tennis is a sport that perfectly acts as the underlying backdrop for a romantic tale. After all, its competitors begin with a score of “love.” The term signifies that players start with zero points, setting the stage for the match to commence from a neutral position. The thing is, I felt like I still had […]
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Rating 7/10 Quintessentially British filmmaker Guy Ritchie can’t catch a break in his home country. None of his pictures have merited a theatrical release in the UK since 2020’s The Gentlemen. The fact that his last four works have all gone straight to streaming platforms is perplexing. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is set to […]
Wicked Little Letters
Rating 5/10 Wicked Little Letters unfolds in the picturesque setting of a seaside town post-World War I, a time and place that promises a captivating exploration of scandal and societal dynamics. The idyllic streets and the sea breeze add to the charm. Yet, what begins as an intellectual discourse on social norms devolves into hackneyed […]
The First Omen
Rating 4/10 The First Omen is the sixth installment in the horror franchise. Initially skeptical, but the siren call of favorable reviews enticed me. Alas, my risk did not yield a reward. This is yet another hackneyed horror entry that exploits religion to no effect. 1971 was a year marked by political strife and societal […]