Cinemascoping

The issue of child abduction is hardly one to be made light of, yet Luis Prieto’s Kidnap uses the subject as a catalyst for a Death Wish-like vehicle for actress Halle Berry.  Stupid to an insulting degree with plot holes and lapses in logic that defy all reason, the film shamelessly exploits this subject, a […]

A new take on the classic horror tale The Monkey’s Paw, John R. Leonetti’s Wish Upon proves to be far more fun than it has a right to be.  Driven by a winning performance by actress Joey King and told at a brisk pace, this thriller may be hardly original, but it proves capable enough […]

Director Michael Showalter and his cast pull off an impressive high-wire act with The Big Sick, an account of the early days in the relationship between Pakistani comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily.  The first act follows the usual rom-com beats but then the film abruptly shifts gears as one of the main characters […]

While I often object to remakes of films that were well made the first time around, Sophia Coppola’s The Beguiled, a redo of the little-known Clint Eastwood feature, proves to be a worthy exercise.  It not only reflects a shift in sensibilities between one filmmaking era to another, but key changes in the script cast […]

By the time a third entry in a franchise rolls around, wear and tear begins to show in what was once considered fresh and inventive. And if the same filmmaker that brought parts one and two to the screen is in charge of ushering in the third go around, the odds of anything fresh being […]

Lets hope that having to sit through a bad shark movie doesn’t become an annual tradition.  Last year’s “The Shallows” was dead on arrival and now we have “47 Meters Down,” another tepid adventure that fails to deliver the thrills one would expect from a feature focused on one of nature’s most efficient killing machines.  […]

Taking a respite from kickin’ butt and takin’ names in a myriad of action movies, Scarlett Johansson dips her toes in the comedy pool with Lucia Aniello’s “Rough Night,” a film with some genuinely big laughs.  It also has more than a few gags that fall flat, which is regrettable as Scar Jo and her […]

A24 Films may be promoting Trey Edwards Shults It Comes at Night as another apocalyptic, zombie feature, but there’s far more that lurks beneath its dark surface.  Concentrating on the corrosive power fear has over us and the most base elements of human nature, the film is more an examination of the monsters we become […]

Universal Pictures has a great deal riding on Alex Kurtzman’s The Mummy.  Having witnessed the global success of Marvel Films interconnected superhero movies; the powers that be at the studio have approved a series of crossover films featuring their stable of monster characters, to be known as the Dark Universe. Johnny Depp is on board to […]

In a world in which there is so little to believe in, yet another absolute has been disproven.  Up until seeing Baywatch, I though that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was capable of anything, but alas even he can’t save this ineffective and surprisingly crude comedy.  That’s not to say that he phones it in; if […]

Made for the superhero generation, Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is an origin story about an orphan who finds out he has a destiny, gets a magical object that gives him superhuman powers and is internally conflicted about the whole thing.  Think Thor by way of Game of Thrones and you have […]

Perhaps it’s from having watched Fox TV’s excellent mini-series Feud, the chronicle of the fierce rivalry between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis that occurred during the making of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? that put me in the mood for Denise Di Novi’s Unforgettable.  Then again, I may have just wanted to turn my brain […]