Cinemascoping

It’s a testament to the novel by Lew Wallace that the power of Ben-Hur cannot be completely obscured by shoddy filmmaking.  That was my take away after sitting through the sixth screen version of the biblical epic, an adaptation that shifts the focus of the story and delivers its message with the subtlety of a […]

Having helmed a remake of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead which was greeted with either great derision or unbridled admiration, director Fede Alvarez decided he would take his time before embarking on his next movie. Not consciously seeking inspiration, it came to him when he and his friend screenwriter Rodo Sayagues were spit-balling ideas while […]

I went into David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon skeptical about what it had to offer; little did I know that this frame of mind would be in keeping with that of many in the movie itself.  This re-do of the 1977 Disney feature has very little in common with the original in terms of tone and […]

Thanks to the phenomenal success of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, Simon Helberg is a familiar face in millions of homes around the world.  As Howard Wolowitz, the luckiest engineer in the world (he’s married to Melissa Rauch’s Bernadette Rostankowksi after all), the actor has been able to hone his comedic timing and amass a […]

There’s not much to Jason Bourne, the fifth entry in Universal Pictures’ spy franchise.  To be sure, it resembles a movie and passes as an action film by today’s standards, which is pretty low indeed.  There’s little in the way of story, nothing resembling character development and were it in cahoots with the company that […]

There’s nothing really new where Woody Allen’s 48th film, Café Society is concerned and that’s fine.  While other directors are certainly guilty of covering the same ground more than once (John Ford – Westerns, Alfred Hitchcock – Thrillers, etc.) it certainly didn’t detract from their overall quality or entertainment factor of their work. That’s certainly […]

There’s never a moment where you feel as though the Star Trek crew is going through the motions in their latest big screen adventures Star Trek Beyond, though there is a sense of familiarity to it all.  Three films into the reboot of the exploits of the original crew, director/producer J.J. Abrams has successfully mined […]

I’ve never made any bones about not liking the original Ghostbusters. While many of my generation have proclaimed it a comedy classic, I always saw it as a lumbering movie that was hijacked by Bill Murray, who left his co-stars with nothing to do but pick up the pieces in his wake.  It’s too bad that […]

Much like a puppy you bring into your home, there are things to like about The Secret Life of Pets and some…well, not so much.  Yep, it’s cute, charming and fun for a little while but then it runs away with itself and makes a bit of a mess, one that could have been avoided […]

There’s always been an obvious social/political subtext in James DeMonaco’s Purge films. Regrettably, our country has come to the edge of enacting the sort of severe class politics these movies revolve around. No, it hasn’t gotten to the point where citizens are allowed to kill and maim whomever they wish for a 12 hour period […]

Box office pundits spent a great deal of time wondering this week why Steven Spielberg’s The BFG tanked during its opening weekend at the box office. (For the record, it brought in $19 million against a $140 million investment) The only thing I can figure is that they hadn’t seen the film because it’s quite […]

Some films are half-baked from the start and never get around to fully developing what could be a worthy premise. Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Shallows certainly falls in that category as it leaves the audience, as well as its main character, stranded with no where to go. Nancy (Blake Lively) is the damsel-in-distress as she sets […]