Film – Chuck Koplinski

There’s always been a sense of whimsy about the films of Richard Curtis.  Whether Love Actually or About Time, which he wrote and directed, or the many episodes of Blackadder and Mr. Bean he penned, he brings a light touch to his comedy as well as many sincerely romantic or poignant moments. Now comes Yesterday, […]

It’s a shame that Luc Besson’s Anna arrived in theaters under cover of night.  Lionsgate Pictures released it without previewing it to critics and with little in the way of promotion.  Besson was accused six months ago of sexual impropriety during the shooting of numerous films and, as a result, the studio didn’t want to […]

I was pretty sure the world didn’t need another Men in Black movie.  I’m sad to say that after sitting through the latest installment of the franchise, I now know I was right. 2019’s “Cinematic Summer of Blah” (copyright pending) continues with F. Gary Gray’s Men in Black: International, a film whose sell-by date is […]

“The women are always saving the men around here.  You may want to think about changing the name from X-Men to X-Women.” So says defiant X-Women herself, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) in Dark Phoenix, signaling that the #MeToo movement has come to the franchise as well as a couple other significant changes. The intentions of one […]

While Warner Brothers has stumbled badly in creating its own shared universe of superhero movies and Universal Pictures’ efforts to do the same with its famous stable of monsters is getting a reboot, Legendary Pictures has been quietly constructing a series of interlocking movies – a la Marvel Films’ game-changing, juggernaut franchises – that is […]

When you have to write stories on a consistent basis for the same character, you’re bound to run out of ideas.  After cranking out tales for Batman, Spider-Man and their respective stable of characters for over 20 years, DC Comics and Marvel Comics both ran into this problem and handled it in similar ways.  The […]

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. Two high school students are intent on finding a party that all of their peers are going to.  Unfortunately, they don’t have the address and in trying to find this get-together, they get caught up in one outlandish situation after another before finally getting to the soiree. […]

In the classic Hollywood musicals starring Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, it wasn’t uncommon for them to use props as they danced.  In addition to their partners – which included Jerry the Mouse on one occasion – they utilized canes, chairs, hats and whatever other useful objects that might be at hand and would hoof […]

On the surface, Deon Taylor’s The Intruder is nothing more than a home invasion thriller akin to Pacific Heights and Unlawful Entry, thrillers from the ‘90s in which yuppie landlords were terrorized by tenants or trespassers who were the basis for Benjamin Franklin’s old adage about guests and fish.  Yet, coming as it does midway […]

I have a feeling that Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen will not go down in cinematic history as this generation’s Hepburn and Tracy. Yet based on their recent collaboration, Long Shot, I’d be willing to watch another film or two with them. These seeming opposites have a genuine chemistry between them that makes you believe […]

With legendary rapper Ice Cube as his father, O’Shea Jackson, Jr. is no stranger to the world of movies, as he often visited the sets where his dad shot his many films as a child.  He’s also no stranger to living in the shadow of his famous father, something that was heightened when he made […]