Quick & Good Movie Reviews
This is a typical Liam Neeson movie, of late, where there is a tough guy (Neeson) and a lot of bad guys. Then he kills them all. This time they installed a beautiful Colorado resort town as the backdrop. They also keep score of the dead with a screen shot ‘flash tally’ each time another one bites the dust. This is clever but still, there are a lot of bodies to count. As the...
This is a quite disturbing and excruciatingly slow paced wierdo psycho strangeness movie. If that is in your wheel house, go and enjoy. I for one found it an offensive assault on my sensibilities. There was a dynamic and nuanced crazy maker bad guy acted by: Creep Show:James McAvoy WOW, can he ever morph his persona into channeling various sub-type strangeo personalities. There are a vast colony of them living inside of him. Other...
This is a slow walk through the final British tour for Laurel and Hardy. It took place 16 years after their act had ended. The actors in the rolls of this comic duo expertly captured the essence of the original guys in an uncanny way. They obviously studied them and successfully recreated their character in very convincing performances. The mannerisms and skits were spot on. The movie also profiles their private lives and all...
This is a Peter Jackson (The Hobbit) film honoring the World War One British and German Soldiers who fought and died. It was created from archival film that had to be colorized and speed adjusted for our the visual senses in our eyes and brains to take in. There was a lot of work in this editing and speed adjusting process. The Peter Jackson Studio had the skill sets needed to render this footage...
This comes off like a comedy but in fact, is a true story. There are a lot of laugh lines as we see Brian Cranston and Kevin Hart play with this script. Nicole Kidman has a fun roll in it as well. We march from the getto to the upper crust of New York society and dance in this contrast. It is an education of extremes and how they think and play life. There...
This is the second Ruth Bater Ginsberg movie to come our way. This one tells the personal story of her education and early challenges of her becoming a lawyer. It leaves us with a full picture of who she is and her powerful focus and strategic command of the legal system. Her preparation and legal performance are well worth observing for many aspects of our own lives. The exemplifies the motto: “Luck is where...
This is a study of PTSD and how one man coped with it. He made a make believe world of dolls, a village and heroic stories to help him heal from a very traumatic beating he suffered. Steve Carrel does a great job as a serious actor portraying the real life challenges the traumatized man went through. It is quirky and for much of the movie we are in the dark as to what...
This is essentially the story of Dick Cheney and how he ascended tot eh Vice Presidency. It lets us know who he was and how he becamewho he was and what he did with the who that he became. It is very well acted. There are some good laugh lines. It exposed the tight lippeddarkness that is Cheney and brings us into his inner world of secrets, manipulations and the skilled puppeteering of “W”...
This is a dark and bloody take of this history told in beautiful settings. The formality of a queen of this day was a bit toned down and earthy existence from what we would usually see, even if she did have several maidens waiting on her. There are several black people cast too. Were there African blacks in Scotland or was this some casting director filling a quota? It is a very well acted...
After seeing this fun and zany movie, I predict that you will never be a Santa Clause denier again. It is a very entertaining Christmas story that takes us all on a Santa ride you might not have considered. It is more than a stocking stuffed with belly laughs. The CG scenes delight as we get an in depth peak at how Santa does all of that Christmas magic in a single night. He...
This is one of those cantankerous old guy movies that takes us all along on an improbable adventure. The all star cast really shows us how a movie is suppose to be made. It is entertaining. It is emotionally rich. It is humanly touching. Yep, I liked this one. Klint delivered gold to us again. You just might like it as well. I loved how the audience was glued to their seats after the...
This is Michael Moore at his best. It is a deeply stirring expose of how we are being played by government. He shows how Trump is setting up a defense from legitimate criticism by calling media fake. So he has this liers’ shield to hide behind by calling all news revealing his crooked dealings as fake. He is coached in this and tinkers with how to roll this out. He is not kind to...
This is a thinly disguised evangelical story: be warned. Fortunately the religiosity is mild enough for most of the movie that the story still stands alone. It is a follow up on the UNBROKEN Movie from last year. It is about an Olympic athlete named Louis Zamprerine who’s B-24 bomber crashed in the Pacific during WW2. He survived a Japanese prison camp and was haunted by the ghosts of war during his civilian life....
This has cult following written all over it. It is clever, funny, engaging and emotionally satisfying. There are so many aspects to this movie It is easy to imaging the collaboration it must have taken between the crew, the writers, the CG artists, the set design artists and the director. There are some very funny scenes and many clever scenes. It is all a bit tounge in cheek and a big popcorn bucket of...
Joaquin Phoenix delivers! Jonah Hill as we have never seen before. He must have dropped 100 pounds for this role. Jonah plays a 12 step counselor with a cult like following. The Joaquin Phoenix character is a mess. He is severly alcoholic and now in a wheel chair due to an alcohol related car accident. The movie takes us thru the 12 step process of Alcoholica Annomous by using the stories of these characters....
The Equalizer 2 This has one power sequence after another. It paints its actual goings on as a bit of an echo behind the current evening news. There are many heart felt moments and several very violent fight scenes. The closing segment, in the middle of an on-shoring hurricane gives us a lot to think about. It lends itself to other current weather events. This character that Densel is building might have a long...
This lives up to the high standards of this franchise. Tom Cruz is doing his usual toe nail hangs and hard hitting action sequences. Roll all that together with some very clever plot twists and back door exploitations and we have another very good action packed, over the toply unrealistic adventure with Mr. Cruz. His two showcased female counter parts well provide the needed eye candy. Yes, indeed, the team is intact and ready...
The movie starts off singing and ends the same way. There are a few songs in the middle as well. Oh, and did I mention there is singing?? The acting is schmaltzy to begin with then gets all the way to tolerable. Cher shows up to knock her special song outta the park! I felt the whole movie was worth the emotional wade to get to her moment. It wasn’t really as bad as...
This is a surprisingly well told story…..in super hero clothing. Dwayne Johnson stars as a remade man after a serious policing accident. He has been working on this very large contract and the day he is to sign off on the security safeguards of the tallest building in the world, the drama begins. It is well acted and the CG special effects are believable, in a CG kinda way. I was well entertained and...
This is a special movie with a deep message of how we form from the events we encounter in our development. It is atimely theme in this day of inner and outer shifts. It is a documentary about three identical brothers separated at birth. They are charming, funny and endearing guys. Both men and women love them. They are pranksters and love to goof and laugh. True Life Of The Party personalities. At some...
Here we go with installment #2 of this franchise. It looks like we are being set up for more as the movie ended. I liked this. There is a fair amount of shootem-up but it is backed by a solid story of government twisted allegiances and great acting. If this is your cup of on screen violence, have a look. Benecio Del Toro and Josh Brolin are a dynamic duo to deliver the goods....
I love a movie that the audience loves. This was one. Spontaneous applause erupted at the end of this simple documentary about the much loved Fred Rogers. I knew little about this man. He was an ordained minister who decided to have a children’s television ministry on the then, new PBS. He was a clever and gutsy guy. He pulled it off by delivering a simple and heart felt message of inclusion and caring....
This is a Summer Block Buster that delivers. It is a take off on the other two Jurassic movies and it is a stand alone, in that respect. I liked it. There are several very questionable scenes and several nail bitter scenes or should I say: Veloca Raptor biter scenes?? At any rate, if you like this sorta movie, you will love this new addition of this ongoing franchise. EXPEKT- O – METER Before...
This is a difficult movie to watch. It is pretty rough. It is a profile of a very ruthless Mafia hit man named John Gotti. He rose in stature in the organized crime world. It portrays the mind set of his mobster pals and how they operated. It was surprisingly instructive from that angle. John Travolta played the Gotti character and he did a good job of it. There was something lacking in this...
So, you know how this works: The Girls have to get into the act. Well, in this case, they do a great job. It is a clever script backed by some skilled actors who conspired to put a very fun story on the screen. It is a take off on Oceans 11 where it was mostly the boys doing a heist. Well, the gals got the same “big dealitis’ chip installed. They are going...
This is a documentary of a romantic sailing adventure that got short circuited by a storm, a hurricane storm, a class 5 hurricane storm. As you may imaging, some dramas ensued. This is a movie you wear like a new skin. It tugs at you and pulls you into owning the life changing realities this couple are thrust into. It called on me time and again to answer, what would I do? It has...
This is a very fun and funny romantic comedy. The actors are having fun and playing off of each others energy. I am sure this was a fun movie set to come to each day of the shooting. These old gals are reading 50 Shades of Gray for their book this month and as can imaging most of the fun is sexual innuendo. It is cleverly written and well acted. Andy Garcia, Don Johnson...
I was shocked that Opey (Ron Howard) could not get any more LIFE out of this cast. I was not at all interested in any of them. They were flat, walking through and that made the story kind of drag along for me. For such a wonderful series, I expected far more. The Story is lack luster and a bit OK but this crop of new actors are not ready for prime time. This...