Movies
In this section, you might find a list of our reviews. Please, select a category below to help your search.
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Spectre
Spectre qualifies as a textbook example of “Be careful what you wish for!” For those longtime fans who have wanted to see something of a return to the broader and campier films that defined the Roger Moore era of the 007 franchise or those who wished to see the 007 franchise adapt to the new world of explicitly continuity-driven franchise filmmaking, well, you got what you wanted. Spectre unsuccessfully blends these two somewhat diametrically opposed elements while offering what plays like a dumbed-down and diluted remake of Skyfall and (amusingly) Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation. For the first time in a very long time, the 007 franchise is chasing its own tail and regressing to the point where it threatens to become culturally irrelevant.
Peanuts the Movie
This is a challenging review for me to write. There is nothing objectively wrong with The Peanuts Movie, directed by Steve Martino. If you are a fan of the Charles M. Schulz comic strip and/or the related television specials, you’re probably going to enjoy this film, especially if you prefer the later “happiness is a warm puppy” era as opposed to the more somber and pessimistic early run. It is brightly animated, engagingly acted by actual child voice over artists (nice touch), full of just enough frantic slapstick humor to entertain the kids while cobbling together a screenplay (by Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano) with almost enough story and plot to justify an 80 minute (plus credits) movie. I did not grow up with much hardcore exposure to Peanuts and its world. I grew up with a little bit of Garfield and a lot of Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. So this is my first extended exposure to the world. And good grief, I do not like this film’s Charlie Brown. I do not like him one bit.
The Martian
The Martian is a big-budget space movie with several major stars — including Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, and Chiwetel Ejiofor — releasing on a weekend with no other new competition (particularly of a similar sort regarding genre, tone, and style), so it should open pretty well. Good reviews will assist it further (it’s currently enjoying a Rotten Tomato score above 90%), as well the inevitable positive audience scores and word of mouth, because it’s a great picture (more on that in a moment, though). Fandango tracking has it as the leader in advance ticket sales for the weekend by a large margin (with a score of 90 out of 100 on their Fanticipation scale), and early predictions estimate an opening domestic weekend in the $40-45 million range.
