Movie Reviews

The real message gets lost amidst the wonder Despite a decent voice cast, this animated film about a girl dealing with the absence of her ill mother set against the backdrop of a super-colorful, make-believe amusement park overseen by a wacky team of animals under fire from a an army of zombie chimpanzees bent on its destruction seems like a bit of a stretch...

To kick off what looks to be a busy, hero-based summer movie season, Marvel offers audiences a glance at its fledgling universe in the 1990s with the introduction of “Captain Marvel” to its iconic comic book-to-big screen ensemble. Actually, with the exception of the other captain, World War II Captain America, Captain Marvel may be the earliest superhero sighting we have. And ultimately she may prove to be among the most powerful ― only the box office knows for sure, wink-wink...

Kid-focused, adult friendly fun Celebrity voices abound in this sequel to the popular “Lego Movie” which offered life from the perspective of the miniature Lego characters and creations filtered through the life of a young boy, Finn’s imagination. Five years after Finn (Jadon Sand) introduced the movie going audience to Master Builder Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) and his upbeat, everything-is-great-world, things are a bit different as Finn’s younger sister, Bianca (Brooklynn Prince), wanting to play with her brother, creates chaos when she brings her Duplo creations into the Lego world. ...

Take away the ridiculously scripted moments of peril between two ill-fated young lovers — one a human and one a cyborg — and you’ve got a fun, well-crafted, special effects heavy, sci-fi tale in “Alita: Battle Angel.” Featuring a couple of Hollywood A-listers in Christoph Waltz and Mahershala Ali, the futuristic tale – based on a popular manga series “Gunnm” — is set in Iron City in the year 2563...

So I’ve had some people give me a bad time because according to them I rarely give movies a bad review. For those of you who fall into that category, this is your week! I generally try to look at a movie from the perspective of its intended audience and really go from there. ...

Known for his film-ending twists and interesting fashion of telling a story, M. Night Shyamalan once again puts a “didn’t-see-that-coming” spin on “Glass” to cap his “superhero” trilogy which began with “Unbreakable” in 2000 and continued (unbeknownst until the film’s final scene) in 2016’s “Split.”...

　 When I first learned a new film in the “Transformer” franchise was in development, I let out an internal groan of pain. At least I hoped it was internal. The worn franchise, about a war being waged between two factions of enormous, shape-shifting mechanical aliens, had lost its charm in the past adaptations, resorting to a Power Ranger-esque inclusion of dino shape-shifting bots. ...

Clint Eastwood directed and stars in “The Mule,” based on the true story of a 90-year-old World War II vet, Leo Sharp, who become a cartel drug mule back in the 1980s. Eastwood’s character, Earl Stone, is a Korean War vet to better suit the modern time frame...

Jason Wan directs the first solo, self-titled “Aquaman” film to hit the big screen, tying the underwater hero’s history into a larger-than-life action film combining Jason Momoa’s likable portrayal of the previous wimpified DC comic book character and an underwater kingdom of “Avatar”-ish proportions...

There’s just something about hearing the “Rocky” theme “Gonna Fly Now” as the training sequences flash across the screen that sends a tingle up my spine and makes the hairs on my arm stand on end. And that formula never gets old. The gangs all here as Michael B. ...

An emo computer hacker turned hardcore avenging angel, Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy), finds herself confronting horrors from her childhood while trying to prevent technology designed to control the world’s nuclear arsenal from falling into the wrong hands...

The heavily anticipated film on the rise of legendary rock band Queen focuses primarily on the life of frontman Freddie Mercury (Rsmi Malek) — not his real name by the way — who employs the right place, right time philosophy to help transform a singerless club band into one of the most heralded rock acts of the 1970s and 1980s...

Everything you think you knew about Michael Myers, and the "Halloween" franchise beyond the 1978 original, forget about it. Creators of the 2018 "Halloween" — including originator John Carpenter who serves as executive producer and creative consultant — suggest all of the other films attributed to the Myers legend should be regarded as nothing more than a bad nightmare — especially the completely unrelated "Halloween III — Season of the Witch" which you don't have to pretend because it actually was a nightmare.. ...

Set in the late 1950s, a group of strangers with interesting backstories find themselves thrown together in the most unlikely of places — a formerly booming El Royale hotel straddling the California/Nevada border just outside Reno. One side of the hotel resides in Nevada and the other half in California, affording the guests the right to decide which state they will be staying in...

Make no mistake about it, the latest incarnation of “A Star is Born,” is a romantic tragedy. And it is amazing. The acting, the music and the very hard look at an unlikely love story set amongst a legend’s fall, a superstar’s rise and a world twisted by addiction...

For an action-based, CGI-reliant comic book adaptation, “Venom” isn’t bad. As a matter of fact, I’m sure fans of the character will enjoy the sarcastic, anti-hero representation they get from Tom Hardy as long as they can get past the fact the entire Spider-Man history associated with the creation is deleted from the film. ...

After an abysmal stint in high school, where he struggled to get the grades and fit in, Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart) walks out on his SAT test, vowing he will become a huge success on his own terms. Fast forward a few years, Teddy appears to have it all. ...

When a straight-laced single mom, Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), and a wild married socialite, Emily (Blake Lively), strike up an odd pseudo-friendship over play dates between their two elementary-aged sons, bad things are sure to follow in the odd, mystery thriller "A Simple Favor."...

A group of wacky ex-military types find themselves united in battle against both their government and an alien who seeks to create a genetic mutation using the Earth’s most eligible alpha-male. Shane Black both writes and directs “The Predator,” the fourth installment in the “Predator” series which debuted with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987 — that’s right 21 years ago (And I’m not counting the two “Alien vs. ...

The sweet and lovable Capital One pitch-woman Jennifer Garner is anything but in the revenge tale “Peppermint.” What’s in your wallet? How about about a cachet of weapons and survival technique. Riley North turns from hard-working banker and multitasking mother and wife who transforms into a knife-wielding, gun-toting, hand-to-hand combat expert seeking justice against those responsible for her family’s death...

If you don’t mind a film which utilizes subtitles and dog growls to communicate, you will most likely enjoy “Alpha,” an enjoyable film sharing the timeless tale of the relationship between man and his best friend ... in this case, the earliest recorded relationship between man and beast...

A couple of late summer delights offer a very different approach to close out a summer movie cycle which was dominated at the box office by the action-packed superhero and science fiction blockbusters. First up, “Crazy Rich Asians,” a very predictable but sophisticated “dramedy” which overcomes it's obviously inevitable outcome (spoiler alert — the girl and the guy wind up together) with a solid crew of relative unknowns in a well-written tale rich with culture and enjoyable dialogue...

Mark Wahlberg’s newest action thriller, “Mile 22,” suffers from the dreaded post “Mission: Impossible” syndrome. Why they decided it would be good to release a covert ops film on the heals of one of this summer’s biggest covert ops fan successes — and arguably the best film in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise — is beyond me. And sadly it lacks by comparison...

If you’re in the mood for a little summer fun, you could do worse than “The Meg.” Not to be confused with Steven Spielberg’s classic ocean terror “Jaws,” “The Meg” takes a little more lighthearted approach to nature’s greatest eating machine. When Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), a rescue diver, loses some of his team during a rescue attempt involving a damaged submarine stranded on an ocean floor, he leaves the game for good. ...

Based on a popular teen book series, “The Darkest Minds,” is a great story idea that didn’t quite measure up on the big screen. Call it a weak script or occasional acting issues, the tale just didn’t live up to what it could have been. Stealing a bit from the X-Men theme, a group of young people gifted with unique powers find themselves joining forces to stay alive and fight the persecution in a world which wants them serving as a tool of destruction or dead...

When a film series extends itself to six films, often times you find the source material a bit lacking. The series itself tends to get weaker the longer it wears on as characters become too familiar, the action seems lackluster and the plot lines more and more predictable...

Denzel Washington is back (I say that a lot — too many sequels) as former DIA agent Robert McCall in “Equalizer 2,” the second film in a series replicating a 1980s TV show about an older gentleman who assists people facing dangerous problems with dangerous people. ...

At one point in “Skyscraper,” the film’s hero, Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson), uses duct tape to wrap up his bruised, battered and bloody body, he utters the line of the film — with nobody around to hear it — “If duct tape can’t fix it, you’re not using enough duct tape.” Apparently director Rawson Marshall Thurber didn’t use enough duct tape because not even the go-to, reliable, silver adhesive strapping isn’t strong enough to hold Johnson’s latest action flick together...

You don’t necessarily need to be a follower of the Marvel superhero film series to enjoy “Ant Man and The Wasp,” but it helps a bit. The film, which is loaded with a few laugh out loud moments courtesy of star Paul Rudd as Scott Lang and Michael Pena as his ex-con friend, Luis, picks up nearly two years after Lang aka Ant Man’s involvement as a member of Team Cap in “Captain America: Civil War.” Now on house arrest for his role in the Germany airport Avengers versus Avengers showdown, Lang is prohibited from having any contact with any other super-powered individuals or his former partners, Dr. ...

The follow up to the 2015 sleeper hit “Sicario,” “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” targets issues troubling the U.S. southern border surrounding the drug trade and more specifically the human trade as drug cartels begin facilitating the personnel movement over the border, from poor Mexican families seeking a new start to terrorists attempting to enter America...

Based on a Pepsi commercial campaign which began six years ago, NBA superstar Kyrie Irving jumps back in the makeup chair then hits the basketball courts of New York teaching the “young bloods” how the game is supposed to be played, getting “buckets” and distributing knowledge about the game’s truths to those who will listen as “Uncle Drew.”...

The fifth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” reinforces the need for this movie franchise to become extinct. The original idea of “Jurassic Park,” an eccentric billionaire funds an effort to create a theme park/zoo where the public can view genetically resurrected dinosaurs was a stretch, but made for good sci-fi fun. ...

Although infant Jack-Jack doesn’t say anything intelligible through the duration of “Incredibles 2,” he and his older brother Dash steal the spotlight from the rest of the super-powered Parr family in this long-awaited (14 years to be exact) sequel to the extremely popular animated tale...

In 30 years of playing tag, from childhood to adulthood, Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner) has never been tagged by his group of friends, and the four friends are determined to make sure he doesn’t retire from the game without being “it.” Such is the premise for the appropriately named “Tag,” based on the true story of a group of friends who have spent 23 years, dating back to their youth, playing a monthlong, annual game of tag. ...

In today’s world of “Anything you can do, I can do better,” this film had to be made. “Ocean’s 8” centers around Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), the younger sister of the “allegedly deceased Danny Ocean (George Clooney in the preceding “Ocean’s” trio of huge group heist films), who after being paroled in prison sets out to assemble a team to carry out a new heist...

Take George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg’s ocean-weather conflict tale “A Perfect Storm” and combine it with “Titanic” and you have the love story, stranded at sea film based on a true story — “Adrift.” A wandering 20-something, Tami (Shailene Woodley), traveling the world finds herself in Tahiti working at a seaside dock to generate some cash before she moves on. ...

The second stand alone “Star Wars” tale — or “solo” film (pun definitely intended) — “Solo: A Star Wars Story” gives us a peak at the the galaxy’s most beloved scoundrel Han Solo in his criminal formative years. We pick up the story with Han (Alden Ehrenreich) and his girlfriend, Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), a pair of young 20-somethings trying to stay alive amidst the criminal underworld of Correlia. ...

Parents don’t be fooled, this isn’t a comic book film for the kids. Ryan Reynolds returns as Wade Wilson, aka the “Merc with the Mouth,” also known as Deadpool. And as the main character clearly states in the original film, “I’m no hero.” Back for “Deadpool 2,” the hitman for hire has gone international, taking his job list across the globe, taking out baddies for profit and making enemies worldwide before returning to his junky little apartment in New York City where the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) waits for him. ...

Melissa McCarthy returns to the big screen as the “Life of the Party” delivering a few laughs playing a lovable housewife who finds herself dealing with a major life change which prompts her to return to college and I may have been the only guy in the theater to witness it...

Combine some stunts from Johnny Knoxville’s Jackass crew with the chicanery of TVs “Impractical Jokers” and the physical comedy of “The Three Stooges” and you have a sequel 17 years in the making ... and I’m not sure why. Having never seen the original “Super Troopers,” it’s hard for me to fathom why — nearly two decades later — those kooky producers, Broken Lizard Industries, decided we need a part two. Probably because they needed the work...

Ten years in the making, the creative force and money machine known as the "Marvel Universe" delivers in a big way with "Avengers: Infinity War." What started with the introduction of "Iron Man" all those years ago has built into the ultimate superhero showdown perfectly designed for the big screen. ...

Let me start off by saying I am not a fan of Amy Schumer’s stand-up act or her discontinued TV sketch show. I think she just goes out of her way for the gross out laughs. Now that I have that out of my system, I did enjoy her first movie vehicle, “Trainwreck,” a semiautobiographical peak into her life co-starring Bill Hader and NBA superstar LeBron James, who in my opinion stole the film...

What is a popcorn movie? It’s a movie where you grab your bucket of popcorn and favorite beverage then sit back, turn off your brain and just watch with little expectation. That’s “Rampage” in a nutshell. Another Hollywood production loosely based on a 1980s video game...

Just in time for prom season, a new raunchy adult comedy, produced by Seth Rogen among others, tackles what you would think would be every parent’s worst nightmare. A trio of virgin high school senior best friends who have grown up together make a pact to lose their virginity on prom night. Hey, wait a minute, we’ve seen this before. They made a whole series of films based on this concept — the “American Pie” series...

The inspiration behind the hit Christian song which launched faith-based band MercyMe to the top of the charts is the focus of this film, detailing the difficult childhood and rise to music industry success of the group’s lead singer Bart Millard. Millard (J. ...

Steven Spielberg returns to the sci-fi/fantasy realm for “Ready Player One” as both director and producer of the big screen adaptation of the popular novel by Ernest Cline who also co-wrote the screenplay. Spielberg’s hand is quite present both on the screen and in the film’s feel which creates a fun, action adventure set almost 30 years in the future...