Movie Reviews

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...

In the aftermath of his appearance in “Captain America: Civil War,” during which T’Challa’s (Chadwick Boseman) father, T’Chaka (John Kani), king of Wakanda — a Third World country in Africa — was assassinated by someone disguised as the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), the son returns to his home country to assume his new mantel as king of the five tribes which make up Wakanda...

Legendary movie tough guy turned Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood brings the story to the screen about heroic actions of a trio of American childhood friends who find themselves on a train bound for Paris when a terrorist launches an armed attack on the passengers. ...

A battle scarred captain is ordered to escort a former adversary back to his tribal burial ground to die in “Hostiles,” a nice twist on the Western genre. Capt. Joe Blocker (Christian Bale) is a legendary member of the Calvary, tracking, killing and capturing Indians in the New Mexico region. After having rounded up the last of an escaped Apache family, he returns for Fort Berringer with his assembled troop and his captors...

Intense war action and a solid blend of acting help elevate this long-classified story of the “horse soldiers” involved in the United States first real counterstrike following the 9/11 attacks in “12 Strong.” The movie opens with a recently promoted Capt. ...

Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks share the spotlight as Katharine Graham, heiress who runs the Washington Post, and the paper’s hard charging editor in chief Ben Bradlee in “The Post.” Graham is a socialite who is thrust into the role of newspaper leadership after her husband — handpicked to run the paper by her father — commits suicide, leaving her to take over the operation. ...

This week we’re tackling a couple of films which are leaving theaters, but will soon show up available for rental or purchase. Should you rent then or make that purchase? Well. ... Our favorite acca-ladies are back together for what — based on the road this movie takes — will hopefully be the last of the musically gifted “Pitch Perfect” franchise...

Just a year after haggard Robin Williams emerged from a jungle adventure-based board game only to unleash wild animals and new threats on the unsuspecting neighborhood from which he first disappeared in the original “Jumanji” film, the discarded board game is discovered washed up on a beach in 1996 by a jogger. ...

Rather than going the live theater to big screen route, “The Greatest Showman” went straight from the printed page to the cinema — a rarity in musicals today. Now I’m curious if they will turn this grand film feature into a Broadway musical — and if they do, will they be able to lure Hugh Jackman to return to the live stage...

Never has a “Star Wars” film created so much controversy since the introduction of Jar Jar Binks in the prequels. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” the eighth installment in the “Star Wars” series is doing just that. (Just a side note to the “Star Wars” nerd-dom, don’t email me, I haven’t forgotten “Star Wars: Rogue One,” I’m just not counting it as part of the trilogy groupings)...

A distraught mother, rough Mildred Hayes (Frances McDomand), struggling in the aftermath of her teen daughter’s rape and violent death, turns up the heat on the small town law enforcement force when they have failed months later to bring the perpetrator to justice in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”...

Let me start off by saying, I was really looking forward to “Justice League.” I’m a huge Batman fan and after Gal Gadot’s portrayal of Wonder Woman proved that DC filmmakers could make a really, really good film, I had high hopes for this bringing together of the DC comics elite superhero team...

The co-dads are back in "Daddy's Home 2" and this time, they're getting together for the Christmas holiday. Brad (Will Ferrell) and Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) have settled into their respective roles in the respective families while trying to share responsibilities for Brad's stepchildren who also happen to be Dusty's natural children...

When it comes to murder mystery writers, there are few to rival Agatha Christie whose early 20th century works, regarded as classic treasurers today, still stand the test of time. Director and star Kenneth Branagh bring the 1934 novel, "Murder on the Orient Express" to the big screen in this most recent remake, putting together a great ensemble cast to share the tale of master investigator Hercule Poirot's (Branagh) race to discover a murderer aboard a train car on a cross-country trip...

Taking a page from its popular “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, Marvel decided to add a few more chuckles than normal to this third edition of the Thor storyline. Though the priority of “Thor: Ragnarok” is to prevent Ragnarok — translated to mean “the end of everything” — you wouldn’t necessarily get the seriousness of the situation from the wise-cracking vibe which permeates the two-plus-hour installment in growing Marvel cinema footprint...

Don’t let the headline fool you. “Only The Brave” has nothing to do with comic book heroes. There’s no Batman or Captain America — fictional characters wearing colorful uniforms ridding the world of bad guys — but there are heroes. Real heroes. “Only The Brave” details The Granite Mountain Hot Shots, firefighters who travel to serve on the front lines of wild fires in the state of Arizona and around the country. ...

With the immense popularity of the survival shows, "The Mountain Between Us," sounds like a good idea for an hour-long episode of "Naked and Afraid." Two complete strangers in the middle of nowhere with limited resources attempting to navigate a dangerous scenario in the wild. Only our two victims aren't nekkid and they certainly didn't volunteer for the experience...

It's the sequel science fiction fans have been waiting decades for. And that's not an overstatement. When the original Blade Runner hit screens in 1982, it's dark, throwback to the 1940s detective noir film style was splattered against a backdrop of futuristic downtowns where the cop, Deckard (Harrison Ford), was charged with running down a group of rogue replicants led by Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah. ...

Tom Cruise is back with his famous smile in tact as he tackles the role of expert pilot Barry Seal who was at the center of the late '70s and Reagan-era '80s rise of the Medellin Cartel and Iran-Contras conspiracy. Seal (Cruise), a TWA pilot in the late '70s is approached by Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), with the CIA and recruited to walk away from his job and serve his country flying reconnaissance missions over Central America. ...

Taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to the spy films, this sequel to the popular graphic novel turned film, “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” takes place a year after the original. With more over-the-top car chases, blended slow-motion fight sequences, entertaining villains and insane weaponry, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is a year into his role as a Kingsman and is embracing the well-dressed spy persona while remaining very much himself...

Shortly after proposing to his girlfriend while on vacation in Spain, Mitch Rapp’s (Dylan O’Brien) life is turned upside down when a group of Islamic terrorists begin spraying bullets on a popular vacation beach resort. Both Rapp and his girlfriend are hit in the slaughter, Rapp survives his wounds, his girlfriend dies in front of his eyes in the surf...

Those who have a fear of clowns consider yourselves warned, stay away. “It” will do nothing to change your perception of these otherwise lovable, horn-honking, floppy shoe wearing practical jokers. It is the the epitome of a childhood nightmare. The town of Derry has a habit of population loss — primarily involving children and teens which apparently goes unnoticed as it has for many generations. ...

Avengers, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) trade in crossbows, costumes, magic spells and super villains to search for the killer of a young Native American woman on the Wind River Indian Reservations in Wyoming in the appropriately titled, “Wind River.”...

If anyone has one of those hand held clickers that count, please bring it to "The Hitman's Bodyguard," there might be some kind of a record here. You see, I left mine at home and I shouldn't have. Anytime you have Samuel L. Jackson in an R-rated movie, you can bet there will be a surplus of F-bombs and MFers written into the script. ...

The story is as simple as the backwoods masterminds plotting the crime, but the comedy is subtle and rich in "Logan Lucky." It's a redneck “Ocean's 11.” Or as it is referred to at one point in the film, "Ocean's 7-11." A trio of West Virginia siblings: Former college football hero and recently unemployed Jimmy (Channing Tatum), Iraq war veteran and bartender Clyde (Adam Driver) and hairdresser sister Mellie (Riley Keough) — the Logans — are seen as a cursed family. ...

Kathryn Bigelow delivers again as she directs a gritty story set in the midst of the 1967 Detroit 12th Street racially-fueled riots, titled simply “Detroit.” This hard watch offers a little bit of background and perspective, setting the table for a harshly toned and darkly shot tale focusing on one specific incident which resulted in the death of three young black men, allegedly at the hands of aggressive, white Detroit patrol officers, at the Algiers Motel...

Both J.J. Abrams' and Ron Howard’s names were linked to this project which has been in the works for approximately 10 years. Howard stuck around as one of the producers, but the result of writer and director Nikolaj Arcel’s adaptation of the popular Stephen King series, “The Dark Tower,” onto the big screen, makes me wish perhaps Abrams or Howard had remained on board to oversee the endeavor...

The final tale in a trio of films providing the backstory to an Earth run amok delivers on several levels, telling a very human story about a group of chimps, gorillas and orangutans trying to live in peace in the California northland woods with a rebel military group determined to ensure the end to the intelligent tribe under the leadership of Caesar (Andy Serkis), whose origins stem from a chemical-induced experiment designed to cure alzheimer's two films ago...

To be fair, I never had a big problem with Tobey Maguire in the Spider-Man suit, although I hated the whole “emo, dancing down the street thing” we got in “Spider-Man 3.” And it was a bit of hard sell with Maguire as a high school kid in the original film. ...

A talented ensemble cast, featuring one of my personal favorite actors, Kevin Spacey, a spectacular genre-mixed soundtrack and amazing stunt driving help make “Baby Driver” one of the most fun, entertaining and interestingly designed non-box office blockbuster films of the summer...

I was really looking forward to some solid belly laughs with Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler paired as husband and wife in “The House.” Instead, the best I got was a couple of small chuckles throughout and disappointment over the waste of their comedic talents...

At the end of “Transformers: The Last Knight,” there is a hint suggesting another film might be on the horizon. I sure hope not. This is one sci-fi series which — despite its amazing special effects — has run its course. I really, really wanted to like this movie. I enjoy Mark Wahlberg in both action and comedy roles. Likewise I’m a huge Anthony Hopkins fan. So when I heard Hopkins had joined the cast, I had high hopes. Thanks guys for dashing my hopes...

Four college dorm floor buddies Jess (Scarlett Johansson), Alice (Jillian Bell), Blair (Zoe Kravitz) and Frankie (Ilana Glazer) vow to grow old together and raise their kids to play together after a night of partying. Fast forward 10 years — Jess is now running for Senate and getting ready to marry her nerdy fiance Peter (Paul W. Downs) and obnoxious, sex-starved Alice arranges a bachelorette weekend in Miami for the girls to reunite and get their party on...

“47 Meters Down” got part of the formula down. The suspense was high. I mean decent edge of your seat moments without a doubt. Two sisters trapped on the bottom of the ocean in murky water, surrounded by 20- and 25-foot great white sharks and quickly running out of air in their oxygen tanks — it had all the elements of great scary movie...

At least Tom Cruise has the Mission Impossible series to fall back on, Fraser had nothing to go to except "George of the Jungle." Actually, Fraser might have been a better choice for the new mummy, his career has been wrapped up for quite some time and makeup time would have been limited. Pun intended. Apologies to Fraser. Compared to this, his first mummy movie was art...

While there was a great deal of critical and fan blowback over DC’s initial attempts to introduce filmgoers to the Justice League with “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” — the stand-alone tale introducing us to Wonder Woman’s (Gal Gadot) origin should sooth the savage fanboy...

A young man obsessed with finding the legendary pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) finds himself joined in the search by a crew of the undead led by Spanish Captain Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem), Sparrow’s old nemesis Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and the British Navy in the fifth installment of Disney’s ride-based “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, “Dead Men Tell No Tales.”...

Muscles, bikinis and lifeguards playing cops While the old “Baywatch” TV series took it self pretty seriously as a group of southern California lifeguards found themselves ridiculously involved in far more than simply patrolling the beach for trouble — “Baywatch” the movie has far more fun with the premise, constantly reminding the team of lifeguards that they are only there to keep “swim happy white people from drowning” and are not cops...