Movie Reviews

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...

The pesky little (and big) aliens are back in the sequel to the prequel in the “Alien” series, “Alien: Covenant.” The sixth film in the series tracks the crew and passengers of the Covenant, a ship with 2,000 passengers and 1,000 more embryos destined for a distant planet, Origae-6, with hopes of colonization in 2014. ...

Guy Ritchie penned and directed his vision of the King Arthur tale, focusing on his rise to the crown and challenging relationship with the mystically powered sword Excalibur in “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.” Ritchie tabbed Charlie Hunnam (most known for his role as anti-hero and lead character on Fox’s now expired Sons of Anarchy production) to play the young adult Arthur who turns from brothel hustler to the ruler of a kingdom...

Marvel's wildest collection of heroes on any one team — the Guardians of the Galaxy — are back for their second adventure to, well ... guard the galaxy one more time from a new baddie while doing "something good, something bad or something in between."...

Tom Hanks is at it again. With his friendly smile and comforting manner, you can only wonder what this corporate executive’s ultimate endgame is as he attempts to create a utopian corporate environment and convenient technology system that will help humanity be its best self. And while that certainly sounds good, there’s always a downside, starting with what you surrender in personal freedoms and privacy...

An apothecary in a small Armenian village, Mikael (Oscar Issac), dreams of earning his medical credentials and returning to his village to serve the region in the Ottoman Empire. He agrees to marry a young woman in the village in order to gain the dowry which will pay for him to attend the Imperial Medical Academy in Constantinople...

Chicago Tribune investigative reporter Lee Stroebel (Mike Vogel) and his wife, Leslie (Erika Christensen) have a nice life. The teen sweethearts lives in a comfortable Chicago suburb with their daughter in the late '70s, and Lee has just received the prestigious Len H. ...

Is there a more fitting name than Vin Diesel to headline a series of movies all about fast moving vehicles? Diesel, as the main character Dominic Toretto, and his team light are back for the eighth go-round of the “Fast” franchise with “Fate of the Furious.” After each one of these movies I continually wonder how they’re going to top the ridiculous chase sequences in the next film. ...

It’s been a while since we’ve had a comedy come along featuring popular actors that doesn’t see genuine laughs replaced with over-the-top crude humor attempts. And while “Going in Style” does offer us a couple of blasts of sexuality between its 70-plus-year-old characters, the movie itself isn’t focused on that theme...

Leave it to Dax Shepard to take an '80s TV staple and pervert it with his sexually explicit script and direction — pushing the dialogue to the limit and even sharing a glimpse of his junk with the audience in this big screen re-envisioning of the “CHiPS” franchise...

“Life,” not to be confused with the family board game of the same name, uses the tried and true formula which launched the successful, and seemingly never-ending “Alien” films, taking a group of space travelers and scientists, placing a hostile creature on board the ship with no way to escape and no help in sight...

"Tale as old as time ...," well you know the rest. We've read the children's tale, watched it on TV, seen the animated film and now we have a live-action film done brilliantly, bringing "Beauty and the Beast" to life on the big screen for young and young at heart to enjoy together...

Usually when Samuel L. Jackson is on the screen, he’s the baddest dude around. That is of course unless he’s sharing the screen with an 80-foot ape. Such is the case in “Kong: Skull Island,” the latest telling of the King Kong story. There are no New York City skyscrapers to be found, nor is their some strange kind of monkey love interest. ...

Hugh Jackman made it known that unless something spectacular comes along (perhaps a buddy film with Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool? Pretty please) “Logan” would be the last time he would sport the Wolverine hairdo. So they decided to do it up right. Instead of what had been the staple X-Men films PG-13, this Marvel comic character turned big screen film, was tagged with a more mature R rating for its multiple F-bombs and stepped-up violence...

It’s the last day of the school year at Roosevelt High School and chaos reigns supreme as seniors are taking their “pranks” to a new level with a horse running wild through the hallways on meth, trip-wire paint bombs in the hallways, permanent ink drawings and remarks on the classroom boards and painted administrator calls in the highway...

Walking out of "A Cure for Wellness" I found myself thinking, "Wow, how do you review that?" For certain I can say I haven't seen anything like it in a very long time. The story offers a familiar psychological thriller centered around a man being held for treatment for an "illness" despite his belief that he's fine. ...

If there was a lesson to be taken away from the original "John Wick" — played with zero personality by Keanu Reeves — it's don't mess with his stuff, particularly his dog or his car. And the movie picks up not long after the conclusion of the first film. Having avenged the murderer of his dog, the former contract hitman, Wick sets out to locate his Ford Mustang from a Russian gangster uncle of the first film's bad guy...

Admittedly, I was expecting next to nothing when I went to review "The Lego Movie." I don't quite understand the whole Lego phenomenon with regards to video games and television programming. Why have Lego “Indiana Jones” when you can just have a regular animated “Indiana Jones,” or Lego “Star Wars” when you can have a regular animated “Star Wars”? I don't understand it. ...

It's been a long time, and I mean a long time since M. Night Shyamalan has put a good film on the big screen. The writer, director and producer — known for his unique storytelling, great characters and creative twists at the turn of the 21st century with "The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable" and "Signs" — has been absent a winner from an extended period of time. ...

Peter Berg steps away from his well-recognized, sports-related films to bring the story of the Boston Marathon bombing from 2013 to the big screen, introducing us to the victims, heroes and the two men who engineered the deadly bombing near the end of the annual Patriot's Day tradition...

Once more, Ben Affleck has put pen to paper and comfortably wriggled into the director’s chair to oversee the total development of his most recent starring project ― fear not, we’re not talking “Gigli 2,” ― instead it’s a gangster pic called “Live By Night.”...

As has become the case more and more frequently, stories ripped from the true heroic moments of history, are proving to be some of the best viewing in movie theaters across the country. Such is the case with “Hidden Figures,” based on a true story about three friends — all ambitious African American women — living in 1960s Virginia and working in a colored labor pool at NASA’s Langley operation in the early days of America’s developing space program...

When two passengers — top Hollywood stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence — on a 120-year voyage into space find themselves awoken from their hibernation state 90 years too early you have the basic premise for “Passengers” in a nutshell. Part of a group of 5,000 earthlings and 200-plus crew members aboard starship Avalon, headed to Homestead II, an Earth-like planet they have volunteered to help colonize, Jim Preston’s (Pratt) hibernation pod opens, 30 years into the 120-year trip. ...

The Jedi are absent and its up to a group of mish-mashed rebels to take on a desperate mission to steal the plans for the original Death Star to prevent the Rebellion from falling victim once and for all to the Galactic Empire in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”...

What happens when your firm is faced with the challenge of landing a major account or else while also trying to have a “traditional” office Christmas celebration? Well it’s not pretty I can tell you that. And such is the premise for “Office Christmas Party,” packed with a great comedic cast, this “holiday” — and I use the term loosely — film demonstrates exactly what goes on when you mix office staff, booze, drugs and business in your corporate offices...

So when 12 objects arrive on Earth and park themselves at 12 random locations around the globe, including one in Montana, what does the government do? They try to communicate and find out the intention of the uninvited guests. When they fail — because quite frankly they don’t speak the alien's language — where do they turn?...

I must be losing my sense of humor. It pains me to say it, but I’m having a hard time finding the funny in some of these so-called recent “comedy” releases and sometimes, I find I sit wondering after the movie why it was labeled a comedy. Such is the case for “The Edge of Seventeen.” I didn’t see it as a comedy. ...

Author J.K. Rowling has done it again, providing a framework of the fantastic and make believe for filmmakers to latch onto and bring to the big screen for audiences to marvel at. "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is set several decades before the tales that encompassed Rowling's beloved Harry Potter and friends. ...

Since his meltdown, Mel Gibson has been pretty quiet. Well he’s back and in a big way with “Hacksaw Ridge,” a World War II story based on real-life unconventional war hero Desmond Doss (portrayed with amazing realism by Andrew Garfield — yes, cancelled reboot Spider-Man, who knew?)...

If and when you go see Marvel’s newest entry into the super hero realm “Doctor Strange,” I dare you to do so in 3-D. C’mon I dare you. Despite suggestions that I catch it in 3-D (as one of the rare movies that’s probably really worth the extra charge), I hit the 2-D version for purposes of this review. And 2-D provided what must be equivalent to a bad LSD experience at times, I can’t imagine what kind of sensory overload it would provide in 3-D. But I’m probably going to go find out.

Professor Robert Lambert (Tom Hanks) is faced with the unsolvable puzzle, impossible search or deadly maze. Hanks and director Ron Howard pair again in this third film in the series of novels created by author Dan Brown. This time around, the world renowned Harvard symbols expert wakes up in a Florence, Italy, hospital with no idea how he got there or how he got the stitched wound on his forehead...

Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) makes his second appearance on the big screen after a successful career in print. Reacher literally leaps into action when a loyal and dedicated U.S. Army major from his old military stomping grounds, with whom he collaborated to bring down a corrupt sheriff involved in human trafficking, is arrested and charged with treason...

Ben Affleck took off Batman’s cape and cowl and donned a suit and pocket protector to play a functionally autistic man who is brilliant with numbers as an accountant, needs to finish projects he starts as an auditor and has a thing about taking out people who break his moral code...

Emily Blunt is brilliant as Rachel Watson, a woman with a severe alcohol problem who apparently spends her days and nights traveling to and from an apartment where she crashes with a friend. She sits in the same seat each day to catch a glimpse of what she she’s built up in her distorted view to be the perfect couple...

Based on a massive April 20, 2010, explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, a semisubmersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean, and leased to BP, the movie of the same name provides edge-of-your-seat suspense as 126 men and women aboard the drilling vessel fight for their lives in the Gulf of Mexico nearly 50 miles off the southern coast of Louisiana in what remains the worst oil spill in the United States...

Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn and James Coburn are replaced by Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeier in the most recent re-telling of "The Magnificent Seven" -- the Old West adaptation of "Seven Samurai" a 1954 Japanese tale from legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa...

For those of us who remember the "Miracle on the Hudson" -- when a U.S. Airways passenger airline suffered double-engine loss while flying through a flock of birds shortly after takeoff and successfully landed on the Hudson River -- Capt. Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) was heralded as a hero after delivering all 155 lives on the plane back to earth, making the miraculous water landing...

Apparently writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have been watching too many Seth Rogan comedies lately. The new comedy formula apparently comes down to how much bathroom humor and how many objectionable phrases can you throw out. That's what passes for funny now...

First a confession here. I've never seen the original Charlton Heston "Ben Hur" all the way through. Just caught unconnected bits and pieces here and there so I really have no point of reference when it comes to comparing it to the original. Sometimes that can be a good thing when they remake a film because I have nothing to base an opinion on...

Based on the true story of Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, "War Dogs" is the story of a pair of long-lost childhood friends who reunite at an acquaintance's funeral and following their "reunion" join forces to become international arms dealers. Told with the addition of first person narration throughout -- provided by Packouz (Miles Teller) -- "War Dogs" is a very entertaining and interesting indictment of the American system for bidding military weaponry...

If you feel the urge to go lay down your hard-earned cash on "Sausage Party" and a little voice in your head encourages you to walk on by, don't walk ... RUN. Tuck that money back in your pocket and flee immediately. This animated tale from the mind of Seth Rogen and friends opens with an expletive-filled musical number where the food sings about being taken from their spot on the Shopwell's shelf by the gods (shoppers) to the "great beyond" (outside the store's front doors). ...

Take a group of of hardcore criminals and crazies who are locked away in the deepest holes and most secure institutions known to protect mankind from their mischief and misdeeds and turn them loose as part of a government covert program and you've got the "Suicide Squad."...

After a one-"Bourne" hiatus from the film series, Matt Damon is back where he belongs, looking a bit older and haggard, as Jason Bourne, the CIA's clandestine black ops specialist turned rogue target who always seems to get drawn back into the mess despite his best attempts to remain off the grid...

Battling demons from his past, associated with his father's legacy and finding his own identity in the federation fleet, Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is forced to put those emotions aside as he and the crew of the USS Enterprise are charged to navigate the previously unexplored nebula and investigate a distress call (does the Enterprise get any other kind) from an alien craft...

The idea was intriguing -- replace the four male Ghostbusters with females and give them a dopey male office manager -- and then let the hilarity ensure. And I had extremely high hopes walking through the door and taking my seat, as the cast of ladies offered a promising comedy quartet with three "Saturday Night Live" alumna and perhaps the biggest name in lady's comedy right now. ...