Paying a visit to your grandparents when you’re a kid should be one of the best memories of your childhood. But what if you just knew that something was, well, a little bit odd and off-kilter about them – and that that oddness could possibly be hiding something downright sinister? That’s the delicious premise of […]
Beatriz at Dinner is an arthouse film starring Salma Hayek and John Lithgow, in a battle of worldviews between a poor Latina massage therapist and a condescending billionaire and his friends when she unexpectedly has to stay during a dinner party. It claims to be a comedy, but its forced message is heavy-handed, one-sided, largely […]
You might think that a movie about two old men in their 70s walking the Appalachian Trail is the last thing you’d want to see as a hip young person on the dating scene. But I’m happy to report that the new movie “A Walk in the Woods” defies expectations and might just be, surprisingly, […]
A great film has been scaring up good word-of-mouth for the past month, but I somehow missed it until last weekend. “The Gift” stars Jason Bateman, who normally acts in raunchy comedies like “Horrible Bosses,” in a thoughtful, foreboding and intelligent thriller that would make Hitchcock proud. The Gift Focusing on Bateman’s character Simon, who […]
Imagine being a dad with a wife, two young daughters, and a well-paying engineering career, and then losing your job abruptly. The best new job that comes up is overseas, in Southeast Asia, which seems like a culture shock, but you hope for the best and sign on. The company wants you so badly, they’ve […]
We’ve entered the dog days of summer, in which all the cool movies were released weeks ago, and we’re stuck with the movies consigned to the cinematic trash heap. This week’s big releases, “American Ultra” and “Hitman: Agent 47”, were barely even shown to critics, if at all. But sneaking into the bottom of the […]
You never know when you’re going to strike gold at the movie theater. Last week featured choices so dire, including “Ricki and the Flash” starring Meryl Streep in a seemingly ridiculous role as a former rock star in her 60s, who takes a second chance at fame. There was also an absolutely Dead On Arrival […]
Summer is the best time of the year for action movies, and it seemed unlikely that any movie would top the firepower shown in “Furious Seven.” But leave it to Tom Cruise to achieve the impossible with “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”. The fifth in the series of MI movies starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, […]
So you want to see a funny movie on your date? It might sound like a no-brainer to go enjoy a remake of the 1983 Chevy Chase comedy classic “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” starring the normally lovable Ed Helms of “The Office” and “Hangover” fame. But sadly, the terribly conceived new reboot (out today) proves to […]
Last summer, a movie called “The Fault in Our Stars” caused quite a sensation, as an adaptation of the biggest-selling novels of the wildly popular genre of books, called Young Adult novels. Both the book and the movie were written by a man named John Green, whose intelligent and strongly emotional tale of a teen […]
