Category: 3 Stars
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Happy Death Day 2 U (***) ensuing hilarity
The obvious fun that the cast is having works its way into the viewers, to the point where every moment feels like a party. This is one of those times that they turned chicken shit into nice pizza salad. It doesn’t have to make sense, because, you know, it’s pizza.
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Alita: Battle Angel (***) – Gives its heart…
Director Robert RodriguezScreenplay by James Cameron, Laeta KalogridisStarring Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson, Jeff Fahey, Casper Van Dien, Eiza González, Jorge Lendeborg, Jr., Edward Norton, Michelle Rodriguez, Jai Courtney Alita: Battle Angel has been shown in trailers since December of 2017. After seeing it in…
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Glass (***) Holds enough
#Glass “…The film is a decent companion to Split. Neither of the latter movies really have the power of Unbreakable, which is still the director’s masterwork. As it is, there’ve been two inferior sequels, but the trilogy still works if one can accept this as Night’s vision and not ours…”
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Escape Room (***) is an antidote for Oscar season
#EscapeRoom is enjoyable, forgettable and occasionally inspired. It’s not a lot, but it’s better than more movies about hugging, learning and devious royalty.
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Hunter Killer (***) is obvious and likable
Let’s be honest. It’s not a tremendous work of art that Marsh, Butler and co. have produced here. There are no nominations or awards forthcoming. What Hunter Killer does have, though, is enjoyability on a completely masculine scale. It’s the kind of film I might have watched with my dad when he was alive. It…
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Malevolent (***) is a building block for Netflix
Malevolent – 2018 Director Olaf de Fleur Screenplay Ben Ketai, Eva Konstantopoulos Starring Florence Pugh, Celia Imrie, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Scott Chambers, Georgina Bevan The never-ending stream of films being released by Netflix often seem to have the air of rejection by other studios. There is also a slew of smaller films that have solid, if lesser known talent. One such…
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The NuN (***): Can’t quite live up to its incredible promise.
There are some good moments here, but in general, this film doesn’t measure up to any of the previous efforts of Hardy or the Conjuring films. It feels like a placeholder, when it is clear the crowds that are going to swarm to this film expected a tentpole.
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Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (***) but why, exactly?
James does the character a fair tribute. This film succeeds largely due to her great impression of Streep’s original interpretation. Like the best retracings of characters, though, she paints enough outside the lines so we get to enjoy some amount of growth, even if we know where her story leads. Lily James deserves better than…
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All the Money in the World (***) Waste Seeping Underground
In the end, this will be a film more remembered for the supporting actor that was replaced than for anything else…even possibly the real events on which it is inspired.
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Skyscraper (***) lacks nuance, but not acting energy
Skyscraper – 2018 Written and Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber Starring Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Roland Møller, Noah Taylor, Byron Mann, Pablo Schreiber, Hannah Quinlivan Rawson Marshall Thurber has maybe two half decent films on his resume. Dodgeball is an offbeat star vehicle that works for Vaughan and Stiller. Central Intelligence does the same in a more or less comedy action way…
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 