Category: Ratings
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Victor Frankenstein (*1/2) Igor is not Igor
Victor Frankenstein – 2015 Director Paul McGuigan Screenplay Max Landis based on the novel by Mary Shelley Starring Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Jessica Brown Findlay, Andrew Scott, Charles Dance, Spencer Wilding, Freddie Fox Rule #3 – The real monster in any monster movie is not the narrator. Rule #54 – There is a pretty girl for everyone, especially if the hunchback is curable.…
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10 Cloverfield Lane: Children behave… (****1/2)
This is the rare case where the tie in works for the right reasons.
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Steve Jobs (*****) is a good find
Steve Jobs – 2015 Director Danny Boyle Screenplay Aaron Sorkin based on the book by Walter Isaacson Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Perla Haney-Jardine There’s nothing quite as appealing as Oscar bait that actually feels like a real work of art. What we have with Steve Jobs is nothing less than Boyle, Sorkin, Fassbender, Winslet and even Jeff…
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Deadpool (***1/2) is a refresher course
Deadpool – 2016 Director Tim Miller Screenplay Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Ryan Reynolds Starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T. J. Miller, Gina Carano, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapičić, Leslie Uggams First off, there is nothing in Deadpool that approaches the visual spectacle of his first scene in the first Wolverine spinoff. You know the one, when he gets off of the…
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Spectre (***1/2) is unfinished business, all the time
Spectre – 2015 Director Sam Mendes Starring Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Dave Bautista, Andrew Scott, Monica Bellucci, Ralph Fiennes, Rory Kinnear Screenplay John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Jez Butterworth The Daniel Craig era of James Bond films have been marked with a higher personal stake, more viciousness and aside from Dame Judy Dench’s M, an entirely different cast…
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Joy (****) – Norma Rae can stuff it
Joy – 2015 Written and Directed by David O. Russell Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Edgar Ramirez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Bradley Cooper, Elisabeth Röhm, Dascha Polanco If there is a special ability portrayed by the actors and director of Joy, it’s that none of this feels that much like a movie. This half-fiction portrayal of the life of the creator…
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The Big Short (****) counts on us not liking bad news
The Big Short – 2015 Director Adam McKay Screenplay Charles Randolph and McKay Starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Tracy Letts, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Byron Mann, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Finn Wittrock, Melissa Leo There are a whole bunch of facts being spit out in The Big Short. Director and writer…
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Sicario (****1/2): The depth of darkness
Villeneuve is one of the best directors alive. He his streak is 3 near-classics and counting. His sensibility is one of quiet observation. He allows the viewer to draw his own conclusions on what they are seeing, without pushing even subtly in any direction.
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The Revenant (***1/2): It’s mostly true…mostly
It would be one thing if the story played a little closer to Hang ‘Em High and a bit less artificially constructed as A Beautiful Mind. The Academy never gave any awards to the first movie, though. The original Glass just wanted his gun back from Fitzgerald. DiCaprio’s Glass has to have a victim-class son…
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The Hateful Eight (Roadshow Edition) ****1/2 is a study of balance
The Hateful Eight – 2015 Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Lee Horsley, Zoë Bell, James Park, Gene Jones, Dana Gourrier That actors save their best performances for Quentin Tarantino is certainly not a surprise. That he continues to pull new good actors from the fringes…
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