Author: tlkabtmovies
-
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation [2015] ★★★
I’m a sucker for the Mission Impossible movies. And I do believe that, unlike many series, this one has actually improved with each new installment ever since MI3 hit theaters back in 2006. Director J.J Abrams reinvigorated the concept back then and Brad Bird followed it up with the incredibly entertaining “Ghost Protocol” a few…
-
Kind Hearts And Coronets [1949] ★★★★
I can’t begin to describe how funny this movie is. I haven’t recommended a classic movie in quite a while, but “Kind Hearts and Coronets” seemed like a good way to start again. Alec Guiness is brilliant playing not 1, not 2, but 8 characters (!) in this hugely entertaining black comedy about a poor, distant…
-
Inside Out [2015] ★★★½
Far too many contemporary animated movies are like fast food, easily digested and just easily forgotten. Then there’s the folks at Pixar, who never fail to impress me. Their latest feature, “Inside Out”, is an amazing achievement, for a variety of reasons. It’s a breathtaking ride into the realm of pure imagination. Its story isn’t easily encapsulated, and…
-
Ted 2 [2015] ★★½
The first “Ted” caught me off-guard. Instead of a silly film about a talking teddy bear, director and co-writer Seth MacFarlane raised the bar by leaving out the cuteness and focusing on the hardcore hilarity. And he found just the right actors to knock it out of the park. In short: I was instantly hooked. The movie was…
-
Ant-Man [2015] ★★★
It’s about time that a tiny superhero got to kick dirt in the face of the other heroes in the Marvel universe. I’m talking about Scott Lang (Paul Rudd, well cast), a small-time thief who just got out of prison. He can’t seem to find a decent job, his friends are all crooks, and his wife…
-
Pixels [2015] ★★½
If you grew up playing Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Centipede and other arcade games, then “Pixels” is probably the movie event of the year for you. I mean who wouldn’t want to see all these characters on the big screen? And the movie gave me a lot to cheer for: a fresh concept and clever…
-
Waves ’98 [2015]
Ely Dagher’s Waves ’98 deservedly won the top prize at the Cannes film Festival, the Palm D’Or in the short film category. The script has few spoken words, relying on visual impressions that connect a young man called Omar to a world he never knew existed. Dagher links the intimate story to the surreal one by creating miracles…
-
Magic Mike XXL [2015] ★★½
As one who didn’t like the first “Magic Mike” movie, I didn’t mind this one so much. For one thing, I knew what I was in for: more half naked dudes going wild in front of the ladies. And yet deep down inside, “Magic Mike XXL” is just a buddy movie. Channing Tatum reprises his role…
-
Unfinished Business [2015] ★½
Vince Vaughn deserves better than this terrible comedy about a small business owner and his two stupid associates (Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco) who travel to Europe to close the most important deal of their lives. Sounds like a setup for a wild, raunchy ride. But the air goes out of that balloon pretty damn quick. Ken Scott,…
-
Aloha [2015] ★½
Good directors tend to screw up. If you admire Cameron Crowe and his movies (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) like I do, you’ll be rooting for him to score another bull’s eye with his latest effort. But it’s clear from the very first moment that “Aloha” is a complete misfire: a tiresome, dull romantic comedy/drama about a…
-
Minions [2015] ★★★
It’s difficult to talk about “Despicable Me” without mentioning the Minions. Family audiences have turned these unusual characters into a certified smash. I’m not surprised. Five years have turned the first two “Despicable Me” movies into a DVD babysitter for kids. Eventually, the Minions had to get their own vehicle. So what if it comes…
-
The Gallows [2015] ★★
Prepare your Dramamine and get ready for another “found-footage” horror movie that doesn’t add much to the genre, despite an intriguing premise. A group of friends decide to break into their high school at night and sabotage the stage where a deadly freak accident took place twenty years earlier during a play entitled “The Gallows”.…
-
Terminator: Genisys [2015] ★★½
Going into the fifth movie of the “Terminator” series, I expected the worst. Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly desperate for a hit after a series of flops (“The Last Stand” and “Escape Plan”). Never mind that it’s been 12 years since Arnold’s final appearance in a Terminator movie. Or that he’s 67 years old. Or that…
-
La French [2015] ★★★
Don’t you just hate it when they remake classic movies like “The French Connection”? I don’t, especially when it’s a remake starring Jean Dujardin (Oscar winner for “The Artist“) as police magistrate Pierre Michel in 1970’s France and his relentless dedication to stop the most notorious drug smuggling operation in history: the French Connection. Directors Cedric Jimenez…
-
Love & Mercy [2015] ★★★
Take a break from Blockbusters and go see “Love & Mercy”, the latest biopic about Brian Wilson, the songwriter and leader of The Beach Boys. I don’t suppose any biopic about Wilson could be definitive, but “Love & Mercy” does a great job. Paul Dano delivers a fearless and sympathetic portrayal of the young man who achieved worldwide success with his band but…
-
The Gunman [2015]
Unlike many people, I didn’t quite hate “The Gunman”. Sure, the movie comes up short and doesn’t always make sense, but its credentials are impeccable: a fine cast headed by Sean Penn, Javier Bardem and Jasmine Trinca just for starters, and directed by Pierre Morel (who did such a fine job with the first “Taken” and the…
-
She’s Funny That Way [2015] ★★
I like Peter Bogdanovich. In the early 1970s, when he made “The Last Picture Show”, “Paper Moon” and “What’s Up, Doc?”, he was ranked alongside Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. But things didn’t go quite as planned, especially in the last 20 years. Now he’s directing another screwball comedy that feels a lot like recycled…
-
While We’re Young [2015] ★★½
Noah Baumbach, who made an impressive directorial debut with “The Squid and the Whale” over a decade ago, continues to tell unusual stories with an enjoyable little film called “While We’re Young”. The overall result may not be as good as Baumbach’s previous movies, but it still works quite well. Ben Stiller gives a finely tuned performance as…
-
Jurassic World [2015] ★★★
Who says a big Hollywood movie about dinosaurs has to be dumb? “Jurassic World” is a spectacular piece of entertainment that doesn’t insult its audience and gives us more than our money’s worth. Fans can rest assured that this easily eclipses the last two installments (what the hell were they thinking back then?), and builds…
Let's Talk About Movies 