Category: 2010 – 2017
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The Mountain Between Us [2017] ★★
I wanted to like this movie. I really did. And on the surface, “The Mountain Between Us” has all the right ingredients to make it a winner: two charismatic stars and an intriguing plot. Kate Winslet and Idris Elba are two strangers who find themselves struggling to survive when their plane crash-lands on a mountain…
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Daddy’s Home 2 [2017] ★½
Team up Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg for a comedy movie and you should get something funny right? Wrong. That was Daddy’s Home back in 2015. Now team these two up with Mel Gibson and John Lithgow and you should get something better, right? Wrong again. “Daddy’s Home 2”, and much like “A Bad Moms…
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Breathe [2017] ★★★
Andrew Garfield is superb in “Breathe”, completely immersing himself in the role of Robin Cavendish, a British army captain who was taken ill with polio and given just months to live. His wife (played by Claire Foy of “The Crown”), can’t accept it. How could she? Refusing to give up, they decide to escape the hospital…
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Marrowbone [2017] ★★
How do you promote a great looking misfire these days? You tell people that it was written and directed by the same man who wrote the superior Spanish film “The Orphanage”. As much as I wanted to like his latest effort, “Marrowbone”, I have to be honest in evaluating this film: it’s a disappointment. I…
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A Bad Moms Christmas [2017] ★½
The first movie wasn’t innovative in any way, but I had a blast watching it. If you did as well, you’ll feel cheated after watching this God-awful sequel. “A Bad Moms Christmas”, as you might have guessed, is basically set around the holidays and features the same cast from the first film, except they’re not…
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Thank You For Your Service [2017] ★★½
In 1947, a movie called “The Best Years of our Lives” won 7 Oscars, including best picture, for its harrowing portrayal of World War II veterans, who return home only to realize that their lives will never be the same again. The movie was shockingly powerful, digging deep into the psychology of soldiers, long after…
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Newness [2017] ★★½
In the age of swiping left and right, is true love dead? Director Drake Doremus (“Like Crazy”) raises a very important question before shifting his focus on open relationships. Nicholas Hoult hooks up with Laia Costa through a dating app. They supposedly fall in love, but before long they agree to start seeing other people,…
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The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) [2017] ★★★
If you’re familiar with writer-director Noah Baumbach, you know that he’s a filmmaker who observes family with an incredible eye for detail. Having tackled similar themes in the past (see “The Squid and the Whale”), Baumbach returns with one of his most ambitious projects yet: “The Meyerowitz Stories”. Can’t spell that title out? Don’t cringe.…
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Murder On The Orient Express [2017] ★★★
To say that this version of Agatha Christie’s beloved novel “Murder on the Orient Express” surpasses the 1974 film (at least in my eyes) would be an understatement. While its predecessor had an all-star cast, it also had its problems, chief among them a slow pace. That’s not to say that Kenneth Branagh’s movie is…
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Suburbicon [2017] ★½
When a movie is written by the Coen brothers and directed by George Clooney, you’d expect something at least decent. Alas, “Suburbicon” fails on every possible level, stranding a good cast that includes Matt Damon, Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac. The setting of a 1950’s suburban community offers great possibilities, but the result left me…
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Thor: Ragnarok [2017] ★★★½
I don’t like the word “hype”, but with “Thor: Ragnarok”, at least I can say that the hype is justified. This is easily the best “Thor” movie thus far and one of my favorite Marvel films as well. As someone who enjoyed Thor’s first adventure, I thought “The Dark World” was a massive step back.…
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Jigsaw [2017] ★★
I can picture a studio meeting in Hollywood: “hey why don’t we revive the “Saw” franchise? It’s been 7 years since “Saw VII” (supposedly “The Final Chapter”) hit theaters and it’s time to bring back Jigsaw to the big screen. That’s a brilliant idea! The suckers who paid money to see all the forgettable sequels…
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Happy Death Day [2017] ★★★
Movies like “Happy Death Day” are so easy to get wrong, but director Christopher Landon (who wrote “Disturbia”) has managed to pull it off. It’s best to describe his movie as a cross between “Groundhog Day” and basically any slasher film you can think of (the movie even pokes fun of that and I loved…
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Only The Brave [2017] ★★½
It’s difficult to know how to respond to a movie like “Only The Brave”. As a disaster film, it follows all the basic guidelines that we’ve come to expect from similar movies: heroism, excitement and a sense of real danger. As drama based on real life events, I thought the movie fell short. Josh Brolin…
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Geostorm [2017] ★★
You don’t walk in to see a disaster movie starring Gerard Butler expecting quotable dialogue or a ground-breaking story. And “Geostorm”, written and directed by Dean Devlin doesn’t claim to be something it’s not. It does offer eye-popping special effects, but everything else, from the acting to the cheesy climate premise, is mediocre at best.…
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Mother! [2017] ★★★
Artistic ambition can be a bitch in this day and age. Just try to make a movie that doesn’t sound or look like your typical Hollywood film and the angry dogs will be out to get you. That’s Darren Aronofsky, from “Requiem for a Dream” to “Black Swan”, he delights in stirring controversy. I’ve had…
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Amityville: The Awakening [2017] ★
In a genre that suffers from extreme tiredness, filmmakers like James Wan are still delivering solid scares with such movies as “The Conjuring” and “Insidious”. Not the case with “Amityville: The Awakening”, a dreadful “kind-of-a” sequel to the 1979 movie. Even the actors make fun of the 2005 remake, unaware that the movie they’re in…
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Brad’s Status [2017] ★★★
Ben Stiller was always my go-to-guy when I wanted to laugh myself silly (try “Zoolander”, “Dodgeball” or even “Tropic Thunder”). But in recent years, he has established himself as a drama actor, which has served him well in such films as Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg” and the underrated “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. In “Brad’s…
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The Foreigner [2017] ★★½
A bomb goes off in London. Jackie Chan’s daughter dies in the blast. He wants answers from a British government official (played by Pierce Brosnan), who may or may not know the people behind the terror attack. Brosnan refuses to cooperate (naturally), and all hell breaks loose (naturally). That’s “The Foreigner” in a nutshell, a…
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Gerald’s Game [2017] ★★½
I’ve been spending a lot of time watching Netflix shows. Every now and then they drop a new movie (avoid “Death Note” at all costs), so naturally I was intrigued when Stephen King’s “Gerald’s Game” was up next. This isn’t an easy movie to endure, mainly because the story’s main character Jessie (Carla Gugino) spend…
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