Category: The Twenty-First Century
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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”.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Spy [2015] ★★★
As far as spoof movies go, “Spy” is one of the funniest I’ve seen in years. It’s also a perfect vehicle for Melissa McCarthy, who gives it her very best and succeeds with flying colors. And yet I have to admit: I feared that we might have seen all the funniest bits in the trailer; fortunately, I was wrong.…
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Woman In Gold [2015] ★★★
When a film covers subject material that is highly emotional there is always the chance that the director and actors will overplay it and eventually ruin it. Luckily for us, “Woman in Gold” dodges all of that with a moving story that serves as a perfect vehicle for the incomparable Helen Mirren as well as Ryan Reynolds. Based on…
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Insidious: Chapter 3 [2015] ★½
I’m calling bullshit on “Insidious 3”. Ten minutes into this cash in “prequel” (because let’s face it: it has no reason to exist), I knew it would suck. But I had no idea it would suck this bad. Director Leigh Whannell, in for the gifted James Wan (if you haven’t seen “The Conjuring” yet get on it), takes…
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Entourage [2015] ★★½
Let’s face it: Big screen adaptations of popular TV series rarely work. Remember “The X Files”? Or maybe “Sex and the City?”. Well, here’s the good news: “Entourage” does work. Not all the time, but for someone who wasn’t expecting much, I actually had a good time watching it. I knew I would derive some pleasure from…
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San Andreas [2015] ★★
History has taught us that disaster movies rarely rise to their potential. “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact” in the 90’s (sue me), “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012” in the past decade, and now “San Andreas”, directed by Brad Peyton and starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson”. Despite its impressive visual effects, this earthquake popcorn flick fails…
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The Lazarus Effect [2015] ★
Here’s a horror flick about bringing the dead back to life (how original!). Mark Duplass (“The One I Love”), in mad-professor mode, wants to perform this procedure on his dead girlfriend (Olivia Wilde), with disastrous consequences (pun intended). Director David Gelb, in his feature debut, is transparently trying to rip off every Frankenstein movie ever made. Fat chance. Every…
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