Category: The Twenty-First Century
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The Forger [2015] ★★
John Travolta is well cast (believe it or not) as a thief who has to work with his father (the great Christopher Plummer) and son to forge a painting by Monet and steal the original. Sounds simple enough. But the film bites off more than it can chew, trying to tackle a difficult father-son relationship and a complex…
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The Water Diviner [2014] ★★
A lot of people were full of praise when “The Water Diviner” was released back in December. I wasn’t. If looks were everything, Russel Crowe’s epic directorial debut would have been the movie of the year. But a corny script bloated with shameless sentimentality can wear you down. Crowe pushes way too hard (and it shows) as farmer…
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Furious 7 [2015] ★★½
Vin Diesel called “Furious 7” a “labor of love”. It shows. Not when Jason Statham is onscreen, but trust me, you’ll know. Behind the clumsy script, cheesy dialogue, and awkward acting (exhibit A: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), there’s something irresistible about this installment. I watched the cars smashing and smiled. I watched Paul Walker in his last…
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A Little Chaos [2015] ★★½
It’s difficult to dislike Professor Snape’s…oops I mean Alan Rickman’s second movie as a director. With a solid cast engaged in an intriguing love story, beautiful 17th century clothes, and the Palace of Versailles as a breathtaking backdrop, “A Little Chaos” has an abundance of eye candy and charm. It isn’t a great movie (far from it), and some people…
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Get Hard [2015] ★★
Will Ferrell can find the dumb fun in anything. Whether he gets naked and shows his private parts or not, he makes me laugh. And he does it in good movies (“Elf”, “Old School”, “Anchorman”, “Talladega Nights”, “Blades of Glory”) and horrible movies (“Bewitched”, “Kicking and Screaming”). Hell, Ferrell is funny when he just drops into a movie for a…
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The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel [2015] ★★½
It’s called “The Second Best” for a reason: it’s basically the same movie as the 2012 original, minus the element of surprise. But who would want to miss the chance to see Brit acting royalty nailing every nuance in this comedy laced with genuine emotion? Not me that’s for sure. There’s Dame Judi Dench, who is now a buyer of …
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Insurgent [2015] ★★
I’m not a fan of the first “Divergent” movie, released exactly a year ago. But for some reason, I had a feeling things will get more interesting with so much exposition out of the way. I was wrong. “Insurgent” is more of the same, and to be honest, I’m already dreading the idea of a…
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The Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death [2015] ★½
The first one (released in 2012) was a solid haunted house movie and a perfect vehicle for its leading man, Daniel Radcliffe. The plot wasn’t all that original, but the movie itself was atmospheric and the scares were pretty effective. The new one, this time around set during WWII, bored the shit out of me.…
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The DUFF [2015] ★★½
Given my low expectations for any movie featuring high school kids, I was pleasantly surprised by “The DUFF”. Lindsay Lohan hit it big in 2004’s “Mean Girls”. Emma Stone did the same in 2010’s “Easy A”. “The DUFF”, a teen comedy loaded with killer laughs, does the same trick with Kody Keplinger’s novel. Director Ari Sandel plugs in live…
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Cinderella [2015] ★★★
I didn’t expect to like the live-action version of “Cinderella” as much as I did. I love Disney and their classic animated movies but I’m not a huge fan of their live-action films (“Alice in Wonderland” and “Maleficent”, to name a few). In an era of movie redundancy and repetition, I suppose it’s pointless to question…
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Run All Night [2015] ★★½
I don’t know about you, but after the horrible “Taken 3”, I was beginning to get Liam Neeson’ed out, at least as an action hero. The loose-cannon vibe that hooked us in the first “Taken”had completely disappeared in the third movie. So here’s the good news: “Run all Night” is far from being a disaster. It’s…
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The Loft [2015] ★½
Horrible erotic thriller made by people who’ve never seen a decent thriller before. If you’re still with me, and I don’t blame you if you’re not, you probably want to know more. So here’s the setup: Five married guys decide to secretly share a penthouse loft in the city where they can fulfill their deepest fantasies…
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Project Almanac [2015] ★★
Your head will spin for all the wrong reasons while watching “Project Almanac”, the latest found-footage gimmick (yes I’m calling it a gimmick), about a group of teenagers who build a time machine and seize the opportunity to go back and fix their past mistakes while having a bit of fun along the way (hint: they…
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Deux Jours, Une Nuit [2014] ★★★
I never thought a straightforward story could be so gripping, until I saw “Deux Jours, Une Nuit”. It gets inside your head and heart, rubbing your emotions raw. Marion Cotillard, who was Oscar nominated for her outstanding performance, plays a worker at a small factory who, upon being released from the hospital (where she has been…
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Magic In The Moonlight [2014] ★★½
The best thing about being a Woody Allen fan is the certainty that if you don’t fully appreciate his latest film, he’s already got another one in the oven. Following the unprecedented audience reaction to “Midnight in Paris” and “Blue Jasmine“, Allen has conceived a new character-driven story set in 1928 France. It isn’t Allen’s…
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Chappie [2015] ★★★
From the poster and trailer you might think is another “Transformers” movie (God forbid), when in fact, “Chappie” is a Sci-Fi movie from Neill Blomkamp, the man who gave us the superior “District 9” and “Elysium”. Despite a lack of stars or a recognizable filmmaker, “District 9” put many big budget Hollywood blockbusters to shame and established Blomkamp as…
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Focus [2015] ★★
Everyone is different. I don’t like con artists, “magic tricks” or most of Will Smith movies (except maybe “The Pursuit of Happyness”). His exhausting new film suffers from a severe case of misdirection. That word describes the very nature of “Focus”, which purports to tell a clever story when all it’s doing is whirling in an endless…
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Everly [2015] ★
Reserve a special place in hell for movies that waste your time and patience. To a list that includes “Taken 3“, “Mortdecai” and “Jupiter Ascending“, add “Everly”. Joe Lynch is credited as a director and Yale Hannon with the script. But the movie seems untouched by human hands or originality. Salma Hayek plays a woman who…
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Big Eyes [2014] ★★★
After “Dark Shadows” and the animated feature “Frankenweenie“, director Tim Burton tackles something completely different for a change. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, he scores yet another bullseye by telling the real-life story of Margaret Keane, the woman whose paintings of sad, big-eyed children baffled America in the 1960’s. The only problem was that her husband…
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The Wedding Ringer [2015] ★★½
If you follow this blog regularly, you probably know that I’m not a big Kevin Hart fan. Which is why I approached “The Wedding Ringer” with very low expectations. But unlike some of his other recent comedy vehicles (“Ride Along“, “Think Like A Man Too“), this one actually offers laughs, plus a compatible costar in Josh Gad. And…
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