Review: “Jojo Rabbit”

4.5 out of 5 stars. When Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” was released in 1940, Adolf Hitler was at the height of his power. Chaplin’s film, which he wrote, directed, and starred in (playing a duel role that included Adenoid Hynkel, a parody of Hitler), concludes with a passionate speech advocating for humanity. Despite the […]

Streaming Movie Recap: October 2019

We are already a few days into November, but before getting too wrapped up in the onslaught of holiday movies, I wanted to take a minute to review a few films released on streaming services in October: EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE (NETFLIX) If you were a fan of the series “Breaking Bad,” then […]

Review: “Dolemite Is My Name”

5 out of 5 stars. “Critics don’t know nothing. I don’t even know why they come out in the first place. They don’t even like to have fun. Nobody cares what the critics say.” Okay, so maybe this line delivered by Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore toward the end of “Dolemite Is My Name” […]

Review: “The Current War”

2 out of 5 stars. The story of the war on the currents is actually a very illuminating one (pun intended), although you wouldn’t know it based on “The Current War,” the film from director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon that dramatizes that event, spanning from 1880 to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The movie squanders its top-notch […]

Review: “Zombieland: Double Tap”

3 out of 5 stars. As far as post-apocalyptic zombie comedies go—and yes, I do believe that that is a genre in and of itself, thank you—it doesn’t get much better than “Zombieland.” The 2009 film directed by Ruben Fleischer takes place in an America that has been overrun by zombies, with the nerdy and […]

Review: “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”

1.5 out of 5 stars. “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” sounds like a pretty straightforward title: it’s a movie about Maleficent, one of Disney’s most memorable and fearsome villains, and she’s evil. But in fact, this sequel to 2014’s “Maleficent” neither features her as being a mistress of evil, nor features Maleficent much at all. This […]

Review: “The Addams Family” (2019)

3 out of 5 stars. The target audience for MGM’s animated, family-friendly version of “The Addams Family” is likely too young to be familiar with the creepy crowd’s origins, which started as a comic by Charles Addams in the late 1930s, is most remembered for the sitcom it spawned in the 1960s, and cropped up […]

Review: “Judy”

3 out of 5 stars. Some films feel like they were really only made to showcase their stars, and “Judy” is no exception. The biopic directed by Rupert Goold and based on the stage play “End of the Rainbow” focuses on the final months of singer and actress Judy Garland’s life, and while its depiction […]

Review: “Joker”

WARNING: The following review contains a couple spoilers for “Joker”. 1.5 out of 5 stars. Some men just want to watch the world burn. And sometimes, that’s all we need to know. But DC and Warner Brothers’ new film “Joker” is a character study of the iconic Batman villain that attempts to describe the characters’ […]

Review: “Downton Abbey”

3.5 out of 5 stars. There’s always something comforting about returning to something familiar. Such is the case with “Downton Abbey,” the film based on the British television series of the same name. Broadcast in the U.S. as part of Masterpiece Theatre, series creator Julian Fellowes launched “Downton Abbey” in 2010. The show, which follows […]