Movie Reviews and Musings
We are now into the first week of September, and that means that the summer movie season is officially at its end. But before we look forward to awards season and holiday blockbusters, it’s time to look back on the summer that began with what is now the highest grossing movie of all time, “Avengers: […]
Read More Top 5 Movies of Summer 20193.5 out of 5 stars. “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” is a horror film produced from a screen story by monster master Guillermo del Toro. But those who aren’t familiar with its history may be surprised to learn that the source material is a beloved book series written for children. The three volumes […]
Read More Review: “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”3.5 out of 5 stars. When a live-action adaptation of the popular children’s cartoon “Dora the Explorer” was first announced there was a lot of confusion as to just what exactly that would look like. The show was a staple of the Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon for eight seasons, with viewers following young Dora, […]
Read More Review: “Dora and the Lost City of Gold”2.5 out of 5 stars. There’s at least one thing that can be said about “Hobbs & Shaw”: it knows exactly what it is, and doesn’t try to do anything more than that. At the same time, this spinoff of the “Fast and Furious” franchise proves that there is little left for this series to […]
Read More Review: “Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”4 out of 5 stars. In 1969, Hollywood was changing. The studio system was already long gone, television was at its height, and a new generation of filmmakers were emerging with a completely new way of telling stories on screen. This is the Hollywood that writer and director Quentin Tarantino grew up in, and this […]
Read More Review: “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”2 out of 5 stars. It only takes a few minutes to realize that something with “The Lion King”—a remake of the 1994 Disney animated classic directed by Jon Favreau—is vastly wrong. The new movie utilizes cutting edge technology to create photorealistic animal characters, and as beautiful as they look, they serve as a masterclass […]
Read More Review: “The Lion King” (2019)3 out of 5 stars. From the get-go, police officer Ronnie Peterson (played by Adam Driver), tells his colleagues—and the audience—that this story is going to end badly. The journey to that ending, however, is a light-hearted romp through the zombie apocalypse, told with writer and director Jim Jarmusch’s signature brand of deadpan humor, with […]
Read More Review: “The Dead Don’t Die”4.5 out of 5 stars. “You can’t hate a place unless you love it.” Those words, spoken by Jimmie Fails toward the end of “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” perfectly sum up the film as a portrait of gentrification in a rapidly changing city. Fails plays himself in this semi-autobiographical story that was […]
Read More Review: “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”3.5 out of 5 stars. In “Midsommar,” very few scenes are set in dark places. The majority of the film takes place in the bright Swedish summer sunshine, as the members of a commune called the Hårga prepare to celebrate the midsummer solstice. But writer and director Ari Aster (Hereditary) finds the terror in this […]
Read More Review: “Midsommar”WARNING: As “Spider-Man: Far From Home” deals directly with the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” this review discusses some plot details from “Endgame.” If you still haven’t seen it, read this review—and watch “Far From Home—at your own risk. 3 out of 5 stars. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” has the misfortune of being the first movie […]
Read More Review: “Spider-Man: Far From Home”