Many movies reveal their secrets within the first five minutes, and it's not until the end that we understand what we have already seen-- and know. When that moment comes in ARRIVAL, it's like a tsunami in slow motion. ARRIVAL spills its secrets softly in a grand, goosebump-inducing sci-fi adventure that made me feel like I was tumbling through space [...]
Ben Affleck as THE ACCOUNTANT is crunching more than numbers. This is a real departure for the actor as he brings to life an ass-kicking, Asperger's syndrome, math wiz working his way through an intense labyrinth of secrecy and surprise. The film is a refreshing and well-balanced mix of farflung elements: action, thriller, romantic comedy(!) family dysfunction, and a shout [...]
A pair of movies now playing at a cineplex near you wear their agendas on their sleeves: each re-tells a true story, skewers its villains, and brings its audience right up close to the imagined scenes of the action whose outcome we already know. Director/co-writer Oliver Stone's SNOWDEN comes with a careful central performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, computer wiz and infrastructure analyst for the National [...]
Chesley Sullenberger is the reason computers will never take over the world. He's exactly the sort of hero Clint Eastwood would set his sights on-- another man who casts a long shadow over the techno-driven world. Eastwood has directed Tom Hanks as SULLY the pilot who made the miracle landing on the Hudson after a flock of birds crashed [...]
It was my last best hope for the dull summer movie offerings-- and it did not disappoint! JASON BOURNE held me fast from first frame to last. I must admit, the $1.3 billion dollar grossing franchise starring Boston's own MATT DAMON, has been an action fave of mine since its inception, not least of all because [...]
This summer at the movies sucks. I normally despise that expression but it accurately describes the vacuum that is this summer's movie season. Underwhelming fare is now playing on mainstream screens everywhere, and I am searching like crazy for things I want to see. Here's what I don't want to see: --NEWSCASTERS playing themselves on the big screen and then complaining about [...]
Get ready for the first great entertainment at the movies this summer which trades comic book action heroes for the lords of legerdemain known as The Four Horsemen: NOW YOU SEE ME 2! I couldn't take my eyes off this movie which captures the magic of, well, magic! This elaborately tricky plot unfurled itself in double time, criss-crossing the globe while filling every inch [...]
As attractive, well-crafted, and convincingly--even compellingly acted as BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE was, I couldn't stop thinking that one good conversation between our superheroes would have cleared the whole thing up. But then it dawned on me-- there would be no movie. Boys will be boys, so this screenplay goes a long way toward ramping [...]
THE 2016 OSCARS are upon us and I thought I'd weigh in on a few films I'd been mum on-- in case you were wondering for what and whom to root! ROOM: Nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay is a compactly explosive film about a horrifying situation: a young woman kidnapped, impregnated, and kept prisoner by a sexual predator-- and [...]
I love a good storm--and dazzling heroics float my boat. Disney's THE FINEST HOURS satisfies both cravings in a new film which comes at a time of year that generally finds us in the doldrums of the movie release schedule. But this film is a new year's treat. Not only is it well made, but it tells the true story of the most [...]
